Air Tickets Exchange and Refund

Exchange and refund - component of Websky online tickets booking used to adjust the process of air tickets exchange and refund online.

Purpose

Component offers the following possibilities to the agency:

• process claims for involuntary or voluntary returns;
• attach and request required supporting documents;
• calculate fines and amounts for retention;
• perform automatic voluntary return and exchange for some GDSs;
• download related PNR data from GDS.

Principle of operation

The component is based on the principle of accepting claims from customers and processing them in manual or automatic mode by a manager or an expert of an agency/subagency.

Exchange and refund are made at the claim of the buyer, which he sends through a special form. Further, the claim is processed by the manager or agency/subagency expert. Processing of claims is carried out in manual or automatic mode. The Refund method setting is responsible for processing of refund claims, exchange claim processing mode is regulated by the Exchange method setting. A more detailed description of the settings is in the Settings section.
The agency may also provide the possibility to use the module to its subagents. In this case, an exchange/refund claim form will also be available for subagent customers, the incoming claim is processed by the subagent manager or expert.

! Automated ticket refund and exchange are currently available only for GDS Amadeus and GDS Sirena Travel.
! The component works only with airline tickets in the wurst design theme (including subsidiaries).
! For Sirena Travel, an automated exchange and/or refund is available for flights only for those airlines that have 31st and 33rd categories of fare rules, respectively.

GDS Amadeus supports guaranteed and non-guaranteed refund.
Different categories of fare rules are used here:

• in case of guaranteed refund, the category of auto refunds is used, the priority of this category is higher;
• for non-guaranteed return, a category with a description of penalties is used, which is launched only if no guaranteed return is available.

The launch of a non-guaranteed refund can be disabled in the Office ID settings on the GDS Amadeus side.

Enabling the component

Exchange and refund component is connected by the administrator of the commercial department of the Websky system. If you wish to begin using the Exchange and refund component, create a ticket with a request in Websky project tracker.

Component adjustment

After the component is connected, the agency must configure its parameters.
Component settings can be set selectively for different users and user groups.

1. Go to the Product control → Aviatickets → Processes → Exchange and refund section.
2. Select the application of the settings in the User field.
3. Set the module parameters for the whole agency or the selected user/user group.
4. Click the Save button.

Settings

• Exchange and refund operations are permitted — option turns on the component for operation.
• Refund mode — the way in which the refund is performed:
  • manually — processing of claims is carried out by the manager or expert manually. The person responsible for processing the claim independently performs the calculation of penalties, exposes the amounts to be returned, makes the ticket refund through the terminal, etc.
  • automatically — a mode in which the entire refund process is carried out in interaction with the GDS, starting from issuing an amount to refund and ending with the ticket refund itself.
• Exchange mode — the way in which the exchange is performed:
  • manually — processing of claims is carried out by the manager or expert manually. The person responsible for processing the claim personally calculates the penalties, sets the amounts to be additionally paid or returned, makes the ticket exchange through the terminal, etc.
  • automatically — a mode in which the entire refund process is carried out in interaction with the GDS, starting with the search for exchange options and ending with the ticket exchange.

! When using the manual mode, the agent personally performs ticket refund and exchange through the terminal.

• Packages for automatical refund — defines the requisite package in which an automated refund is performed. It should be noted that the automated return is performed by default on the same requisites on which the main order was created. If the package selected in the settings differs from the requisites of the order, then, despite the selected automatic mode, the system creates a manual claim.
• Packages for automatical exchange — the setting is similar to the previous one, it is responsible for automated exchange.
• Airlines for automatic refunds — You can include in this setting the airlines for which automatic refund must be carried out.
  • Auto refund for the listed airlines will be applied only to the requisites specified in the Packages for automatical refund setting.
  • If a manual refund is selected for the requisite, and the airline is present in this setting, auto refund will not be launched.
  • If at least one airline is specified in this setting, then auto refund will be applied only to this airline and not any other airline within the requisites selected for refund. This means that to airline not specified in the setting, the manual return will be applied.
  • If one part of the flight is performed by one validating airline, and the other part is operated by another, then the return of the flight requires an indication of both companies in this setting. Otherwise, the return will be manual.
• Airlines for automatic exchanges — similar to the previous one.
• Refund fee per one ticket — works with automated refund and exchange mode. The amount of the refund fee is set in absolute value. Fees specified for the subagent are not added to the fees of an agent.
• Exchange fee per one ticket — works with automated refund and exchange mode. The amount of the exchange fee is set in absolute value. Fees specified for the subagent are not added to the fees of the agent.
• Always show block with confirmation documents for voluntary refunds — enables a form to download supporting documents for voluntary refunds.
• Confirmation documents are required — attachment of documents at the stage of creating a refund claim becomes mandatory.
• Include user confirmation step for refund claims — enables an additional step for the user to confirm the refund conditions, which follows the manager’s calculation. If the setting is disabled, the user can accept the refund conditions already at the stage of creating the claim.
• Claims withdrawing is available after manager starts to process the claim. — when the setting is enabled, the user will have a «Withdraw claim» button available after the «Begin working with claim» button was pressed in the manager block.
• Allow sub agency managers and experts to process claims - This option gives managers and experts of the sub agency access to processing claims.

