Hold Booking and Defer Payment

Some carriers support Hold Booking and Deferred Payment. If supported by the carrier, Hold Bookings can be made from paid seats as well as other types of ancillary services.

The booking is automatically put on hold if it is committed without specifying a form of payment. A form of payment can then be added at later time

The period for which the booking can be held is determined by the carrier:

  • If the hold booking is not confirmed, the carrier cancels the booking, and an email and an SMS confirmation are sent to indicate the PNR cancellation.
  • After a held PNR is canceled by the carrier, an error message displays if you try to retrieve the booking: Unable to retrieve reservation.

Hold Bookings cannot be modified a hold booking In order for the held PNR to be confirmed, it is necessary to retrieve the PNR, add a valid form of payment and commit the booking.

Delta (DL) supports the capability to hold a paid seat and defer payment until a later time.

For hold and defer payment seats on Delta, the following rules apply.

Supported and Unsupported Air Segment Types
  • A hold and defer payment option displays only for PNRs that contain either:
  • All Delta segments.
  • A mix of Delta segments and another GDS (EMD fulfillment) carrier, e.g., DL and KL.
  • A hold and defer payment option does NOT display for PNRs that contain a mix of Delta segments and another ACH/credit card Paid seating carrier, e.g., DL and UA.
Payment
  • To pay for the deferred seat, you can either:
  • Use the Pay Now option provided in *DAS.
  • Click the class of service in the PNR.
  • Re-launch the seat map and choose the PAY NOW button on the seat map.
  • Per PNR, there can only be one payment made to the airline for paid seats. Therefore:
  • You can hold/defer payment on seats for all segments in a booking.
  • You can hold/defer on one segment and book a free seat on another segment.
  • You cannot hold/defer on one segment and then instant pay for another segment.

If one segment is held as a deferred payment seat, and you want to book a paid seat on another segment, the PAY NOW button is disabled.

You must hold and defer the additional segment. After both sets of seats are held, you can then re-launch the payment screen to pay for both segments.

  • If you hold and defer one set of seats, and then re-launch the seat map to pay for those seats, you cannot add new seats or segments as hold and defer. Any new seats or segments must be added as instant payment to be paid for at the same time as the held seats.
Remarks

After hold and defer has been selected, the PNR is updated with a historical notepad remark. The *DAS shows as PD status and the seat data remark with HK status.

Seat Expiry
  • The message with seat expiry deadline that is returned by the airline returns a GMT time.
  • If the held seat goes past the expiry date, the PNR does not update until you re-launch the seat map. At re-launch, a message advises that the seat has been cancelled and you must reselect.
Changing Held Seats

To change a held seat, you must wait until the airline has expired, and subsequently cancelled, the original seat before you can re-launch the seat map and reselect.

Travelport Smartpoint does not support changes for currently held seats. Therefore, you will need to contact the airline directly to request a change of seats during the hold period, if seating rules permit.

Canceling Held Seats

As with changing held seats, you must wait until the airline has expired, and subsequently cancelled, the original seat before you can re-launch the seat map and cancel the seats.

Travelport Smartpoint does not support cancellations for currently held seats. Therefore, you will need to contact the airline directly to request cancellation of seats during the hold period, if seating rules permit.