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Points Purchase

Digital Connect allows the price of ancillaries in points to be defined as a fixed points, or dynamic conversion based on the OC fee filing ancillaries with fixed type of conversion. Airlines are able to simplify their OC filing and use the same cash price across all points of sale, whilst achieving the desired price in points as well.

This feature solves calculation problems by as conversion and rounding logic are on the downline system side (QueryAncillaries and GetSeatMap services) For both the Dynamic Conversion and Fixed Price Ancillaries Digital Connect uses points in the TotalFee Section as presented from downline.

Digital Connect reads:

  • TotalFee
  • Cash
  • Points
  • Discounts in cash
  • Discounts in points

In terms of the payfields segment the conversion ratio (Item-Rate) is affected as below:

  • For Fixed Points Ancillaries it should be sent as 0.0. This is for base fare for Ancillaries.
  • For Dynamic Awards for Ancillairies it should be sent as it is received from the downline system.
  • For Ancillaries taxes it should be sent as it is received from the downline system for both Fixed Price and for Dynamic Awards.

This functionality works in the following flows:

  • Points in the Revenue Booking Flow (B2C);
  • The Redemption Booking Flow (RBE);
  • The Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options Flow (MYB: MTO);
  • The Manage Your Booking – Frequent Flyer Upgrade Flow (MYB: FQTU);
  • The Manage Your Booking - Change Itinerary Flow (MYB: CI) – date/flight/route changes;
  • The Manage Your Booking - Cancel Refund Flow (MYB: CR) – ticket refunds.

Prerequisites:

The airline needs to upload ACD (Award Conversion Data) file with ancillaries filed with Y fixed type conversion.

Highlights:

Airlines can support passenger paying with fixed points for ancillaries and/or seats (as a single or multiple Form of Payment) in the Revenue Flow (B2C) with the following sequence of Digital Connect service calls:

  1. 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.
  2. Airline UI displays the returned flights to the passenger on the Flights page.
  3. After the passenger selects one or more flights, the airline submits the /products/air POST operation to add the flight(s) to the itinerary and store the itinerary in the session.
  4. The airline prompts passenger for passenger details e.g. passport information.
  5. The airline uses /passengers POST to add passenger to the itinerary.
  6. The airline calls /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.
  7. When the passenger selects ancillaries, the airline calls /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.
  8. The airline calls /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.
  9. When the passenger selects seats, the airline calls POST /products/seats to add seats selected by the passenger to the itinerary.
  10. 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.
  11. When the passenger indicates that modified shopping is complete, the airline calls the /paymentOptions GET service to obtain available forms of payment (including Award FOP - dependent on configuration - could return LP or/and FF award payment, but the passenger cannot pay with Award without switching to points). If the passenger previously switched to points, only Award will be returned.
  12. 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).
  13. The airline uses /login GET service to retrieve the passenger profile details, including point balance.
  14. The airline switches to points modes and made re-pricing by calling /product PUT.
  15. The airline calls the /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).
  16. When the passenger selects type of payment, the airline calls GET /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.
  17. The passenger can set the proper amount the EMDs (ancillaries and seats) by using toggles (points or cash - without any division). The airline calls /paymentOptions/details/award POST and provides information about toggles positions. The response will indicate if the passenger selection is being saved.
  18. 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).
  19. 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 user did not switch to points then error will be returned “Award FOP not allowed”.
  20. If payment is successful, the PNR and other supporting documents are issued, and the airline’s application receives results indicating success.
  21. The airline can call /pnr GET to retrieve PNR details, which can be formatted for display to the passenger.