Available for selection: "Disabled", "For all claim types", "Only for auto exchanges/refunds". When "For all claim types" is selected, subagents can process both manual and automatic claims. When "Only for auto exchanges/refunds" is selected, only auto claims are available for subagents, when the claim is in the manual mode, only the root agency has access to it. When switching on, you need to make sure that the required user (manager/sub agency expert) is selected in the settings application object.

• Enable seat removal when sending a return claim — the option includes automatic seat removal in the GDS when sending a claim for a return ticket. If all passengers are selected for the refund, then an appropriate request for the removal of seats is sent to the GDS. If a part of the passengers is selected for the refund, before sending a seat removal request, the passengers who do not require a refund are allocated to the new PNR (split), and for the remaining passengers in the order, the seat removal is carried out. ! The setting works only with GDS Sirena Travel and Amadeus! The setting is taken into account only in the manual refund mode; if the automatic mode is used, the activity connected to this setting is not counted.

! Orders with removed seats will be displayed in the personal account page Seats removed after ticketing queue only if the Enable seats release ability setting, available through Product control → Aviatickets → Processes → Ticketing process.

• Allow claim manageable for booking without tickets — the setting allows you to transfer the exchange to manual mode if the ticket numbers were not returned from the supplier during the exchange.
• List of EMD on refund — Has the following format: SU:RSVR,PENF;UT:MISC. For this setting to function, administrator must:

1. Go to Technical support → Nemo Connect web services → Communication settings section.
2. Enable the List of EMD on return in the Use nemo1 settings in avia for sections.

Manual claims work principle

Creating a claim

After turning on the component and making the above settings, additional actions appear on the page of the written order in the upper left part of the window as in the pic.1:

1. Main booking – opens the page with order information.
2. Ticket refund – redirects the user to create or view a refund request.
3. Ticket exchange – redirects the user to create or view an exchange request.
4. Ancillaries refund – redirects the user to create or view an ancillary service refund request if any are present in the booking.
5. Service information – opens the page with detailed order information.
6. Actions – opens the list of other possible actions with the order, like reloading the order or importing a new PNR.

Also there is a «Service information» button on this page, by clicking which, the detailed information on the order is shown. There, in the «Related orders» line, all the links to present claims can be found.

While sending a refund claim it is necessary to choose its type: voluntary or involuntary (the system offers help in making this decision by hints about what returns can be considered as involuntary or voluntary, the hint text itself is edited in the «Language Resources» section.).

Then you need to select a full or partial refund, by selecting passengers or segments from the list to return, respectively. It needs to be considered that for one-way flights with one passenger, there is no form with a choice of segments and passengers.

In case of an involuntary return, the reason must be indicated, and copies of documents confirming the circumstances of the return are attached (the file size should not exceed 5 Mb, the maximum number of files - 5). For voluntary returns, these fields will not be displayed.

To complete, you must specify or edit the contact information, which is loaded by default from the customer form on the order page, and click «Send claim». The order will be synchronized with the GDS and the claim with the status «New refund claim» will be created. Additionally, notifications will be sent to the client’s and agent’s email: «New ticket refund claim», its design is adjusted in «Letter templates».

While creating an exchange claim, the client describes the desired changes in free form, for example departure time change, then he fills in or edits the contact data. And after pressing the «Send claim» button, the order is syncronized with GDS, and the claim with the «Send ticket exchange claim» status with client’s comments is sent to the agency, and its copy is sent to the client (e-mail notification).

Restrictions for claim creation

1. Access to the creation of claims on the refund and exchange page is provided only to the user who created the order, as well as the manager and expert.
2. If the order has a completed refund request for all passengers and segments, the re-creation of requests becomes inaccessible.
3. Claim creation is available as long as the order has active tickets.

