Travelport e-pricing Release 4 Apollo and Galileo System Subscribers

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1 Product Advisory Number: 974 Version: 01 Travelport e-pricing Release 4 Apollo and Galileo System Subscribers Load To Production: Various, commencing May 2010 TBC EST TBC GMT High Level Description: Impact Summary: Reason For Issue: This enhancement combines the flight selection process of the Travelport e- Pricing system with the pricing capabilities of Travelport 360 Fares. This advisory impacts Apollo/Galileo Shopping products only. Detailed activation plans to be communicated locally, within each country. No changes are applicable for Worldspan customers at this time. No impact First Notification Customer Impact: Internal Only Agency Customers ecommerce Customers Developers Airline Customers Car, Hotel, Rail or Cruise Customers System: Galileo Apollo Worldspan Load To Copy: Not applicable EST GMT Web Services: (API and Messaging) No specific changes to XML messaging products required to access Travelport e-pricing. A separate developer advisory will be distributed describing new functionality related to Flex Shopping. Issue History: Version 01 Page 1

2 Overview Travelport e-pricing Release 4 (R4) provides a new technical platform for all Apollo and Galileo shopping entries. This release combines the fares led flight selection capabilities of Travelport e-pricing with the pricing processes of Travelport 360 Fares to deliver a robust, accurate and competitive shopping solution. Travelport e-pricing R4 also delivers new Flex Shopping capabilities for Apollo and Galileo Web Services, XML Select and XML API desktop customers. A separate Functional Advisory detailing flex shopping will be issued upon general release of these new functions. Exact activation dates and times are to be communicated directly to customers within each country. Activation dates for individual countries are not included in this advisory. Customer Benefit Improved quality of shopping results and greater potential to return the lowest fare more frequently as a result of combining the power of the Travelport e-pricing fares led flight selection process and the Travelport 360 Fares pricing platform. Improved competitive advantage with a comprehensive and accurate shopping product that closes competitive functional gaps and weaknesses associated with current, schedule driven products. Travelport e-pricing R4 is applicable to all existing shopping functions (except Apollo Best Buy Quote) and is integrated with other products that are currently supported in shopping, including Agency Private Fares and TravelScreen preference tools. There are no new inputs, outputs or changes to existing formats as a result of this change and agency customers are not required to take any action as a result of this system enhancement. Detail and Customer Examples Travelport e-pricing Release 4 is a new technical platform to support Apollo and Galileo shopping requests: Galileo Optimal Shopping FS (Apollo core) Apollo Best Buy Quote ($BBQ) transactions automatically converted to Optimal Shopping (FS) Galileo Focalpoint Shopping FS (Galileo core) Structured Data/XML SuperBB shopping - FareQuoteSuperBB EDIFACT Select Low Fare Shopping Viewpoint Low Fare Shopping Tool Viewpoint Optimal Shopping No changes will be required to the input/output and formats of the products listed above, no additional training or re-training is expected as a result of this enhancement. Page 2

