Low Fare Shopping Air Search Modifiers

Search modifiers can be added to the basic Low Fare Shopping request to narrow search results. To compare prices for similar itineraries, refer to Flexible Shopping modifiers. To modify fare parameters, refer to Low Fare Shopping Pricing Modifiers.

Search modifiers are specified in two locations:

You can use these search modifiers to filter shopping results:

Anchor flight data Jet services only
Carriers and alliances Max journey time
Connection points Provider
Exclude ground transportation Time ranges
Flight or itinerary type  

Modifier

Description

Anchor Flight Data

Specifies exactly which flights (Airline code, flight number, date, origin, and destination) should be returned in the response. Anchor flight(s) may be applied anywhere in the shop request and multiple anchor flights may be submitted. This enhancement applies only to Worldspan (1P) in Air v33.0 and greater.

Include SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers/AnchorFlightData @AirlineCode and @FlightNumber. Set @ConnectionIndicator="true" to search for a connected flight.

Carriers and Alliances

Response includes or excludes specified carriers and/or alliances.

Apply carrier and/or alliance preferences to the entire trip (using AirSearchModifiers) or to a specific leg (using SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers).

Code snippet

To return flights on only two carriers for all legs, in LowFareSearchReq, send:

<AirSearchModifiers>
    <PermittedCarriers>
      <Carrier Code="UA" />
      <Carrier Code="DL" />
    </PermittedCarriers>
</AirSearchModifiers>

When both Air Search modifiers and Air Leg modifiers are present for the same segment in a request, Air Leg modifiers take precedence. ClosedShow scenarios

  • If a request has two Air Legs and the option is present for both Air Search modifiers (itinerary level) and Air Leg modifiers (leg level), the Air Leg modifiers take precedence.
  • If a request has two Air Legs and the option is present for one Air Leg modifier, absent for the second Air Leg, and present for the Search Modifier (itinerary level), the Air Leg modifier takes precedence for the first leg and the Search Modifier is applied to the second leg.
  • If a request has two Air Legs, and only an Air Search modifier is used, that modifier applies to all legs in the itinerary.

The terms preferred, permitted , and disfavored are used to filter for carriers and alliances. However, some providers and suppliers process only included or excluded carriers or alliances.

  • A preferred request weights responses to include the specified carrier, but may return other carriers if the requested carrier does not have responses that meet the search parameters.

  • A disfavored request weights responses to exclude the specified carrier, but may return the disfavored carrier if other carriers do not have responses that meet the search parameters.

  • A permitted request includes only the specified carriers. If the carrier does not have any availabilities within the requested search parameters, the response is not relaxed, and an error is returned.

  • A prohibited request excludes only the specified carriers. If the prohibited carrier is the only carrier with availabilities within the search parameters, the response is not relaxed, and an error is returned. Prohibiting carriers improves response times of carriers that can be booked by the customer.

Use PreferredAlliances or DisfavoredAlliances in AirSearchModifiers and/or SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers to included or excluded designated alliance codes. All carriers that are part of the specified alliance are either included or excluded in the response options.

For aggregated air/rail responses, RCS can also be specified as a provider.

As of 01 December 2008, the current Alliance codes are:

Note: OW codes updated 03 May 2021. *A, *S, *O updated 12 November 2021.
The latest Alliance carriers can be found via Terminal using the command DCA. For example, DCA/OW

Alliance Alliance Code Number of Members Alliance Member

Star Alliance

*A

29

UA LH AC SK TG NZ NH OS SQ OZ LO OU TP LX SA CA TK MS SN A3 ET AV TA T0 LR CM BR ZH AI

OW

OW

11

AA BA IB QF MX LP JO JC 4M

KLM NWA Alliance

KL

14

KL KQ A6 WA UK NW CO AS UX CZ 9W MH MA MP

Skyteam

*S

20

AF DL OK KL UX AM KE AZ SU KQ VN RO MU FM CI SV ME AR MF GA

Oneworld

*O

15

AA BA IB AY CX QF JL RJ KA S7 MH QR UL AT AS

Galileo and Apollo

Galileo and Apollo support:

  • A maximum of 99 permitted and preferred carriers, respectively.

