Air Booking with Fare Type

UniversalRecordReqRsp.xsd

Note: AirCreateReservationReq/Rsp were in AirReqRsp.xsd in Air v23.0 and earlier.

Air Pricing > Create Air Booking OR
Low Fare Shop > Air Pricing (recommended) > Create Air Booking

Both public and private (negotiated) fares are available through Universal API. Depending on the data source, the following types of fares can be returned:

Note: Private fares can also be redistributed, which means that a requestor can ask for private fares from another provider who has a different Pseudo City Code (PCC).

Schema

Located in Universal.xsd:

How To

  1. Include the minimum required information for creating an air booking.

  2. To filter the types of fares returned in the response, send AirCreateReservationReq/AirPricingSolution/AirPricingInfo/AirPricingModifers @FaresIndicator. The allowed values are:

    • PublicFaresOnly

    • PrivateFaresOnly

    • AgencyPrivateFaresOnly

    • AirlinePrivateFaresOnly

    • NetFaresOnly

    • PublicAndPrivateFares

    • AllFares

    If no value is set for @FaresIndicator, the default response for the provider or supplier is returned. See the Exceptions section for permitted fare types for each provider/supplier.

    The default @FaresIndicator value for Galileo (1G), Apollo (1V), and ACH in all schema versions is PublicAndPrivateFares. In Air.xsd, for Worldspan (1P) only, the default value for @FaresIndicator changed to PublicFaresOnly.

    When booking private fares it is recommended to specify a value for @FaresIndicator. For example, if you are booking a private fare returned in a shop or price response and do not send @FaresIndicator set to PrivateFaresOnly in the book request, if the specified private fare no longer exists, Universal API could book a more expensive public fare. However, if you send FaresIndicator as "PrivateFaresOnly" and the private fare is no longer available, Universal API will return the error "UNABLE TO PRICE".

  3. If an account code or contract code is required for an airline or agency private fare, specify the @Code attribute of /AirPricingModifiers/AccountCodes/AccountCode or /AirPricingModifiers/ContractCodes/ContractCode. The supplier's account/contract code, as well as the provider code, must be specified. This code applies to the entire journey, not to an individual flight segment. 

    If the AccountCodeFaresOnly attribute of AirPricingModifiers is set to 'true', the response is restricted to fares associated to the account and/or contract code specified in the request and only fares that apply to the specified account codes are returned. If this attribute is set to 'false', the response may be relaxed to include other fare types.

    Note: An account code and a contract code can be submitted in the same request.

  4. A redistributed fare can be added at the Air Booking level (i.e., the Fare level) when you create an Air Booking by sending the provider agency's Pseudo City Code (PCC) in PointOfSale @PseudoCityCode in AirCreateReservationReq/AirPricingSolution/AirPricingInfo/AirPricingModifiers.

    Private fares can be redistributed (also known as emulation), which allows the requestor to use another travel provider's Pseudo City Code (PCC). Redistribution requires a prior agreement between the requestor and the other travel provider. Many private fares have redistribution coded in Category 15 and 35 to secure the private fare to a requestor and a provider.

    To redistribute a private fare, the PseudoCityCode attribute of AirPriceReq/PointOfSale must be populated with the three- to five-character alphanumeric PseudoCityCode (PCC) of the other travel provider. The Provider Code associated with the PCC is also required. If no PCC is supplied, the default PCC from the requestor's credentials is used. If the requestor is not provisioned to access the travel providers's PCC, the request will fail.

    Universal API has Point Of Sale functionality in Universal Record Modify Air Add and Air Booking only (AirPricingModifiers/PointOfSale). The PointOfSale schema change for AirPricingModifiers is propagated, but not enabled, in any other Universal API services that contain the AirPricingModifiers element. For more information, refer to Redistribute Private Fares.

  5. The response indicates the fare status of each air pricing response in AirCreateReservationRsp/AirReservation/AirPricingInfo/FareInfo.

