Bundles

Ancillary Bundles - package of extra features and add-ons that airlines can create, for example: noise-cancelling headphones, a pillow and blanket. JSON services are able to support bundled offers defined in Ancillary Bundler. The passenger can buy, re-associate to the new itinerary (if airline has re- association enabled and re- association criteria are met), or refund ancillary bundles.

Bundle selection is very similar to standard ancillary selection. System reserves the parent AE (for a bundle) and in the background child AEs are added to the parent AE.

This functionality applies to the following flows:

The Revenue (B2C) Flow,
The Redemption (RBE) Flow,
Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary (MYB:CI) Flow,
Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow,
Manage Your Booking – Book Now Pay Later (MYB:BNPL) Flow.

Prerequisites:

Ancillary Bundles feature requires activation and configuration in the Dynamic Retailer.

Highlights

Airlines can drive information about the ancillary bundles with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

The Revenue (B2C) Flow

The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles to the passenger.
When the passenger selects bundle(s) the airline calls /products/ancillaries POST.
The airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
The airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /purchase service will create a PNR, EMD(s), etc.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.

Book Now Pay Later (BNPL) Flow

The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillary bundles available for the currently selected itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles to the passenger.
When the passenger selects bundle(s), the airline calls /products/ancillaries POST.
The airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
The passenger indicates the desire to pay for the booking.
The airline determines the payment options that are available for the Book Now Pay Later option by calling /products/bnpl.
The airline displays on-hold options for the passenger.
The airline initiates the on-hod purchase (including the hold type and the payment method) by calling /products/bnpl/purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /products/bnpl/purchase service will create a PNR with on-hold status.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.

Manage Your Booking – Book Now Pay Later (MYB:BNPL) Flow

The passenger made a reservation (and booked ancillary bundles) in the Booking flow and placed the reservation on hold with the Book Now Pay Later option.
The passenger selects the option to complete the purchase of a booking that was previously booked with Book Now Pay Later.
The airline prompts the passenger for the information needed to retrieve the PNR, and the passenger supplies the information.
The airline calls /pnr/bnpl to retrieve the PNR and to initialize the BNPL Purchase flow.
The airline displays the retrieved PNR to the passenger for review.
The passenger indicates the desire to pay for the booking.
The airline determines the payment options that are available for the booking by calling /pnr/bnpl/paymentOptions.
The airline displays the available payment options and prompts the passenger to enter payment details for the booking.
The passenger enters payment details and the airline processes them with /pnr/bnpl/purchase.

Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow

The passenger retrieves a booking either by supplying basic PNR information or by logging in to the passenger’s account. If the passenger is logged in, all their reservations are visible.
The /pnr service GET operation returns information for the PNR specified in the parameters. Airlines can prompt passengers for information that identifies a PNR, retrieve the information and format it for display to the passenger.
The airline prompts the passenger for the type of update the passenger would like to make.
The passenger chooses ancillary bundles.
The airline initiates the MTO: ancillaries flow by calling /pnr/mto/ancillaries.
The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillary bundles available for the already purchased itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles to the passenger.
When the passenger selects ancillary bundles, the airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries POST and adds bundles to the reservation.
For newly selected bundles/ancillaries airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete the airline obtains available payment options for the current itinerary by calling /pnr/mto/paymentOptions GET.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.
When the passenger selects form of payment, completes the payment and decides to purchase, the airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /pnr/mto/purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /pnr/mto /purchase service will create a PNR, EMD(s), etc.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
The passenger specifies a PNR for review.
The airlines submits a /pnr GET request.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.

Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary (MYB:CI) Flow

The passenger retrieves a booking either by supplying basic PNR information or by logging in to the passenger’s account. If the passenger is logged in, all their reservations are visible.
The /pnr service GET operation returns information for the PNR specified in the parameters. Airlines can prompt passengers for information that identifies a PNR, retrieve the information and format it for display to the passenger.
After the passenger selects one or more flights to be exchanged, the airline calls pnr/exchange request, GET operation to initialize Exchange process.
The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /pnr/exchange/products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillaries to the passenger.
When the passenger selects ancillaries, the airline calls /pnr/exchange /products/ancillaries POST and adds ancillaries to the reservation.
For newly selected bundles/ ancillaries airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete the airline obtains available payment options for the current itinerary by calling /pnr/exchange /paymentOptions GET.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.
When the passenger selects form of payment, completes the payment and decides to purchase, the airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /pnr/exchange /purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /pnr/exchange /purchase service will create a PNR, EMD(s), etc.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
The passenger specifies a PNR for review.
The airlines submits a /pnr GET request.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.

