Release Notes 18.1

For details, see:

• DA 788 Defect Fixes for Release 18.1
• DA 791 Defect Fixes for Release 18.1.0.1
• DA 793 Defect Fixes for Release 18.1.1
• DA 797 Defect Fixes for Release 18.1.1.1

This enhancement processes a seat update in a session flow, so that the PNR is saved and End-Transacted if the new seat is successfully added.

Please contact your Travelport representative for more information about accessing this functionality.

Notes:

• If any Seat Selection fails then an Ignore is generated. Only if all the seat selections are successful will an End Transact be generated.
• A seat change is saved even when the Status Code is not the same as the original seat. For example, if the original seat status code is HK and the new seat is UC, Universal API proceeds and End Transacts.
• Universal API does not validate nor restrict the combination of seat change with other updates to the Universal Record. Any change combined with a sessioned seat update will be ignored.

This enhancement removes duplicate response messages in exchanges quotes responses.

For example, in the quote response, a duplicate Response Message returns when Universal API has to call MDS 4 times (one per passenger with 2 passengers, and one per fare component with 2 fare components). Thus, the following line of code may return four times in the response

<common_v44_0:ResponseMessage Code="13566" Type="Warning" ProviderCode="1V"><![CDATA[Brand optional services were filtered out as they are not offered in the brand or are only available at a charge.]]></common_v44_0:ResponseMessage>

This enhancement matches messages that have the same code and text, and filter out the duplicates so that only one of the same messages return.

Air Exchange

Send brand tier in FareInfo/Brand element of Booking Pricing requests.

1G, 1V, 1P

Brand tier information should be sent in the FareInfo/Brand element of Booking Pricing requests. If brand tier is sent in the AirSegmentPricingModifiers element, it is ignored and a warning returned: BrandTier should be sent in FareInfo/Brand. AirSegmentPricingModifiers/BrandTier has been ignored.

Booking Pricing

No

Support new payment functionality for vehicle

1P

This enhancement adds the ability to use PayNow and PayLater attributes, which were added to the schema.

The purpose for these attributes is to increase customer awareness for understanding what is due now for a pre-paid rate, as well as what might be due later based on individual rental.

Note: This content is supplier dependent.

To support car suppliers that would like to offer different rates for prepaid booking, the “PayNow and “PayLater" attributes were added in each vehicle response message:

VehicleRules Response

• Supplier Rate – PayNow and PayLater

VehicleCreateReservation Response

• Supplier Rate – PayNow and PayLater

VehicleSearchAvailability Response

• Supplier Rate – PayNow and PayLater
• ApproximateRate - PayNow and PayLater

For example, in the VehicleSearchAvailability Response for a One Way Rental, the supplier returns:

• RateCategory = Prepay
• PayNow - Amount due at the time of Booking
• PayLater - Amount due at time of Pickup (One-way fee – Drop off charge)

Note: The Approximate PayNow and PayLater rates are ONLY returned in the VehicleSearchAvailability response.

Vehicle Search

Vehicle Rules

Vehicle Booking

Yes

To allow car suppliers the ability to offer different rates for prepaid bookings, a new RateCategory, “Prepay” is now supported in all Universal API Vehicle transactions.

• Adding the new Rate Category “Prepay” to the request message indicates to the supplier that you want these particular rate plans included in the response.
• The ability to get prepay information in the response is supplier dependent.

Vehicle Search

Vehicle Rules

Vehicle Booking

Previously, not all forms of payment were included in the Electronic Ticketing Record (ETR). For example, if the customer paid with both cash and check, only the check data would return.

With this enhancement, customers can view the Multiple Forms of Payment (FOP) used for Ticketing in the AirRetrieveDocument response (ETR retrieval response). For example, the response could include both check and cash:

• FormOfPayment Key " Type="Check", Amount="EUR77.75" and
• FormOfPayment Key " Type="Cash", Amount="EUR100.00"

Previously, this Category 16 update added several placeholder schema changes for functionality that will be implemented in a future release. The previous release modified LowFareSearchRsp, LowFareSearchAsynchRsp, and RetrieveLowFareSearchRsp schema to return the optional attribute @PenaltyApplies in the CancelPenalty and ChangePenalty elements, which identifies the penalty as Anytime, Before Departure, or After Departure.

• This enhancement adds a @NoShow attribute, and allows 0-999 occurrences in the CancelPenalty, ChangePenalty and NoShow elements. For example,
  • <xs:element name="NoShowPenalty" type="typeFarePenalty" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="999">

Low Fare Shopping

Air Price

Air Modify

UR Retrieve

Yes

Added a new element that will be used to indicate involuntary changes in a future release.

1P

A new element, InvoluntaryChange, was added in this release as a placeholder for future functionality. This element will support involuntary changes.

UR Modify

Yes

Added elements to support adding an SVC segment in Exchange transactions in Worldspan.