  • A maximum of 99 excluded carriers, but does not support disfavored carriers. If a carrier is excluded, the response does not include any legs on that carrier. If they are the only carrier in the market, an error is returned.

  • Only one alliance code is supported in a request. However, a combination of an alliance code and carriers can be included in a single request, for a maximum of 99 codes. In other words, a maximum of one alliance and 98 carrier codes in a single request.

    • Within the alliance code, the number of carriers is not subject to the same 99-carrier threshold that exists for individual carrier preferences. All carriers within an alliance will be considered; even if more than 99 carriers exist within the alliance.

  • PermittedCarrier, ProhibitedCarrier, and PreferredCarrier are mutually exclusive, and cannot be included in the same request. A warning is returned.

Worldspan

  • Worldspan supports:
    • One alliance code in a request. If more than one PreferredAlliance is provided, a warning is sent in the response.
    • Restricting multi-airport connections (ProhibitMultiAirportConnection) only at the itinerary level.
    • Depending on your provisioning:
      • Up to three preferred carriers or three permitted carriers.
      • Up to 50 preferred or 50 permitted carriers.
      • If more than the allowed number of carriers is sent, availability for the allowed number of carriers and a warning are returned: Max number of Permitted Carriers exceeded for this host. The following Permitted Carriers were not included in the request:XX YY ZZ.

      Please contact your Support representative for details.

    • Up to 50 prohibited carriers.
  • If both PermittedCarriers and PreferredAlliance are provided in AirLegModifiers or AirSearchModifiers, a warning is returned: Provider does not allow combining of options for Permitted Carriers and Alliances.
  • If both AirLegModifier/ProhibitedCarriers and PreferredAlliance (in AirLegModifiers or AirSearchModifiers) are provided, a warning is returned: Provider does not allow combining of options for Prohibited Carriers and Alliances.
  • If the Alliance/Code begins with an asterisk (*) followed by maximum of two characters, it will be submitted directly to Worldspan for validation.
  • PermittedCarrier, ProhibitedCarrier, and PreferredCarrier are mutually exclusive, and cannot be included in the same request. A warning is returned: Provider does not allow combining the options for Preferred Carriers, Permitted Carriers and Prohibited Carrier. They are Mutually exclusive.
  • Worldspan does not support disfavored alliances or carriers in AirLegModifiers or AirSearchModifiers.

Connection Points

Connection points can be included or excluded from search results.

  • Included or excluded connection points are requested in SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers.
  • Multi-airport connections are restricted in AirSearchModifiers and/or SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers. Multi-airport connections can be restricted on multi-leg itineraries.

Code snippet

<AirLegModifiers>
  <PermittedConnectionPoints>
    <ConnectionPoint>
      <City Code="ATL"/>
    </ConnectionPoint>
    <ConnectionPoint>
	<City Code="CHI"/>
    </ConnectionPoint>
  </PermittedConnectionPoints>
</AirLegModifiers>

  • PermittedConnectionPoints specifies cities/airports that can be included as connecting cities in a response itinerary.

  • ProhibitedConnectionPoints specifies cities/airports that cannot be included as connecting cities in a response itinerary.

  • PreferredConnectionPoints specifies cities/airports that are preferred as connecting cities in a response itinerary (1G, 1V only).

For most providers and suppliers, PermittedConnectionPoints and ProhibitedConnectionPoints both have a ConnectionPoint child that specifies cities/airports that can or cannot be included as connecting cities in a response itinerary. Included and excluded connection points are mutually exclusive, and cannot be included in the same request.