Claim processing

The application processing in the Websky system consists of the following steps:

1. Calcualtion of the refund price or additional payment and entering the date, until which the calculation will be valid (executed by system manager/expert).
2. Confirmation of consent to the calcualtion by sending an application (executed by the order owner or manager/expert).
3. Return of funds by the manager/expert or additional payment by the user who made the order.
4. Import of a new booking to an order (performed by the manager/expert of the system) - if necessary.

! It should be considered that before the last stage of claim processing it is required to execute ticket refund or exchange through the terminal so that with the completion of claim execution order information would be actualized.

In the created application, the manager and the agency/sub-agency expert opens an additional block for its processing. The block consists of the following parts:

• General information
• Contact details
• Uploaded documents (if the refund is involuntary)
• Ticket numbers
• User selected segments (only in refund claims)
• Reason for a refund (if the refund is involuntary)
• User wishes (only in exchange claims)
• Information on the main order price
• Claim change history
• Fee calculation
• Calculation validity
• Retained fees and taxes (only after performing the calculation)

It should be considered that for different types of applications, the composition of the manager’s block will vary.

General information contains:

• Claim type – involuntary/voluntary refund, exchange.
• Claim status – Rejected, Accepted, Calculation completed, Claim sent, Completed and Error has occurred.
• Claim number
• Claim access code
• Booking code (PNR)
• Form of payment for the main order
• Payment transaction list
• Related orders – links to all created claims.
• Date of creation

Contact details contain:

• Name
• Phone number
• E-mail

Ticket numbers of all the passengers in the order.

Uploaded documents – a list of files provided during the creation of a claim.

User selected segments include:

• Passengers to refund
• Segments to refund

Reason for a refund and User wishes, specified at the stage of claim creation and presented in blocks of the same name.

Information on the main order price is made in the form of a table with information on the total order price, the fare code and a reference to fare rules, the amount of taxes, agency fee, subagent commission, airline commission, payment acceptance fee, ancillary services and the total price to pay.

Claim change history is a table containing a complete history of work with the application indicating the actions performed, their author and time.

Retained fees and taxes, indicated at the stage of calculating the amount of refund/additional payment.

Calculation validity, indicated at the stage of calculating the amount of refund/additional payment.

Fee calculation mechanism

To calculate the price of the refund or surcharge by claim, the manager or expert needs to fill in certain fields, indicating fees/penalties/retentions for refund or exchange. The following fields are available for filling:

• Refund fee
• Retention for used route section
• Fare non-refundable according to fare rules
• Airline refund fee
• Airline booking cancellation fee
• Agency fee
• Subagency fee
• Payment system fee
• Additional retention by taxes
• Ancillary services fee (Alphainsurance, Aeroexpress, ERV insurance, service packages)
• Already refunded to a client
• Retained taxes
• Calculation valid until (date and time)
• Comment to the calculation

If the full cost of the tax is charged, it is sufficient to enable the checkbox with the required tax. If part of the cost of the tax is retained, then the "Additional retention by taxes" field should be used to indicate the value.

Calculation currency corresponds to the order currency.

The dynamic tooltip located under the calculation form shows which total cost to refund/addititonal payment is calculated at the current time with the established values of fees, penalties and retentions.
While filling in the calculation forms, validation of the entered values is triggered, the positive or negative numbers, the fractional part of which is separated by a dot, will be valid.

! The algorithm for calculating the total cost includes a breakdown of the agency and subagency fee and the payment gateway markup in proportion to the fare price for a particular passenger in the total amount of the order, i.e. the higher the fare price, the greater the part of the fee for it.

Calculation validity

Calculation validity is active only for the manual ticket exchange/return mode. If necessary, the manager or expert of the company may limit the calculation time when filling in the calculation of fees for a ticket refund/exchange claim. It allows the user to avoid irrelevant recalculations, sets for the client the deadline for confirmation and additional payment (if any). On the page of the refund/exchange claim both the user and the manager can see the application lifetime.

After the deadline specified on the claim, any actions with it become unavailable, it can only be canceled. The client will need to create a new claim with the current recalculation from the manager/expert.

