Digital Connect offers airlines a self–service re-accommodation feature which enables customers to change their bookings that have been impacted by irregular situations or would like to offer passengers extra privileges regarding their bookings.  

Airlines are responsible for notifying their customers that an irregular operation occurred, and the booking may be self-serviced on their website.  

Digital Connect also integrates Exchange Shop (Exchange Context Shop) and Self-Service Re-accommodation feature (involuntary exchanges) into one exchange shopping flow. Airlines does not have to choose between these solutions. Passengers are now able to shop for new flights using SSRCM waivers in Exchange Shop (when feature enabled). They can see the correct prices of flights with waivers and without them. 

To be able to pass the correct information in the Exchange Shop Request and receive in the Response offers from Self Service Re-accommodation Manager the following processes occur in the Exchange Shop flow: 

• Exchange Shop integration with services: GetRes, ACSFlightDetails, SSRCM; 
• An additional call to GetRes, ACSFlightDetails and Self Service Re-accommodation Manager (SSRCM) in QueryProducts in Exchange Shop when PNR is IROP-affected; 
• Handling other than HK statuses e.g. exchange flow with no active segments - getting the flight status WK (Was Confirmed) instead of HK (Hold Confirmed) or SC(Schedule Change) /WK (Was Confirmed).

The required remarks from Exchange Shop and from SSRCM are added to the PNR: 

• 5H remarks received from SSRCM to indicate that ticket was exchanged according to SSRCM rule, 
• 5H remarks received from Exchange Shop, 
• If multiple SSRCM rules are returned, all need to be stored in the remarks.

Prerequisites 

• The airline must be using Self Service Re-accommodation Manager (SSRCM). 
  • Rules for IROP-affected flights need to be set up in the Self Service Re-accommodation tool. 
  • Rules for the flights which are not affected by irregular operations however and airline gives special privileges above standard fare rules need to be set up in Self Service Re-accommodation Manager (SSRCM)  
• IROP must be configured in Digital Connect. 
• Manage Your Booking – Change Itinerary flow (MYB: CI) and/or Manage Your Booking – Cancel and Refund flow (MYB: CR) must be enabled. 
• The airline must configure queue numbers for each new queue created. 
• Booking must be ticketed  
• To have an option to exchange the ticket, it must be paid prior to IROP situation. 
  • Book Now Pay Later – if the PNR is not fulfilled (no tickets issued), Digital Connect blocks the purchase transaction.

Limitations 

• This feature is not supported in the following scenarios: 
• Partially flown reservation with segments in face of the PNR (flown segment is not purged from the front of the PNR)  
• Partial VCR Exchanges (partial document exchange - exchanging only affected coupons and leaving in the original VCR not affected coupons); DC always exchanges entire ticket 
• Partial VCR Refunds (partial document refund - refunding only affected coupons and leaving in the original VCR not affected coupons); 
• Interline flights 
• Codeshare flights 
• PNRs with Multiple VCRs for the same Passenger  
• Multicity scenarios  
• Exception (both conditions must apply for the exchange process to go through): 
  • If Multicity is created by modifications made by Digital Connect Service (performing .HKALL and adding related remark). 
  • If an itinerary has two legs and Return Trip changed due to IROP situation, the reservation is changed to Multicity. 
• Loyalty bookings  
• Staff /ID tickets  
• Flight Promotions (Flight Promotions are not supported in post-booking flows). 
• Manage Your Booking – Modify Trip Options (MYB: MTO) flow is blocked when PNR has segments in WK/SC status 
• INVOLUNTARY REFUNDS work only for refundable tickets. If a ticket is non-refundable, it is not refunded even in case of flight cancellation or delay. 
• INVOLUNTARY EXCHANGES work for NON-EXCHANGEABLE tickets but only if offer “Change Fee and Fare difference waive” is applied. If offer type “Change Fee waive” is applied, the exchange transaction fails.

Digital Connect behavior depends on fare rules and offer types: 

Refund Scenarios 

• NONREFUNDABLE fares – the tickets are not refunded even if a valid SSRCM rule with waivers is set up. The Passenger needs to contact the Airline Agent or Airline Call Centre to get the refund. 
• REFUNDABLE fares – the tickets are refunded: 
  • REFUNDABLE fares without a cancellation fee – a full refund is processed 
  • REFUNDABLE fares with a cancellation fee – a full refund is processed when offer type “Cancel fee waive” is applied. 

Exchange Scenarios 

• NONEXCHANGEABLE fares – the tickets are exchanged with no additional collection when offer type “Change Fee and Fare difference waive” is applied. 
• EXCHANGEABLE fares with and without a change of booking fee – the tickets are exchanged: 
  • EXCHANGEABLE fares with a change of booking fee waive: 
    • Without fare difference (the same fare available) – no additional collection 
    • With fare difference – fare difference must be collected 
  • EXCHANGEABLE fares with a change of booking fee waive and fare difference waive: 
    • Without fare difference (the same fare available) – no additional collection 
    • With Fare difference – no additional collection 

If retrieving eligibilities call fails, the Passenger continues the exchange process as normal but benefits for IROP PNRs are not applied.