Offering Seats as a Part of the Bundle

Ancillary bundles can also be created with seats.

The seat may be selected before or after the bundle offer depending on the workflow.

This functionality applies to the following flows:

The Revenue Flow (B2C)
The Revenue: Book Now Pay Later Flow (B2C: BNPL)
The Manage Your Booking: Book Now Pay Later Flow (MYB:BNPL)
Manage Your Booking: Modify Trip Options Flow (MYB:MTO)

Prerequisites:

The airline has the Dynamic Retailer enabled.
Ancillaries must be filed via ATPCO and/or Merchandising Manager.
The aircraft seat map must be configured to display premium (paid) seats.
The airline must have Ancillary Bundles with Seats enabled.

Limitations:

Seat bundles are not offered for interline and codeshare flights.
Seat Bundles are not offered for INS (Infant with Seat) type of the passenger– for example case when 1ADT is travelling with 2 INF.
Direct flights with change of gauge are not eligible for Seat Bundles.
Seat Bundles can only include flight associated (EMD-A) ancillaries, no stand-alone (EMD-S) ancillary types may be included.
B2C Limitations: Upsell - The selected ancillaries/ bundles remain in the session when they apply to the Upsell. Conversely, ancillaries/ bundles are deleted if no longer applicable and the seat assignment requires re-selection.

Limitations in the Post-booking Flows

Manage Your Booking - Book Now Pay Later (MYB: BNPL) Flow

Seat bundles are not be offered in MYB: BNPL flow. The passenger is not be able to add, cancel or modify seat bundles during the purchase of the on-hold booking.

Manage Your Booking - Modify Trip Options (MYB: MTO) Flow

The passenger is not able to add new seat bundle(s) in the MTO flow.
The passengeris not able to remove seat bundle in MTO flow.
The passenger is not able to remove the premium seat associated with the seat bundle purchased in the Revenue flow (B2C) but is able to change one premium seat associated with the seat bundle for another premium seat.

Highlights

The Revenue (B2C) Flow

Airlines can drive information about the ancillary bundles with seats with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

Workflow 1 (seat bundle reservation via /products/ancillaries POST first, then seat selection):

The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles with seats to the passenger.
When the passenger selects a bundle the airline calls /products/ancillaries POST.
The airline validates the passenger selection to ensure there is no duplication in the selected single or bundled ancillaries.
The duplicate check configuration has been added to verify that selected bundles do not contain duplicate services within any selected single or bundled ancillaries on the same sector/ portion of the itinerary. By default the duplicate check is enabled. The configuration is unique to each flow allowing flexibility in selecting flows for activation.
An alternate configuration can be used when the duplicate check is disabled. It does not allow any particular ancillary to be purchased more than once for the same passenger and sector/portion. This configuration is mainly to block any ancillary which cannot be purchased more than once (example seat, Wi-Fi) but at the same time system allows to purchase duplicate ancillary bundle/bundle items.
The airline calls /products/seats GET to obtain seat map for the currently selected itinerary.
If a seat bundle is selected by the passenger, /products/seats GET will return only premium seats as available and all free seats will be marked as unavailable to select.
When the seat bundle is removed during the flow the selected premium seat is removed along with the seat bundle and warning message (“premium.seat.has.been.removed”) is returned in POST ancillary response.
When the passenger selects the premium seats the airline calls POST /products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary. If no premium seat is selected as a part of /products/seat POST the response returns "premium.seat.not.selected.for.seat.bundle" warning message to indicate that premium seat has to be selected by the passenger.
The airline can call /products GET operation to obtain a current list with prices of products that the passenger has added to the itinerary and use this information to build and display a shopping cart.
When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete the airline obtains available payment options for the current itinerary by calling /paymentOptions GET.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.
When the passenger selects their form of payment, completes the payment and decides to purchase, the airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /purchase POST. If authorization is successful, the /purchase service will create a PNR, EMD(s), etc.
The /purchase service will validate that when a seat bundle is added to booking then premium seat also got selected for that passenger, otherwise a validation error message will be returned.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
The passenger specifies a PNR for review.
The airlines submits a /pnr GET request.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.