    • In FareInfo, @PrivateFare returns:

      • True = The corresponding fare quote is a private fare.
      • False = The corresponding fare quote is not a private fare (i.e., it is a public f Fare).

    • If the fare quote is a private fare, FareInfo @PseudoCityCode indicates the Pseudo City Code (PCC). No PCC is returned if the fare quote is a public fare.

    • If the fare quote is a private fare with an account code, the code is returned in FareInfo @Code. The account code input in the request is returned in the response, regardless of whether the specific fare quote requires an account code.

    • If a Negotiated (Net or Net/Selling) fare amount is returned, FareInfo @NegotiatedFare is true. The negotiated fare amount can be used to calculate the yield. If the total net price is available, it is returned in AirPricingSolution/AirPricingInfo/TotalNetPrice.

 

Exceptions

  • By default, Galileo returns both public and private fares.

  • While Universal API accepts multiple account codes, Galileo only accepts one account code. Therefore, if multiple account codes are submitted to Galileo, only the first code is processed.

  • While Universal API accepts multiple contract codes, Galileo only accepts one contract code. Therefore, if multiple contract codes are submitted to Galileo, only the first code is processed.

  • While Universal API permits up to five PCCs in a single request for a redistributed private fare, Galileo supports only one PCC per request. If more than one PCC is submitted, the first PCC is processed by Galileo, and any additional PCCs are ignored.

  • By default, Worldspan returns public fares only.

  • Worldspan does not support:

  • Net fares
  • Contract codes in air tariff, shop, price, and book

  • While Universal API permits up to five PCCs in a single request for a redistributed private (Secure Rate) fare, Worldspan supports only one PCC per request. If more than one PCC is submitted, the first PCC is processed by Worldspan, and any additional PCCs are ignored.

  • Worldspan supports searches for either Account Code Fares Only or public and account code fares in the same request.

  • Worldspan supports up to fifteen account codes in a single request. The account code applies to the entire trip, and cannot be applied per segment.

  • Handling for Auto-Pricing Fares

Worldspan fares can be stored in a PNR using Auto-Pricing (4P*), Ticket Record (4P*|TR), Stored Fare Quote (4PQ) and Pricing Instructions (4-PI). Universal API is not currently able to ticket PNRs that contain only Auto-Pricing fares. As a result, Universal API identifies the type of pricing in the PNR as either Ticket Record or Stored Fare.

The response returns the fare type as either "TicketRecord" or "StoredFare", based on the fare type.

Auto-Pricing fares are returned as PricingType="StoredFare" if there is only one Auto-Pricing fare present in the PNR. Because Worldspan overrides the existing Stored Fare if another Stored Fare is added to the PNR, multiple fares must be returned as Ticket Records if they are in different pricing groups. For requests with multiple fares:

  • PricingType="TicketRecord" is returned if the AirPricingInfoGroup value is different for each instance of PricingInfo.
  • PricingType="Stored Fare" is returned if the AirPricingInfoGroup value is the same for each instance of PricingInfo. Universal API adds one fare to the PNR, which combines all the AirPricingInfo values.

For a more complete list of functionality available from various ACH carriers, see ACH Carriers Functionality. Because functionality for carriers may be subject to change, always confirm functionality directly with the ACH carrier before implementation.

  • Most, but not all, Low Cost Carriers on ACH return only public fares. A warning is returned if the supplier does not support public fares.

  • ACH does not support the following types of fare requests:

  • Public fares only

  • Private fares only

  • Agency private fares only

  • Airline private fares only

  • Private fares are supported by Norwegian (DY), and Norwegian (DY) requires that the user input an account code.

  • Most LCCs do not support account codes. If an account code is supported, the account code sent in the Low Fare Shopping request must also be included in the Pricing request because the account code is included in the session token of the shop response.

  • Low Cost Carriers on ACH do not support redistribution of private fares.