Digital Connect Self Service Reaccomodation feature meets airlines' expectations of self-service capability of managing booking by customers in case of irregular operations. Digital Connect performs different scenarios:  

1. Digital Connect performs .HKALL host entry that does not exchange the tickets, but revalidates them. Only Ancillary Reaccom Utility (ARU) exchanges the tickets if needed: 
   Digital Connect still attempts to perform .HKALL if ticket has not been exchanged; it resolves the situations where only a revalidation is needed. .HKALL returns 'success'; however, the ticket needs to be exchanged. Cases, where ticket exchange is likely required, include: 
   • Route changes – different transit point, board or off-board point
   • Route changes – direct flight changed to connecting flights
   • Route changes – connecting flights changed to direct flight
   • Reservation Booking Designator (RBD) changes – original booking class changes
   • Operating Carrier – PNR booked on an OA segment
   • VCR status – VCR status is other than OK. 
      
2. WK/SC scenarios - this  scenario happens when disrupted flight  originally with HK status in the PNR is changed to WK (Was Confirmed) and new flight is offered to customer with SC status (Schedule Changed).
    
3. WK scenarios – enabling Passengers to exchange PNRs with segments in WK status when an Airline did not make an alternative booking. When the flight is cancelled due to IROP (Irregular Operations) situation and no alternative flights can be offered to the passenger. This capability offers Exchanges when an Airline changed the segment status in a PNR from HK (hold confirmed) to WK (was confirmed) but did not book any new flight/flights (no SC segment in the PNR). If any WK segments are displayed on the face of the PNR an Airline does not block Manage Your Booking – Exchange flow. The .HKALL call is not executed, therefore, inactive segment(s) in WK status are not removed from the face of the PNR and Passengers are able to search for new flights, select them and proceed with exchange transaction. 
   
   The old rule iropExchangeWK (IROPExchangeWKRule class) blocking the access to exchange flow, when at least 1 segment is only in WK status, has been removed and replaced by the new rule. The new rule iropOnlyWK (IROPOnlyWKRule class) does not block access to exchange flow and prevents removing segments in WK status thus allowing Passengers to search for new flights, select them and proceed with an exchange transaction. When the Passenger completes the new flight selection, selects the form of payment (only when additional collection for an exchange is required according to the rules set in SSRCM – please refer to Exchange Scenarios) and decides to exchange the ticket, the application calls pnr/exchange/purchase POST which executes the following actions: 
   • purchase and ticket an exchanged booking 
   • re-associate seats and ancillaries if reassociation criteria are fulfilled 
   • change SS statuses to HK 
   • remove all WK statuses.
      
4. Queue placement – 3 queues are available for Irregular Operation events by placing the below scenarios into dedicated reservation queues:
   • Ancillaries are not available on new Flight or ancillary/seat re-association failed.
   • The application was unsuccessful in exchanging IROP-affected VCR.
   • The application was unsuccessful in cancelling/refunding IROP-affected VCR.
     Handling of queue placement of PNRs for defined scenarios during IROP irregularities. New configurable queues have been added for the following scenarios:
     • Ancillaries are not available on new Flight or ancillary/seat re-association failed; 
       • key: SSRCM.emd.exchange.failed 
       • default value: 465 
     • Application was unsuccessful in exchanging IROP-affected VCR; 
       • key: SSRCM.VCR.exchange.failed
       • default value: 499 
     • Application was unsuccessful in cancelling/refunding IROP-affected VCR. 
       • key: SSRCM.cancel.failed
       • default value: 500
     • Those PNRs can be manually handled by the Airline Agent. 
5. Sending coupon information to Automated Exchanges and Refund (AER) – Digital Connect sends coupon number(s) and entitlement(s) in the AER request irrespective if the ticket is partially flown or fully unflown in order to re-issue ticket correctly for impacted IROP segment(s). 
   
   Digital Connect calls AE with coupon number(s) and entitlement(s) during an IROP situation. This applies to IROP exchanges for full and partial exchange. Coupon section is always sent in AERRQ irrespective if VCR is partially used or open. It does not apply to regular exchanges or schedule change scenarios. 
   When the Passenger selects the form of payment, completes the new flight selection and decides to exchange the ticket, the application calls /pnr/exchange/purchase POST with modified AER call:
   • Digital Connect sends coupon section with coupon details for the IROP-affected PNRs;
     • Digital Connect does not send remaining open coupons to AER.
   • When Digital Connect sends the coupon section, it also needs to send the entitlement;
     • Entitlements are the segments to be issued on the new ticket resulting from IROP-affected segment(s). 
        
6. Skipping BrandCode in AERRQ - in case of IROP exchange, when the fare selected by the Passenger is eligible for fare difference waive and change fee waive and as a result, the exchange is without additional collection, then the BrandCode parameter is not sent to the AER service. 

Digital Connect changed handling of 1st AER call (Automated Exchanges and Refund) for the IROP-affected flight(s) eligible for a change of booking waive and fare difference waive. The 1st AER call prices the newly selected itinerary in the context of the original ticket. <Transaction Action="Exchange">. 

When the Passenger selects such flight(s) Digital Connect ignores the configuration exchange by brand and does not include BrandCode in the AERRQ. As a result, the INVOL or SCHED change AER action is performed. Digital Connect continues the exchange process. 

For other fares 1st AER call remains the same and BrandCode is included in the AERRQ: 

• standard fare without benefits is selected – the BrandCode is sent
• free fare selected on the outbound and standard fare selected on the inbound – the BrandCode is sent.