Fare Tolerance Options

When you click the Fare Tolerance Options navigation link after selecting an existing air policy on the Air Policies page, the Fare Tolerance Options screen appears. These options allow you to encourage travelers to book on preferred airlines by setting how fares on preferred airlines are compared to fares on other airlines. Tolerance options affect only policy decisions and do not change the fare that appears to the traveler.

Note: This page was called Clip Amounts in versions earlier than 16.3.

Note: To apply the settings on this page, you must also select the Use tolerance options to determine which fares are in policy option on the Policy Options and Exclusions page.

The fare tolerance options for both domestic and internal travel on this screen are as follows, detailed below:

Additional Travel Time
In Policy Fare Range
Preferred Airline Tolerance Amounts

Domestic Travel: Additional Travel Time

In this section you can set the amount of time by which domestic flights can exceed the shortest flight time and still be compared with other flights to determine which fares are in-policy. This setting controls the flight duration to be considered when searching for the Lowest Logical Fare (LLF).

This setting enables other flights whose flight times are within the configured ‘additional travel time’ to appear as in-policy. This could help travelers who, for example, would have to take an additional four-hour flight just to be in-policy.

For example, if you set the time to 00:00, only direct flights with the shortest journey times are considered for the Lowest Logical Fare (LLF). If there is a connecting flight that has a less expensive fare but requires a longer travel time, it would not be considered.

If you set the time to 04:00, all direct flights and those flights with connections that do not incur a total travel time greater than four hours longer than the direct flight are considered for the Lowest Logical Fare (LLF).

A setting of 24:00 considers only the least expensive flight, regardless of travel time.

Note: If using tolerance options, add a small amount of time to the Additional Travel Time settings, as even on non-stop services airlines can list different flight duration times on the same route. Leaving the setting as zero may cause the fare policy not to consider a flight that has been listed as taking a few minutes longer.

For domestic maximum additional travel time, set the amount of time over and above the cheapest direct flight for domestic services.

Domestic Travel: In-Policy Fare Range

Use this section to specify an amount or a percentage to add to the lowest logical airfare (the lowest fare after any tolerance options are applied). This creates a range so that other fares are marked as in-policy when compared to it.

This is a strong motivator for driving policy compliance. The purpose is to offer a buffer or tolerance over and above the cheapest policy compliant fare so that travelers can perceive some flexibility in the options offered and still be in-policy. Over time the company might choose to reduce the fare range slightly to drive travelers to use even cheaper services.

Note: Currency amounts and percentages must be entered as whole numbers.

The following table lists guidelines for completing this section of the screen.

For this field:	Select radio button to:
Amount or Percentage radio button	Choose percentage amount or currency amount. In a domestic market where fares are more or less in similar value range, you may want to use a currency amount. This amount is added to cheapest fare or policy reference fare to create a new “in/out of policy” cutoff point.
Apply range to:	Apply above settings to preferred airlines only or to all airlines. Applying it to preferred airlines can encourage travelers to choose those airlines.

Domestic Travel: Preferred Airline Tolerance Amounts

A tolerance amount specifies an amount to subtract from fares on preferred airlines to determine whether that fare is in policy as compared to fares on non-preferred airlines. This amount is removed from the preferred airlines fare to determine the lowest logical fare. The reduction encourages travelers to use the fare.

The following table lists guidelines for applying tolerance amounts to domestic fares.

In this field:	Enter a local currency amount to reduce:
Tolerance for non-refundable domestic fares	Domestic non-refundable fare type amount compared to other fares.
Tolerance for refundable domestic fares	Domestic refundable domestic fare type amount compared to other fares.

International Travel: Additional Travel Time

In this section you can set the amount of time by which flights can exceed the shortest flight time and still be compared with other flights to determine which fares are in-policy. This setting controls the flight duration to be considered when searching for the Lowest Logical Fare (LLF).

For international maximum additional travel time, set the amount of time over and above the cheapest direct flight for international services. See the corresponding domestic section above for additional explanation.

International Travel: In-Policy Fare Range

The following table lists guidelines for completing this section of the screen. See the corresponding domestic section above for additional explanation.

Note: Currency amounts and percentages must be entered as whole numbers.

For this field:	Select radio button to:
Amount or Percentage radio button	Choose percentage amount or currency amount. In an international market where fares are more varied in value, you may want to use a percentage amount. This amount is added to the cheapest fare or policy reference fare to create a new “in/out of policy” cutoff point.
Apply range to	Apply above settings only to preferred airlines or to all airlines. Applying it to preferred airlines can encourage travelers to choose those airlines.

International Travel: Preferred Airline Tolerance Amounts

The following table lists guidelines for applying tolerance amounts. See the corresponding domestic section above for additional explanation.

In this field:	Enter a local currency amount to reduce:
Tolerance fornon-refundable international fares	Non-refundable international fare type amount compared to other fares.
Tolerance for refundable international fares	Refundable international fare type amount as compared to other fares.