3 Tier Levels Access to Travelport e-pricing is configured at a pseudo city code level, with the product supporting three differing levels of processing, known as Tier level. Tier levels control the number of results returned in response to a shopping request in addition to establishing which Flex Shopping capabilities can be used. The following table indicates the approximate number of itinerary results that are returned for each tier level. The profile of a specific market may cause the results to fall outside of these ranges. For example, a North American domestic market such as Los Angeles to New York City may produce many more itineraries than an average market because of the number of fares and the frequency of air service. However, an international market such as Sofia, Bulgaria to Langkawi, Malaysia may produce very few itineraries due to less frequent air service. Tier Level Minimum # of Itinerary options Maximum # of Itinerary options All customers will be migrated by default from their existing shopping configuration to Travelport e-pricing at Tier 1 level. Any requests for Tier changes should be directed to your local Travelport representative. Note: Tier level settings manage the number of returned itinerary results and does not influence the ability of e-pricing to return the lowest priced fare. Plating Carrier Logic When an agency location is active for Plating Carrier Logic, shopping requests that do not already contain a plating carrier in the input request will have plating carrier selection assessed against each itinerary option. This process includes a check to ensure that the requesting agency (or nominated ticketing agency) holds ticketing authority for the selected plating carrier. If ticketing authority cannot be determined for a valid plating carrier, the itinerary option may be discarded. To provide flexibility and allow ticketless or non-bsp/arc airlines that require guarantee payment and/or instant ticketing as a mandatory feature of their booking processes to be returned in a shopping request, this authorized ticketing check can be inhibited on request. This feature is controlled at a pseudo city code level, and will apply to all shopping transactions generated from the specified location. For all Galileo locations, authorized ticketing check will be performed for all customers by default. Requests for removal of this check should be directed to your local Travelport representative. For all Apollo locations (Canada, US and Mexico) authorized ticketing check will not be performed by default. Requests for activation of this check should be directed to your local Travelport representative. Page 3

4 Eliminated Functionality With release of Travelport e-pricing Release 4, a small set of tertiary functions available via XML products will be eliminated or ignored. While the ability to input the modifiers or tags to perform the functions will still exist, processing will be modified or be eliminated for Travelport e-pricing R4 customers. The following information highlights modified functions and any applicable changes. Time Window (Arrival): Currently, Travelport 360 Fares shopping processes allow for a time window modifier/option for application across departure or arrival times. Travelport e-pricing R4 will allow for time window modifiers to be assessed against by departure time only. If an arrival time window option is included in the shopping request once active for Travelport e-pricing R4, this portion of the request will be ignored. Time window indicators are included in the <TmWndInd> node of the XML shopping request: <TmWndInd> Alpha 1 Determines whether Time Window Start/End specified a departure window or arrival window, and departure date or arrival date. Where: A Arrival Time Window/ Arrival Date D Departure Time Window/ Departure Date <StartTmWnd> Numeric 4 HHMM. Start time of departure/arrival window. Blank filled if not used. <EndTmWnd> Numeric 4 HHMM. End time of departure/arrival window. Blank filled if not used. The comparable Focalpoint and Viewpoint modifier/options for time window by arrival from a booked itinerary request will also be ignored. For example, an input of FS//A4 (Apollo) or FS++AT4 (Galileo) will result in the arrival time portion of the transaction input being ignored. Widen Search Window In XML products, the ability to widen the search is controlled by setting the applicable element to Y. If this field is set to Y for a general Travelport e-pricing Release 4 shopping request, it will be ignored. This function will only be used for Flex Shopping. Details on Flex Shopping will be provided separately, at a future date. <WidenSearchWinInd> Page 4

5 Triple Online Connections In XML products, it is possible to request Triple Online Connections using the XML tag listed below. This function is being eliminated. If the element is set to Y, it will be ignored. <IncTripleOnlineConxInd> Triple Interline Connections In XML products, it is possible to request Triple Interline Connections using the XML tag listed below. This function is being eliminated. If the element is set to Y, it will be ignored. <IncTripleInterlineConxInd> Exclude Alliance Any shopping requests (Focalpoint, Viewpoint and XML Products) that include modifiers designed to exclude a specific alliance of carriers will have this portion of the request ignored. Page 5

6 THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY TO TRAVELPORT Copyright Copyright Travelport and/or its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. Travelport provides this document for information purposes only and does not promise that the information contained in this document is accurate, current or complete. This document is subject to change without notice. No part of this document may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the licensee s personal use without the prior written permission of Travelport and/or its subsidiaries. Trademarks Travelport and/or its subsidiaries may have registered or unregistered patents or pending patent applications, trademarks copyright, or other intellectual property rights in respect of the subject matter of this document. The furnishing of this document does not confer any right or license to or in respect of these patents, trademarks, copyright, or other intellectual property rights. All other companies and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Page 6