SAA revalidations – beware ADMs

SAA has introduced stringent
penalties for agents failing
to follow the right procedures
when revalidating unused SAA, SA
Express and SA Airlink tickets.
Under the new regulations, if
a traveller cancels a flight or
the return portion of a ticket,
travel agents need to rebook and
re-issue the ticket before the
original flight was due to depart
or within 24 hours of the client
cancelling the flight, whichever is
soonest.
If the travel agent circumvents
the new regulations and reissues
or revalidates the ticket beyond
the prescribed time limit, the
airline system will detect the
breach of the rule and that travel
agent will be debited the full
cost of the ticket and would
need to recover this amount
from the traveller.
The new policy came into effect
at the end of last year but until
January 15, SAA had an auto
suspension policy in place for
previously issued tickets. Now,
previously issued tickets that still
have ‘open’ sector coupons with
no corresponding reserved flights
will be affected.
Rachael Penaluna, business
manager of Sure Maritime Travel,
explains that agents often ‘kept’
tickets with unused dates for
further use for their clients, for up
to six months.
This is a thing of the past, as
these ‘unused’ tickets will now
be tracked and the agency issued
an ADM for the unused portion
that was not re-issued or refunded
immediately.
Rachael adds that it is important
for travel agents to warn and
educate their clients.
“We were warned in September
that this was coming, and we have
refunded all outstanding tickets
that we were ‘holding’ on SAA. We
have had to educate clients who
expect us to ‘keep’ their unused
tickets for future use.
“If a ticket is not used in its
entirety on the dates issued,
it must be put in for refund
immediately.”