Commercially Important Airlines

The Add a Rule page allows Content Optimizer users to create rules that affect the shopping query results. Rules are tied to a PCC/SID and apply to all users within that PCC/SID.

The Commercially Important Airlines rule designates and ensures that an airline is represented in search results regardless of schedule or price advantage in city pairs with a large range of content.

Application Scenario

Description

This rule designates and ensures that an airline is represented in search results regardless of schedule or price advantage in city pairs with a large range of content. A maximum of three airlines can be specified in this type of rule.

Problem scenario

“My agency has an incentive campaign with airline XX, and I want to ensure that as much XX content as possible is returned.”

Technical example

An agency wants to ensure that for Searches from DUB to PAR, at least 9 BA flights are returned.

Create Rule

Note: Required fields are indicated by a red asterisk *

From the Rules tab, click the New Rule button to display the Select a Rule to Create dialog.
From the Rule Type list, select Commercially Important Airlines. Refer to Air Rule Types for an explanation of each type of rule.
Notes:
- Commercially Important Airlines can be configured to apply up to three airlines. Each rule has individual limits for the number of airlines the rule supports, if any. See Airline List for more information.
- If a rule supports NDC carriers, an NDC logo displays by the rule name.
- Search for a specific rule by entering the search word in the Search by rule name field.
Set up the rule on the following screen by filling out the following fields:
- Rule Name Only Alpha Numeric characters, spaces and commas are allowed, and can not be greater than 25 in length.
- Campaign Name (Optional) Only Alpha Numeric and certain characters (-,:()'.+&) are allowed and can not be greater than 25 in length.
- Description (Optional). Only Alpha Numeric and certain characters (-,:()'.+&) are allowed and can not be greater than 100 in length.
  Note: In the description field, ensure you explain why this rule is created, what are the goals, what is the target, why are you creating this rule, so that everyone who sees the rule understands its reason for creation. E.g., you are creating a rule that limits results for an airline because there is a bankruptcy risk and you don't want your passengers stranded, and later, the airline might be strong but results are still being limited because the rule is still enacted.
- Complete the fields associated with the option chosen.

Customize Commercially Important Airlines rule

To customize this rule:

Enter the Number of results per airline (1-9). This can also be interpreted as the number of price points per carrier.
- The number entered is the target number of times that carrier is represented in the results. For example, 8 would be eight price points in the results for that carrier.
- If you enter 9, but a carrier only has 8 price points to display, only 8 return in the results.
- If a carrier is represented in the results, but not enough (e.g., that carrier has a 3 associated with it), you can increase this number to encourage more of that carrier's content to return.
- This rule is most-often used on high-volume routes, for example, London - New York, and you could use this rule to target British Airways in the results.
- This rule is not used for decreasing or excluding results. I.e., you cannot enter an airline and put 0 as a number.
Optionally, select the check box for extra airline results when available.
- For this selection box, extra results only return if the maximum desired results have returned for a given scenario (e.g., the fastest journeys or diversity in carriers) but the total maximum results haven't returned, then extra results return to enhance the total number of results.
- If the maximum number of results is reached, checking this box does not increase the results.
- If you enter a 1 for an airline, at least 1 price point for that airline is returned (for example, United). If the extra airline results when available is checked, and the maximum number of results hasn't been reached for all other applicable airlines, then more results from United will likely be returned.
Enter associated Airlines for this rule. Up to 3 airlines will be processed for this rule type. When more than 3 records match, the newest rules are selected.
Note: Each rule has individual limits for the number of airlines the rule supports, if any. See Airline List for more information.
Click Next to display the Target and Schedule screen.

Target and Schedule

The Target and Schedule screen continues the rule creation process by allowing you to specify PCC/Groups, geography, rule timing, and travel dates.

What will be the rule target?

Enter the Galileo (1G), Apollo (1V), or Worldspan (1P) PCC(s)/SIDs or PCC Group Name that this rule affects.
- To enter a single PCC or multiple PCCs:
  1. Indicate which Travelport GDS the PCC applies to along with the input. For example. if PCC ABC is a Galileo PCC, the system requires this as the input: ABC-1G.
  2. The list of matching values display. Click to select the correct PCC or Group.
  3. You can enter multiple PCCs. For example, XYZ5-1V, ABC7-1G.
- To add from a PCC group list:
  1. Click Add from PCC group list to select a PCC group.
  2. Search for the PCC group in the Search box.
  3. Scroll to the bottom of the results and enter the page number, or click the right / left arrows.
  4. Click the Add button next to the PCC group to add it to the rule. Items already added display a blue button .

Optionally, enter the associated Channel IDs. The available Channel IDs display when the box is selected.

Geography and Exceptions

This section allows you to specify how geography will affect the rules, and create exceptions to these rules.

Notes:

For the Commercially Important Airline rule, it's Best Practice to force geography. For example, if you are traveling from Des Moines, Iowa to Los Angeles, California, you likely do not want to include results for Turkish Airways.
See Geography Exceptions and Global Geography Application to review exception notes and see how to make Content Optimizer default the rule to worldwide application, a.k.a. “global.”

Enter the Geography values:
1. If the option is presented, select the Location type:
  - Airport
  - City
  - Location Group
  - Nation
  - Zone
  - Area
2. Select the Geography values for the From/Between and To/And options. Optionally, select Both ways if available.
  
  Note: Both ways is not available for Promote Preferred Fares, NDC content preference, and NDC response time*.
1. Optionally, select values in the Geography Exceptions, if available, to enter exceptions to the general Location Type.
2. Optionally, click Add geography exception to add an additional exception to the rule.
  - Multiple geography exceptions can be added.
  - Click the delete icon to remove an exception option.
3. Optionally, for the Exclude Fare of Fare Family rule, select the Enforce directionality checkbox. This allows you to exclude directional fares when a fare is being excluded in both directions. This ensures that a fare being excluded will only be excluded for the proper direction. Initially, this only applies to fares being excluded by fare basis code.

* Understanding Promote preferred fares, NDC Content Preference, and NDC Response Time Geography Rules

These examples demonstrate the difference when selecting From / To versus Between / And

Note: Between/and setting for NDC Content Preference and NDC Response Time geography is not yet available, and will be in a future release.

When From / To is selected

This option is unidirectional. The Origin must match the From element and the Destination must match the To element.

Rule is applied to One-Way and Round-Trip.
- From airport is DEN
- To airport is ORD
  
  Rule:
  - Runs DEN > ORD (one-way)
  - Runs DEN > ORD > DEN (round trip)
  - Runs DEN > LAX > ORD (one way with connection)
  - Runs DEN > LAX > ORD > LGA > DEN (round trip with connections)
  - Does not run ORD > DEN, ORD > DEN > ORD, or ORD > LAX > DEN
  - Does not run if DEN > ORD are stopovers or layovers.
    
    E.g., LAX > DEN > ORD > LGA
  - Does not run if the origin or destination doesn't match.
    
    E.g., LAX > DEN > ORD

When Between / And is selected

This option is omnidirectional. The Origin can match either the Between or And element, with the Destination matching the other element.

Rule is applied to One-Way and Round-Trip.
- Between city is DEN
- And city or ORD
  
  Promote preferred fares:
  - Runs DEN > ORD or DEN > ORD > DEN
  - Runs ORD > DEN and ORD > DEN > ORD
  - Runs DEN > LAX > ORD > LGA > DEN (round-trip with connections)
  - Does not run if DEN > ORD are stopovers or layovers.
    E.g., LAX > DEN > ORD > LGA
  - Does not run if the Origins or Destinations do not match the rule.
    E.g., LAX > DEN > ORD

Select Flight Options if the Booking Codes rule was selected on the previous screen, The rule can selectively be applied to the origin and destination of either the entire trip or sectors within a trip.

When will the rule run?

This section lets you specify the dates and times when the rule will run for airlines, e.g., when the rule is live (i.e., the dates and local time during which the search results will be affected by the rule).

Select Continuously, Daily, or Weekly from the Run rule drop-down box.
- If the rule is to be effective every day but only during certain time windows during the day, then select the Daily option.
  - You can then specify up to five time windows during which the rule will be effective.
  - The times are based on the time zone of each PCC or SID specified in the rule.
- If the rule is to be effective only on selected days of the week, select the Weekly option.
Click the Start date field to select the date when the rule will start running.
Specify the time the rule begins on the date selected. The times are based on the time zone of each PCC specified in the rule.
1. If Daily was specified in step 1, specify time windows within each day for the rule to be effective in the Recurring start time and Recurring end time fields by selecting the clock icon .
2. Optionally, click the plus sign to add additional time windows. You can then specify up to five time windows during which the rule will be effective.
3. If the selection is between 7 AM - 9 AM:
  1. Starting at 7:00 AM, the rule is active.
  2. From 9:01 AM - 6:59 AM the following day, the rule is not active.
Specify the End date and time for when the rule will stop running or select the check box to run rule indefinitely.

Note: Leave the rule End date empty to run indefinitely. Content Optimizer defaults to December 31, 2059 in these instances.
If Daily was specified in step 1
1. Specify a time windows within each day for the rule to be effective in the Recurring start time and Recurring end time fields.
2. Optionally, click the plus sign to add up to five additional time windows.
If Weekly was selected in step 1:
1. Specify the number of weeks the rule will run in the Recur every field.
2. If the rule is to be effective every week, then leave the Recur Every value at its default setting of ‘1’. Otherwise, specify a number of alternating weeks for the rule to be effective.
3. Use the checkboxes to select which days of the week the rule should be effective, i.e., the days the rule will run.

Travel Dates

This section lets you optionally specify when the air rules apply continuously, or specific days of the week.