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Understanding the Exchange Shopping Web Service

This chapter provides information about the types of transactions supported by the Exchange Shopping service and points out invalid requests. It also includes definitions of essential terms associated with the Exchange Shopping transactions used throughout this document.

Exchange Shopping Requirements

System requirements

The user PCC must have both OpenSystemsUser and OrchestratedServiceUser SIM attributes added.

Eligible Documents

  • Exchange Shopping applies to flight tickets only, it is not intended for non-flight documents such as Electronic Miscellaneous Documents (EMD) or Miscellaneous Charge Orders (MCO)
  • Only one flight document per passenger is allowed
  • Voluntary Changes (Category 31) rules must be filed for all fares on the ticket being used to shop. If Category 31 rules are not available for all ticketed fares, Exchange Shopping will fail.

Itineraries

  • Exchange Shopping supports online, interline, one-way, round trip, open jaw and circle trip itineraries, as well as itineraries including a maximum of one side trip.
  • Supported segment status codes: BK, HK, IK, RR, and SS.
  • OPEN segments are supported.
  • The new itinerary may have a maximum of 16 segments, including flown segments and surface sectors (ARNKs).

Passengers

  • The request may include up to four (4) passengers.
  • A combination of up to four different passenger type codes (PTCs) is supported (e.g. 2ADT + 2CNN).
  • Requests for multiple passengers are only supported for the same ticketed itinerary (marketing carrier, flight number, booking class, board and off cities, travel date, coupon status and currency). This applies to all flown and un-flown coupons on the ticket.
  • All available passenger type codes (PTCs) are supported except: ASB, BUD, AST, NSB, CSB, YSB, SDB, MSB, YCB, CMA/CMP.
  • Individual requests for infants without a seat (INF) are not supported. An infant without a seat must be included in the request with an accompanying adult.

Options Returned

  • Exchange Shopping will return up to 50 itinerary options.
  • The options returned may be in different booking classes or in different cabins and will be flagged accordingly in the response.
  • Requests for multiple passengers will return the same new itinerary options for all passengers.
  • Seat availability is always checked for the total number of passengers in the request.
  • When the request includes infants (INF), the Exchange Shopping response may include an INF fare option in a booking class that is not available, as INF passengers do not occupy a seat. For more information, please see “Passenger Type Code”.
  • The Itinerary options returned will include all available ancillaries (Air Extras).

Definitions

Leg

A Leg is a portion of travel between two stopover points. A leg can be a single flight or consist of multiple connecting flights.

In this User Guide, Leg may also be referred to as portion of travel or O&D (Origin and Destination).

The following definition of stopover applies to Exchange Shopping:

  • Countries except USA/Canada – A stopover is when a passenger arrives at an intermediate point and is scheduled to depart more than 13 hours after the scheduled arrival time (local time).
    If the connection time is greater than 13 hours, consider adding a separate leg within the Exchange Shopping payload.
  • USA/Canada – A stopover is when a passenger arrives at an intermediate point and is scheduled to depart more than 4 hours after the scheduled arrival time (local time).

Exchange Shopping Xpath for Leg

ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation

Example 1 – Single Segment Legs

The following itinerary has two legs with single segments:

  • Leg 1: 18 JAN from SVO to MRV

  • Leg 2: 23 JAN from MRV to SVO

1 U01304Y 18JAN J SVOMRV HK1 840A 1050A /E 2 U05371Y 23JAN Q MRVSVO HK1 640A 905A /E

Example 2 – Multiple Segments Legs

The following itinerary has two legs with multiple segments:

  • Leg 1: 23 JAN from LED to JFK

  • Leg 2: 29 JAN from JFK to LED

1 U0 13Y 23JAN Q LEDSVO HK1 1220P 135P /E 2 U0 102Y 23JAN Q SVOJFK HK1 340P 510P /E 3 U0 101Y 29JAN W JFKSVO HK1 210P 820A 30JAN Q /E 4 U0 12Y 30JAN Q SVOLED HK1 1005A 1130A /E

Mandatory elements for each leg:

Element Description Exchange Shopping Path
Start Location Departure city/airport of this portion of travel - three-letter city or airport code ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/StartLocation
End location Arrival city/airport of this portion of travel - three-letter city or airport code ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/EndLocation
Departure or arrival date or date and time Date or date and time of either departure or arrival of given portion of travel.
For legs that are not shopped, the recommendation is to use departure date.
For shopped legs, use the date or date and time search criteria, including additional optional time parameters if required.
For more information on available parameters, see - Departure or Arrival Date or Date and Time - Search for Alternate Times before and/or after Departure Time - Departure or Arrival Time Range		 ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinnationInformation/DateTimeSelection/DepartureDate ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/DateTimeSelection/DepartureDateTime ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/DateTimeSelection/ArrivalDate

Note:

  • Depending on the search parameters added and if a leg is shopped, segment information may also be required. For more information, please see “Segment”.

