MIAMI — Amadeus is launching in the U.S. Amadeus Exchange Relief, what it calls, the industry’s first all-in-one airline ticket exchange solution. The Canadian rollout will follow.

This new solution streamlines ticket exchanges for travel agents, offering them three choices in handling and processing, including the first and only full service option available in the marketplace. “Amadeus Exchange Relief delivers faster and simpler processing while virtually eliminating debit memos related to exchanges and thereby enabling agents to save time, sell more and better serve travellers, said the company.

“Complex, costly and confusing ticket exchanges and resulting debit memos are among the biggest pain points for agencies and have never really been tackled until now. With Amadeus Exchange Relief, agents can now process ticket exchanges with ease, speed and confidence and without the worries of incurring costs,” said Vic Pynn, Chief Operating Officer, Amadeus North America.

“This new solution was driven by our customers and for our customers and is part of Amadeus’ ongoing commitment to innovation that helps deliver success.”

Airline ticket exchanges and resulting debit memos have been a longstanding and – frequently costly – challenge for both leisure and corporate travel agents.  According to the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC), in 2014 nearly one-half million debit memos worth $138 million were issued. Half of those memos were related to fares, taxes or commissions. As of the end of 2014, ARC processed over 14 million refunds and exchanges representing about 8% of their total transaction volume.

Amadeus U.S. agencies revealed in a sample poll that they processed, on average, 40 exchanges per week spending 28 minutes on each – that’s 18+ hours a week per agency spent just addressing ticket exchanges.
“It’s fantastic that Amadeus is providing a solution for agents designed specifically for the purpose of reducing memos,” said Mike Premo, ARC’s president and CEO. “Amadeus has been a great supporter of our Debit Memo Working Group since its inception and the introduction of this new offering shows their commitment to reducing debit memos in the industry.”

Amadeus Exchange Relief has three servicing options agents can use based on the specific exchange circumstances and/or their needs at the time:

• ‘Do It Automatically’: In just seconds, the automatic option seamlessly handles all information and transactions required to successfully process exchanges, including reissue of unused or partially used tickets and interline tickets for partner airlines. No expert-level knowledge needed. Agents supply the basic information and the tool does the rest.
  This method saves time, reduces errors and delivers accurate results in just a few easy steps; processes tickets, fares and changes across all airline participants and reduces debit memos by leveraging Amadeus’ global claims policy and increases productivity.
• ‘Do It For Me’: This unique full service option allows agents to submit their exchange directly to Amadeus’ dedicated faring and exchange experts who accurately and quickly prepare the exchange and notify the agent upon completion. Debit memos arising from Exchanges processed through this option are covered under the Amadeus claims policy. Exchanges are checked, prepared and returned to the agent for ticketing;
  protects against debit memos while improving profitability and productivity; delegates processing which frees up agents to focus on serving travellers.
• ‘Do It Myself’: The manual option offers agents a free, step-by-step guided workflow that interacts with the Passenger Name Record (PNR). This guided option features built-in Amadeus exchange commands. Agents supply the data and the tool automatically populates the PNR for ticketing; pre-population of fields reduces the chance of human error.

“I’ve never seen anything like Amadeus Exchange Relief before. The two things I like most are the huge time savings, and the fact that Amadeus stands behind their work – that’s a huge stress reliever. I literally put in the information I need – and Amadeus takes care of the rest,” said Tonia Valentine, Corporate Travel Advisor, Aladdin Travel.

With Amadeus Exchange Relief, agencies cannot only save time but money. And agencies can see the potential cost savings for themselves simply by entering some basic information into the Amadeus Exchange Relief ROI Calculator available online.

Amadeus Exchange Relief is currently available for U.S. travel agencies with rollout in Canada to follow. For full information about the solution, access to the ROI Calculator and details about Amadeus’ exclusive trial offer through Sept. 30, visit amadeus.com/exchangerelief. Travel agencies can also contact their Amadeus account manager for more information.