This guide provides instructions on how to use private and published fares. You don’t have to be an expert at using the Apollo system, however, a basic knowledge of Apollo is necessary.

This guide is divided into sections:

Each section is divided by topic. These topics identify the job tasks Apollo helps you perform.

The Apollo System includes online Help for PrivateFares, both agency and airline products. Help guides you through each task with step-by-step procedures, defines PrivateFares terms, and directs you to more information when necessary.  See S*PRO/PFARES II and HELP PFARES II.

PrivateFares II Description

You can access private fare information through tariff display or fare quote. The integration of private and published fares provides you with the information needed to quote the best fare possible to your customer. PrivateFares II also provides the means of automating the paper based reference sources that have been the standard for many years.  Galileo International offers two distinct PrivateFares products.

Agency PrivateFares

Agency PrivateFares gives the travel agency the ability to manually build their own private fare database by creating specific contract information and control the access to those fares via the Selective Access product. Agencies can create flat fares by specifying the amount to be charged, net fares by specifying the net amount and mark up, or discount fares by specifying a mark up/down to be applied to an existing airline base fare. Variable rule validation is applied based on the method used to create the fare.

For flat and/or net contracts, the following rule provisions are validated:

Agency PrivateFares

For discount contracts, the rule validation depends on whether the rule is overridden or not. With rule overrides, only provisions for the categories listed above are validated. With no rule overrides, all of the provisions of the base fare rule are validated. These fares are eligible for "multi-carrier' itinerary pricing, based on the rule and routing of the base fare.

Agency private fares are available for automated display and pricing, however specific modifiers are required to access the fares. Additionally, agency private fares are integrated with public fares.

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PrivateFares II

Non-public fares is a product being replaced by PrivateFares II. Non-public fares allow an airline to create and distribute private fares via the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) for travel agency and internal use as needed. The security for this product is limited to knowledge of the specific fare basis code. These fares are not available for automated display and pricing, nor are they integrated with the public fares. Similar to the agency PrivateFares product, a modifier (FIC) is required to access the non-public fares.

With PrivateFares II (airline product), airlines have the ability to provide private fare data directly to travel agencies. This drastically reduces the agency manual maintenance effort and improves functionality such as full rule validation.

PrivateFares II uses GlobalFares to validate the security restrictions filed on a private fare. An airline is able to control access to specific private fares and expedite distribution of these fares to travel agencies. GlobalFares functionality is used for the remainder of fare validation. Therefore, private fares, just as public fares, have full rule and routing validation.

The display and pricing of private fares does not require new modifiers, but optional modifiers are available.

The tour code and/or ticket designator filed with the private fare prints in the applicable boxes on a ticket.

International private fares can be filed in any currency. The existing currency modifier (::CUR) is used for display, pricing and ticketing.

PrivateFares II Features

Following are some features of the PrivateFares II product.

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How PrivateFares II Work

With PrivateFares II, every tariff display and pricing request searches for private fares that are secured to the location making the request. All existing modifiers are applicable to both public and private fares.

The default for tariff display and fare quote now includes airline supplied private fares. The following modifiers are available for requesting public or private fares only.

Airlines have the option of filing the private fare with an account code. When the private fare has an account code, this code is required for all tariff display and fare quote requests.

It is used to categorize private fares generally by client, event, or specific type. The account code for airline supplied fares has a maximum of twenty characters and can be alpha, numeric, or a combination. The account code for agency created private fares has a maximum of six characters. The first character must always be an alpha character.

Note: Tariff displays and fare quotes of agency created private fares continue to require the account code modifier.

PrivateFares II  Security

Airline has to allow redistribution.
Selective Access and Group Coding are two products that allow travel agencies using the Apollo and Galileo systems to share information with other Apollo and Galileo agencies. The following highlights the differences between the two products.

Group Code

Group coding is used to allow access to information between branches of an agency, or another agency. You can be group coded with other Apollo agencies.
When security for the provider and requester locations is group code, and they do not currently use the agency product, airline private fares can be redistributed to the branch locations that have the same group code.

Selective Access

Selective Access is used to allow access to information between any agencies, branches, or separate agencies. You can have Selective Access with other Apollo and Galileo agencies.

Selective Access is the security platform for the PrivateFares product. With Selective Access you have the ability as the host location, to give another agency (retail location) access to your private fare information. As a security measure, Selective Access performs a security check with each request for information, to ensure the current agreement is still valid. The customizer feature that limits access to only private fares with specific account codes and/or specific agents is also applied to airline private fares.

If the host agency is providing private fare information to other retail locations, these locations must be given permission to access the fares. Once the permission is given, the retail locations can use private fares from the host database for tariff display, fare quote and ticketing.
When the security for the provider and requester locations is Selective Access, airline private fares may be redistributed to any location. An agreement number allowing private fares is selected for the permission file. If the requester and provider currently have an agreement established for agency private fares, the same agreement is used for airline private fares.

As with the agency private fare product, if the requester wants to view airline private fares for their own location, their pseudo city must be included with the tariff display or fare quote request.

If the provider and requester locations do not currently use the agency product, therefore no host location can be established, the requester will include the pseudo city of the provider location with their tariff display or fare quote request.

