Annual Awards Given for Leadership, Innovation and Industry Collaboration
ARLINGTON, Va. – October 19, 2017 – Airlines Reporting Corp. (ARC) today presented its Travel Agent of the Year award to Paul Butcher, director of technology and air strategy at Expedia. ARC also recognized members of the United Airlines’ Revenue Accounting and Commercial Receivables departments, naming them Airline Representatives of the Year. The annual awards were presented at ARC’s annual TravelConnect customer conference taking place in Washington, D.C.
An industry veteran of more than 25 years, Butcher possesses deep knowledge of airline and travel agency issues related to program and product management, software development, e-commerce and cross-functional team leadership. Besides working closely with ARC as a member of the ARC Settlement Council, Butcher also holds a seat on the ATPCO Advisory Board and is an active member in various IATA NDC working groups.
In presenting the award to Butcher, Jeannine Hankinson, ARC’s managing director of agency services, hailed him as a “valuable partner that is a visionary and a thought leader who has helped ARC plan for the future of travel agency airline product distribution.”
“Paul is not afraid to ask the tough questions when it comes to critical issues facing the industry,” commented Hankinson. “He brings an industry-wide view to ARC, helping us to connect with other key players. And the combination of Paul’s deep technical and operational knowledge, while being future-focused, makes him an invaluable partner to ARC.”
Recognizing ARC’s airline award winner, United Airlines’ Revenue Accounting and Commercial Receivables departments, Chuck Fischer, ARC’s managing director of carrier services, noted that the departments had successfully implemented new internal processes that now allow travel agencies time to respond to credit card chargebacks before receiving a debit memo and possibly avoid any related financial loses. United also began providing flight manifests to credit card companies to confirm or not if a passenger disputing a charge actually flew.
Because of their efforts, the United Revenue Accounting and Commercial Receivables teams prevented the issuance of more than $1.1 million worth of debit memos to travel agencies in 2016, and nearly $1 million in the first 8 months of 2017.
Fischer commented, “United Airlines has implemented what is now recognized as an industrywide best practice for managing chargebacks and is leading the way in partnering with the travel agency community to constantly evaluate and improve an often-frustrating process that has a direct impact on everyone’s bottom line. ARC is pleased to recognize their efforts and leadership in this area.”
About ARC
The Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC) is the premier driver of air travel intelligence and commerce in the travel industry with leading business solutions, travel agency accreditation services, process and financial management tools and high-quality data. In 2016, ARC settled $86 billion worth of carrier ticket transactions for nearly 7,000 travel agencies with more than 12,000 points of sale. Established in 1984, ARC is an ISO 27001 certified company headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with offices in Louisville, Kentucky, Tampa, Florida and San Juan, Puerto Rico. For more information, please visit www.arccorp.com and www.twitter.com/arctalk.