Travel software FAQ: disruptions, refunds, suppliers, back office and B2B
Short, direct answers to the questions travellers, agents and travel businesses ask about what happens around a booking — written to be read in a few seconds, with a link to the page that goes deeper. For questions about Innovate Solution’s products, pricing and support, see the company FAQ.
After the booking: disruptions and refunds
Where travellers say third-party booking fails them most — and where agencies lose the most money.
Who is responsible when a flight booked through a travel agency is cancelled?
The airline operates the flight and sets what the traveller is entitled to, but the issuing agency controls the ticket and processes any rebooking, reissue or refund. A well-run agency acts on the change as soon as the airline publishes it and keeps the traveller informed.
What does “ticket under agency control” mean?
It means the ticket was issued by a travel agency, so changes, reissues and refunds have to go through that agency rather than the airline, until the airline takes control — for example close to departure or at check-in.
What is an involuntary schedule change?
A change the airline makes to a booked flight — a new time, routing, aircraft or a cancellation — rather than one the traveller asked for. Fare-change penalties normally do not apply, and the traveller may be entitled to rebooking or a refund under the airline’s rules and local regulation.
How do travel agencies find out about airline schedule changes?
Through GDS queues and airline status messages for GDS bookings, and through order notifications or airline systems for NDC and low-cost bookings. Platforms that collect these into one queue let the agency react before the traveller notices.
Why is a reissued ticket sometimes delayed by days?
Manual reissues wait for an agent or a fares desk to reprice and reissue the ticket. When the change is collected automatically and the reissue can be done from the booking, the delay is mostly removed — subject to the airline’s own rules.
What is a refund pass-through?
The path a refund takes for an agency-issued ticket: from the airline, through the settlement plan such as BSP, to the issuing agency, and then to the traveller.
What is a travel credit or credit shell?
A value left on account — with an airline or an agency — after a cancelled booking, which can be used later instead of being refunded in cash. Terms vary, so the choice between credit and refund should be clear to the traveller.
What happens to travel insurance when a trip is refunded?
It depends on the policy and who sold it. Insurance sold with a booking is a separate product, so it has to be cancelled or claimed separately; good servicing software keeps add-ons linked to the booking so they are not forgotten.
Why do NDC bookings need different servicing from GDS bookings?
NDC bookings are managed as airline orders through order-management messages, while GDS bookings are serviced with ticketing commands. The workflows, timings and supported changes differ, which is why agencies benefit from servicing both in one place.
Before the booking: transparency and price
What the traveller should know before paying, and whether the price stands up to a comparison.
What should a booking site show before payment?
The full price, change and cancellation conditions in plain language, refundable and non-refundable options side by side, the operating carrier, baggage, and which business will service the booking after purchase.
What is fare revalidation?
Re-checking a selected fare with the airline just before ticketing to confirm it is still available at that price. If it is not, the price changes — which should be explained to the traveller before payment.
What is a codeshare flight?
A flight sold under one airline’s flight number but operated by another airline. The operating airline’s rules for baggage, check-in and disruption handling usually apply, so it should be shown clearly before purchase.
What is the difference between a refundable and a non-refundable fare?
A refundable fare returns all or most of its value on cancellation under its rules; a non-refundable fare returns little or nothing beyond certain taxes. The exact conditions are in the fare rules.
Why do travellers research on booking sites and then book direct?
Usually because the direct channel looked cheaper, more flexible or easier to service. Clear rules, competitive prices and visible after-sales service are what keep the booking on the agency or booking site.
How can a new booking website earn travellers’ trust?
By showing who operates and services the booking, how payments are protected, what accreditations it holds, what its fees are, and how to reach support — before the traveller pays.
What is metasearch in travel?
A search engine that compares prices from many airlines, hotels and booking sites and sends the traveller to one of them to book. Travellers often use it to check an agency’s quote.
Should a booking engine allow guest checkout?
For most B2C flows, yes. Forcing sign-up before showing flight details or taking payment is a common reason travellers abandon a booking.
What is a fare family?
A set of fares on the same flight with different inclusions — baggage, seat selection, changes, refunds — sold under names such as light, standard and flex. Fare families are a main reason prices differ between channels.
Suppliers, confirmations and experiences
Chasing confirmations, lost cancellations and the hardest product to book: tours and activities.
How do travel agencies confirm bookings with small suppliers?
Often by email, extranet or messaging, which is why a confirmation queue with reminders matters: it tracks which suppliers have and have not confirmed.
What is an on-request booking?
A booking that is not confirmed instantly: the request goes to the supplier, which confirms or declines later. On-request items need to be tracked until confirmed.
What should a traveller do if a hotel says it never received their cancellation?
Keep the cancellation confirmation and contact whoever took the booking. For businesses, the fix is to require an acknowledgement from the supplier for every cancellation, so a missing one is spotted before a charge is made.
What happens when a supplier cancels a confirmed stay?
