In the world of travel and airlines we often encounter The abbreviations ARC,IATA and CLIA numbers.These are connected to the National transaction And these abbreviations are actually their merchant accounts. These allow you to process your credit cards for flight, hotels, Cruises, rental cars, host agencies, and excursions.
If you are looking for a credit card processing Merchant account then you’ve chanced upon a good article that provides the differences between the merchant accounts under the National Transaction. This is important since Merchant accounts offer various Solutions.
National transaction Corporation Merchant accounts
ARC-Also known as Airlines reporting Corporation is Accredited to Permit Airline agencies to provide tickets for travel. The use of and Airlines reporting Corporation number actually does not restrict to just booking airline tickets but also allows booking for hotels and cruise ships.
CLIA-This number is provided by the cruise lines International Association. this will allow the vendors to identify an individual as a travel agent. It has the same purpose as with other Merchant accounts the only difference is that it is provided by a different organization and it has different costs and policies to enter. Cruise Lines International Association agencies without accreditation from The ARC does not have the ability to issue airline tickets, because as the name implies this agency is only accredited to provide tickets for cruising. However it is recommended that you utilize under an umbrella organization for instance like a host agency, so that you would have to update a CLIA number provided that you are working as a host agent. the advantage of having National Transaction travel agents numbers is that you can use their number which is just free and whatever incur expenses. The downside however is that CLIA is not accepted almost everywhere especially with Airlines. but if you are a travel agency not issuing airline tickets then the CLIA is the perfect choice.
IATA- The IATA or the International Air transport Association Network is a merchant account. Uses wide data resource to connect suppliers to the United States travel distribution Network. Holders of the IATA ID card has exclusive promotional benefits End allow one’s incentives from participating members since agents with naida number is considered a valid or verify dissociate as well as an approved travel agent for selling travel tickets. The IATA is an important certification for a referral agent to find customers for hosting travel especially with business matters. For more information, you may also check http://edition.cnn.com/2012/04/30/travel/business-travel-tour-guides/.