Workflow 2 (seat selection first, then seat bundle reservation):

The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /products/seats GET to obtain seat map for the currently selected itinerary.
When the passenger selects (the premium) seat, the airline calls POST /products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary.
The airline calls /products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles for presentation to the passenger.
A new query parameter that supports the filtering option gives the possibility to return only seat bundle ancillaries during GET /products/ancillaries service. Seat bundles (if any) will be presented on the Seat page and any other ancillaries (including ancillary bundles) will be shown on the Ancillaries Page. Please note: Seat Bundles will be presented on the Ancillaries Page as well allowing the passenger to select seat bundle on the Seat Page or on the Ancillaries Page.
Example:
https://host/SSW2010/ipcc/api/products/ancillaries?execution=execution&filterKey=SEATBUNDLES

The parameter filterKey=SEATBUNDLES helps to return only seat bundles in the json response. filterKey is the framework level support which can be used in any json service. To enable the filtering there are configuration properties that need to be set up.
When the passenger selects bundle(s) the airline calls /products/ancillaries POST.
If a passenger has already selected a paid (premium) seat and then selects a seat bundle, the price of the paid seat is changed to $0 since it becomes a part of the bundled price. A warning message is sent (seat.price.changed.to.zero.for.seat.bundle) noting the price change.
The airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
The airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /purchase service will create a PNR, EMD(s), etc.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.

Manage Your Booking - Upsell

The response of the /products/upsell (/products/upgrade) POST returns the following message (since seats are always being removed from the session, the seats removed message is being returned):

{
"level":"warn",
"code":"premium.seat.has.been.removed",
"details":{"origin":"MEX","destination":"CUN","departure":"2016-12-07T00:55:00","passengerIndex":1,"code":"seat:6D"}
}

At the same time, system re-assigns the Ancillaries back (if that operation is possible) - ancillaries associated with the seat bundle(s) will be also re-assigned.

If re-association of ancillaries included in the Bundle is not possible then /products/upsell POST returns the following message:

{
"level":"warn",
"code":"seat.bundle.ancillary.has.been.removed",
"details":{"origin":"MEX","destination":"CUN","departure":"2016-12-07T00:55:00","passengerIndex":1,"code":"ancillary:PS3"}
}

Manage Your Booking - Upgrade

For the /products/upgrade POST seats and ancillaries always are dropped and above messages is returned.

Manage Your Booking - Book Now Pay Later Flow (MYB:BNPL)

The passenger shops for flights, builds an itinerary and adds seat bundles to the reservation.
The passenger indicates that he wants to place the booking on hold.
The airline determines the payment options available for Book Now Pay Later by calling /products/bnpl.

The airline displays on-hold options for the passenger‘s selection.
The airline initiates the on-hold booking (including the hold type and the payment method) by calling /products/bnpl/purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /products/bnpl/purchase service creates a PNR with an on-hold status.
- Bundle AE item - HD status - PAYMENT REQUIRED
- Children AE items (with 0 cost) - HK status - CONFIRMED (fee waived)

Manage Your Booking – Book Now Pay Later Flow (MYB:BNPL)

The passenger can successfully purchase on-hold booking with a seat bundle in the MYB: BNPL flow:

The passenger retrieves a booking either by supplying basic PNR information or by logging into the passenger’s account. If the passenger is logged in all their reservations are visible.
The /pnr service GET operation returns information for the PNR specified in the parameters. Airlines can prompt passengers for information that identifies a PNR, to retrieve the information and format it for display to the passenger.
The airline obtains available payment options for the current itinerary by calling /pnr/bnpl/paymentOptions GET.
The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.
When the passenger selects a form of payment, completes the required payment information and decides to purchase, the airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /pnr/bnpl/purchase POST; if authorization is successful, the /pnr/bnpl /purchase service will add also remarks to the PNR.
- Bundle AE item - HI status - FULFILLED
- Children AE items - HK status- CONFIRMED
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful.
The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.

Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO)

The passenger will be able to change the premium seat associated with the seat bundle for another premium seat.
The passenger will be able to purchase single ancillaries or ancillary bundles.

Error Handling Scenarios

Revenue Flow (B2C)

(The premium) Seat and Seat Bundle will always be purchased together. If either one fails all are removed:

If the premium seat associated with the seat bundle fails to be added during /purchase POST, all seats for that portion/sector are removed. No Seat Bundle is sent in the UpdateResevationRQ for that passenger and sector/ portion. The Seat Bundle will not be added to the PNR and the passenger will not be charged for the failed Seat Bundle. A warning message will be returned in the /purchase POST response: “errorReservingAncillaries” and “ssrFailedToAddSomeSeats”.
If the premium seat is successfully added during /purchase POST operation and the Seat Bundle fails to be added, the seat which is associated with that Seat Bundle for that passenger and sector/ portion will also be removed. The warning message above will be returned in the /purchase POST response.

Manage Your Booking: Modify Trip Options Flow (MYB:MTO)

If the passenger wants to change the premium seat associated with the Seat Bundle and for some reason seat assignment (4G) fails to add the new seat selection during /purchase POST operation, the downline will retain the original seat selection.

Ancillary Bundles with Seats – Additional Functionalities

The Manage Your Booking: Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI) - only re-association path:
Standalone ancillaries and standalone bundles;
Flights with change of equipment en-route;
The Manage Your Booking - Cancel and Refund Flow (MYB: CR) - a temporary rule is provided, blocking the passenger from entering the flow if there is a Seat Bundle in the PNR.

Limitations:

Adding/removing Seat Bundle(s) in the Manage Your Booking: Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI) is not permitted.

Highlights:

The Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI)

If the re-association criteria are met the Seat Bundle and all ancillaries included in the bundle will be re-associated with the new flights. The passenger is able to choose premium seats for exchanged flights and seats will be linked with existing seat AE within the seat bundle.
If the passenger does not choose premium seats for exchanged flights Digital Connect will pass the warning which will then be displayed to the passenger via Airline UI. Digital Connect will not fail an exchange transaction and will allow the passenger to complete it without selecting any seats.
Note: To successfully re-associate the Seat Bundle and ancillaries in the Exchange Flow (MYB: CI) and to have the correct seat map retrieved for the new flight(s) the airline should call GET /products/ancillaries prior to GET /products/seats. If airline has Workflow 2 configured in MYB:CI (Seats Page first and then Ancillaries Page), and if GET /products/seats is called first, instead of GET /products/ancillaries then regular seat map (including seats free of charge) will be returned.
If re-association criteria are not met during the MYB: CI flow the exchange process will continue. Non-refundable Seat Bundles will be forfeited. Refundable Seat Bundles will be refunded. Digital Connect will allow the passenger to purchase paid or select free seat.

Standalone ancillaries and standalone bundles:

The passenger will be able to book standalone ancillaries and/or bundles.

Change of gauge:

Digital Connect does not return seat bundles for flights with a change of gauge (flights with the equipment change en route) in Revenue Booking Flow (B2C) and the Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI).
The air shopping response (/products/air GET) has been enhanced to populate change of gauge flag returned from downline system.

Error Handling Scenarios

The Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI)

If 4G command fails to add seat to the segment to which the Seat Bundle is associated the Digital Connect adds seat bundle as an ancillary to the PNR without the seat. A remark regarding seat failure is added to the PNR remarks section.
If Seat bundle fails to be added during UpdateReservation to the exchanged flights all the seats associated with the seat bundle are removed.

MYB: CI E2E Scenario Example

Ancillary Bundles with Seats in the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options Flow

Currently the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options flow (MYB: MTO) offers the following:

Ancillaries (including standalone);
Ancillary bundles (including standalone) without Seats;
Premium chargeable seats.

