Refunds 101

A five-minute overview of the Deal Engine refunds product for decision-makers. For the technical integration path, start at the Quickstart; for the operational view, see the Operations runbook.

The problem

Airline ticket refunds are slow, manual, and error-prone. Every refund requires interpreting fare rules, tax rules, penalties, and waivers against the ticket's history; across whichever systems the airline uses (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport, NDC channels). Done by hand, this consumes call-center and back-office capacity, produces inconsistent amounts, and leaves passengers waiting.

What Deal Engine does

Deal Engine centralizes and automates the refund process behind a single integration:

• One API, many systems. You integrate once with a GraphQL API (plus an optional web interface, OnePoint), instead of maintaining refund logic per PSS.
• Automated calculation. The platform interprets fare and tax rules to produce a quote; the itemized amount that should be returned (fare, taxes, penalties, fees).
• Controlled execution. After the quote, the refund can be executed automatically or held for human approval before any money moves.
• Full traceability of outcomes. Executed refunds are recorded with itemized amounts (fare, tax, penalty, total to refund) you can query and reconcile against your settlement systems.

How a refund flows

Every refund passes through four stages, with an optional approval gate:

1. Request: a refund is initiated (by API, the OnePoint UI, or other intake channels).
2. Validation: the ticket is checked for eligibility against your configured rules.
3. Calculation: fare, tax, penalty, and fee amounts are computed into a quote.
4. Decision (optional): your team reviews and approves, adjusts, or rejects the candidate.
5. Fulfillment: the refund is executed in your PSS and the outcome (REFUNDED or ERROR) is written back.

Validation logic, rejection rules, and decision values are configured per customer during onboarding; the workflow adapts to your policies rather than imposing one.

What your organization touches

Onboarding runs through seven phases, from credential exchange to a first controlled live refund; see Onboarding & prerequisites.

Scope at a glance

• Covers tickets and EMDs across the supported PSS platforms; the scenarios in scope for your airline are agreed in your FSD during onboarding (see Onboarding & prerequisites).
• Commercial terms, pricing, and contractual SLAs are agreed with your account manager and are not covered in this documentation.

Where to go next

• Executives / evaluators: Refunds API overview, High-level diagram
• Architects: Environments & access, Backend authentication, Webhooks
• Developers: Quickstart
• Operations: Refund lifecycle & statuses, Operations runbook