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Release Notes: September 15, 2023 Pt. 2 Follow

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Sabre NDC Content

The New Distribution Capability (NDC) is a set of standards developed by the International Airline Transport Association (IATA) to enhance how airlines offer their flights for online booking. It allows airlines to present more engaging and personalized information about their flights.

Sabre has implemented a New Distribution Capability (NDC) into their system to enhance how airlines offer their flights for online booking. Sabre's NDC-enabled platform allows users to easily search for flights, make bookings, and manage orders. Some notable functions include:

An enhanced version of the Bargain Finder Max (BFM) Air Shopping API that integrates NDC, ATPCO, and low-cost carrier (LCC) offers.

  • APIs for offer verification, order creation, and order modification.
  • Access to NDC offers from a specific point of sale:
    • Check with your GDS representative for available content.

The following are the types of workflows currently supported; prime booking flows with fulfillment, cancel pre-fulfillment, and servicing post-fulfillment:

  • Shop > Price > Book > Reserve
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay
  • Shop > Price > Book > Cancel
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay > Cancel within void period
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay > Refund

Taking a closer look, this entails:

  • Shopping for airline offers
  • Price validation of the offer
  • Creation of an order
  • Cancellation of an order (pre-fulfillment)
  • Fulfillment of an order
  • Cancellation of an order (post-fulfillment)

The following will be implemented in upcoming Sabre NDC releases: 

  • Seat selection, modifications, and exchanges will be supported in upcoming releases.
  • NDC content is not included when an air itinerary is modified or added to an existing trip.

Sabre NDC notes:

  • NDC will be ticketed at the time of purchase.
  • When an NDC booking is canceled, the ticket will be automatically voided or refunded when possible.
  • Any NDC airline activated in the GDS will be supported.
  • Best practice: If utilizing NDC, use Search by Price for the best shopping experience.
  • All NDC support is now handled by Webservices.

Enabling Sabre NDC in the Online Booking Tool

Before using Sabre NDC, users must request NDC Carrier Activation.  All NDC Carrier activations are done in Sabre Central Marketplace.

After receiving thebNDC Carrier Activation credentials, you can enable Sabre NDC in the system.

Click here for more information on how to request carrier activation and enable Sabre NDC. 

New Display for Sabre, Galilleo/ and Appollo NDC Options

NDC options are marked as Speciality Fares, and limitations from the Airline will be imposed on combinable fare types. To ensure travelers understand the NDC Specialty Fare limitations, we have added tooltip descriptions, made our messaging more visible, and have added new filter options.

New Specialty Fare Icon & Tooltip Hover:

New functionality and messaging:

  • In Policy -- A new feature where Travelers can filter options by whether or not they are in/out of policy. For Specialty Fares, this ensures users can see options that cannot be combined, thus ensuring that the solution still provides access to all fares.
  • Messaging at the top clarifies that filters or travel preferences may filter out prohibited options.
  • For customers that use Wizard Shopping, a traveler that selected an outbound Specialty Fare will automatically only see combinable return Specialty Fares.
  • Corporations not using the wizard will only see complete options with combinable fares.
  • All Specialty Fares are Instant Purchases.

Apollo & Galileo NDC Content

In the context of NDC content, Travelport has developed its own platform called Travelport+ that supports NDC capabilities. With Travelport's NDC-enabled platform, airlines can distribute their NDC content to travel agents and online travel agencies (OTAs) through Travelport's global distribution system (GDS). This allows travel agents and OTAs to access and sell NDC-based offers alongside traditional airfare options.

NOTE: There is no support for NDC on Worldspan on Travelport. Travelport is only planning to support Apollo and Galileo via GDS NDC. The agency will need to migrate to Travelport+ (aka Galileo).

The following are the types of workflows currently supported; prime booking flows with fulfillment, cancel pre-fulfillment, and servicing post-fulfillment:

  • Shop > Price > Book > Reserve
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay
  • Shop > Price > Book > Cancel
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay > Cancel within void period
  • Shop > Price > Book > Pay > Refund

Apollo / Galileo NDC coming soon:

The following will be supported in upcoming releases: 

  • Seat selection, modifications, and exchanges will be supported in upcoming releases.
  • NDC content is not included when an air itinerary is modified or added to an existing trip.

Apollo / Galileo notes:

  • NDC will be ticketed at the time of purchase.
  • When an NDC booking is canceled, the ticket will be automatically voided or refunded when possible.
  • Any NDC airline activated in the GDS will be supported.
  • Best practice: If utilizing NDC, use Search by Price for the best shopping experience.

Enabling Apollo/ Galileo NDC in the Online Booking Tool

To access NDC content, you must be provisioned for NDC with Travelport and registered with the NDC airline. To request NDC access for an airline in Travelport, contact your Travelport representative to request JSON access,

If your Travelport representative has any questions, please have them contact John Paulet john.paulet@travelport.com or Jill Harding Jill.Harding@travelport.com at Travelport.

After receiving the NDC credentials, admins can enable Apollo / Galileo NDC in the system.

For instructions on how to provision NDC Access for Travelport, and enable NDC, click here. 

New Display for Sabre, Apollo, and Galileo NDC Options

NDC options are marked as Speciality Fares, and limitations from the Airline will be imposed on combinable fare types. To ensure travelers understand the NDC Specialty Fare limitations, we have added tooltip descriptions, made our messaging more visible, and have added new filter options.

New Specialty Fare Icon & Tooltip Hover:

New functionality and messaging:

  • In Policy -- A new feature where Travelers can filter options by whether or not they are in/out of policy. For Specialty Fares, this ensures users can see options that cannot be combined, thus ensuring that the solution still provides access to all fares.
  • Messaging at the top clarifies that filters or travel preferences may filter out prohibited options.
  • For customers that use Wizard Shopping, a traveler that selected an outbound Specialty Fare will automatically only see combinable return Specialty Fares.
  • Corporations not using the wizard will only see complete options with combinable fares.
  • All Specialty Fares are Instant Purchases.

 

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