The purpose of this functionality is to:

• Solve pricing and combinability issues
• Handle interline brands

Responses are returned as whole itineraries in bundles with:

• Checked combinability
• Checked price for the certain itinerary
• Brand parity

Bundles

How bundles are created:

• Outbound flights: 100, 101, 102, 103, 104;
• Inbound flights: 200, 201, 202, 203, 204;
• Ask shopping on the rules of creating bundles.

Bundle order:

• (100 + 200), (100 + 201), (100 + 202), (100 + 203), (100 + 204);
• (101 + 200), (101 + 202), …
• (102 + 200), (102 + 202), …
• (103 + 200), (103 + 202), …
• (104 + 200), (104 + 202), …

Brand parity concept:

With the first trip in Round Trip or Multi City search, results are always returned in bundles and the prices are always returned with Brand Parity meaning each leg has the same brand.

Example:

• YL – economy light, YC – economy classic, YF – economy freedom

• Bundles created for RT with brand parity: 100 YL + 200 YL, 100 YC + 200 YC, 100 YF + 200 YF

Note: if for the initial IBF implementation there was no availability for any of brands – this was not included in the results for the flight:

• Change brand for soldout

• Prices within brand combinations

• Price per leg might change due to cross-brand limitations

Change Brand for Soldout

Diversity

The number of bundles is limited so there is limited availability, especially on domestic markets with heavy traffic (especially on outbound flights), so it is used to avoid limiting availability.

In diversity it is assumed that each outbound leg is compatible with each inbound leg. With diversity set to true (Diversity: true) original combability map is created by combining first outbound with each inbound, second outbound with each inbound, etc. 

Note: Diversity can be turned on for markets with fully combinable fares 
Potential issues: 

• Multiple prices of the same flight depending on combinations: 
  • Tax issues,
  • Fare basis issues.
• If market is not fully combinable – there might be some offers which will not be priced.

Brand Grouping

Shopping branding response:

• Legacy: all brands returned
• IBF: Shop by Brand.

Configuration:

• sat.brandGrouping.enabled=true;
• sat.brandGrouping.b2cGroups=G1:GO,GP,GW,EV,FD;G2:PV,PF,BS,BU;G3:GO,GP,GW,EV,FD,PV,PF,BS,BU;
• sat.cabinToBrandGroup.b2cGroupMapping= ECONOMY:G1,FIRST:G3,BUSINESS:G2;

Sorting Offers

• From shopping perspective – whole bundles are sorted;
• Each sorting parameter can be added only once:
  • Impossible to sort by the same parameter;
  • Example:
    • Sort by departure time, leg 1 - OK,
    • Sort by elapsed time, leg 2 - OK,
    • Sort by departure time, leg 1, leg 2 - IMPOSSIBLE.

Search Types