Introduction

News: Booking bags and seats in the same transaction is available where supported by NDC carrier.

See what's new in NDC Flight Search plugin release 4.16.

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an airline and IATA industry-led initiative. It has transformed how content is packaged, delivered, and consumed by corporate, leisure, and business travelers.

Travelport Flight Search

More content, better retailing capabilities and greater control:

With the Smartpoint Flight Search, customers can shop, price, book, ticket, and service all their booking files, ensuring they remain competitive by offering the best fares to their customers.

Delivered within the existing Smartpoint interface, the plugin provides customers with a variety of benefits:

  • Access to a wider variety of content using familiar tools

  • Competitive offers

  • Ability to use their current workflows, thereby eliminating the need to retrain staff or change back-office systems

  • Increased agent efficiency by keeping agents in a single environment

  • More effective retailing - based on their specific customers’ needs

Important: Some features are not supported by individual airlines. Refer to NDC airline capabilities and the airline-specific FAQs for support of a feature. The airline capabilities matrix is updated frequently to reflect new airlines and new capabilities for existing airlines. Airline-specific FAQs are provided by your Travelport representative and please also refer to the MyTravelport Knowledge Base articles.

Flight Search

Important notice: This site now uses the term Flight Search to refer to a new version of the NDC plugin (also referred to as NDC Flight Shopping Search from your Smartpoint Desktop menu).

NDC-enabled customers

  • Users on Smartpoint Desktop version 11.1 and above, the plugin (NDC Flight Shopping Search) has been renamed to Flight Search. To access the plugin, select the Search icon then Flight Search. This enhanced plugin lets you perform a unified search for NDC offers alongside traditional content for improved comparison and decision-making, or for NDC only, or for traditional content only.

  • Users on Smartpoint Desktop versions 10.0 to 11.0, select the Search icon then NDC Flight Shopping Search to access an enhanced version of the plugin. NDC Flight Shopping Search (the plugin) now lets you perform a unified search for NDC offers alongside traditional content for improved comparison and decision-making, or for NDC only, or for traditional content only.

  • Users on older Smartpoint Desktop versions 9.1 and below need to upgrade to the latest Desktop version to benefit from Flight Search.

Customers without NDC agreements

  • Agents on the latest version of Smartpoint Desktop will need to have their NDC-agreements enabled as usual and Flight Search will be automatically added.

  • Agents using older versions of Smartpoint Desktop (versions 9.1 and below) can no longer access or download the NDC plugin from Marketplace. After the users action their NDC agreements, they'll need to upgrade to the latest Smartpoint Desktop version.

Flight Search lets you view and compare NDC offers and traditional fares side by side by selecting the All option. You can also search for only NDC or only traditional options.

Important differences:

  • For NDC content, you can shop, price, book, and ticket in the Flight Search plugin. Additionally, you can cancel and modify these bookings and add Special Service Requests (SSRs) and seats graphically, as you do today. Always verify that the airline you’re booking with supports these features.

  • For Traditional content, you can shop, price, and book in the Flight Search plugin. However, after you book and hold a reservation in the plugin, you must complete the flow in the terminal window in Smartpoint Desktop. You can open the PNR in the terminal window. You can ticket it and service it, as you do today.

Notes:

  • Please note that the restrictions on using Custom Check rules for NDC still exist as they do today. You may have to suspend any Custom Check Rules to complete an NDC booking. Refer to the Custom Check warning information.