Overview

Piece and Weight based baggage paradigms are supported in the Offer and Order messages with various options to describe a bag, its associations and its attributes. The below guidance demonstrates how this is achieved today.

Baggage Concepts

At time of shopping, included baggage can be appear in two forms:

as allowance information disclosed at the Offer level and/or
as actual Services within any of the OfferItems

There are 3 main restrictions to cover to represent a Bag: Weight, Dimension, Pieces. Each item is optional, but if populated, represents a restriction. (Though it might be a rare case that piece, and dimension exist as a standalone dimension except when for a case where the number of pieces is zero)

Weight

Ability to support baggage expressed in weight , weight can be a range with Min and Max weight, and in Pounds or Kilograms. The Airline can return either Pounds or Kilograms, or both if they prefer. The Airline Has to specify a Max Weight, but no Min weight is required.

<BaggageAllowance>
<BaggageAllowanceID>2</BaggageAllowanceID>
<DescText>23 Kgs Checked Baggage Allowance</DescText>
<TypeCode>Checked</TypeCode>
<WeightAllowance>
		<MaximumWeightMeasure>23</MaximumWeightMeasure>
		<MinimumWeightMeasure>0.5</MimumWeightMeasure>
		<TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>23</TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>
		<WeightUnitOfMeasurement>KGM</WeightUnitOfMeasurement>
	</WeightAllowance>
</BaggageAllowance>

Piece and Weight

Ability to support baggage expressed in pieces with associated weight, in this example, a simple integer is used to express the number of bags are allowed at this weight.

<BaggageAllowance>
	<BaggageAllowanceID>2</BaggageAllowanceID>
	<DescText>1 x 23 Kgs Checked Baggage Allowance</DescText>
	<PieceAllowance>
		<TotalQty>1</TotalQty>
	</PieceAllowance>
	<TypeCode>Checked</TypeCode>
	<WeightAllowance>
		<MaximumWeightMeasure>23</MaximumWeightMeasure>
		<MimumWeightMeasure>0.5</MimumWeightMeasure>
		<TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>23</TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>
		<WeightUnitOfMeasurement>KGM</WeightUnitOfMeasurement>
	</WeightAllowance>
</BaggageAllowance>

Piece, Weight and Dimensions

Ability to support baggage expressed in pieces, weight, with associated Dimensions. The Airline can return the min, max, and linear representation of the dimensions in centimeters or inches, or both.

<BaggageAllowance>
		<BaggageAllowanceID>3</BaggageAllowanceID>  
		<DescText>1 x 50Lbs (Size Restricted) Checked Baggage Allowance</DescText>
		<TypeCode>Checked</TypeCode>
		<MaximumDimensionAllowance>
			<HeightMeasure>60</HeightMeasure>
			<LengthMeasure>50</LengthMeasure>
			<LengthUnitOfMeasurement>CMT</LengthUnitOfMeasurement>
			<LinearMeasure>150</LinearMeasure>
			<WidthMeasure>40</WidthMeasure>
		</MaximumDimensionAllowance>
		<MinimumDimensionAllowance>
			<HeightMeasure>10</HeightMeasure>
			<LengthMeasure>10</LengthMeasure>
			<LengthUnitOfMeasurement>CMT</LengthUnitOfMeasurement>
			<LinearMeasure>30</LinearMeasure>
			<WidthMeasure>10</WidthMeasure>
		</MinimumDimensionAllowance>  
		<PieceAllowance>
			<TotalQty>1</TotalQty>
		</PieceAllowance>   
		<TypeCode>Checked</TypeCode>
		<WeightAllowance>
	    		<MaximumWeightMeasure>23</MaximumWeightMeasure>
			<MinimumWeightMeasure>0.5</MimumWeightMeasure>
			<TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>23</TotalMaximumWeightMeasure>
			<WeightUnitOfMeasurement>KGM</WeightUnitOfMeasurement>
	</WeightAllowance>
</BaggageAllowance>

No Baggage Allowance

Ability to explicitly mention that there is no baggage allowance included. The Airline will simply return a Baggage Allowance with 0 pieces to remove the ambiguity of absence of an allowance.

Baggage Pooling

Ability for the baggage allowances to be pooled within the Order is supported through the Baggage Associations Type.

Pooled Example:

In the below example, each passenger will have 2 bags at 23Kgs Weight Allowance, but as they are both within the Baggage Association, they can pool their baggage allowance.

Non-Pooled Example:

In the below example, as each passenger has their own baggage association of 2 bags and 23Kgs weight allowance, they cannot pool their bags, so each passenger will get 23 kgs and a max of 2 bags.

Baggage Allowance for the above examples:

Extra Baggage Allowance

To add a nominal additional weight (for example, 5kgs) on top of an existing baggage allowance the airline can offer a 5kg bag in ServiceList for the Seller to choose a Qty of 1 or a 1 Kg bag for the seller to choose a Qty of 5. The Airline will then return the extra baggage Allowance as one 5kg Bag.

Example:

or

Baggage Taxonomy

Baggage Type

A bag type may be further classified by detailed the location of the bag during the flight, please refer to Codeset Directory for more information.

Type	Description
Carry on	Signifies that the Bag can be brought into the Cabin for storage.
Carryon Overhead	Signifies that the Bag can be brought into the Cabin for storage in the overhead bins.
Carryon Personal Item	Signifies that the Bag is a personal item.
Checked	Signifies that the Bag will be stored in the belly of the aircraft.

Baggage Characteristics

Additional Baggage Characteristics can be used to determine specific characteristics for the bag, for example, Fragile, Oversize etc.

Baggage Disclosures

Disclosing Baggage Information

Ability to attach baggage disclosure information is also possible using the BaggageDisclousureRefID.

Unsupported Capabilities

Some capabilities are not supported in the distribution messages to date, some are detailed below.

The ability to associate baggage to frequent flyer tiers for anonymous passengers, however the baggage can be associated to a passenger which would suggest that the airline can return tier related baggage information.

Enhanced and Simplified Distribution

Baggage Ancillary [CON_SHP_01]