For PermittedConenctionPoints, only flights for the specified “Connection Points” are returned. "Non-Stop" and "Direct" flights in the requested market are excluded. Also, if PermittedConnectionPoints and any flight type modifiers (e.g., MaxStops, MaxConnection) are provided in the request, PermittedConnectionPoints gets preference, and Universal API returns a warning message:

PermittedConnectionPoints and Flight Type Modifiers cannot be provided together. Flight Type Modifiers has been ignored.

PreferredConnectionPoints is an attribute, part of the @Code attribute in LowFareSearchReq and LowFareSearchAsynchReq (v49.0 and earlier)/SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers/PreferredConnectionPoints/ConnectionPoint.

When ProhibitMultiAirportConnection is sent in the request, all flight itineraries that require connecting passengers to arrive in one airport and depart from another airport are excluded.

Note: If both the Leg level and Itinerary level are specified, the Leg level takes precedence. The Itinerary level applies to all legs when AirLegModifiers/ProhibitMultiAirportConnection is not specified.

Galileo

  • Galileo supports including or excluding a maximum of three cities in a request, respectively.
  • Preferred Connection Points in the Air Leg Modifiers element is for Galileo (1G) and Apollo (1V) only.

Worldspan

  • Worldspan supports up to two permitted connection points per trip segment (each origin to destination).
  • Worldspan supports up to three prohibited connection points per trip segment (each origin to destination). Prohibited connection points apply to the complete trip
  • Prohibited connection points cannot be combined with MaxStops or MaxConnections.
  • The ProhibitMultiAirportConnection element is not supported at the Air Leg level.

ACH

  • ACH does not support search modifiers at the Air Leg level. If any AirLegModifiers are sent in an ACH request, a warning is returned and the request is processed without the modifiers. The exception is AirLegModifiers/PreferredCabins, which, when sent, applies the cabin preferences to all legs in the request.
  • The ProhibitMultiAirportConnection element is not supported.
  • ACH supports requests for permitted or prohibited connection point events. However, most Low Cost Carriers supplied through ACH do not support permitted or prohibited connection point events. A successful response is returned with a warning if one or more suppliers in the request do not support this functionality.

RCS

See Rail Shopping by Connecting Cities for details.

Exclude Ground Transportation

In Air v32.0, use @ExcludeGroundTransportation to exclude ground transportation in the response. Ground transportation covers bus, boat, train, and limousine services. Available in requests to in Worldspan (1P) only.

Include AirSearchModifiers @ExcludeGroundTransportation. If set to true, ground transportation is excluded.

If ground transportation is excluded, a trip connecting a plane to another plane and then to a bus would be excluded from the results.

ExcludeGroundTransportation is not implemented in Galileo (1G) and Apollo (1V). A warning message is returned if the exclude ground transportation is used with these providers.

Code snippet

<AirSearchModifiers ExcludeGroundTransportation="true">

Flight or Itinerary Type

Allows flights to be requested by flight or itinerary type, which includes specifying non-stop, direct, or a permitted number of stops and connections.

Apply flight type preferences to the entire trip (using AirSearchModifiers) or to a specific leg (using SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers).

Code snippet

To return only nonstop flights for all legs, in LowFareSearchReq/AirSearchModifiers, send:

<AirSearchModifiers>
    <FlightType NonStopDirects="true" />
</AirSearchModifiers>

ARNK Segments

An ARNK (Arrival Unknown) segment is usually present in an itinerary to signify that a lack of continuity between the arrival of one segment and the departure of the next segment is known and accepted.

Open Jaw trips can include ARNK (Arrival Unknown) segments. These segments do not contain any surface or other non-air travel details, but serve as a "placeholder" for the travel between the distinct destination and origin airports.

Universal API does not have a mechanism to manually add an ARNK segment to an itinerary. However, if the provider detects the need for an ARNK segment in a Single Open Jaw trip because of mismatched airports or other continuity gap, a message is sent to Universal API to automatically add an ARNK segment to the Universal Record for the requested itinerary.

See How Travel Type Affects Fares for a description of the types of simple and complex travel that are supported in Universal API.

Flight type modifiers are either attributes of FlightType or attributes of AirSearchModifiers and SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers.