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Net Fares

All fares received from ATPCO are assumed to be selling fares as ATPCO cannot currently differentiate between net and selling fares. It has been recommended to airlines wanting to distribute net fares, to use the account code of NET to further secure the fares from the general tariff display and fare quote.

You can use the Customizer feature of Selective Access to include or exclude fares associated to this account code from distribution.

To create a selling fare, you would use the agency PrivateFares product, DISCOUNT CONTRACT.

Airline supplied private fares can be specified as the basis for mark-up or discounting using the discount type contract of the agency private fare.

For example, if an airline files a NET fare, with a fare basis code of YNET for USD100.00 and your selling fare is USD150.00, the mark-up would be USD50.

The account code SELL is used to display, quote, and ticket the selling fare. If the ticket is issued using the NET fare, the account code NET is used.

Using Agency and Airline PrivateFares

Once a PrivateFares Record is added to the agency database, the private fare information stored in the record along with the airline private fare information is available for tariff display, fare quote, and ticketing.

A tariff display shows the agency and airline private fares with published fares for the origin and destination points. When you fare quote an itinerary and specify an account code, Apollo considers agency private fares, airline private fares, as well as published fares when selecting the best price.

The rules display for a private fare shows the contract rules before the published rules, when the private fare is discounted from a published fare. For flat and net-net type fares, only contract rules are shown.

Tariff Display

PrivateFares II is designed to integrate private and published fares in one tariff display. The low-to-high display makes it easy for you to choose between a published and private fare.

Airlines have the option of filing the private fare with an account code. An account code is used to group or categorize fares together. If the private fare has an account code, this code is required for all tariff display requests. Display of agency private fares requires the account code modifier. When a tariff display format ($D) includes an account code, all private fares that exist for that account code and city pair display along with the airline private fare and published fares. The tariff display can also be modified to show only private fares (:P) or only public fares (:N).

Private fares, regardless of whether they are distributed by the airline or created in the agency product, are identified by a dash ( - ) preceding the airline code, and include two lines of information.

Displaying an Integrated Tariff

To display an integrated tariff including public fares, airline, and agency private fares, type the function identifier ($D), followed by the origin city (NYC), destination city (DEN), departure date (15NOV), end item (‡), airline code (XX), dash (-), PrivateFares delimiter (PRI), dash (-), account code (ACME), asterisk (*), pseudo city code of agency owning the private fare (US1), then press Enter.

The response is a tariff display including public fares, airline, and agency private fares. Note that the account code (ACME) is included in the request allowing the agency private fare to be used.

 The table below explains the fare information appearing in the tariff display response.

Note: Agencies using the non-embellished (without rules) tariff display format, private fares display only when they are specifically requested with account code or the :P modifier.

Displaying an Integrated Tariff with Modifiers

All existing tariff display modifiers can be used (in random order), but must precede -PRI, indicating the beginning of PrivateFares modifiers. PrivateFares modifiers, within their grouping, may also be entered in random order.

You can use any tariff display modifiers with agency PrivateFares except:

You can change a tariff display using follow-on entries. To change information such as travel dates or city pairs, use existing follow-on modifiers. To change private fares information, each entry must be preceded by -PRI.

The following are tariff display modifiers for PrivateFares:

Examples: The following table illustrates example formats with various combinations of modifiers, and the fares displayed or considered for pricing. Where no passenger type is noted, assume adult.

Pricing an Itinerary

With every pricing entry, Apollo considers any applicable private fare that does not have an account code restriction, or published fare before responding with the best fare for the booked itinerary. When a private fare for any segment is selected that is a discount from a published fare, the response displays the alert message PRIVATE FARE SELECTED.

Note: If the private fare has an account code restriction, the account code must be specified with the fare quote request.

Following are example of responses when a private fare has been selected.

North American fare quote

International fare quote

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Using Generic Discount Modifiers

Generic discount codes can be used with airline private fares. The generic discount codes subtract an amount or percentage from a fare. The calculation is processed for the pricing of any adult fare, public or private. Passenger type fares cannot be further discounted using the generic discount codes.

Note: Generic discount codes for agency private fares will be available at a later date.
The generic discount codes are:

Using Fare Quote Alternative (FQA)

You can use a fare quote alternative request after a fare quote of non-North American cities to display additional pricing options including private fares for the same booking code.

For example, FQA* after a previous $B.

The agent message PRIVATE FARE SELECTED appears following each alternative that includes a private fare.
To request a fare quote alternative after first entering $B-ACCTCD, type FQA* and press Enter.

Following is the response to an FQA* format entry.

Examples: The following table provides format examples of pricing an itinerary with and without pricing modifiers.

Rule Displays

When a private fare is a result of the Dynamic Fare Creation process , the rules of the base fare display along with the message BASE FARE RULES Text. Additionally, for International rule displays, when the calculated fare is for a specified passenger type, a description of the passenger type displays.

North American - rule paragraphs following a $D or $B display. 

International - rule paragraphs following a $D display or FQN (after a pricing request).

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Document Issuance

The normal ticketing entries apply.

Examples: The following table provides format examples of issuing tickets with and without pricing modifiers.