Messages

Owned by Vanni Sanvincenti
Last updated: 22 Sept 2023
10 min read

Overview

Enhanced and Simplified Distribution consist of a standard set of messages designed under Resolution 787 (Enhanced Distribution) and Resolution 797 (ONE Order).

Each message is used in an interaction with a concrete set of actors, as noted below, this Getting Started Guide briefly describes what each message does.

Distribution Messages

AirlineProfile

The Airline Profile schemas provide the ability for an Airline to communicate information to the Seller on a periodic basis with general information about the products and Services, or about that Airline.

With shopping requests, the Airline Profile provides information about what it is willing to receive and has the capability to respond to. These schemas are a way for an Airline to manage the volume of requests they receive and reduce queries it cannot fulfil.

Note the Airline Profile is not the equivalent of today’s schedule – whilst it includes information about the routes an Airline will accept a shopping request for, the purpose of doing so is to avoid receiving unnecessarily large volumes of irrelevant requests.

An Airline’s Profile is also available for consumption by other Airlines (ORAs), alongside Sellers and Aggregators, for interline requests. This is to help them decide which Airlines (POAs) to send a further shopping request to, where the ORA cannot fulfil the Seller/Aggregator’s entire request with its own Services.

AirlineProfileNotif

The Airline Profile schemas provide the ability for an Airline to communicate information to the Seller on a periodic basis with general information about the products and Services, or about that Airline.

With shopping requests, the Airline Profile provides information about what it is willing to receive and has the capability to respond to. These schemas are a way for an Airline to manage the volume of requests they receive and reduce queries it cannot fulfil.

Note the Airline Profile is not the equivalent of today’s schedule – whilst it includes information about the routes an Airline will accept a shopping request for, the purpose of doing so is to avoid receiving unnecessarily large volumes of irrelevant requests.

An Airline’s Profile is also available for consumption by other Airlines (ORAs), alongside Sellers and Aggregators, for interline requests. This is to help them decide which Airlines (POAs) to send a further shopping request to, where the ORA cannot fulfil the Seller/Aggregator’s entire request with its own Services.

AirShopping

The AirShopping transaction set supports both specific and flexible shopping experiences for anonymous or personalized shopping. Both functionally-rich attribute shopping and affinity shopping support date range or specific month (calendar) shopping, amongst other features.

The response returns Offers which may include branded or itinerary-priced Offers with or without ancillary Services. It also returns applicable rules for the integrated prices as well as for each Service. The message also returns multi-media content at message level as well as media references at the individual Offer level.

OfferPrice

The OfferPrice transaction set may return two different sets of content. Based on request attributes, the response may initially provide additional à la carte ancillary services that are applicable and available for the selected Offer.

If no ancillary services are available, the message returns a final pricing. If ancillary services are available, the modified pricing request includes selected services and returns a final pricing that includes service(s) selection. The response message also returns multi-media content at the message level.

SeatAvailability

The SeatAvailability transaction set returns data used to construct respective seat maps with fully integrated fees for any identified premium seats. The message also returns multi-media content at the message level with media content references at the individual Service level.

ServiceList

The purpose of ServiceList is to return a list of all applicable ancillary services that meet the Sellers request qualifiers and flights. The message supports shopping for additional a la carte services to complement any selected Offer, as well as shopping for specialty service items not generally included in an initial Offer but rather based on service search filters, e.g. sports equipment specialty baggage and unaccompanied minor fees. The message also returns multi-media content at both the message and individual service levels identified in the Offer.

In a distribution context, this message is used by the Airline Offer and/or Order Management System to present relevant a la cate Offers to the Seller. For NDC interline, this message can be used to present POA Offers to the ORA. Within an Order Management System, the Airline could have external Service Providers, in which case this message can be used to provide relevant Offers from the Service Provider to the Airlines Offer/Order Management System.