Attribute

Description

FlightType @RequireSingleCarrier

Returns flight options with a single carrier between Origin and Destination.

FlightType @MaxConnections

Specifies the maximum number of connections within a segment group.

FlightType @MaxStops

Specifies the maximum number of stops within a connection ('0', '1', '2', and '3' stops are supported).

Note: MaxStops is mutually exclusive with non-stop flights. If a non-stop flight option is requested, any UI feature for Maximum Stops should be disabled.

FlightType @NonStopDirects

Returns only non-stop flights/price options.

Note: If a Maximum Stop option is requested, any UI feature for Non-Stop Flights Only should be disabled.

FlightType @StopDirects

Returns only direct flights that make an intermediate stop with no plane change.

To return both non-stop and direct flights/price options, set both @NonStopDirects and @StopDirects to true.

Note: If a Maximum Stop option is requested, any UI feature for Non-Stop and Direct Flights Only should be disabled.

FlightType @SingleOnlineCon

Returns only non-stop, direct, and single online connection solutions.

Note: Double and triple connections may be returned in a response, if applicable.

FlightType @SingleInterlineCon

Permits connecting flights from multiple carriers to be returned. Non-stop or direct flights can also be returned, as they are within the parameters of the maximum stops and connections.

@MaxSolutions

The desired number of air pricing solutions or price points to be returned in the response. MaxSolutions:

  • Limits the number of solutions or price points returned by provider.
  • Limits the number of solutions or price points returned for ACH by supplier.

The value is applied separately for each provider, and is also applied separately if there are multiple ACH suppliers.

When MaxSolutions is used to specify the maximum number of Air Price Points to be returned:

The value is applied to:

  • The Apollo (1V) and Galileo (1G) response separately. For 1G and 1V, valid values are 1 to 1000.
  • Each ACH adapter separately. For ACH, valid values are 1 to 1000 (per carrier/adapter).

If the specified value exceeds the supported maximum, a warning is returned along with the maximum allowable results.

Notes:

  • MaxSolutions is supported for Air Pricing Solutions for all providers and for Air Price Points for all providers but Worldspan .
  • MaxSolutions is equivalent to the DIR PWSQ message in Worldspan and specifies the number of alternates to be returned in the response.

@MaxConnectionTime

The maximum amount of time (in minutes) that a solution can contain for connections between flights. This option:

  • Restricts the time between connections for a multi-leg itinerary.
  • Excludes connections that exceed a maximum ground time value specified in the request, regardless of geography or flight.

@PreferNonStop

When non-stop flights are preferred, the distribution of search results primarily returns non-stop flights while still returning some one-stop flights for comparison and price competitiveness.

This modifier can be used in the search request to weigh the preference towards non-stop flights.

@DistanceType

Preferred unit of distance in Miles or Kilometers.

@ProhibitOvernightLayovers

Restricts overnight itineraries at the Air Leg (SearchAirLeg/AirLegModifiers) or Itinerary levels (AirSearchModifiers) for multi-leg itineraries.

If ProhibitOvernightLayovers is sent in the request to restrict overnight itineraries, connections that arrive on one calendar date and depart on another calendar date, and have a connection time greater than “HHMM” hours, do not display.

Note: Use this modifier in conjunction with MaxConnectionTime to specify a time limit.

Note: Triple Online and Interline Connections are NOT offered through Universal API even though the attributes exist in the schema.

Galileo and Apollo

  • For Destination Open Jaw and Double Open Jaw trips, Galileo may or may not return a continuity warning if an ARNK is not included.

  • When a modifier is used in both SearchAirLeg and AirSearchModifiers, the segment (leg) level takes precedence over the itinerary level, and the itinerary level applies to all legs where the leg-level modifier is not specified.
  • Implementation of permitted connection point uses the two direct flight attributes (stop and non-stop).
  • If both a permitted connection point and either of the direct flight attributes (NonStopDirects or StopDirects) are provided in FlightType, the direct flight attributes are ignored, and a warning is returned: Direct Flight indicators ignored as Permitted Connection Point specified in request.

