Air Merchandising is available Pre- and Post-Booking, depending on the Optional Services that are sold, the carrier, and the provider.
Pre-Booking Workflow
Optional Service can be added pre-booking as part of the Shop > Price > Book workflow. In this case, the Optional Services are returned in the Air Pricing transaction and can be submitted in the Air Booking transaction.
Optional Services can be purchased pre-booking for:
- Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) and API carriers through the Airline Content Hub (ACH).
- ATPCO carriers through Galileo (1G), Apollo (1V), and Worldspan (1P), with the exception of Paid Seats which must be purchased after booking.
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Show me an explanation of each step, including whether it is required.
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Functionality |
Description |
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Required. An itinerary is searched for and selected using a Low Fare Shopping call. Note that an Air Availability call can also be used. |
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Required. The first price request is sent to retrieve the optional services available for the selected flights. Optional Service Rules are returned in OptionalServiceRules in the AirPrice response. |
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| Air Seat Map |
Optional. Used to search for available standard free seats or paid seats. |
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Required, ONLY for Low Cost Carriers (LCC) on ACH. A second price request is then sent to price the available services returned in the first price request. Tokens from the response from the first price request are used in the second re-price request. Optional Service Rules are returned in OptionalServiceRules in the AirPrice response. Note: A second air pricing request for ATPCO-filed carriers is not supported. |
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Optional, but recommended. Fare rules supply the requirements or penalties associated with a specific fare quote. By default, short (abridged) fare rules are returned with an Air Pricing response. However, a separate follow-on request is recommended to obtain more detailed fare rules. |
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Required. After flight and fare options are selected, the priced segment can be reserved. Air booking can include a number of modifiers, such as seat assignments (generic or specific), ticket designators, SSRs/OSIs and other types of remarks, and tour codes as well as forms of payment. |
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The booked flights may be ticketed. Fares (even stored fares) can be subject to change up to the point of ticketing. |
Post-Booking Workflow
The Air Merchandising Web Services in Universal API allow users to create bookings via their current method, and then shop and book Optional Services (or Ancillaries) for their bookings using Universal API.
Air Merchandising transactions are used post-booking to add Optional Services:
- The Air Merchandising Offer Availability transaction shops for Optional Services, including paid seats.
- The Seat Map transaction shops for free standard seats and paid seats.
- The Air Merchandising Fulfillment transaction books the selected Optional Services (including paid seats) and the selected free standard seats.
There are two steps required for fulfillment: Booking (reserving) the service and Fulfilling the service. For some carriers, booking and fulfilling are the same step; for example, Delta Economy Comfort Paid Seats. In the case of ATPCO-filed services, booking is done through the Fulfillment transaction and the actual purchase is performed through Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMDs) either online or offline.
Available options, pricing, and payment are determined by the participating carrier. Remarks are also returned with the Optional Services that can be used by travel providers for tracking and reporting with their back-office system.
Optional Services can be purchased post-booking, when available, for any carriers that are not Low Cost Carriers (LCCs).
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Show me an explanation of each step, including whether it is required
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Functionality |
Description |
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Create a PNR or Create a PNR and Universal Record. |
Required. The PNR is booked by the user using the current means (e.g., XMLPRO, Galileo Web Services, Universal Desktop, or Universal API).
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Required/Optional. The Air Merchandising Offer Availability request is used to see the Optional Services which are available. It includes traveler and itinerary data. Paid Seats and other Optional Services are returned in the response if they are supported by the carrier in the submitted itinerary. The cost of the Optional Service is also returned in the response. Note: This request is optional for paid seats. It confirms that paid seats are available.
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| Air Seat Map |
Optional. Used to search for available standard free seats or paid seats. |
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Required. The Air Merchandising Fulfillment request is used to reserve the paid seat or Optional Service. A credit card may be added for immediate fulfillment, if supported by the carrier. The response returns a Universal Record that contains the traveler and itinerary information, as well as the Optional Services data. |
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Required. Use the EMD Issuance request to issue an Associated EMD (EMD-A) after an Optional Service that requires fulfillment via EMD-A is sold and saved in the reservation. Additionally, a ticket must already have been issued for the traveler and flights for which the EMD is being issued. Note: Airline Content Hub (ACH) does not support the EMD Issuance functionality. |
Next Steps
See the Available Optional Services.
Review transactions:
