American Express in Mexico has developed their own loyalty program called Payback. Members gain loyalty points when they use their membership number on transactions. Payback membership numbers are issued in one of two ways:

• A separate Payback membership card can be issued. This card can be swiped in RA Open when the cursor is in the Frequent Traveler field in the AD Subwindow.
• The membership number can be embedded in the magnetic stripe of the renter's American Express Card.

Summary of Payback Programs:

• Edit Payback Control Record: Enter the control data for the organization.
• Edit Payback Partner Codes : Allows for entry of multiple records with different card ranges to provide certain point levels and promos to be associated with each card series.
• Payback Enrollment: Used to send basic customer information to American Express when a new Payback card is issued to a customer.
• Payback Data Export: Used to export Payback rental data to American Express from posted RAs.

This program is used to enter control data for:

• defining settings for processing Payback rentals

• transmitting Payback data to American Express

To access the Edit Payback Control Record program, type EDTPBC (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field or the appropriate line number on the Sales Control Files Menu. The screen will then display:

OPTION: __ EDIT PAYBACK CONTROL RECORD 1 Partner Code 2 Source Code 3 Currency 4 Points Curr 5 Principal 6 Password 7 Time Out 1SAVE 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

Enter data as follows:

1. PARTNER CODE	Enter up to 10 alphanumeric characters to indicate the Payback code issued to your operation by American Express. EXAMPLE: Type thermeon-mx (RET)
2. SOURCE CODE	Enter up to 50 characters representing the Payback source code issued to your organization by American Express. EXAMPLE: Type THERMEON1234 (RET)
3. CURRENCY	Enter up to 3 characters representing the code that American Express uses for your local currency. EXAMPLE: Type MX (RET)
4. POINTS CURR	To award Payback rewards as points, enter PTS. EXAMPLE: Type PTS (RET)
5. PRINCIPAL	Enter the user name or "principal" required when contacting American Express to request the number of available points on the Payback card on the RA. This value will be specified by Amex. EXAMPLE: Type ab_cde_fg (RET) NOTE: There are two "authentications" which must be passed when making a points query. The first one is a "basic authentication" username and password required to access the URL provided by AMEX. These credentials are stored in a system configuration file named config/Payback.conf. The second authentication is for the SOAP request. It is the username and password for this second authentication that is stored here.
6. PASSWORD	Enter the password or "credential" required when contacting American Express to request the number of available points on the Payback card on the RA. This value will be specified by Amex. EXAMPLE: Type abcdefghij (RET) See "NOTE" for field 5 above.
7. TIME OUT	Enter the timeout value, in seconds, for contacting American Express for the GetAccountBalance points query. If no response is received in the specified amount of time, the request will be terminated. EXAMPLE: Type 10 (RET)

The screen will then display:

OPTION: __ EDIT PAYBACK PARTNER CODES 1 Partner Code thermeon-mx 2 Source Code THERMEON1234 3 Currency MX 4 Points Curr PTS 5 Principal ab_cde_fg 6 Password abcdefghij 7 Time Out 10 1SAVE 2 3ERASE 4 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8

PRESS "F1" AT "OPTION" TO SAVE THE RECORD.

Set up required:

In addition to the control files mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the following set up is also needed to use the Payback logic.

A. A cell phone number must be entered when opening Payback rental agreements. A field in Edit Misc. Control Fields is used to turn on that requirement.

B. The Frequent Traveler Code "PB" must be set up in Edit Frequent Traveler Codes an Edit Frequent Traveler Program Dates.

C. Enter the Frequent Traveler Code (PB) in the "Payback" field in Edit Card Definitions for the BIN ranges of American Express cards that have a Payback membership number embedded in the magnetic stripe (not all AX card ranges support Payback).

USER TIPS: The following describes how an American Express card with a Payback membership number is used in RA Open:

• If the card is swiped as the presigned FOP for the rental and there is currently no Frequent Travel Code on the transaction, the payback membership number will be added to the RA without any message.
• If the card is swiped as the presigned FOP for the rental and there currently IS a Frequent Travel Code on the transaction, the following question will be asked:

SHALL I REPLACE YOUR FREQUENT FLIER # WITH YOUR PAYBACK #? Y/N

If the counter agent answers "Y" the Payback membership # will replace the Frequent Traveler number currently on the RA

If the counter agent answers "N", the AX card number will be placed on the RA as the presigned FOP but the Payback membership number will NOT be added.

• If the American Express Card is swiped when the cursor is in the Frequent Traveler Code field of the AD Subwindow, the Payback membership will be added to the transaction BUT the American Express FOP will NOT be added to the RA.