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Release Notes: July 29, 2025 Follow

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Southwest Airlines New Fare Bundles

Overview

Southwest Airlines has introduced a new naming structure for its fare bundles. The previously used “Wanna Get Away Plus,” “Anytime,” and “Business Select” fares have been renamed to Choice, Choice Preferred, and Choice Extra, respectively. This change also follows the earlier introduction of the new Basic fare, launched on May 28, 2025. These updates reflect Southwest’s ongoing fare product modernization and are part of a larger brand redefinition strategy. They were effective in production on July 29, 2025.

Key Enhancement: Fare Bundle Renaming

  • Updated fare brand names across all impacted Southwest flight content:

    • Choice (formerly Wanna Get Away Plus)

    • Choice Preferred (formerly Anytime)

    • Choice Extra (formerly Business Select)

Technical Details & Updates

  • The system automatically replaces legacy bundle codes with new Choice-series codes in all fare-display APIs.

  • No change to booking workflows; renaming is purely cosmetic downstream.

Benefits & Impact

  • Ensures fare branding shown to users matches the latest Southwest terminology, preventing confusion and improving alignment with airline-provided benefits.

  • Displays accurate fare benefits such as seat selection eligibility, boarding group, refundability, Rapid Rewards® point accrual, in-flight amenities, and more.

  • Supported automatically across the booking experience for Southwest content.

Action Required

  • This functionality is built-in and requires no admin configuration.

Southwest Airlines Assigned Seating

Overview

Southwest Airlines is shifting away from its traditional open seating policy and introducing assigned seating for flights beginning January 27, 2026. This update enables travelers to view seat maps, select free seats, and make changes or cancellations to seat assignments—all seamlessly integrated through the booking experience. These enhancements are now live in production as of July 29, 2025.

Key Enhancement: Assigned Seating Launch

  • Seat map display and selection for eligible Southwest flights

  • Ability to book and change free seats during and after the booking process

  • Compatibility with Southwest’s new fare bundles: Basic, Choice, and Choice Extra

  • Continued support for EarlyBird Check-In (to be phased out in a future release)

Technical Details & Updates

  • Booking engine now exposes a seat-map widget for Southwest PNRs.

  • Free seats flagged via the new “FREE_SEAT” inventory code.

Benefits & Impact

  • Travelers now have greater control over seat selection, improving the Southwest booking experience.

  • Supports Southwest’s evolving fare strategy with more evident differentiation and premium offerings.

Action Required

  • This functionality is built-in and requires no admin configuration.

New String Replacement Tags for Email with Underscore

Overview

Some Sabre systems do not accept underscores in email addresses. When that happens, the system now automatically converts an underscore (_) to a double equal sign (==). This change applies to specific reporting conditions and ensures that formatted email addresses pass through Sabre validation cleanly.

Key Enhancement: Email Underscore Replacement

  • Three new Sabre Remark Types (SRTs) automatically convert underscores (_) to double equal signs (==) in the following contexts:

    • Primary Email

    • Secondary Email

    • Feedback Email

Technical Details & Updates

  • Lookup logic intercepts underscores before remark transmission.

  • Converted addresses retain original case and non-underscore characters.

  • Replacement happens automatically; no user-visible prompt.

Benefits & Impact

  • Ensures compatibility with Sabre, which does not accept underscores in email addresses sent via remark formats.

  • Prevents data truncation or formatting errors when emails contain underscores.

  • Simplifies integration logic for agency profiles and email update workflows within PNRs.

  • Improves the reliability and accuracy of automated remark generation in the Sabre environment.

Action Required

  • No action is required. To take advantage of this enhancement, simply use the following new SRTs where appropriate:

    • EMAIL_DOUBLEEQUAL

    • SECONDARYEMAIL_DOUBLEEQUAL

    • FEEDBACKEMAIL_DOUBLEEQUAL

Add G- as a Direct Bill Option for Apollo & Galileo Cars

Overview

Support has been added for a new G- Direct Bill payment option when booking rental cars via the Apollo and Galileo systems. This enhancement allows travelers to successfully book cars using a G- field as the method of payment, alongside a required Corporate Discount (CD) number.

Key Enhancement: G- Direct Bill Support

  • Added support for G- as a direct bill method for car rentals in Apollo and Galileo systems.

Technical Details & Updates

  • When a user enters a Direct Bill number prefixed with G- and a valid CD number, the system overrides the credit-card field at booking time.

  • Works for supported vendors (e.g., National) only when both G- and CD- fields are supplied.

Benefits & Impact

  • Expands payment flexibility for car bookings using direct billing in Apollo and Galileo environments.

  • Resolves prior issues where bookings would fail with “FORM OF PAYMENT NOT ACCEPTED AT THIS LOCATION” when G- was used alone.

  • Ensures reliable booking behavior by aligning with the car vendors’ required field structure.

  • Eliminates the need for workaround behavior or manual edits when using G- billing options.

Action Required

  • No action is required. Travelers and travel management systems can now use the G- field in supported bookings without additional setup. To ensure successful bookings:

    • Include a Corporate Discount number and a G- Direct Bill number at booking time.

    • Ensure that vendor and location combinations support the use of G-.

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