Confirmation of consent

Confirmation of consent after calculation is enabled by the «Include user confirmation step for refund claims» setting.
After saving the calculation, the client receives an email notification on the completion of the calculation and sees both a message concerning it and the calculation itself on the claim viewing page.
If the client agrees with the calculation, he clicks the «Accept» button. After the confirmation, agent receives a notification on the email showing that the client agreed.
Letter template is customized in the «System settings → Notifications and documents → Letter templates → Request for return or exchange approved (type_book_return_approved)».
The text of the claim can be viewed by clicking on the link text of the application on the application page, and the document template is configured in the «System settings → Notifications and documents → Documents → Flight Documents → Booking claim» section. The claim is sent to the agent and the client’s e-mail.

Refund or additional payment by claim

The refund is made by the manager or an agency expert so that it would be possible to control the returned funds. It is important to remember that a partial refund is implemented only in the MPS, Deposit and OneClickPay payment gateways.
For B2B customers who use the Deposit payment method, the refund is sent to the company balance (provided that the order is paid through the company balance). In that case, additional adjustments for the payment gateway are not required.

For B2C clients, the refund through a payment gateway that does not support partial refund is currently possible only through the personal account of the payment gateway or other means available to the agent.
By pressing the «Return funds» button you send to the payment system a request to return the amount calculated according to a claim.
For the payment gateways which does not support the partial refund, the «Skip fund return» option should be used. Clicking the button triggers refund emulation, after which the last stage of claim processing is carried out. Skipping the fund return is supported by all the payment gateways.

Additional payment by the claim is similar to the one by the main order. For payment, the user can choose one of the configured payment gateways, while in the change history a link to the payment transaction will be available for the manager of the main agency. The list of available payment gateways is regulated in the filtering section of a specific payment gateway in the Finances → Payment methods → Gateway control.
! Only the order author can make a payment, so the manager/expert cannot see the payment block.

Booking import from GDS

The final stage of processing a claim is to import a new booking from the GDS. To carry out the import, you must specify the PNR number in the supplier’s system and select the requisites package in which the order is created. After a successful import, the status of the request will change to «Completed».
You can complete the exchange or refund of a claim that does not require booking import by turning on the «Do not import new PNR» and pressing the «End exchange» or «End refund» button. Upon completion of the application, a message on the completed return or exchange will be displayed on the main order page.

Rejecting the claim

The manager and expert of the agency / sub-agency can reject the user's application at all stages of its processing up to the import of a new reservation. Clicking on the “Reject request” button opens a form for entering the reason for rejection, which will be visible to the user. Filling in the cause is optional. The rejection of the application is logged and displayed in the table “History of changes in the application”, as well as a notification is sent to the e-mail specified during the creation of the application. Notification template can be set in the « System settings → Notifications and documents → Letter templates» section . Template name is "Request for return or exchange rejected (type_book_return_rejected)".

Automated refund

Automated returns are carried out while interacting with the GDS in several stages. At the first stage, the amount to be returned is requested. At the second stage, the ticket refund is executed.

To begin working with this functionality, it is necessary to enable the automatic mode for the Refund and exchange method and set the refund penalty in the а также задать размер штрафа за возврат в поле Penalty amount for one ticket (optional).

Automated refund process

Creating an application for automated return is similar to creating an application for a manual return, but it is important to consider the following:
! Partial refund is not supported for automated return. Only full refund of all segments is available.

At the same time with the creation of the claim, the Websky system sends a request for the amount to be returned to the GDS. Based on the amount received and the penalty specified in the Размер штрафа за возврат одного билета setting, the amount that will be returned to the user is determined. It is important to understand that the refundable amount is calculated as Refund amount from GDS - Penalty from the settings. Notification of the calculation is sent to the address of the letter’s hidden copy and to the address specified in the claim.
If the amount of the penalty from the settings exceeds the value received from the supplier, then the amount to be paid will be charged; so the user (order owner) will have to make a payment.

The refund is made by the manager or an expert of the agency so that it is possible to control the returned funds. It is important to remember that a partial refund is implemented only in the MPS, Deposit and OneClickPay payment gateways. It is also possible to skip the refund.
Upon completion of the refund or additional payment, a request for the delivery of tickets to the GDS is generated. If tickets are not returned for all passengers from the order, then upon its completion an additional order is attached to the application with the «Canceled» status. The new order contains information on the flight and passengers for whom an automated return was made. So in the main order, the information on the remaining passengers and tickets will remain.
If a full ticket refund is made for all passengers, then upon completion of the refund, the main order will become «Canceled», and all additional services will be canceled. Cancellation of additional services can be carried out only with a full refund.
Upon completion of the ticket return operation, the main order page will display a message «Refund was made» или «Partial refund was made».

