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Points

Redemption Purchase (Award)

Digital Connect supports the purchase of a booking with frequent flyer points/miles:

An enhancement to the payment and ticketing process allows passengers who are loyalty program members with sufficient point balances to use their points to pay for a reservation. Points can be used for the entire reservation, including ancillaries, seats, and taxes.

In phase 1, paying with points can be used only as a single form of payment, so the passenger’s point balance must be sufficient to cover the entire price of the reservation. Also in phase 1, hotels, cars, and insurance cannot be paid with points.

Service /paymentOptions GET will be used as an award payment value's evaluation.

Note that the passenger must be logged in to a frequent flyer account to make use of redemption payment functionality.

See also the Frequent Flyer section for related functionality.

Highlights

Airlines can offer the purchase of a booking with frequent flyer points/miles with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

  1. The airline can offer the passenger the choice to make an award booking search when it prompts the passenger for search criteria.
  2. If the passenger chooses to perform an award booking search, the airline initiates a /products/air/search request with the awardBooking flag set to true. The service returns flights, priced in both cash and points.
  • The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
  1. If at this time, the passenger selects a flight priced in award points, the passenger must be logged in. If the passenger is not logged in airline can prompt the passenger to log in.
  • The passenger supplies frequent flyer credentials, and the airline uses the /login POST service to log the passenger in.
  • The airline uses /profile GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  1. The passenger can continue shopping by selecting flights, seats, and ancillaries, according to the airline’s shopping sequence.(Products cart is updated)
  2. When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete, the airline calls the /paymentOptions GET service. The results will include the available award payment types (depends on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment type).
  3. Airline calls /purchase POST to initiate the payment and ticketing process. The process will confirm that the passenger’s point balance is sufficient to pay for the itinerary.
  4. If payment is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
  5. The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.

An enhancement to the payment and ticketing process that allows passengers who are loyalty program members with sufficient point balances to use their points to pay for an itinerary (including taxes, ancillaries and seats). Hotels, cars, and insurance cannot be paid with points.

The Airline may configure awards to apply as many points as possible and leave the remaining amount to be covered with a 2nd FOP. Alternatively, the Airline can force the user to use only one FOP. An airline can enable points as a default payment or not.

Note that the passenger must be logged in to a frequent flyer account to make use of redemption payment functionality.

See also the Frequent Flyer section for related functionality.

Highlights

Airlines can support passenger paying with points (as a single and multiple Form of Payment) with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

  1. The passenger supplies frequent flyer credentials, and the airline uses the /login POST service to log the passenger in.
  2. The airline uses /login GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  3. The airline can offer the passenger the choice to make an award booking search when it prompts the passenger for search criteria.
  4. If the passenger chooses to perform an award booking search, the airline initiates a /products/air/search request with the awardBooking flag set to true. The service returns flights, priced in both cash and points. For Redemption booking in response, we receive information about the min points threshold (minimum number of points required for specific flights - new field: requiredMinThreshold). The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
  5. If at this time, the passenger selects a flight priced in award points, the passenger must be logged in. If the passenger is not logged in airline can prompt the passenger to log in here.
  6. The passenger supplies frequent flyer credentials, and the airline uses the /login POST service to log the passenger in.
  7. The airline uses /profile GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  8. The passenger can continue shopping by selecting flights, seats, and ancillaries, according to the airline’s shopping sequence. Product cart is updated accordingly.
  9. When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete, the airline calls the /paymentOptions GET service. The results will include the available award payment types (dependent on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment type).
  10. When the passenger selects the type of payment, the airline calls GET /paymentOptions/details/AWARD to obtain fare slider (possible combinations of points and cash used to pay for the fare) and ancillary toggles (possible cash/points options per ancillary/seat group). In addition, this service also returns the current (selected or initial) slider position + (selected or initial) current ancillary/seat toggle statuses.
  11. The passenger can set the desired amount for VCR by using the dynamic Slider (amount can be divided between cash and points - the airline can set the minimum number of points required for the VCR). For the EMDs (ancillaries and seats) the passenger can select toggles (points or cash - without any division). The airline calls /paymentOptions/details/award POST and provides information about the slider position and toggles selection. The response will indicate if the passenger selection is being saved.
  12. If Multiple forms of payment identified based on user selection, the POST /paymentOptions is required to obtain the second cash payment options with residual cash values. In request AWARD payment has to be sent with correct points amount based on current user selection (done via POST /paymentOptions/details/AWARD).
  13. Airline calls /purchase POST to initiate the payment and ticketing process. The process will confirm that the passenger’s point balance is sufficient to pay for the itinerary. If the user did not switch to points then an error will be returned “ Award FOP not allowed”
  14. If payment is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
  15. The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.

An Ability to Pay in Points in the Revenue (B2C) Flow

The passenger is now able to switch to points as his preferred form of payment in the revenue flow. During the switch, a re-price occurs of the current reservation and the products breakdown is returned in points.

Once the passenger selected the switch and he decides to change anything in his reservation [adds/removes ancillaries or seats] reservation will automatically default back to cash. The passenger would need to select switch again to re-price the updated reservation into points.