OrderRules

This message pair is used to query the airline and return information around fares, conditions, products and services including general compliance and regulatory information.

Note: Information returned within this message is not programmatically readable. Programmatically readable and relevant rule information for the Seller relating to Change and Cancel fees (for example) will be found within the relevant message where ever there is reference to an Offer or an Order. See Offer and Order Rules.

OrderReshop

specified Order Items in an Order or for new shopping requests to add to an existing Order. The ORA responds with new Offers within the context of the existing Order. The response will include details of any additional collection or refund due against proposed changes (including a full cancellation).

OrderCreate

OrderCreate is an outbound message from Seller/Aggregator to Airline (and ORA to POA if applicable) that contains the details of a selected Offer and is used to request the creation of an Order by the ORA (or POA). Within OrderCreate, full passenger information will be sent. Payment information may or may not be included within the request from Seller/Aggregator to ORA.

OrderView returns up to date contents of an Order such as pricing information, conditions, time limits, Order status and passenger information. When payment has been processed at the time of Order Creation it also includes the status of this and, where they have already been issued, at least accountable document references (and further accountable document data if required).

OrderChange

The OrderChange transaction requests modifications to an Order by specifying which Order Items to change and which Offer Items to replace them with. When the ORA has applied the change, the updated view of the Order is returned.

OrderChangeNotif

The OrderChangeNotif transaction sends an unsolicited notification of a voluntary or involuntary change to an Order.

OrderQuote

The OrderQuote transaction (paired with the OrderReshopRS) is used only when an Order is present and used to quote the total price of the proposed change when additional ancillaries are requested on the changed itinerary.

OrderRetrieve

The OrderRetrieve transaction retrieves a specified Order that matches the request identifier for the Order.

Order Retrieve is used to return an Order using a distinct criterion (such as Order ID, Booking Reloc, Document Number) and is not used to search for Orders. Other criteria within the request are used for validation purposes.

Order Retrieve is the only message that supports the request for an Order using something other than an Order ID, for example, a Booking Reloc or Document Number, from this point onwards. If PNR’s (shaped as Orders) are used, the Airline shall return the Reloc within the Order ID field for Sellers.

OrderHistory

The OrderHistory transaction set requests the transaction history and audit trail for a specified Order.

OrderList

The OrderList transaction set retrieves a list of Orders that match one or more search criteria.

OrderView

OrderView returns up to date content of an Order such as pricing information, conditions, time limits, Order status and passenger information.

When payment has been processed at the time of Order creation it also includes the status of this and, where they have already been issued, at least accountable document references (and further accountable document data if required).

Delivery Messages

ServiceDelivery

This message is intended to be used by the Delivery Provider to prepare for delivery of Services for which it is responsible. The information provided by the message is used to support the delivery and servicing by the relevant Delivery Provider.

The Delivery Provider requests information from the Airline’s OMS about a Service (including the passenger’s entitlement) and its current status, and the Airline responds with all relevant information about the Service to be delivered, along with the latest status. Note that the Airline may have changed the status of the Service as a result of receiving the ServiceDelivery request, depending on internal processes.

The criteria used to request this information may be singular, or batched for example per Passenger, per Order/Service or flight. The Service Delivery response contains the full details of the Services in the Order and all relevant flight information.

ServiceDeliveryNotif

The Service Delivery Notification request is intended to be used by the OMS to inform Delivery Providers about the Services to be delivered. This information may be sent for an individual passenger, an Order, or may be provided for an entire flight or a given period of time. In case of multiple Service delivery by a Delivery Provider the entire itinerary is sent with the message. Note that the notification of Service delivery does not necessarily imply that Service delivery can be started.

This message is triggered by the Airline’s Order Management System to the Delivery Provider. Upon completion of the message processing, the delivery partner has successfully been informed of the Services that are to be delivered. For example, an Airline Order Management System may send flight information (including passenger entitlement) and status to a ground handler. In case of multiple Service delivery by a Delivery Provider the entire itinerary is sent with the message.

