Low Fare Shopping using Flexible Modifiers

Low Fare Shopping provides several Flexible Shopping modifiers options to support travelers who want to compare prices for similar itineraries. It is best suited for fare- and schedule-driven travelers.

The provider selects from the available flights and returns the best fares that can be obtained on these flights. Flexible Shopping does not require a booked itinerary to perform the faring functions.

For information about searching a wider geographical range, refer to Flex Explore.

These Flexible Shopping modifiers are available:

Flexible airports Flexible origin and destination
Flexible dates Flex weekend dates

NOTE: For Worldspan (1P) flexible shopping is available with Air Pricing Solutions -SolutionResult="true"

Modifier

Description

Flexible Airports

Allows alternate origin and/or destination airports to be included in the shopping transaction. Depending on the customer's contract either:

  • Two additional airports can be specified, for a total of three airports.

  • Five additional airports can be specified, for a total of six airports.

Include multiple instances of LowFareSearchReq/SearchAirLeg/SearchOrigin and/or SearchDestination. The first instance of SearchOrigin and SearchDestination is the primary airport. Each additional origin and destination are alternate locations.

Code snippet

<SearchAirLeg>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="DFW" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="IAH" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="IAD" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="BOS" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDepTime PreferredTime="2018-06-13" />
  </SearchAirLeg>
  <SearchAirLeg>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="IAD" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="BOS" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="DFW" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="IAH" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDepTime PreferredTime="2018-06-15" />
</SearchAirLeg>
  • Distance cannot be used in combination with Flexible Airports.

  • In addition to standard Flexible Shopping restrictions, Flexible Airports is supported only for one-way and simple round-trip itineraries.

Premium Flex

In the AirSearchModifiers, the @IncludeExtraSolutions is available for Tier 3 customers. This attribute is available only for Flex Dates and Flex Weekend Dates, and allows the customer to get more solutions in the response. The premium flex response allows up to 100 options to be returned across the date pairs, while regular flex only allows a single result per date pair.

Worldspan

Worldspan does not support Flexible Airports functionality. However, by default, Worldspan returns alternate airports in the same metro area.

ACH

ACH does not support Flexible Airports functionality. However, by default, ACH returns alternate airports in the same metro area.

RCS

RCS does not support Flexible Shopping functionality.

Flexible Dates

Allows a range of one to three days before and after the departure date and/or return date to be included in the shopping transaction.

Include LowFareSearchReq/SearchAirLeg/SearchDepTime/SearchExtraDays.

Code snippet

To expand results to two days before and after a departure date, in LowFareSearchReq/SearchAirLeg, send:

<SearchDepTime PreferredTime="2018-10-13">
      <SearchExtraDays DaysBefore="2" DaysAfter="2" />
</SearchDepTime>

Important!

  • The number of days available in the range may vary depending on the customer's contract with the provider. For example, Galileo offers tiered access to flexible shopping for a range of either plus/minus 1 day or plus/minus 3 days.
  • Flex Explore does not return branded fares.

Premium Flex

In the AirSearchModifiers, the @IncludeExtraSolutions is available for Tier 3 customers. This attribute is available only for Flex Dates and Flex Weekend Dates, and allows the customer to get more solutions in the response. The premium flex response allows up to 100 options to be returned across the date pairs, while regular flex only allows a single result per date pair.

Galileo

  • Galileo offers two tiers of Flexible Shopping by Date, depending on the customer's contract with Galileo. These tiers all have a range of either:
    • One day before and after the departure date and/or return date to be included in the shopping transaction.
    • One to three days before and after the departure date and/or return date to be included in the shopping transaction.
  • Flexible Dates are supported for one-way trip, simple round trip, simple round trip, simple open jaw trip (with an open jaw at the origin or destination), double open jaw trip.
  • Multiple destination trips and complex open jaw trips do not support Flexible Dates.
  • Shopping with Flexible Dates is mutually exclusive with other Flexible Shopping modifiers. An error is returned if more than one Flexible Shopping modifier is included in a request.
  • Flexible Shopping functionality is not supported for searches with agency private fares or contract codes. If the search parameters include AgencyPrivateFaresOnly or ContractCode a warning is returned: Request Flex option cannot be queried with Agency Private Fares and/or ContractCodes for the requested Provider.
  • If Flexible Shopping functionality is not supported for searches with airline private fares (AirlinePrivateFaresOnly), both airline and non-airline private fares may be returned, as some providers do not differentiate between airline-filed fares and agency-filed fares.

