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Calendar Shopping

Calendar shopping gathers data for a range of dates and returns it in a calendar format, allowing passengers to easily determine whether they can obtain a more favorable fare by changing their travel dates.

When calendar was processed during Interline Branded Fares Shopping, the lowest fare returned was sometimes not found in branded flight list of the shopping response. Now the results retuned are consistent with the flight list section, what increases customer confidence and satisfaction.

It also ensures that only fares that belong to a brand are considered and returned during all Calendar shopping solutions, and that fares belonging to different brands are not selected within a leg and possible mix of brands between legs. 

Additionally, it provides more available brand configurations, possibility to choose brands for interline and codeshare flights and provides full support for Multi City searches.

The calendar views that are included are as follows: 

  • 30 Day calendar,
  • NxN matrix,
  • 7-day ribbon.

This functionality works in the following flows: 

  • The Revenue Booking Flow (B2C); 
  • The Manage Your Booking - Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI) – The Revenue path. 

Types of calendar search: 

  • Calendar30 (unbundled) 
  • Matrix (bundled) 
  • Flexible

To set specific type of calendar search in /products/air/search request parameter must be set accordingly: ‘searchType’ = [CALENDAR30, MATRIX, FLEXIBLECALENDAR]

Some of the important options available to airlines in calendar flight search and display are listed in the following table: 
 

Search or Display Functionality

Options

Advanced shopping

Calendar is available in advance shopping.

Available shopping paths

Calendar is available in B2C and RBE (fares returned in miles/points)

Other options

Use rules to determine when calendar searches should be performed and flights displayed in calendar format.

General display options

IBE can show outbound and return calendars simultaneously, or sequentially (the return calendar is only displayed after the passenger selects an outbound flight).

Fare display options

Per-leg Round-trip, absolute amount Round-trip, price difference

Multi-city

Multicity is not offered in calendar search and in IBF Calendar

Interline

Interline, or as the full name goes, IBF (Interline Branded Fares) Calendar Shopping can be activated only when an airline activates Advance Shopping

The airline can also opt to override the origin and destination restriction and force the UI to bring the customer to the Calendar page. This can be done via Search API by setting the searchType parameter in request call to CALENDAR. The Digital Connect will then perform a calendar shopping and UI will display the Calendar page regardless of itinerary restrictions configured. 

Prerequisites 

  • Calendar Shopping must be enabled. 
  • Rule in IntelliSell must be set to true to send Brands in calendar response 

Highlights 

The flight search operation will now include valid brand ID in the /product/air/search GET response.

The airline obtains search criteria and submits a /products/air/search request, POST operation to get a list of flights matching the search criteria: 

  • BRANDED Search Type

For all the "unbundledAlternateDateOffers" to have a valid brand ID returned the following criteria must be met: 

  • CALENDAR30 Search Type
  • the BRANDED search type must be passed in the /products/air/search POST request

For all the "unbundledAlternateDateOffers" to have a valid brand ID returned the following criteria must be met: 

  • the CALENDAR30 search type must be passed in the /products/air/search POST request
  • MATRIX Search Type

For all the "bundledAlternateDateOffers" to have a valid brand ID returned the following criteria must be met: 

  • the MATRIX search type must be passed in the /products/air/search POST request 
  • FLEXIBLE Search Type  

For all the "bundledAlternateDateOffers" or ”unbundledAlternateDateOffers” (depending on the case) to have a valid brand ID returned the following criteria must be met: 

  • the FLEXIBLE search type must be passed in the /products/air/search POST request

Calendar Matrix 

Digital Connect makes it possible to search for flights using NxN or NxM Calendar Matrix display. Airlines can display both inbound and outbound flights combined for the corresponding period in a Calendar Matrix format: 

  • Displaying a correct status of flights i.e. sold out and non-operational.
  • Providing departure date and time of a return trip (Inbound) instead of arrival date and time. 

Note: Calendar Matrix is not displayed by passenger but by trip. 

The results are returned in bundles, as well as the price which is displayed (usually) as lowest possible fare (including also branded fares) for given combination. 

This functionality applies to the following flows: 

  • The Revenue Flow (B2C), 
  • The Redemption Flow (RBE). 

Note: This search type only applies for Round Trip type searches. 

Prerequisites

  • Airlines have RT (return) display and Matrix format configured (Matrix is available for RT trips only).
  • Airlines have IBF enabled (Matrix is available for advanced shopping IBF only).

Interline Branded Fares (IBF) - Calendar Shopping

In the past, when the calendar is processed during Interline Branded Fares Shopping, the lowest fare shown in the calendar portion of the display is sometimes not found in the branded flight list of the shopping response.

Now in Digital Connect there is a consistency in the results returned in the calendar portion of the display and the flight list section, what is increasing customer confidence and satisfaction. It also ensures that only fares that belong to a brand are considered and returned during all Calendar shopping solutions, and that fares belonging to different brands are not selected within a leg and possible mix of brands between legs.

The calendar views that are included are as follows:

  • 30 Day Calendar,
  • NxN,
  • 7 day ribbon.

This functionality works in the following flows:

  • The Revenue Booking Flow (B2C);
  • The Manage Your Booking - Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI) – The Revenue path.

Prerequisites

  • Calendar Shopping must be enabled.
  • Rule in iSell must be set to true to send Brands in response to expose in calendar along with fares.

Highlights

The flight search operation will now include valid brand ID in the /product/air/search GET response.

The airline obtains search criteria from the passenger and submits a /products/air/search request, POST operation to get a list of flights matching the search criteria:

  • BRANDED Search Type

    If the calendar brand configuration is enabled in Digital Connect and SE and the BRANDED search type was passed in the /products/air/search POST request, then all the "unbundledAlternateDateOffers" will have valid brand ID returned.

  • CALENDAR30 Search Type

    If the calendar brand configuration is enabled in Digital Connect and SE and the CALENDAR30 search type was passed in the /products/air/search POST request, then all the "unbundledAlternateDateOffers" will have valid brand ID returned.

  • MATRIX Search Type

    If the calendar brand configuration is enabled in Digital Connect and SE is enabled and the MATRIX search type was passed in the /products/air/search POST request, then all the "bundledAlternateDateOffers" will have valid brand ID returned.