When Air AMS participants have not received expected freight status notification messages, what should they do?

When Air AMS participants have not received expected freight status notification messages, what should they do?

If an Air AMS participant has not received an expected freight status notification that results from the filing of any entry, the Air AMS participant and the entry filer should compare information to determine if the air waybill record and flight record information filed by each of the parties match.  The most common reason that Air AMS does not reconcile entry information with the Air AMS air waybill record is that the record has been incorrectly transmitted by one of the parties.  For example:

Air waybill Number in Air AMS:       000-12345678-123456
Air waybill Number on Entry:            000-12345678-ABC123456

​When this occurs, the party that made the error must change its record to correct such an error.

Air AMS also has a feature called the Freight Status Query (FSQ) which allows an Air AMS participant to request routing information, current record status, the nominated agent information and the retransmission of freight status notification messages.  Air AMS participants are encouraged to use the FSQ message to determine the reason that expected messages have not been received.

If the Air AMS participant has done everything possible to resolve the problem but has not been successful, it should contact CBP at the local port to determine why the expected freight notification message has not been received.  The Air AMS participant should provide CBP with the complete air waybill number and the associated entry number.  In addition, the Air AMS participant should notify CBP what information it expected to receive and what information it actually has received.

If the Air AMS participant and CBP cannot resolve the reason for the failure of Air AMS to process or transmit information related to an air waybill record, CBP may authorize release of the cargo without electronic authorization in accordance with local CBP policy.

An assigned client representative may provide technical guidance to an Air AMS participant regarding the performance of the system.  The client representative cannot transmit freight status notification (FSN) messages or authorize release of the cargo without electronic authorization.  Such requests must be directed to CBP at the local port.