FAQs & Best Practices

The following frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the Travelport JSON Air APIs will be expanded as additional customer input is received.

In this topic:

• Best Practices
• Authorization
  • How long is the authorization token valid?
  • How do I verify which version of the API to request? (Authorization Failed Error)
• Booking
  • How long is a search kept in cache for booking A confirmed reservation with the carrier. A held booking is a reservation that has not yet been ticketed. The terms booking and reservation are interchangeable.?
  • How long does a workbench session persist?

Best Practices

Travelport recommends using a custom trace ID in the request of all APIs that support it. This is a best practice for future troubleshooting if necessary. See Trace and Transaction IDs.

Verify that API response messages always return a unique E2ETrackingID in the header of the response.

Validate that all modifiers are supported for the version of the JSON API being consumed.

Verify that object values make sense. For example, if you specify a permitted airline, that same airline cannot also be sent in the prohibited list.

Validate that object structure such as lists and hierarchies or parent and child objects are used properly.

If the API uses query parameters, verify they are sent correctly per the API reference for that request.

Authorization

See Authorization for details.

How long is the authorization token valid?

24 hours.

How do I verify which version of the API to request? (Authorization Failed Error)

You must send your request to the correct version of the API you are using – check the version in the URL of the endpoint, and make sure it matches the version indicated in your message headers.

For example, if you send a search request to https://api.travelport.com/11/air/search/catalogofferings, you must be provisioned on model 11 for search, and both Accept-Version and Content-Version in the header must be set to 11.

If you receive the error below, you may be using the wrong endpoint or have incorrect information in your headers. If those look correct and you still receive this error, contact your Travelport account representative. You may not be set up for access to the API, or you may need to upgrade to a newer version of the API or a specific domain service.

{
    "faultcode": "Server",
    "faultstring": "Authorization Failed"
}

Booking

How long is a search kept in cache for booking?

Travelport retains search results in cache for 12 minutes so a search result can be added as an offer In the JSON Search APIs, an offer is a product available at a specific price under a set of terms and conditions. An offer includes the flight or connecting flights for one leg of the itinerary, plus a service level that includes the cabin class and any fare codes that may apply. At booking, the selected offer from the Search response - including the flight/s, service level, price, terms and conditions, and brand if applicable - is converted into a single Offer object that is subsequently returned for that booking. to the workbench and booked.

How long does a workbench session persist?

Any workbench, either before booking or after booking (post-reservation) is valid for 30 minutes and must be committed within that time window or it expires. This time is the same for GDS Global Distribution System. A GDS aggregates and distributes air, hotel, and car rental content such as schedules, fares, and upsells. In the JSON APIs, GDS content is distributed from Travelport. or NDC New Distribution Capability, an XML standard for exchanging data that supports airlines in distributing their content directly to online travel agencies. See the NDC Guide., and for production and test systems.