Direct Payment Carriers
Overview
Direct Payment Carriers transact with Travelport via direct API connections. With Travelport Aggregated Shopping (TAS), this content is displayed with airline content from Network (GDS) Carriers.
Accessing Travelport Aggregated Shopping (TAS)
Your PCC must be activated by Travelport provisioning to access a Direct Payment Carrier's content. After the PCC is activated, you can also enable or disable specific Direct Payment Carriers from a response. See Accessing and Managing Direct Payment Carriers for more information.
Schedules
All Direct Payment Carriers file schedules with OAG. As a result, their flights are displayed in neutral availability, but may not have numeric flight status. Only the class of service filed with the carrier's schedule is displayed, followed by a blank space or an 'A' where the status is displayed for Network (GDS) carriers.
Filing Fares
Direct Payment Carriers do not file fares with ATPCO. All fares are obtained directly from the carrier from carrier-specific availability displays or during the shopping and pricing process. When a Fare Shopping request is sent to a Direct Payment Carrier, the carrier returns only available flights and fares. Fares that are not available are not returned.
Searching for Direct Payment Carriers
From Smartpoint, you can access available Direct Payment Carrier flights through either Air Availability (neutral or carrier-specific availability) or Fare Shopping displays.
- Direct Payment Carriers support a total of 9 passengers per PNR, including infants.
- Interline connections with Direct Payment Carriers are not currently supported.
Pricing for Direct Payment Carriers
- Segment select is mandatory for bookings that contain more than one carrier and at least one Direct Payment Carrier's segment is present.
- Standard Worldspan formats are used, including the appropriate modifiers.
- Pricing modifiers currently supported by the Direct Payment Carrier's fare quote entries include negotiated fares, account codes, promo codes, currency override, and passenger details.
- Each passenger may only have one modifier, but a specific passenger modifier can be repeated for a different passenger. For example: Passenger 2 cannot be both a child and an infant. But Passengers 2 and 3 can each be a child, or each specifies 'GVT'.
- Modifier types such as currency override cannot be repeated.
- If the direct payment carrier does not support the default or override currency, the default currency of the carrier will be returned.
- The total amount is displayed for each item that is included with the price response, including any applicable taxes, requested ancillaries (optional services), fees, and requested chargeable seats.
- The detailed breakdown for EACH passenger is displayed, including with the passenger number, applicable passenger type code, the passenger’s name information, and the total for that passenger.
- Taxes and fees, if present in the response, are broken down by individual items that display both the code and description. These items are subtotaled. Requested chargeable seats are included in the breakdown of the fees.
Booking Direct Payment Carriers
- Direct Payment Carriers fulfill at end transaction. Therefore, the following information is required before a booking can be end transacted:
- Specific PNR information for Direct Payment Carriers, including a Form of Payment.
- Some Direct Payment Carriers have additional booking requirements. See Booking Requirements for each Direct Payment Carrier for more information about required Customer Information for each carrier.
- Some Direct Payment Carriers may require additional fees.
- Some Direct Payment Carriers charge a per passenger per segment service fee which is included in the final price.
- Credit card fees may be added as a percentage of the total fare.
- Ancillaries and paid seats are supported, if available for a specific flight. Payment for these services is made at end transaction when the air booking is fulfilled.
- The active booking resides with the carrier, not with the Worldspan.
- A passive segment is created for each flight booked using a ZK status code. This code cannot be added manually.
- The Form of Payment is sent to the carrier for purchase; the agency does not issue the ticket.
- The system sends the agency IATA or ERSP number stored in the agency's AAT, the PCC (pseudo city code), and GDS identifier (1P). Passenger data stored in the PNR, such as frequent flyer memberships and passenger or corporate account code/identifiers, are added as modifiers to the request.
- Network (GDS) Carriers can be booked with Direct Payment Carriers. However, the transactions need to be priced and booked separately.
Modifying Bookings with Direct Payment Carriers
- Some Direct Payment Carriers support modifying a booking after the transaction is completed. These modifications can include canceling or changing the air booking and/or ancillaries.
- Not all Direct Payment Carriers support the same functionality. The system provides a prompt or error message if specific functionality is not provided for the selected airline.
Restricted Functionality
Some Worldspan functions are not supported if the booking contains a Direct Payment Carrier segment.
- Divide (Split) PNR
- Repeat End Transact
- QEP before ending the PNR