  • If there are multiple legs in the Exchange Shopping request, the legs and segments must be sent in chronological order. If segments are not in chronological order, an error message will be returned, and the transaction will be terminated.

Segment

A segment is an air segment that is part of the leg.

Exchange Shopping Xpath

ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/RelatedSegment

Example 1 – Single Segment Legs

There are two legs in the following itinerary, each consisting of one segment:

1 U01304Y 18JAN J SVOMRV HK1 840A 1050A /E 2 U05371Y 23JAN Q MRVSVO HK1 640A 905A /E

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 1: with start location at SVO, end location in MRV and departure date on 18 JAN

    Segment (RelatedSegment) 1: U0 1304 Y 18JAN SVOMRV HK 840A 1050A

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 2: with start location in MRV, end location in SVO and departure date on 23 JAN

    Segment (RelatedSegment) 1: U0 5371 Y 23JAN MRVSVO HK 640A 905A

Example 2 – Multiple Segment Legs

There are two legs in following itinerary, each consisting of two segments (connecting flights):

1 U0 13Y 23JAN Q LEDSVO HK1 1220P 135P /E 2 U0 102Y 23JAN Q SVOJFK HK1 340P 510P /E 3 U0 101Y 29JAN W JFKSVO HK1 210P 820A 30JAN Q /E 4 U0 12Y 30JAN Q SVOLED HK1 1005A 1130A /E

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 1: with start location at LED, end location at JFK and departure date on 23 JAN

     -Segment (RelatedSegment) 1: U0 13Y 23JAN LEDSVO HK 1220P 135P
 -Segment (RelatedSegment) 2: U0 102Y 23JAN SVOJFK HK1  340P 510P

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 2: with start location at JFK, end location at LED and departure date on 29 JAN

     -Segment (RelatedSegment) 1: U0 101Y 29JAN JFKSVO HK   210P 820A 30JAN
 -Segment (RelatedSegment) 2: U0 12Y 30JAN SVOLED HK    1005A 1130A

Leg Shopped vs. Leg Not Shopped

The terms “shopped” and “not shopped” are used to indicate if alternate itinerary options should be searched for the entire itinerary or only for a specific portion of travel. “Not shopped” legs are portions of the itinerary that shall remain unchanged.

In the Exchange Shopping request, this is reflected with the following attributes:

When a Leg is… And Exchange Shopping should…. …set ShopIndicator value to Notes
Shopped Search for alternate itinerary solutions “true” At least one shopped leg per request is required. If no leg is shopped, an error message will be returned and the transaction will be terminated.
Not shopped Keep the segments for this portion of travel unchanged in all options returned. “false” The same flight segments as originally ticketed (airline, flight number, date) will be returned for not shopped legs, however the booking class may be changed to secure the best pricing solution. Segments with coupon status checked-in (“CKIN”) or boarded (“LFTD”) that are not shopped will always be returned in the same booking class as originally ticketed.

Exchange Shopping Xpath

ExchangeShoppingRQ/OriginDestinationInformation/@shopIndicator

Example

1 U01304Y 18JAN J SVOMRV HK1 0840 1050 /E 2 U05371Y 23JAN Q MRVSVO HK1 0640 0905 /E 1 U01304Y 18JAN J SVOMRV HK1 0840 1050 /E 2 U05371Y 23JAN Q MRVSVO HK1 0640 0905 /E

The passenger wants to return 1 day earlier (22 JAN), however the outbound flight (SVO-MRV) remains unchanged.

In this scenario, the Exchange Shopping request will contain two legs:

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 1: SVO-MRV departing on 18 JAN, shopIndicator = “false” When a leg is not shopped, full information about the booked segment(s) is required. -Segment (RelatedSegment) 1: U01304Y 18JAN SVOMRV HK 840A 1050A

  • Leg (OriginDestinationInformation) 2: MRV-SVO departing on 22 JAN, shopIndicator = “true”