By default, Rail Availability responses include solutions from all available suppliers (distributors). However, Rail Availability requests can be modified to include specified suppliers in a response.
Universal API uses the terms preferred, permitted, and disfavored to indicate filtering for suppliers. However, some providers and suppliers process only included or excluded suppliers:
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A preferred request weights responses to include the specified supplier, but may return other suppliers if the requested supplier does not have responses that meet the search parameters.
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A disfavored request weights responses to exclude the specified supplier, but may return the disfavored supplier carrier if other suppliers do not have responses that meet the search parameters.
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A permitted (included) request returns only the specified suppliers. If the supplier does not have any availabilities within the requested search parameters, the response is not relaxed, and an error is returned.
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An excluded request excludes only the specified suppliers. If the excluded supplier is the only supplier with availabilities within the search parameters, the response is not relaxed, and an error is returned.
For Rail Availability:
- Preferred suppliers are supported.
Note: Both preferred and permitted suppliers are supported in Rail Low Fare Shopping requests. - Disfavored, permitted and excluded suppliers are not supported.
- Alliances are also not supported for Rail segments, but are supported for Air segments through Low Fare Shopping.
Request
Preferred suppliers can be requested either at an itinerary (journey) level. Supplier preferences for an entire journey are specified in RailAvailabilitySearchReq/RailSearchModifiers/PreferredSuppliers.
Note: Support for preferences within individual legs of a journey is available for Rail segments through Low Fare Shopping.
Show schema diagram
PreferredSuppliers weights the response to include the suppliers specified in the request. If there are no availabilities for the specified suppliers, other suppliers may be returned.
One or more Rail supplier values can be specified in instances of RailSupplier Code.
The value in the Code attribute is the two-letter rail distributor code. Currently, Universal API supports rail suppliers:
Response
A standard Rail Availability response is returned. The response is filtered at the data source to include or exclude the specified carriers or alliances.
Error and Warning Messages
The client must be provisioned for RCS and the rail distributor, and the two-letter Code must be valid, or an error is sent in the response.
The request fails if:
- The carrier code is not a valid IATA carrier code.
- More than one supplier is requested, and one supplier is invalid.
