Chargeback
A reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder’s issuing bank.
A chargeback is the reversal of a card payment initiated by the cardholder’s issuing bank, usually because the cardholder has disputed the transaction with the issuer. The acquirer debits the merchant for the disputed amount and the merchant has the option to defend the transaction by providing evidence (representment). If accepted, the chargeback stands; if rejected, the funds are returned to the merchant. Chargebacks also carry administrative fees regardless of outcome.
felloh keeps chargeback evidence attached to the booking.
3DS outcome, customer journey, AVS, signed itinerary and supplier confirmations stay with each transaction — so representment is a query, not a forensic search.
What it means for travel businesses.
Travel chargebacks are operationally heavy because the disputed amount may already have been paid through to a supplier, services may have been partly delivered, and the booking record itself can be the most important evidence. A chargeback wave around a single supplier failure or disrupted destination can put significant cash at risk.
Defending a travel chargeback typically requires reconstructing the full booking lifecycle: when it was sold, who took the deposit, what evidence the customer received, what the supplier confirmed, what the cancellation policy said, what authentication evidence sits behind the original payment. If any one piece is missing, representment fails and the cash goes back to the customer.
The travel teams that handle chargebacks well prepare the evidence as bookings happen, not when disputes land. The teams that prepare it reactively spend hours per dispute and lose representment cases they should have won. At scale, the difference is meaningful enough to show up in a finance director’s monthly report.
How felloh handles it.
felloh keeps chargeback context — original payment, supplier payment, refund history, communication trail, authentication evidence — attached to the booking so the response is one query away, not a multi-system hunt.
The Chargebacks view in the dashboard surfaces every dispute against the booking, with reason code, evidence pack and response status all in one place. Risk Analysis tracks chargeback velocity and ratio over time so trend shifts become visible the day they start rather than the day the scheme issues a notice.
For travel teams that previously assembled representment from four different systems, the response time drops from hours to minutes. Win rates rise because the evidence is complete, and the operational cost per chargeback drops to the point where defending becomes worthwhile.
Related terms.
Chargeback reason code
The scheme-defined code that explains why a chargeback was raised.Read termGlossary termChargeback ratio
The number of chargebacks against a merchant relative to their total transactions, by value or count.Read termGlossary termChargeback fraud
A dispute raised by a cardholder who did receive the goods or services they paid for.Read termGlossary termDispute resolution
The process of resolving a disagreement between a customer, merchant and issuer over a payment.Read termGlossary termLiability shift
When responsibility for a fraudulent transaction moves from one party to another under scheme rules.Read termSee how this works around your bookings.
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