1P

Elements were added to support an SVC segment in Worldspan. The full functionality will be available in a future release.

To support adding SVC segment in Worldspan, the AddSvc element has been added to Air Exchange and Booking Air Exchange requests.

AddSvc contains the attributes RFIC, RFISC, SvcDescription, Origin, Destination, and StartDate.

Additionally, the SVC segment information is reflected in SvcSegment in any response that uses the AirReservation block, instead of adding as a PassiveSegment inside PassiveReservation (until v43.0). This change affects any transaction using AirReservation.

Air Exchange

Booking Air Exchange

All transactions using AirReservation

Yes

Modified Low Fare Shopping and Air Pricing schema to support upcoming functionality.

1G, 1V, 1P

The NoShow attribute was added to ChangePenalty and CancelPenalty to support upcoming functionality. Although this attribute is part of Air v44.0 schema, it will not be returned in any responses at this time.

Low Fare Shopping

Air Pricing

Yes

Provisioned customers can request that the segments are validated as being bookable at the time of price.

1G, 1V

A new attribute, SellCheck, is available to provisioned customers, which validates inventory as well and checks minimum connect time as appropriate for the flights specified.

If you are not provisioned for SellCheck functionality and if the AirPrice request contains SellCheck="true", an error is returned:  User is not authorized for SellCheck. Please contact support.

Air Pricing

Yes

To see if a segment is bookable when pricing by checking inventory status, an enhancement was made to add the @SellCheck attribute to the Air Pricing Modifiers in the Air Price request. This is an optional boolean attribute, and the default value is “false.”

Note: This feature is only available to customers for whom it has been provisioned.

Air Pricing

Yes

Return brand tier information.

1G, 1V, 1P

Important: Brand tier functionality will be released to production on 17 March 2018.

Schema changes were made in releases 17.3 and 17.4 to support upcoming functionality. With this release, brand tier data is returned. Refer to Branded Fares and Rich Content and Branding Workflow for more information about branded fares.

• In a shop response, brand tier may be returned.

• In a price request, if a brand tier is not specified, a brand tier may be returned in the price response.

• In a price request, you can specify a brand tier. The brand tier must be the same for all passengers. If the brand tier is sent without specifying a segment modifier, then the brand tier applies to all segments. You can also specify a brand tier per segment using the segment modifiers. If the specified brand tier is available, it is returned in the price response. If the specified brand tier is not available, an error is returned.

  • For Galileo and Apollo, the error is No valid fare for input criteria.
  • For Worldspan , the error is ER101 - Unable to price as booked or by low fare finder.
• In a fare family display price response, If the fare family display fails, the regular pricing response is returned with a warning that the fare family is not available.
• Brand tier information can be sent in a booking request and stored in the Universal Record.
• A booking request contains a pricing solution, which could have a brand tier if one was available in the price response. The brand tier and associated fare is stored in the booking. If the brand tier cannot be found with a fare, no fare is stored in the PNR and a warning is returned.
• Brand tier information can be sent in a Universal Record Modify request and stored in the Universal Record.

• A Universal Record Modify request contains an air pricing info, which could have a brand tier if one was available in the price response. The brand tier and associated fare is stored in the booking. If the brand tier cannot be found with a fare, no fare is stored in the PNR and a warning is returned.

• For Worldspan , you can specify brand tier in a ticketing request if a stored fare exists in the host PNR. You are able to specify different brand tiers per segment, no matter what is in the stored fare. The stored fare does not reflect the fare that was ticketed. If a brand tier is specified and a ticketing record, pricing instruction, or stored fare quote exists, an error is returned.

• For Galileo and Apollo, the information in the stored fare is used for ticketing. If a brand tier sent in a Galileo or Apollo ticketing request, it is ignored.

• Brand tier information can be sent in the Shared Booking:Booking Pricing request. If the brand tier cannot be found with a fare, an error is returned.

• The brand tier is saved in Universal Record History.

Refer to Errors/Warnings in Rich Content and Branding Workflow for a list of errors and warnings that are related to brand tier.

Low Fare Shopping

Air Pricing

Air Bookings

Air Ticketing

Air Exchange

Air Exchange Quote

Air Exchange Ticketing

Air Refund

UR Retrieve

UR Modify

UR Import

Booking Pricing

Booking Display

Booking End

Booking Air Exchange Quote

No

1G, 1V, 1P

In a price response, a brand tier and fare host token may be returned. If you copy and paste the entire pricing solution into the Air Booking or Universal Record Modify transaction without removing either the brand tier or the fare host token, then the fare host token is ignored. If you want to continue using the host token, remove the brand tier in Air.xsd v43.0 and later.

When the fare host token is sent in Shared Booking:Booking Air Segment request and the brand tier is sent in Booking Pricing request, the brand tier is used and the fare host token is ignored. A warning is returned: The fare HostToken has been ignored. The BrandTier has been applied. If you want to continue using the host token, remove the brand tier in Air.xsd v43.0 and later.

