Inside travel chargebacks: an interview with Alternative Airlines

Sam Argyle, Managing Director of Alternative Airlines, on how travel merchants can fight chargebacks without adding friction at checkout.

Travel is consistently cited as one of the highest chargeback-risk verticals. What makes the travel sector structurally different from other industries when it comes to disputes and how does that shape the way merchants need to think about fraud and chargebacks?

A huge share of travel disputes comes from confusion, not fraud. 

Travel-related chargebacks are structurally higher risk because of how travel products are sold, fulfilled, and consumed. These are some of the reasons why:

Longer booking window: customers often book weeks or months before travel. This creates a long gap in which they may no longer want the flights and dispute the charge instead of cancelling normally, as per the ticket's fare rules. 

High transaction values: travel purchases are expensive, so disputes carry a higher financial impact and attract more fraud attempts. 

Service‑based, intangible goods: there is no physical proof of delivery. Merchants must rely on digital evidence (PNRs, e‑tickets, check‑in logs), which is harder to defend in disputes. 

Frequent cancellations and schedule changes: travel is highly sensitive to delays, cancellations, and operational issues, which is why customers often raise disputes to obtain a refund for their purchase.

High levels of friendly fraud: customers may claim they didn’t authorise the transaction or didn’t receive the service, even when they did. This is increasingly common in travel. 

How we act and think differently:

• Clear terms and conditions throughout the booking process
• Keeping a debug/IP log so we can use this as fulfilment evidence
• Timestamp of the booking confirmation, e-tickets
• Robust documentation of PNRs, e‑tickets, check‑in data, and supplier confirmations to defend ‘service not provided’ claims.
• Layered fraud screening (3DS)
• For higher-risk countries, currencies ensure these bookings do not auto fulfil, so it goes through our fraud detection team for manual fulfilment
• The booking system should be able to flag and identify multiple bookings by the same customers' names and email addresses to flag fraudulent activity quickly and efficiently

How can travel merchants protect themselves against fraud without losing good customers to friction at checkout?

Travel merchants can protect themselves against fraud without losing good customers to checkout friction by treating lower and higher-risk bookings differently. Lower-risk and VIP customers can have their bookings automatically fulfilled with a quicker turnaround time. For higher-risk customers, countries, and currencies, merchants can apply step-up verification such as 3DS, OTP, and ID checks.

Where the line typically sits between low and high‑risk customers can be measured in different ways. We use different strategies that all align, some of these are customer booking history (lower risk if a frequent booker and high risk if it's their first booking), payment behaviours (low risk if card details match the booking information and high risk if there are multiple payment attempts), route and destination risks, departure dates, and booking characteristics. 

What is driving disputes in travel today, and how has that changed in recent years?

Disputes in the travel industry have risen and are being driven largely by the introduction of frictionless dispute‑filing features within mobile banking apps, which now allow customers to raise claims with minimal effort and often without providing evidence upfront. This shift has significantly lowered the threshold for initiating a dispute and has resulted in many customers using their bank as a first point of contact rather than approaching the merchant. 

At the same time, long refund timelines, complex airline fare rules, and heightened post‑pandemic expectations have contributed to increased frustration, prompting customers to escalate issues prematurely. As a result, travel merchants are now seeing more disputes, with a substantial proportion falling into the category of friendly fraud cases where the transaction was legitimate, but the customer misunderstood the rules or sought a faster resolution. 

This combination of easier dispute pathways, slower refund processes, and evolving customer behaviour has fundamentally had a big impact on how disputes are being used and managed. 

With Visa Acquirer Monitoring Programme (VAMP) already in force and Mastercard's Scam Merchant Monitoring Programme (SMMP) on the way, where should travel merchants be focusing their efforts right now?

With Visa’s VAMP already in force and Mastercard’s SMMP approaching, travel merchants are shifting from reactive dispute handling to proactive risk and transparency management. Under VAMP, merchants have already strengthened their evidence standards, improved refund communication, and increased the clarity of fare rules to reduce ’false‑positive’ disputes triggered through banking apps. Investing in better fraud controls and more consistent customer outreach encourages customers to resolve issues directly rather than allowing disputes to progress. 

Looking ahead to SMMP, we are preparing for tight misleading practices, refund delays, and customer communication gaps. This means building more robust audit trails, tightening operational processes, and ensuring that every stage of the booking journey, from checkout wording to post‑booking support, meets the higher expectations required in these two areas. Together, VAMP and SMMP are pushing travel merchants to operate with greater transparency, stronger controls, and more proactive engagement to prevent disputes before they occur. 

What does a mature chargeback strategy look like for a travel merchant today, and where do merchants most often under-invest?

A mature chargeback strategy starts with tracking the booking flow end to end, working closely with airlines, consolidators, and GDS partners to capture factual, timestamped evidence across the entire lifecycle of a booking. 

Strong pre‑booking and pre‑travel communication is essential, supported by clear, transparent fare rules and refund policies that reduce confusion and prevent unnecessary disputes. 

A high‑quality customer service experience also plays a critical role, ensuring customers receive accurate information and timely support so that legitimate transactions are not misclassified as fraud but recognised as friendly fraud driven by misunderstandings or delays. This must be paired with a well‑structured dispute pack and a robust evidence framework to defend claims effectively. 

Finally, ongoing post‑dispute analysis is vital for identifying root causes, issuer patterns, fraudster behaviours, and customer pain points, enabling continuous improvement across the booking and servicing journey. The single most common blind spot and where merchants most often under‑invest is proactive customer communication, which remains the strongest lever for preventing disputes before they ever reach the bank.   

The Paypers’ Travel Series includes contributions on topics spanning emerging trends in travel payments, fraud and security challenges, regulatory and tax impacts, risk management and forex, as well as sustainability in the travel industry. For a complete overview of all the contributions featured, click here.  

About the author

Sam Argyle is the Managing Director of Alternative Airlines, a leading flight search and booking site dedicated to making travel more accessible and exciting for everyone. An avid traveller himself, he is passionate about leveraging technology to improve the travel experience, including exploring the latest payment innovations and emerging trends.

 

 

About Alternative Airlines