Worldspan

  • Worldspan offers three tiers of Flexible Shopping by Date, depending on the customer's contract with Worldspan.
    • Tiers 1 and 2 may flex one day before and after the departure date and/or return date to be included in the shopping transaction.
    • Tier 3 may flex one to three days before and after the departure date and/or return date to be included in the shopping transaction.
  • Flexible Dates are supported for one-way trip, simple round trip, simple round trip, simple open jaw trip (with an open jaw at the origin or destination), double open jaw trip.
  • Multiple destination trips and complex open jaw trips do not support Flexible Dates.

ACH

Some ACH carriers support number of days before departure date and number of days after departure date.

Air Canada
  • Universal API supports distinct values for DaysBefore and DaysAfter. However, the Air Canada API processes only the value in DaysBefore, and applies this value as the window for both “before” and “after” in the response.
  • Air Canada does not return itinerary information in the Day Before/Day After response; only price information is returned.

RCS

  • RCS supports the number of days before the departure date and number of days after the departure date, but not a search for both days before and after the departure date.

Flexible Origin and Destination

Allows airports within a specified distance from the origin and/or destination to be included in the shopping transaction. Miles or kilometers must be specified. The maximum distance is 100 miles or 160 kilometers.

Include @Distance in LowFareSearchReq/SearchAirLeg/SearchOrigin and SearchDestination.

Code snippet

<SearchAirLeg>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="DFW" />
      <Distance Value="100" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="CDG" />
      <Distance Value="50" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDepTime PreferredTime="2018-06-13" />
  </SearchAirLeg>
  <SearchAirLeg>
    <SearchOrigin>
      <CityOrAirport Code="CDG" />
      <Distance Value="50" />
    </SearchOrigin>
    <SearchDestination>
      <CityOrAirport Code="DFW" />
      <Distance Value="100" />
    </SearchDestination>
    <SearchDepTime PreferredTime="2018-06-15" />
</SearchAirLeg>
  • One instance of SearchAirLeg is included for each leg of the trip.

  • Define the distance, unit of measurement, and direction from the specified airport using Distance.

    • Value. A distance of 1 to 100 miles, or 1 to 160 kilometers, from the specified airport is supported.

    • Units. Miles or kilometers. Only one unit of direction is permitted within a request.

    • Direction. Optional cardinal or ordinal directions can be included. If no direction is specified, the search includes all directions in a radius around the specified airport.

  • In addition to standard Flexible Shopping restrictions, Flexible Origin and Destination is supported only for one-way and simple round-trip itineraries.

  • Alternate airports outside of the search radius can be requested using Low Fare Shopping with Flexible Airports.

Worldspan

Worldspan provides only Flexible Weekend Dates functionality to Tier 3 customers.

ACH

ACH does not support Flexible Origin and Destination functionality. However, by default, ACH returns alternate airports in the same metro area. This default can be modified by changing the typeSearchLocation parameters in SearchOrigin or SearchDestination.

RCS

RCS does not support Flexible Shopping functionality.

Flexible Weekend Dates

Includes a range of weekend dates for a target month.

Include LowFareSearchReq/AirSearchModifiers @SearchWeekends="true". For each weekend:

  • Departure dates can be requested for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.

  • Return dates can be requested for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

Weekend ranges in the target month are based on the departure date. If any departure date for a weekend rolls into the following month, that weekend range is not included in the response. However, if a return date rolls into the following month, that weekend range is included in the response.

Code snippet

<AirSearchModifiers SearchWeekends="true">

  • In addition to standard Flexible Shopping restrictions, , Flexible Weekend Shopping is supported only for simple round-trip itineraries.

  • If the number of SearchAirLegs does not equal two, an error is returned.
  • Flexible Weekend cannot be combined with any other Flexible Shopping modifiers.

Important: Flex Explore does not return branded fares.

Premium Flex

In the AirSearchModifiers, the @IncludeExtraSolutions is available for Tier 3 customers. This attribute is available only for Flex Dates and Flex Weekend Dates, and allows the customer to get more solutions in the response. The premium flex response allows up to 100 options to be returned across the date pairs, while regular flex only allows a single result per date pair.

Worldspan

Worldspan provides only Flexible Weekend Dates functionality to Tier 3 customers.

ACH

ACH does not support Flexible Weekend Dates functionality.

RCS

RCS does not support Flexible Weekend Dates functionality.

Restrictions

The following restrictions apply to all Flexible Shopping options. Additional restrictions may also apply to individual Flexible Shopping options.