NDC FAQs: Shopping and booking

Smartpoint supports three types of fare rules, with traditional (host) accommodating all three formats while NDC only supports two:

• Short Rules: These are abbreviated fare rules that provide a summary of each rule category. They are typically high-level conditions, making them more suitable for experienced travel agents.

• Structured Fare Rules: These rules are categorized into one or more of the following groups: advance reservation/ticketing requirements, minimum/maximum stay, stopovers, penalties, and voluntary exchanges and refunds.

Currently, Smartpoint Cloud only offers access to short rules. However, there are plans to introduce structured fare rules by 2025. This improvement will allow agents to choose between short rules, which provide a general overview of fare regulations, and structured fare rules, which will outline any associated penalties in detail.

No, booking NDC content is only available on Smartpoint in a graphical environment. The PNR which holds the NDC content can be viewed in both a green screen/cryptic view or a graphical view. However changes can only be made in the graphical view. For example, entering the command ‘XI’ in cryptic green screen workflow will not cancel an NDC segment.

Important: Cancellations and other changes can only be performed in the graphical NDC workflow.

The timeline for advanced search is controlled by each individual carrier. Travelport will support whatever timeline the carrier supports for advanced searching.

Yes. If no carrier is specified, the system will look for content for all available carriers.

You can apply a profile to a booking file. Currently some of the information in a Smartpoint booking file is moved. The name, telephone numbers, email addresses, and delivery address are populated in the traveler screen. The gender and DOB must be entered.

The key difference between a CLID (Client Identification Number), a JBID (Joint Business ID), and an FFN (Frequent Flyer Number) is that CLID/JBID are programs for businesses, and Frequent Flyer is a program for individuals. CLID and JBID are not associated to a passenger; they are associated to the booking.

The offer is only guaranteed when the order has been created and is ticketed within the airline permitted timelines.

The offer time limit is the time the offer will expire. This time limit is not a price guarantee. Offer time limits vary by carrier. JSON API returns the offer time limit. Smartpoint does not return the offer time limit. Therefore, for Smartpoint, we recommend that you book within 20 minutes of the offer being returned.

The NDC plugin is behaving as expected and designed – to show a warning banner to the user that a price difference has occurred. The user can choose to accept it or re-shop. NDC offers are not guaranteed until booked, as the offers are dynamic and inventory can often change. This is the nature of NDC – the offers are constantly changing.

Yes, there can be a price change, as this is live inventory and also the offers are dynamic. The price is only guaranteed when the order is created. Where there are price differences between shop-price-book, the Travelport helpdesk team will not be investigating these UNLESS there is a common reoccurring issue. Note: There is an effort to build out NDC pricing and booking performance metrics, and when this is ready, Travelport will be able to run more diagnostics and identify pricing discrepancies.

At this time, Singapore Airlines is the only NDC airline that supports India Goods and Services Tax within NDC.

Important: Goods and Services Tax information must be added to a booking file prior to accessing the NDC search panel.

This will be similar to EDIFACT. The airline determines and calculates prices/taxes for all PTCs and returns it back as part of the offer.

These brands will automatically come back in the shopping offer response if they are available for the itinerary.

No, AA does not require a billing address when adding a credit card payment. If you select the Same as Address on file option, make sure you have added the country code. Anytime you fill in the billing address, the country code must be present. It is a future enhancement to make the country code optional and not mandatory.

Retrieve using the record locator, as you would with any booking.

No, any modifications to the PNR must be performed through the Smartpoint Cloud. If you make any amendments to the PNR (for example changing a seat allocation using the carrier's website), this change will not be reflected in the Smartpoint Cloud or the GDS.

You can issue an instant ticket or hold a booking for a time period to ticket at a later date – usually only 24 hours.

Not in the same PNR. You can book single NDC airline bookings only. This is on the Travelport+ roadmap (no timeframes yet).

No. It is however our long-term plan to ensure that this is supported in Travelport+ and will be communicated in due course.

There are specific FCMI codes to identify NDC transactions (3, 4, or 5); however, according to ARC, the airlines are not using these.

In NDC the airline is responsible for presenting and returning the offer and confirming the order. Therefore, there should be no debit memos.

Yes, the rules will be applied and treated the same way as they are for airlines in LCC (e.g., EasyJet or Ryan Air). For example, if you have agency robotics that apply PNR remarks or quality control checks, you can use QCC to run these rules on an NDC PNR. Some rules may need amending for the NDC flow.

There is no facility to support passing credit card authorization codes to the airlines in NDC. When paying by credit card, the carrier acts as merchant of record and will authorize the credit card when it is passed to them. They will decline, if necessary, without issuing the ticket.

The accepted forms of payment are controlled by the airline.

Our current participating NDC airlines accept credit cards, debit cards, and cash for BSP and ARC payments. The type of credit card accepted will vary by carrier and will be displayed in the Form of Payment tab of the plugin. Cash payments are allowed for agencies set up for BSP and ARC WebLink Pay with carriers. Transaction details will appear on your BSP and ARC monthly report.

Your agency may not be set up to use the payment type provided. Please choose an alternate payment type.

NDC facilitates interline bookings and provides the capability to modify them for select carriers.

Yes, if commission is present with the agency and the offer is eligible, it will be returned at Price and Book (Smartpoint will return commission, JSON – in the commission object). Commission can also be claimed and added manually via the ARC portal (pre-ticket only).

A passive PNR with a status code of ZK is automatically created with a record locator reference when the live order is created in the airline's own reservation system.