Air Pricing Guide

The AirPrice API confirms pricing on air search results. While air pricing is an optional but recommended step 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. content, it is required for low cost carriers and some 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. carriers.

For differences in how the JSON APIs support GDS and NDC content, see the support tables for seats, ancillaries, fare rules, and exchanges. Also see the NDC and GDS Functionality Comparison.

For carrier

An airline.-specific NDC differences, see NDC capabilities by airline through JSON API in the Travelport Knowledge Base. If you need login assistance, see Knowledge Base NDC Resources.

In this topic:

Basic Concepts
Pricing Modifiers
Branded Fare Attributes
Upsells at Pricing
Fare Rules
Price During Booking (Standalone Price Request)
Price by Credit Card BIN for OB Fees
AirPrice Request and Response Layout Diagrams
- AirPrice Request Diagram
- AirPrice Response Diagram

Basic Concepts

AirPrice confirms pricing on a selected itinerary The entire trip on a booking, including all flights on all legs. Also called a journey.. The AirPrice request sends the details of the flight to price, and the response returns pricing for that flight. Depending on availability the response may also return additional flight options available at the same price, or, for NDC only, higher fares with more inclusions per below.

You can price either by sending referenced identifiers from a previous search result, or full itinerary details, as follows:

Reference payload request: Sends identifiers from a response from any of the Search APIs to price an itinerary returned by that API. Does not require passenger and itinerary details.
Full payload request: Sends full itinerary details without a reference to any previous search. Can be used for an itinerary returned from the Search APIs or from a non-Travelport source.

Both types of requests can include optional pricing modifiers.

After pricing, you can send a Fare Rules request to return detailed fare rules for a selected itinerary.

Pricing Modifiers

Both the full and reference payloads support the following optional pricing modifiers.

Note that for the reference payload

In the JSON APIs, an API call that sends identifers referring to a previous response for the itinerary to be shopped, priced, added, etc. instead of full itinerary details. request, if any pricing modifiers were included in the preceding Search request, those modifiers are cached and sent with the AirPrice request. If you send any price modifiers in the AirPrice reference payload request, all cached modifiers are discarded and only the modifiers sent in that AirPrice request are used.

Type of Modifier	Description	Object or Boolean indicator in PricingModifiersAir
Fare type	Request specific fare types including private fares Special air fares negotiated by agencies. Private fares may use account names, account codes, contract codes, or corporate IDs. (negotiated), public fares (published), or net fares (consolidator fares, or any negotiated wholesale price that is further marked up for sale to customers; GDS only)	FareSelection/fareType Supported values are PublicFaresOnly, PrivateFaresOnly, PublicAndPrivateFares (default), NetFaresOnly, AllFares
Refundable fares	Include or exclude non-refundable fares	FareSelectionDetail/refundableOnlyInd
Fare restrictions	Fares that require an advance purchase, or a minimum or maximum stay.	FareSelectionDetail: prohibitAdvancePurchaseFaresInd prohibitMinStayFaresInd prohibitMaxStayFaresInd
Account codes	Send your account code for each airline to return negotiated fares for those airlines.	OrganizationInformation/OrganizationIdentifier
Currency override	Change the default currency of results, which is set in your PCC Pseudo city code. A travel provider's identification code for the JSON APIs, provisioned from Travelport. Used to determine access and other settings in the JSON APIs for your company. provided upon provisioning with Travelport.	currencyCode
Plating carrier	Price by specifying the carrier to override the default validating carrier (the airline designator that the ticket is issued against.	FareSelection/validatingCarrier
Sale location	Return fares based on the sale location.	SellCity

Modifiers are sent in PricingModifersAir and can be combined as appropriate. The example excerpt below includes several modifiers.

Show Example PricingModifiersAir request excerpt

"PricingModifiersAir": {
          "@type": "PricingModifiersAir",
          "FareSelection": {
            "@type": "FareSelectionDetail",
            "fareType": "PublicFaresOnly",
            "prohibitMinStayFaresInd": "false",
            "prohibitMaxStayFaresInd": "false",
            "refundableOnlyInd": "false",
            "prohibitAdvancePurchaseFaresInd": "true"

Branded Fare Attributes

As in the Search API, brand An upgrade from the base fare that includes certain features in the price, such as wifi or seat selection. Features included in a brand are specified in the brand attributes (BrandAttributes object). attributes tell you if features such as wifi, assigned seats, baggage, and refunds are available and whether each is included in the fare or available at an extra charge. See Branded Fares and Upsells in the Air Shopping Guide for full discussion of branded fares.

The AirPrice Reference Payload returns brand attributes by default, unless turned off in the request by sending inhibitBrandContentInd with a value of true.

In the AirPrice Full Payload request, send returnBrandedFaresInd with true to return brand attributes.

When brand details are requested, the response consolidates brand details across common flights in ReferenceList/ReferenceListBrand.

If no brand content exists for the itinerary, the AirPrice response prices the itinerary and returns a message that no brands are available.

Upsells at Price

Generally, both the full and reference payload AirPrice responses return pricing specific only to the class of 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. in the request; i.e., pricing of one single 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.. The exception is that when available, for NDC carrier AA only, the full payload In the JSON APIs, an API call that sends all details of the flight/s to be shopped, priced, added to the workbench, etc. instead of sending a reference to an offer in a previous API response. AirPrice response returns upsell offers along with pricing for the requested class, in ascending price order.

Fare Rules

Fare rules are the conditions and restrictions that apply to any booking based on its fare type. These determine the price of the fare. Fare rules can include blackout dates, advanced reservation requirements, minimum and maximum stay requirements, and cancellation and change penalties.

You can send a separate Fare Rules request to return fare rules for any itinerary, following either a Search request, an AirPrice request, or after booking (support varies for GDS and NDC). See the Fare Rules Guide for details and supported formats, and the Fare Rules API Reference for request and response details.

Price During Booking (Standalone Price Request)

GDS only; not supported for NDC.

Unlike the other price requests, Standalone Price is sent as part of the booking workflow. It is an optional request that follows Add Product in the Add Product booking workflow, an alternate workflow that skips the Search and AirPrice requests that usually initiate the JSON APIs workflow. Standalone Price prices any unpriced flight products in the workbench. You can send Standalone Price in either the initial booking workbench, the ticketing workbench, or in a separate workbench session without ticketing.

Price by Credit Card BIN for OB Fees

Optional pricing by credit card BIN number is supported for GDS and NDC. Send the BIN number (the initial four to six numbers of the payment card) to return OB fees, which are ticketing and form of payment (FOP) Details for the payment to be used to pay for an offer, such as credit card information. The subsequent Add Payment step is required to charge the payment. fees, including credit card fees. Supported in both the reference and full payload price requests.

AirPrice Request and Response Layout Diagrams

AirPrice Request Diagram

The following diagram shows the high-level objects in the AirPrice Reference Payload request, used to request pricing for an itinerary returned in a JSON API Search response. This request sends identifiers from the Search response.

If you do not price an itinerary from a Travelport JSON API Search response, the AirPrice request must include a full payload with itinerary and passenger details - all the information sent in a Search request. See the AirPrice Full Payload API Reference for details.

AirPrice Response Diagram

Except for different wrapper objects, the response format is the same for both reference and full payload requests.

The structure of the AirPrice response is similar to that of the Search response, although only the requested itinerary to price is returned instead of multiple options, with the exception for NDC noted next. The wrapper object includes an Identifier for the response, and an OfferID object detailing pricing for the requested itinerary.

OfferID provides information about the itinerary in the Product, Price, and TermsAndConditions objects.

Product lists the flight/s that make up one leg The flight or connecting flights between one origin and destination pair. For example, on a round-trip flight, LAX > MSP could be the first leg (aka outbound leg) and MSP > DEN > LAX could be the second leg (aka inbound leg). The JSON APIs use the term product (see below) to represent one leg of the itinerary. of the itinerary, representing a unique origin and destination (O&D Origin and destination (O&D) pair, or one leg of an itinerary. In the JSON APIs, product is the term for the flight/s on one leg.) pair. So a one-way An itinerary with a single destination; e.g., LHR > CDG. itinerary has one instance of Product, while a round-trip An itinerary in which travel goes to a single destination and returns to the origin. E.g., LHR > CDG and CDG > LHR. itinerary has two instances. For round-trip and multi-city An itinerary that includes multiple destinations; e.g., LHR > CDG > AMS > BCN. itineraries, Product includes a sequence identifier in FlightSegment/sequence to indicate its order in the itinerary.

Each instance of Product returns flight details in these objects:

FlightSegment: Each FlightSegment provides details for the flight or flights for that leg of the itinerary.
PassengerFlight: For each PTC Passenger Type Code, used to categorize travelers. The most common PTCs are adult (ADT), child (CNN), and infant (INF). You can request a maximum of 9 passengers in one Search request. requested, PassengerFlight provides the number of passengers in that PTC, and a FlightProduct object that returns the classOfService, cabin, fareBasisCode, and fareType if applicable.
- For a branded fare Airfare with certain features included in the price; for example, a seat assignment and wifi at no extra charge., the fare name and identifier are returned here in FlightProduct/Brand. If brand details were requested, brand details are consolidated in ReferenceList/ReferenceListBrand, and FlightProduct/Brand instead returns an internal identifier that matches to that reference information.

Price lists the total taxes, fees, and price for the itinerary, plus a price breakdown for each PTC of the base fare, taxes, and fees for that PTC.

TermsAndConditions returns any terms and conditions provided by the carrier. This can include such information as validating carrier, last date and time to ticket the offer, and any baggage allowance information.

The following diagram represents the AirPrice response at a high level and does not show all objects.

If brand details were requested with returnBrandedFaresInd, AirPrice returns the ReferenceList object and consolidates brand details in ReferenceList/ReferenceListBrand, not shown below.