The gap between the deposit and the flight is the risk

A charter deposit taken in March for a flight in June is three months during which the customer has paid and received nothing. Every day of that gap is a day the acquirer carries the exposure, because if the operator stops flying the passengers charge back and the acquirer pays.

This is why two charter operators with identical volume can be underwritten completely differently. The one booking ninety days out is a harder file than the one booking next week, and neither has done anything wrong.

What lengthens the gap

• ·Seasonal booking patterns, where a summer program is sold in winter.
• ·Jet cards and block hours, which take money against flights not yet scheduled at all.
• ·Itinerary changes that push a flight later while the original payment stays put.
• ·Cancellation terms that keep funds rather than returning them, which is defensible commercially and still leaves money held against undelivered service.

What shortens it, or makes it survivable

Taking the deposit on card and the balance closer to departure moves most of the value into a shorter window. Holding customer funds in a way that survives the operator failing changes the question entirely. Neither is always possible, and an operator who has thought about it presents very differently to one who has not.

An acquirer asking about your booking window is not being difficult. It is asking how long it is exposed, which is a fair question with a factual answer.