Worldspan

  • Worldspan ignores the RequireSingleCarrier and MaxConnections attributes.
  • Worldspan supports the following modifiers only at the Itinerary level: ProhibitOvernightLayovers and PreferNonStop. If PreferNonStop is set to "true" at the Leg level for Worldspan, a warning is returned: PreferNonStop is not supported at Segment Level but supported at Itinerary Level by the requested provider. The transaction is not blocked, but this modifier is not applicable.
  • Prior to Air v29.0, in a Low Fare Search request, users had the option to send fare type in the FaresIndicator element. It could be Public Fares, Private Fares, Net fares, Public and Private Fares, or All fares. If the user did not send any option in FaresIndicator, then Universal API defaulted the request to ‘All Fares.’ That resulted in adding extra response time. With version 29.0 and later, if no option is indicated, the default is ‘Public Fares’ instead of ‘All Fares'.

  • The following modifiers are only processed at the Itinerary level (AirSearchModifiers). The Leg level is not supported. Note that each combination has a type.

    • Direct and Online Connection Flights only – Type A
    • Direct, Interline & Online Connection Flights (all flights) – Type B
    • Direct Flights only – Type C
    • Non-stop Direct Flights only – Type D
    • Single Online Connection Flights only – Type E
    • Single Interline & Online Connection Flights only – Type F
    • All Direct & Online Connection Flights excluding Double Connection flights – Type G
    • All Direct, Interline & Online Connection Flights excluding Double Connection Flights – Type H
    • Non-stop Direct & Online Connection Flights only – Type I
    • Non-stop Direct, Interline & Online Connection Flights only – Type J

    A specific combination of attributes in Universal API must be sent in the request to match the specific Worldspan flight type desired. The following table shows the Type combinations, reading down each column, from A to J.

    Universal API Indicator Worldspan Flight Type ID
      A B C D E F G H I J
    NonStopDirects true true true true false false true true true true
    StopDirects true true true false false false true true false false
    SingleOnlineCon true true false false true true true true true true
    DoubleOnlineCon true true false false false false false false true true
    TripleOnlineCon true true false false false false true true true true
    SingleInterlineCon false true false false false true false true false true
    DoubleInterlineCon false true false false false false false false false true
    TripleInterlineCon false true false false false false false true false true

Jet Service Only

For Worldspan (1P) only, the optional boolean attribute JetServiceOnly allows users to return only jet service flight equipment in the shop response, when set to true. If AirSearchModifiers @JetServiceOnly is set to false, the shop response returns both jet service and turboprop flight equipment.

Include AirSearchModifiers @JetServiceOnly.

Code snippet

<AirSearchModifiers JetServiceOnly="true">

Max Journey Time

Only returns results that are less than the max journey time for the itinerary (all legs).

Include AirSearchModifiers @MaxJourneyTime. Specify the number of hours (from 0-99).

This modifier is available in Low Fare Search, Low Fare Search Asynch, and Air Availability.

Code snippet

<AirSearchModifiers MaxJourneyTime="6">
Prohibited Validating Carriers

This modifier allows consolidators the ability to prohibit a specific validating carrier from returning in the shop response in case they are restricted from selling a specific carrier online. Carriers are added to:
/AirSearchModifiers @ProhibitedValidatingCarriers U

Providers

By default, Low Fare Shopping responses include flights from all provisioned providers, including RCS rail suppliers. However, Low Fare Shopping requests can be modified to include or exclude specified providers in a response.

Provider preferences are specified in LowFareSearchReq/AirSearchModifiers.

  • PreferredProviders weights the response to include only the providers specified in the request.

  • DisfavoredProviders weights the response to exclude only the providers specified in the request.