This feature supports selling Ancillary Bundles with Seats in the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options flow (MYB: MTO). Passengers are able to purchase Ancillary Bundles with Seats no Ancillary Bundle with Seat or a Premium Seat was purchased in the original booking.

There is also an option to remove selected Ancillary Bundles with Seats before purchase if they were added in the MYB:MTO Flow, however, the previously refunded or cancelled ones cannot be refunded.

Notes

Ancillary Bundle with Seat cannot be added if the passenger previously purchased Ancillary Bundle with Seat or a Premium Seat.
Premium Seat associated with Ancillary Bundle with Seat cannot be removed after purchase.
If Ancillary Bundle with Seat is selected, Digital Connect will return Premium Seats as available with an 100% discounted price, meaning $0 on it and all other free seats will be blocked (unavailable).

Prerequisites:

The airline must be a subscriber of Dynamic Retailer.
Ancillary Bundle with Seat must be filed via ATPCO and/or Merchandising Manager.
The aircraft seat map must be configured to display Premium (paid) Seats.
The airline must have Ancillary Bundle with Seat enabled.
The MYB:MTO flow must be initialized via the Ancillary_MTO flow. Ancillary Bundle with Seat will not be returned if the flow is initialized via the Seats_MTO flow.
The passenger does not have Ancillary Bundle with Seat in the original booking for all segments/portions.
The passenger does not have a Premium Seat in the original booking for all segments/portions.

Limitations:

Ancillary Bundle with Seat will be offered on a sector and portion level.
Change of gauge flight will not be supported.

Highlights:

Both workflows are supported:

Workflow 1: ancillaries -> seats -> purchase
Workflow 2: seats -> ancillaries -> purchase

Workflow 1 (seat bundle reservation via /products/mto/ancillaries POST first, then seat selection):

The airline retrieves PNR information and initializes Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow (with verification of MYB Rules) by calling:
- /pnr/mto/ancillaries – for Ancillaries flow – where the passenger can managed ancillaries and seats;
The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
- New feature - Ancillary Bundle with Seat are filtered out either per passenger/segment or passenger/portion.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles with seats to the passenger.
When the passenger selects bundle(s) the airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries POST. The airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger).
The airline calls /products/mto/seats GET to obtain seat map for the currently selected itinerary. If the passenger has selected seat bundle(s) as part of /products/mto/ancillaries POST, then GET seat json response will return "premium.seat.not.selected.for.seat.bundle" warning message to indicate that Premium seat has to be selected by the passenger.
When the passenger selects (the premium) seats, the airline calls POST /pnr/mto/products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary. If no premium seat being selected as part of POST /pnr/mto/products/seats, the response will return "premium.seat.not.selected.for.seat.bundle" warning message to indicate that Premium seat has to be selected by the passenger.
When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete the airline obtains available payment options for the current itinerary by calling /pnr/mto/paymentOptions GET. The airline can format the information for display to the passenger.
When the passenger selects form of payment, completes the payment and decides to purchase, the airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /pnr/mto/purchase POST. If payment/refund is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued/refunded, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful. The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.

Workflow 2 (seat selection first, then seat bundle reservation):

The airline retrieves PNR information and initializes Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow (with verification of MYB Rules) by calling:
- /pnr/mto/seats – for Seat flow – where the passenger can managed ancillaries and seats;
The passenger shops for flights and builds an itinerary.
The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/seats GET to obtain seat map for the currently selected itinerary.
When the passenger selects (the premium) seat, the airline calls POST /pnr/mto/products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary.
The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary.
- New feature - Seat Bundles are filtered out either per passenger/segment or passenger/portion.
The Airline formats information about available ancillary bundles to the passenger.
When the passenger selects bundle(s) the airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries POST. The airline validates if there is no conflict in selected single ancillaries and bundles (the same benefit cannot be selected twice by the passenger) and if there is no conflict in selected premium seat and bundle.
The airline initiates the purchase and ticketing process by calling /pnr/mto/purchase POST; if payment/refund is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued/refunded, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
The response indicates whether the purchase is successful. The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.

Error Handling

If 4G command fails to add seat to the segment to which the Seat Bundle is associated the Digital Connect will retain the original seat selection.