The business that sold the booking has to re-accommodate or refund the traveller under its terms. Spotting the cancellation quickly is what gives it time to find a comparable alternative.
How do bed-banks fit into an agency’s hotel supply?
A bed-bank is a wholesaler that contracts hotel rooms in bulk and resells them to travel businesses through an API or extranet. Agencies usually combine several bed-banks with direct hotel connections, which is why the same hotel needs to be mapped and deduplicated across suppliers.
What is rate parity?
Keeping the same room price across all public channels — the hotel’s own website and every booking site. Channel managers help maintain it by updating rates everywhere from one place.
What causes double bookings in small hotels?
Availability that is not updated on every channel at the same time — usually because extranets are updated by hand or a room type is mapped to the wrong inventory.
What is the difference between a PMS and a channel manager?
A property management system runs the hotel — reservations, front desk, billing, housekeeping. A channel manager distributes rates and availability to booking channels. Some systems, such as bedsKey, include both.
Can tours and activities be sold to sub-agents on a B2B portal?
Yes, where the platform carries activities inventory: they are bookable alongside flights, hotels and transfers and can be priced for each sub-agent like other products.
Back office, commission and margin
Spreadsheets, hidden margins, net commission and the pricing rules behind every quote.
What is a travel agency back office?
The system that handles everything after the sale: booking records, invoicing, supplier payments, accounting, reconciliation and reporting.
What are field-level permissions?
Access rules that hide or show individual fields — such as cost price, margin or supplier rate — depending on the user’s role, on the same record.
What KPIs should a travel agency track?
Bookings and their status, revenue and margin by product, agent and client, receivables and payables, refunds outstanding, and confirmation and servicing backlogs.
What are supplier payables?
Amounts the agency owes its suppliers for confirmed bookings, each with a due date. Tracking them as a queue avoids late payments and duplicate payments.
What is a host agency split?
The share of commission a host agency keeps when an independent agent books under its accreditation and supplier agreements. The agent receives the remainder.
What is the difference between markup and commission?
Commission is paid by the supplier to the seller as a share of the price; markup is an amount the seller adds on top of a net price. Many agencies use both, depending on the product.
What is a service fee in a travel agency?
A fee the agency charges for its own work — planning, ticketing or servicing — separate from the supplier’s price. It should be shown and invoiced as its own line.
How do agencies measure the profit on each booking?
By recording the selling price, the supplier cost, commission and any service fee per booking, and reporting the net result by product, agent and client.
How long does it take to move a travel agency off spreadsheets?
It depends on how much history is migrated and how many people and roles are involved. The usual path is to import existing records, set up roles, run new bookings in the platform, and retire the sheet once a finance period has closed.
B2B networks and settlement
Credit risk in a sub-agent network and the settlement errors that turn into debit memos.
What is a sub-agent in travel?
A travel agency that books through a larger consolidator or B2B portal, using that partner’s content, ticketing authority or credit, instead of holding all supplier agreements itself.
What is a travel consolidator?
A wholesale business that holds airline and supplier agreements and resells content — often net fares — to other travel agencies, frequently on credit.
What is a PCC in the GDS?
A pseudo city code: the identifier of an agency location in a GDS such as Sabre or Travelport (Amadeus uses an Office ID). Bookings, ticketing and settlement are tied to it.
How does IATA’s BSP settle agency sales?
IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan, which settles ticket sales and refunds between accredited agencies and airlines in most markets. In the United States the equivalent is ARC.
Can an ADM be disputed?
Yes, within the airline’s dispute window, usually by showing evidence that the ticket or booking was correct. Having the booking history and reconciliation to hand makes disputes faster.
What is an ACM?
An agency credit memo: a credit an airline issues to an agency through the settlement plan, for example to correct an over-collection.
How do consolidators limit credit risk?
With a credit limit per sub-agent, deposits and top-ups recorded promptly, available credit visible at booking, near-limit warnings and ticketing held when credit runs out.
Do sub-agents need their own IATA accreditation?
Not necessarily. Many sub-agents ticket under a consolidator’s accreditation or agreements. Agencies that want to ticket in their own name need their own accreditation or a host arrangement.
How should markup tiers for sub-agents be structured?
Usually by volume, region or relationship, with percentage or fixed amounts per tier and exceptions per sub-agent where needed, and reviewed against margin and price competitiveness.
Sources
Answers that describe regulation or industry settlement are based on these primary sources. Rules differ by country and airline; check the current version for your market.
- Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) — IATA
- Resolution 850m — Issue and processing of Agency Debit Memos — IATA Passenger Agency Conference
- New Distribution Capability (NDC) — IATA
- NDC Standard — developer resources — IATA
- What airline passengers need to know about the automatic refund rule — U.S. Department of Transportation
- Air passenger rights — European Commission
- Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 — compensation and assistance for denied boarding, cancellation or long delay — EUR-Lex
Have a question that is not here?
Our team answers around the clock, and we will add good questions to this page.
