Shopping overview
The shopping interactions between a Retailer and a Supplier can be summarised as per the below illustration:
Each party that is responsible for generating and sending shall be identified accordingly and this includes:
Identifying the Retailer using the Retailer identifier. When the Retailer is an airline it shall include the airline designator, accounting code and the commercial name.
Identifying the Supplier using the Supplier identifier. When the Supplier is an airline it shall include the airline designator, accounting code and the commercial name.
Shopping principles and assumptions:
Shopping is initiated by the Customer querying the Retailer
Shopping messages are initiated by the Retailer to the Supplier.
A Retailer may be required to send shopping messages to multiple Suppliers to complete the journey requested.
In an interline scenario, a Retailer will combine a Supplier Offer within its own. In doing so, it must follow the principles and combinability rules presented in the Offer as described in the Section 2.1.4. The Retailer cannot break a Supplier Offer Item and use only individual Services from this within the final Offer it will return to the Customer.
It is assumed that when a Supplier Offer is selected and further combine by the Retailer with its own Product and Services, the Retailer accepts implicitly the Settlement Value, Settlement conditions and the Acceptance Rules (i.e. sales conditions) included in this Offer.
The following shopping considerations are recommended for the Supplier(s) participating in an interline itinerary:
Take into account any applicable regulations that could apply to the itinerary. For example, ensure where the case that the correct baggage allowance & charges are applied to the itinerary. Another example is that by participating in the Offer, the Supplier will not be in breach of any laws or regulations.
Decision as to what Settlement Value should be applied and returned to the Retailer for the proposed offered Services.
For this release it is assumed that the Supplier will specify to the Retailer how much it requires at settlement for the service(s) it delivers.