Code snippet

<air:AirSearchModifiers MaxJourneyTime="08">
  <air:PreferredProviders>
    <com:Provider Code="1G"/>
  </air:PreferredProviders>
</air:AirSearchModifiers>
  • Availability of a requested provider is limited by a client application's provisioning for that provider. Therefore, if an un-provisioned provider is specified in the request, data from that provider will not be returned.
  • Unlike preferred and disfavoredcarrier and alliance requests, preferred and disfavored provider requests do NOT relax response options.
  • Provider-specific requests can be used in combination with carrier- or alliance-specific requests.
  • For aggregated air/rail responses, RCS can also be specified as a provider.

Time Ranges

Returns the lowest available fares for flights within a specified time range.

Include SearchAirLeg/SeachDepTime and SearchArvTime. Date and time formats use the ISO-standard format.

Code snippet

To return departure flight options between 06:00 and 09:00, in LowFareSearchReq/SearchAirLeg/ send:

<SearchDepTime>
    <TimeRange EarliestTime="2018-10-01T06:00:00.000-07:00" LatestTime="2018-10-01T09:00:00.000-07:00"/>
</SearchDepTime>

SpecificTime indicates the preferred time for the departure or arrival. If this value is blank, the default preferred time is 8:00. Date is required.

TimeRange indicates a time window around the preferred departure or arrival time can also be indicated use the EarliestTime and LatestTime attributes. By default, the time window is set to the departure time.

  • EarliestTime indicates the earliest time in a window around the preferred time.

  • LatestTime indicates the latest time in a window around the preferred time.

A request can be for an entire day from one minute after midnight to one minute before midnight. However, all requests must occur within the same date and cannot cross over into the next day.

If @PreferredTime attribute is included, the response returns options weighted for the preferred time, if they are available. PreferredTime can be used alone or in combination with TimeRange. For example:

If a departure time range has EarliestTime is set to '0800', LatestTime is set to '1200', and PreferredTime is set to '0900', the traveler is requesting available flights that depart between 8:00 and 12:00, but prefers flights that leave at 9:00.

Galileo

  • EarliestTime default is two hours before the preferred time.

  • LatestTime default is 23:59.

  • Galileo supports a range for either departure OR arrival times, but does not support ranges for both departure AND arrival in the same request.

Worldspan

  • Worldspan does not support search by arrival time. In some cases, Worldspan also does not support search by the destination arrival date/time. If a request includes SearchArvTime parameters, the date is mapped to the departure date (DepArvTime), and the default Worldspan time window (06:00 to 23:59) is used and a warning is returned.

  • If no Departure Time is specified, the default departure time for Worldspan is 09:00.

  • Worldspan does not support both PreferredTime and SpecificTime in the request. If both are present, PreferredTime is processed and SpecificTime is ignored. A warning message is returned in the response.

  • Worldspan does not support both PreferredTime and TimeRange in the request. It both are present, PreferredTime is processed and TimeRange ignored. TimeRange is considered only when no PreferredTime or SpecificTime is provided in the request.

  • Time Range is applicable for the complete request. Worldspan does not support a different time range for each segment of a trip. For example:

    • If TimeRange is only present in the outbound segment, that time range is used.

    • If TimeRange is present in both the inbound and outbound segments, the time range of the outbound segment is used.

    • If TimeRange is only present in the inbound segment, that time range is used.

ACH

  • ACH does not support search by the arrival date/time.

  • ACH does not support Specific Time functionality. An error is returned if a specific time is requested.

  • EarliestTime is calculated as the number of hours (rounded up) between the PreferredTime and the Earliest/LatestTime. For example, if PreferredTime=2010-12-18T11:30:00.000-05:00, EarliestTime=2010-12-18T08:45:00.000-05:00, and LatestTime=2010-12-18T23:30:00.000-05:00, then the difference between PreferredTime and EarliestTime is 2:45, which is rounded up to 3 hours and 3 hours is sent in the request. The difference between LatestTime and PreferredTime is 12 hours.

RCS

RCS does not support search by:

  • Arrival date/time

  • Time range

  • Specific time functionality. An error is returned if a specific time is requested.

Search modifiers not supported: