Why this is classified high risk
Travel is high-risk because of future delivery: you charge today, deliver service weeks or months later, and the customer can dispute the entire purchase if anything goes wrong before then. Add cancellations, weather disruptions, and consolidator-model exposure and chargeback ratios run structurally elevated.
Travel-specialized acquirers price for the chargeback exposure, accept the future-delivery delay between authorization and delivery, and provide the dispute infrastructure travel merchants need.
Features included
Acquirer accepts the auth-to-delivery window inherent in travel.
60+ currencies — critical for international travel sellers.
Pre-dispute deflection for cancellation and 'service not as described' disputes.
Delayed-delivery reserve structures aligned with travel cash flow.
Pricing factors
Travel pricing ranges 3.45% – 4.95% + $0.25 with reserves modeled against delivery delay (typically 5–10% rolling longer than standard 180 days).