Highlights

Airlines can support passenger paying with points (as a single and multiple Form of Payment) with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

  1. The passenger supplies his frequent flyer credentials, and the airline uses the /login POST service to log the passenger in. This Login call can be done at any time, but the passenger must be logged in to be able to pay with points. The passenger needs to log in before switching to points (/products PUT call).
  2. The airline uses /login GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  3. The airline prompts the passenger for search criteria and perform a booking search by initiating /products/air/search request with the awardBooking flag set to false. The service returns flights, priced in both cash. The airline formats this information for display to the passenger.
  4. The passenger continues shopping by selecting flights, seats, and ancillaries, according to the airline’s shopping sequence. Product cart is updated accordingly.
  5. When the passenger indicates that shopping is complete, the airline calls the /paymentOptions GET service. The results will include the available award payment types (depends on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment type but the passenger cannot pay with points without switching to points – see point 8).
  6. The airline switches to points modes and makes a call to re-pricing by executling /product PUT.
  7. The airline calls the /paymentOptions GET service to retrieves available forms of payment. In POINTS mode the results will include only award payment types (depends on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment).
  8. When the passenger selects the type of payment, the airline calls GET /paymentOptions/details/AWARD to obtain fare slider (possible combinations of points and cash used to pay for the fare) and ancillary toggles (possible cash/points options per ancillary/seat group). In addition, this service also returns the current (selected or initial) slider position + (selected or initial) current ancillary/seat toggle statuses.
  9. The passenger can set the desired amount for VCR by using the dynamic Slider (amount can be divided between cash and points - the airline can set the minimum number of points required for the VCR). For the EMDs (ancillaries and seats) the passenger can select toggles (points or cash - without any division). The airline calls /paymentOptions/details/award POST and provides information about the slider position and toggles selections. The response will indicate if the passenger’s selection is being saved.
  10. If Multiple forms of payment identified based on passenger’s selection, the POST /paymentOptions is required to obtain the second cash payment options with residual cash values. In request, AWARD payment has to be sent with correct points amount based on current user selection (done via POST /paymentOptions/details/AWARD).
  11. Airline calls /purchase POST to initiate the payment and ticketing process. The process will confirm that the passenger’s point balance is sufficient to pay for the itinerary. If the user did not switch to points then an error will be returned “ Award FOP not allowed”
  12. If payment is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
  13. The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.

An Ability to Pay in Points for Ancillaries and seats in the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow

The passenger now has an option to pay for ancillaries and seats in points in the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow. He is also able to decide which ancillaries or seats he would like to purchase with his points.

The restriction is that each EMD can only be issued as cash or points (a combination for a single EMD of cash or points is not supported).

Prerequisites

Ancillaries need to be filed in Merchandising Manager or ATPCO.

Highlights

Airlines can support passenger paying with points for ancillaries and/or seats (as a single or multiple Form of Payment) in the Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB:MTO) Flow with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

  1. 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;
    • /pnr/mto /seats - for Seats flow –where the passenger can manage only seats.
  2. The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries GET to obtain list of ancillaries available for the currently selected itinerary (returned as per configuration cash only, points only or cash or points). The Airline formats information about available inventory and sold out ancillaries to the passenger.
  3. When the passenger selects ancillaries, the airline calls /pnr/mto/products/ancillaries POST and validates the quantity of the ancillaries selected by the passenger – if equal or lower than available inventory. If the validation is successful this operation adds ancillaries to the reservation.
  4. The airline calls /pnr/mto/products/seats GET to obtain seat map for the currently selected itinerary (returned as per configuration cash only, points only or cash or points). The Airline formats information about the seat map and available seats to the passenger.
  5. When the passenger selects seats, the airline calls POST /pnr/mto/products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary.
  6. The airline can call /pnr/mto/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.
  7. When the passenger indicates that modified shopping is complete, the airline calls the /pnr/mto/paymentOptions GET service to obtain available forms of payment (including Award FOP - dependent on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment, but user cannot pay with Award without switching to points). If the passenger previously switched to points, only Award will be returned.
  8. The passenger supplies frequent flyer credentials, and the airline uses the /login POST service to log the passenger in (login can be done at any previous stages).
  9. The airline uses /login GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  10. The airline switches to points modes and made re-pricing by calling /pnr/mto/product PUT.
  11. The airline calls the /pnr/mto/paymentOptions GET service to retrieves available forms of payment. In POINTS mode the results will include only award payment types (dependent on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment).
  12. When the passenger selects type of payment, the airline calls GET /pnr/mto/paymentOptions/details/AWARD to obtain ancillary toggles (possible cash/points options per ancillary/seat group). In addition, this service also returns the current (selected or initial) current ancillary/seat toggle statuses.
  13. The passenger can set the proper amount the EMDs (ancillaries and seats) by using toggles (points or cash - without any division). The airline calls /pnr/mto/paymentOptions/details/award POST and provides information about toggles positions. The response will indicate if the passenger selection is being saved.
  14. If Multiple forms of payment identified based on user selection, the POST /pnr/mto/paymentOptions is required to obtain the second cash payment options with residual cash values. In request AWARD payment has to be sent with correct points amount based on current user selection (done via POST /pnr/mto/paymentOptions/details/AWARD).
  15. Airline calls /pnr/mto/purchase POST to initiate the payment and ticketing process. The process will confirm that the passenger’s point balance is sufficient to pay for the itinerary. If user did not switch to points then error will be returned “ Award FOP not allowed”
  16. If payment is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
  17. The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.