Agency Debit Memos

1. Scope

1.1. British Airways will issue an ADM to collect amounts or make adjustments to Agent transactions in respect of the issuance and use of Standard Traffic Document, issued by, or at the request of the Agent, regardless of which airlines are included in the itinerary. An ADM may also be used to collect amounts where a traffic document has not been issued, for example, for deposits for group sales or breaches of the Travel Agency Addendum (the Addendum) and/or the Airline’s Rules.

2. British Airways Practice

2.1. An ADM will only be submitted for processing through the BSP or ARC to adjust sales if issued within nine months of final travel, or when the final travel date cannot be established, the expiry date of the document. To adjust refunds, an ADM will only be issued within nine months of the remittance date on which the document was settled. For any charge due beyond this period, British Airways will agree with the Agent bilaterally the best settlement method and only submit an ADM if agreed in writing by the Agent.

2.2. British Airways complies with applicable local BSP procedures in providing Agents with a minimum period of notice, to review and dispute of any ADM. For ARC, the notice period provided to Agents for the review and dispute of any ADM is 30 days.

2.3. An ADM will not be issued for a value less than GBP 4.00 or equivalent in local currency. However, if there is a persistent practice of under-payment (multiple occurrences of under payments less than GBP 4.00 or equivalent in local currency) by the same Agent (IATA/ARC location), British Airways may raise an ADM to recover the under-payments. 

2.4. British Airways will endeavour to provide as much information as possible on an ADM to ensure it is specific in its detail about the reason a charge is being made.

2.5. British Airways will only include more than one transaction on any ADM if the reason for the charge is the same and will provide details with the ADM. 

2.6. If British Airways raises an ADM for non-compliance with Airline’s Rules, the general principle applied is to raise the fare to the next applicable fare. Any divergence from this principle (e.g. a fixed amount penalty charge) is communicated to the Agent in advance, e.g. through notes in the fare rules, by letter or any other communication (e.g. Travel Trade) used in the market in question.

2.7. Agents are only permitted to create passive, inactive or non-productive segments where British Airways is not charged. Agents that do create these segments and where British Airways receives a charge for this segment, will receive an ADM of GBP 10.00 or equivalent in local currency per passenger segment. If you’re not sure whether you will receive an ADM for these segments, you should speak to your GDS.

This includes, but is not limited to, segments with a status of: AK/AL/AN/BK /BL/BN/DS/GK/GL/GN/MK/PK/PU/PL/YK/ZK. Passive segments created as part of a group booking are only permitted for ticketing purposes and where the group booking was created via an authorised BA Group Booking channel. Agents that create group bookings outside of the specified group booking process will receive an ADM.

Bookings made prior to 24 hours to departure should be ticketed in line with the fare rules where applicable or cancelled at least 24 hours prior to departure. If the Agent makes a booking within 24 hours to departure, it should be instantly ticketed.

2.8. Churning refers to repeated cancellation and rebooking of the same itinerary for the same passenger independent of the class and PNR. A maximum of 4 valid churned segments are permitted, any excess churned segments will be subject to an ADM of GBP 5.00 or equivalent in local currency per passenger/per segment. 

2.9 British Airways will take all the necessary measures to defend a chargeback relating to a transaction submitted to the card company. In the event of a disputed transaction and its subsequent rejection by the card company, British Airways will pass the loss to the Agent involved in the processing of the transaction by means of an ADM.

2.10. Refunds must be made to the original Forms of Payment and in the same currency used to pay for the ticket. By way of an example, a Cash payment should be refunded as Cash and a credit card payment should be refunded to the original credit card. Where multiple or split Forms of Payment are used, the refund should correspond to the amounts originally collected for each Form of Payment. Failure to refund using the correct Form of Payment will result in an ADM for the value of the refund.

2.11. British Airways’ ticket issue policy applies to agents who have been granted authority by British Airways to issue British Airways tickets.

British Airways should be selected as the ticketing carrier when issuing tickets to cover journeys which include travel (entirely or partially) on flights with a British Airways flight number. This includes flight numbers with a BA prefix operated by a Franchisee. Where the fare rules allow, British Airways may also be selected as the ticketing carrier when issuing tickets to cover journeys which include travel entirely on the flights of Aer Lingus (EI) and/or American Airlines (AA) and/or China Southern Airlines (CZ) and/or Finnair (AY) and/or Iberia (IB) and /or Japan Airlines (JL) and/or Qatar Airways (QR) and/or Vueling Airlines (VY).

British Airways must not be selected as the ticketing carrier in any other cases. A Carrier Identification Plate (CIP) misuse fee will be levied where this policy is breached. The fee is £100.00 or the local equivalent currency (local equivalent currency converted using the Bank Selling Rate (BSR) @ ticket issuance date). Fees are applied to each ticket and will be debited as an Agency Debit Memo (ADM).

2.12. British Airways instructions specify any change fees must be collected via an EMD, and the EMD must be linked to the ticket concerned. Failure to follow this procedure may result in a charge to be collected by an ADM for incorrect ticketing/reporting procedures – unless local agreement is reached that permits a different collection and reporting method.

2.13 Agents must enter accurate and up to date customer contact details such as email (CTCE) and/or phone number (CTCM) in the PNR at the time of booking and no later than ticketing. If a customer declines to provide this information, the refusal must be recorded in the PNR using CTCR.

PNRs with missing or incorrect customer contact details, agency contact information entered in place of the customers, or unrecorded refusals will receive an ADM of GBP 10.00 per PNR or equivalent in the local currency. If missing or incorrect contact details result in a customer claim, British Airways reserves the right to issue an ADM to recover the full value of the claim.

2.14. British Airways will only issue more than one ADM in relation to the same original ticket, if different, unrelated charges apply. (This does not apply when an ADM is cancelled and raised again for the same reason but for a different value). 

2.15. British Airways will endeavour to handle rejected or disputed ADMs in a timely manner. Where an Agent disputes an ADM within the required BSP timeframes, in accordance with Resolution 850m, British Airways will suspend submission of the ADM to the Agent’s billing analysis. If British Airways rejects the dispute, an explanation for the rejection will be provided to the Agent before the ADM is submitted for settlement. For ARC ADMs, disputes must be submitted via the correspondence area in ARC Memo Manager. Where a dispute is rejected, British Airways will record an explanation for the rejection in the correspondence area, together with contact details should the Agent wish to re‑dispute.

2.16. Agents with BSPlink access may dispute an ADM via their BSPlink dispute facility within the ADM dispute period. If British Airways do not agree with the dispute, an explanation will be communicated to the agent prior to rejection of the dispute on BSPlink. The communication will give the agent a time period within which to respond with additional information for British Airways to re-investigate the dispute. If no response is received by British Airways within the time period indicated in the communication, the ADM will be submitted for settlement to BSPlink.

2.17. If an Agent disputes an ADM after it has been included in the BSP settlement British Airways will investigate and communicate their decision on the dispute within 30 days from the date of receipt of the dispute. In circumstances where the Agent has furnished insufficient information to support the dispute or the airline decision is subject to further commercial consideration, British Airways will communicate their decision no later than 2 months from the date of receipt of the dispute. For any unresolved disputes British Airways reserves the right to deduct the disputed amount from any applicable incentives payable to the Agent. 

2.18. British Airways may levy an ADM administration fee of GBP 10.00 or equivalent in local currency identified by the MF fee on the ADM. This charge will be reversed only upon full acceptance of the dispute for invalid ADM issuance by British Airways.

3. British Airways expect agents

3.1. To train their staff in ADM procedures; their purpose and the dispute period that exists.

3.2. To ensure that when an ADM is disputed, the response is specific in detail and the relevant supporting information is sent to British Airways.

3.3. Not to dispute an ADM where the reason is valid and evidence to the contrary is not available.

3.4. To raise all disputes within the BSP dispute period (according to Resolution 850m) or within 30 days of the ADM issue date for ARC Agents.

3.5. To ensure that their contact details (Email addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are up to date in BSPlink/ARC.

3.6. To provide an email address when logging a dispute in BSPlink to enable British Airways to make contact concerning the dispute or to provide specific contact details when raising a dispute, exclusively through ARC, enabling British Airways to make contact concerning the dispute.

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