The team at Bryan Somers Travel in Saintfield, which is around a 30-minute drive east of Belfast, were unable to book air tickets for their clients between 18 October and 28 October as a result of the mishap.

 
Speaking to TTG, director Linda Millar said any agencies that find themselves in a similar position risk running into financial troubles if the money wasn’t to be returned promptly. To compound matters, the agency’s financial year ended on 31 October.

 
Bryan Somers Travel settles its Iata Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) weekly, but the alarm was raised on 18 October when the bill came in more than 500% higher than its £7,000 cash allowance.

Millar was then told nearly £41,000 would be taken from the business’s account on 23 October and her agency would be blocked from buying cash air tickets because the BSP was higher the business’s cash allowance.

The issue is believed to have stemmed from a British Airways billing request, although BA said the error related to a third-party provider.

The agency hadn’t accounted for the vast sum because it had been issued in error. “I wasn’t sure what to do at that point,” said Millar. “I was thinking, ’do I kick off and risk losing our Iata licence? Has this happened to other agents?’. It was a shocking. We did not know how much money was going to come out of the account on 23 October.
 
“My frustration levels were ridiculous – there was no one I could call. I was banging my head against a brick wall."

On its website, Iata states its BSP is “designed to simplify financial transactions between Iata-accredited passenger sales agents and BSP airlines”. It adds one of the benefits of the BSP is it can help “reduce the risk of financial problems for both parties”.
 
For 10 days, Bryan Somers Travel was only able to issue tickets using clients’ credit cards and buy tickets for customers “stuck in airports”. “We had to put everything on hold,” said Millar.
 
She contacted Iata and British Airways repeatedly in an effort to resolve the issue. “I sent three or four messages to Iata, but we were only getting a category one customer service response,” she said. 

“I would ask question after question after question. I’ve been in travel for 38 years and I had never experienced anything like this.”

’Investigations ongoing’

On 30 October – a day before agency’s financial year ended – £40,500 was returned into Bryan Somers Travel’s bank account.

Iata confirmed to TTG it was still investigating the incident. "What we’ve identified so far is a series of transactions had resulted in the remittance holding capacity to be exceeded as per the due process, leading to the agency’s temporarily inability to issue tickets with cash as a form of payment," it said. "The series of transactions and subsequent adjustments made spanned two reporting periods."

When approached by TTG, British Airways said an “incorrect billing request” had been issued, but blamed one of its third-party providers.
 
A British Airways spokesperson said: “This was an incorrect billing request caused by error by one of our third-party providers. We’re sorry for the inconvenience and are in contact with the travel agent to put it right.”

If you’re a travel agent and have also been affected by a similar billing problem recently, please email hkemble@ttgmedia.com