Task: Car Matrixed Availability

This task is used to request:

Standard Car Availability from multiple vendors
Direct Availability for up to 20 car vendors

Section 1: Short Answer

Transaction Name:

CarMatrix_3

Can this task be performed in a sessionless environment?

Sessioned and Sessionless are both supported.

Are the request and response identical on both the Apollo and Galileo systems?

Apollo and Galileo are identical.

Industry-specific knowledge required to understand this task in terms of the specific business process:

User must understand basic car availability and shopper functionality.

Explain any special limits or distinct restrictions t

No special limitations for the input data.

Section 2: Detailed Description

Request:

Unless otherwise specified, use ALL CAPS in any request data.

To request a matrix of car availability:

<CarMatrixAvailMods> (Data Record 7170), it is mandatory that a <CarMatrixAvailability> tag is sent. This tag contains the basic information required for the car search such as dates, times and locations for pick-up and drop-off of the car.

One or more (up to 10) <CarMatrixVndInfo> tags may be sent to specify information specific to car vendors such as location ID’s and discount codes.

The <CarMatrixVndInfo> may contain as little information as vendor code if it is desired to obtain only specific vendors in the reply.
If any <CarMatrixVndInfo> contains a location code, then all <CarMatrixVndInfo> tag's must contain a location code.
If <CarMatrixVndInfo> contains a Car Type code, then all <CarMatrixVndInfo> for that same vendor must have the matching Car Type code.

Prerequisite tasks:

It may be necessary to resolve destination names prior to using this function. The transactions CarIndex and HotelCompleteAvailability can be used to assist in this. This function does not return alternate replies which assist in determining proper destination names. For example, if you wish to see particular city locations for particular vendors, a call to CarIndex will be necessary to determine the location codes required in this function.

Expected response(s):

The expected response of <CarMatrixAvail> consists of these tags: <CarMatrixStaticInfo>, <CarMatrixLocnInfo>, and <CarMatrixRateInfo>/<CarMatrixRateItem>.

General Information response

The <CarMatrixStaticInfo> contains general information to the reply, such as text descriptions of the rate parameters. It also contains any errors or warnings that apply.

Car Vendor Location response

One <CarMatrixLocnInfo> tag will be returned for each car vendor location returning rates to the request.

The <CarMatrixLocnInfo> tag contains information describing the car location and a count of rates that that pertain to this location. It also contains a key that can be used to match the location to it’s rates in the <CarMatrixRateInfo> tag.

Car Rate Matrix response

The <CarMatrixRateInfo> contains the data pertaining to each rate. These will have a key that match the rate up to it’s corresponding location in <CarMatrixLocnInfo>.

The rates will be returned in one of two elements: <CarMatrixRateInfo> or <CarMatrixRateItem>.

The <CarMatrixAvailability> request element has a field for requesting extended rate items.

<CarMatrixRateItem> elements are the extended version of the <CarMatrixRateInfo>.

Car Location response

The <CarMatrixRateInfo>/<CarMatrixRateItem> contains the data pertaining to each rate. These elements have a key that match the rate up to it’s corresponding location element in <CarMatrixLocnInfo>. The matrix query can return up to 20 locations with <CarMatrixLocnInfo> and 20 cars with <CarMatrixRateInfo>, per location.

If <CarMatrixRateItem> are being returned, it can return up to 20 locations and 15 cars per location.

Error response

If the <CarMatrixLocnInfo> indicates that the vendor has returned an error and no rate items, a single <CarMatrixRateError> will be returned which contains the vendor error text. These will have a key that match the rate up to it’s corresponding location element <CarMatrixLocnInfo>. See Error and warning responses below.

Error and warning responses:

Errors produced would relate to incorrect data in the request elements. For example, specifying a vendor location that does not exist. Any error information would be returned in the <CarMatrixStaticInfo> tag.
Errors returned from the Inside Availability vendor systems will be reflected in the <CarMatrixLocnInfo> tag corresponding to that vendor. There will be an indication of an error along with the four-character error code returned by the vendor. The codes may not always point to the exact problem with the request.
A <CarMatrixRateError> element is returned containing the vendor error text if the vendor has not returned rates.

See a complete list of car errors in the Car Error Messages table.

Follow-on requests:

The PNRBFManagement_# transaction can be used to sell any of the rates returned by this function. Follow the instructions for filling out a <CarSegSellMods> (7150 NWB) to accomplish this.

The CarRules_# transaction can be used to request rules for any of the rates returned by this function. Follow the instructions for filling out a <CarRulesMods> (7130 NWB) to accomplish this. Any discount codes used to obtain the rate via the CarMatrix_3 function (CD#, ID#, etc.) would also need to be sent along with the CarRules request.

The CarStandardAvail_# transaction can be used to ‘drill down’ for more details pertaining to a particular car rate item. Follow the instructions for filling our a <CarAvailMods> (7100 NWB) to accomplish this.

Section 3: Tables

Request (Input) Tags

<CarMatrixAvailMods>

Terminal Equivalents:

Apollo: None.

Galileo: None.

Ordering	KLR	Min/Max	XML Tag
A	CMA1	1 - 1	<CarMatrixAvailability>
B, C, D, …	CMA2	0 - 10	<CarMatrixVndInfo>

Response (Output) Tags

<CarMatrixAvail>

Ordering	KLR	Min/Max	XML Tag
A	CMR1	1 – 1	<CarMatrixStaticInfo>
B, C, …	CMR2	0 – 20	<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
B1, B2, B3, … C1, C2, C3, …	CMR3	0 – 400	<CarMatrixRateInfo>
B1, C1, …	CMR4	0 – 20	<CarMatrixRateError>
B1, B2, B3, … C1, C2, C3, ….	CMR5	0 – 300	<CarMatrixRateItem>

Additional Comments

Request

The order of the tags in request record <CarMatrixAvailMods>:

<CarMatrixAvailability>
<CarMatrixVndInfo>
<CarMatrixVndInfo>
<CarMatrixVndInfo>
...

Response

The order of tags in the reply <CarMatrixAvail>:

<CarMatrixStaticInfo>
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
…
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
CMR4
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
<CarMatrixRateInfo>
…

…

The order of tags in the reply <CarMatrixAvail> if the extended rate items are requested in <CarMatrixAvailability>:

<CarMatrixStaticInfo>
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
CMR5
CMR5
CMR5
...
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
CMR4
<CarMatrixLocnInfo>
CMR5
CMR5
CMR5
...

...

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