Automated exchange

Automated exchange is performed in conjunction with the GDS, which allows to simplify the process of exchange of tickets.
To work with the functionality, it is enough to turn on the automatic mode in Method of exchanges, select details for automatic exchanges in the same setting, and also, as necessary, set the amount of the penalty for the exchange in the The size of the penalty for exchanging one ticket field.

The features of automated exchange in the GDS

GDS Sirena

• Exchange with lower prices unavailable.
• Change in the number of the flight segments is not available.
• Exchange is allowed only under the same airline.

Automated exchange process

While creating an exchange request, the user selects a certain section of the flight or the entire route to the exchange, marks the passengers for whom the exchange is made. In the «Contact Details» block, the name, phone number and e-mail address are indicated in order to receive notifications sent during the exchange in time. By clicking on the «Send claim» button, a ticket exchange application is created.

On the page of the created claim, the search form for a new flight for exchange opens, where you should specify the parameters of the new search. Upon completion of the search a list of available options for the exchange, obtained from the GDS, is displayed.

Страница с результатами вариантов для обмена подобна странице результатов поиска, но имеется некоторое отличие: плашка с перелетом для обмена содержит информацию о возврате средств или доплате за обмен. По клику на гиперссылку отобразится форма «Детализация стоимости», в которой содержатся следующие данные: The page with the results of exchange options is similar to the search results page, but there are several differences: the window with the flight for exchange contains information about the return of funds or the additional payment for the exchange. Clicking on the hyperlink will display the «Price Detail» form, which contains the following data:

• Flight price — includes the cost of a new flight from the supplier + fees/discounts from agent pricing;
• Airline penalty — exchange penalty received from the supplier;
• Agency exchange fee — agency fee set in the Exchange fee for one ticket settings.
• Already paid — the amount of the fare and taxes without taking into account the fee/discounts from pricing for a particular passenger(s).

If you add up «Flight Cost», «Airline Penalty», «Exchange Agency Charges» and subtract «Already Paid» from this amount, you will receive the amount that must be returned or paid to make the exchange.

Depending on the option chosen for exchange, as a next step, the user will have to pay extra or make a refund (see «Refund or additional payment on claim»).
After payment or refund, tickets are exchanged. If tickets are not exchanged for all passengers from the order, then upon its completion an additional order in the «Ticketed» status is attached to the claim. The created order contains information on the new fare, flight and passengers for whom the automated exchange was performed. The price of a new flight corresponds to the «Flight Price» value from «Price Detail». In the main order, information on the remaining passengers and tickets will be saved. If a full exchange of tickets is made for all passengers, then upon completion of the exchange information about the new flight and / or tickets will be displayed in the main order. If an error occurs in the exchange process with a price reduction, the funds will be returned, in which case the exchange must be carried out through the terminal. During the exchange, an EMD with a refund price can be generated. Documents are returned automatically immediately after the exchange is completed or after a while, depending on the settings on the Amadeus side. The time is set in the GDS requisites on the Template:NameProject2 side - Hours before RSVR EMD can be returned. Depending on how the requisites are configured on the Amadeus side, it is supposed to set the value of this setting. The system Websky supports the manual return of the EMD using the «End Exchange» button. It is important to note that the action is available only if an EMD is generated for refund and their automatic refund is not available.

Getting a refund and exchange EMD

When a return, exchange or revalidation is made, EMD is issued for penalties for difference from the reduction of fare and/or taxes. The Websky system forms the EMD document and sends it to the customer’s address, and a copy goes to the address from the «E-mail Address for Copies of Notifications» setting. To form the document, the system uses the template specified in the settings at «System settings → Notifications and documents → E-mail settings».

The list of actions with the order presents the possibility of unloading EMD.

Transferring the automated claim to manual

The Websky system supports the possibility to switch the request processing mode from automated to manual. Claim transferring can be performed by the user manually or by the system automatically.
Automatic transferring is performed if:

• Selected requisite package in the Requisites for automatic exchanges and refunds is different from the ones in which the order was created.
• Only part of the route is selected for refund.
• At the stage of refund or exchange a supplier error was received, the exception is the absence of flight variant for exchange.

Transfer can be done manually if:

• Could not find a suitable option for the exchange, then the user can leave a request for the selection of the flight manually by an employee of the agency.
• Amount set by the GDS does not satisfy the agent. In this case there is the «Switch to manual mode» action in the manager’s block.