Error Message

In Book, Universal Record Modify, Shared Booking:Booking Pricing, if a brand tier is sent for one passenger and a fare host token is sent for another passenger in one stored fare, an error is returned: Either a BrandTier or a HostToken can be sent.

Air Pricing

Air Booking

No

Expanded the Air Pricing schema to support a fare family display maintain booking code brand modifier in an upcoming release.

1G, 1V, 1P

Prior to this release, the BrandModifier element had the attribute ModifierType with two enumerations. In v44.0, the BrandModifier now has two child elements: FareFamilyDisplay and BasicDetailsOnly.

FareFamilyDisplay has attribute ModifierType. The value that can be sent in ModifierType is either "FareFamily" or "MaintainBookingCode". BasicDetailsOnly has attribute ReturnBasicDetails. The value that can be sent in ReturnBasicDetails is either "true" or "false".

The full functionality for FareFamilyDisplay ModifierType "MaintainBookingCode" will be available in a future release. If "MaintainBookingCode" is sent in FareFamilyDisplay, it is ignored at this time.

The FareFamilyDisplay ModifierType "FareFamily" and BasicDetailsOnly ReturnBasicDetails functionality has not changed.

Air Pricing

Yes

Return Brand Name and Brand ID in Exchange Quote responses.

1G, 1V, 1P

Once Universal API 18.1 loads to production, AirExchangeQuote and BookingAirExchangeQuote responses will return AirPricingInfo/FareInfo/Brand @Name, @BrandID, and @Carrier when applicable to the fare. This information will help support Branded Fares during automated exchanges. This information is returned automatically and does not require any changes to existing requests.

To return all details about a brand, send RepricingModifiers @BrandDetails="true" in the request (current functionality). For more information, refer to Rich Content and Branding in Exchanges.

Air Exchange Quote

Booking Air Exchange Quote

No

Specify that a reprice request should remain in the ticketed brand.

1G, 1V, 1P

In order to support repricing while maintaining the originally ticketed brand, a new attribute RepricingModifiers was added. When RepricingModifiers @MaintainBrand="true", the reprice response returns the same brand as the original ticket. You may want to maintain the original brand in order to keep the same features of the original ticket.

In the event that the original brand is no longer available, the reprice response will return the lowest available brand within the same cabin or return the fare/brand for the class of service requested. A warning is also returned indicating that the brand could not be maintained.

Air Exchange Quote

Booking Air Exchange Quote

Yes

This update adds several placeholder schema changes for functionality that will be implemented in a future release. When implemented, this functionality will examine all fare components and send most restrictive conditions with anytime/before/after tags.

Universal API performs an assessment of the two most restrictive rules across all fares components within a pricing solution. The most restrictive rules are in the CAT16 category, sent in the response, along with using spare tags to denote (Anytime / Before Departure/ After Departure).

The LowFareSearchRsp, LowFareSearchAsynchRsp, and RetrieveLowFareSearchRsp schema was enhanced to return the optional attribute @PenaltyApplies in the CancelPenalty and ChangePenalty elements, which identifies the penalty as Anytime, Before Departure, or After Departure.

Low Fare Shopping

Yes

Ensure AirPrice response contains the correct value.

1P

Previously, for Worldspan (1P) providers, the Air Shop Price Point response did not specify if the fares in a price point were non-refundable. The Air Price response did not correctly specify if the fares in a pricing solution were refundable or non-refundable.

With this enhancement, every price point in the Air Shop response and every pricing solution in the Air Price response correctly identify the fares as refundable or non-refundable.

Air Pricing

No

Return Air Price Response when second fare family price response fails.

1G, 1V

Previously, when a customer sent an AirPriceRequest with FareFamilyDisplay, Universal API did not return all the branded fares in a fare family display if the information was not available, and returned an error message.

This enhancement returns a successful price response along with a new warning Fare Family Display is not available, if the fare family display is unavailable.

Air Pricing

No

Enhanced support for the ProhibitUnbundledFareTypes (FXD) modifier will be loaded for Universal API release 18.1 on 24-Feb-18, for Air Price and Air Create Reservation Request.

The ProhibitUnbundledFareTypes modifier excludes economy unbundled fares to allow travel agency users to exclude these fares from consideration when searching for lowest fare information. Prior to this enhancement, this functionality was not working correctly on the provider system. There have been no changes to the schema.

Note: Any customer who consumes the as ProhibitUnbundledFareTypes modifier in Universal API after 30-Jan-18, and before the Universal API 18.1 release on 24-Feb-18, has the opportunity to use the new functionality before Travelport officially announces it.

Air Pricing

Air Booking

Support CVV in Vehicle Booking.

1P

Vehicle Booking

No