June 9, 2015 - Visa Inc. announced at a recent meeting of the Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC)-sponsored Credit Card Working Group (CCWG) that effective October 2015 it will accept airline-supplied flight manifests as a remedy for fraud payment card chargebacks.

This remedy represents an opportunity for the airline industry to recoup millions of dollars lost each year in "friendly fraud," which occurs when a cardholder claims fraud for a transaction they were involved in.

Airline-supplied flight manifests will be accepted as a remedy for fraud when the passenger name matches the cardholder name. With the exception of Verified by Visa authentication, this is the first time a fraud chargeback remedy will be available for airline e-ticket purchases in a card-not- present environment.

Visa has accepted a flight manifest as "compelling evidence" since April 2013, but it wasn't considered a remedy that would result in a fraud chargeback reversal. When compelling evidence came into effect, Visa worked with the industry, including the Chargeback Subgroup of the ARC Debit Memo Working Group, to evaluate potential remedies.

"Visa has taken a huge step in supporting the airline industry in the fight against friendly fraud," said Jennifer Watkins, director of credit card services and fraud prevention, ARC. "Moving flight manifests to remedy status ensures that merchants will not be held liable for chargebacks when the cardholder is the passenger and the ticket was used."

"Given the ongoing growth in card-not-present transaction volume, we have been working to evolve our dispute management processes for the entire merchant community, including the airline industry, to help merchants fight fraud more effectively and efficiently," said Ramon Martin, global head of merchant solutions, Visa Inc. "We want these recent changes to be a positive step in streamlining the card-not-present dispute process for everyone involved."

ARC's CCWG is comprised of more than 60 representatives from 24 organizations involved with air ticket purchases using credit cards processed by ARC. Topics routinely covered at meetings include virtual card processing, 3D Secure, fraud and chargeback reduction opportunities, and tokenization.