UpdateServiceNotif

The message may be used by a Delivery Provider to inform the Order Management System of updates to the Service(s) that occur during the period of Service delivery, or used it can be used by the Order Management System to inform the other carrier partner(s) of updates (in case of interlining).

This message is intended to be used for communicating necessary information related to the delivery of a Service, such as providing the Order Management System with assigned baggage tag identifiers, the weight of bags, seats assigned to passengers, advanced passenger information that may have been collected and so on. The Order Management System then ensures that this data is stored for later use (if necessary). Note that this Service is not intended to be used for the addition of new paid Services, nor for any exchange of payment related information.

ServiceStatusChangeNotif

The Service Status Change Notification (SSCN) request message (ServiceStatusChangeNotifRQ) is used to notify the Order Management System of any change in status to Services within an Order. The status of a Service is used to track the ability of the Airline or Delivery Provider to deliver a particular Service, and/or track whether a Service has been consumed. This message may be triggered directly from a delivery process, but may also be triggered by an automated process, such as the expiration of a time limit in which a service was to be consumed within. The Service Status Change Notification message is used to advise the status of all Services (flights, flight-related ancillaries, ground Services etc.) throughout the lifecycle of the Service.

The Service Status Change Notification request is used solely to advise of changes in status to a Service. This may be the Delivery Provider confirming to the Order Management System that they are able to provide a Service (e.g. lounge access).

The message can also be used to report a milestone event in the delivery of a particular Service, such as a passenger being boarded, or accepted for boarding, a bag being loaded, a requested meal being loaded on board etc. Therefore, reporting of a Service delivery milestone allows the progress of Service delivery to be tracked from an operational perspective, supporting other operational processes such as bag reconciliation and weight and balance tasks. However, the reporting of a milestone event does not necessarily imply or trigger a change of the status of the Service (for example, a passenger boarding does not trigger a status update for any flight Service).

Accounting Messages

OrderSalesInformationNotif

The Order Sales Information Notification (OSIN) request is used to advise the Accounting System of information regarding Services within an Order. This information may include the following:

  • The Services purchased

  • Their prices and all applicable taxes, fees and charges associated with them at Order item level

  • Internal and settlement values (incl. taxes, fees and charges (TFCs)) at Service level

  • Payment information.

This message is the primary means for informing Accounting System(s) of information regarding Services within an Order. The Order Management System is responsible for ensuring that relevant changes in the Order are communicated to the Accounting System.

Whenever a new Service has been booked and confirmed within an Order and payment commitment has been received, this message is used to inform the Airline’s Accounting System that a new financial liability has been taken. If payment information is included, the payment commitment may be in the form of a receivable (such as a deposit that has been paid for an Order). In the case of additional payments for a particular Service (e.g. the remaining outstanding balance), these must also be communicated to the Accounting System.

The Accounting System must also be advised of any conditions related to the consumption and refundability of any Service, and the date at which any revenue associated with the Service can be recognised (e.g. the expiry date of a particular entitlement). Similarly, the fact that an item is not refundable must also be communicated.

Where payment has been committed against changes to an Order, the OSIN RQ message is also used to advise of such changes to items within an Order, including the cancellation of a Service, refund of payment or a change of status. These scenarios will be described in the “Accounting” Business Functions section.

ServiceStatusChangeNotif

The Service Status Change Notification request message is also used by the OMS to advise the Airline Accounting System of the final delivery status of a Service (delivered, removed, expired, not claimed, failed to deliver). However, this message is only intended to be used to trigger the recognition of revenues and/or trigger interline billing, based on the final delivery status of a Service. For other interactions with the Accounting System, the OSIN message is to be used.

Reporting of Service usage provides the ability to perform revenue accounting for an ORA. It depends on the fact that a Service has been delivered, or that a customer is no longer eligible for the Service. For example, a passenger may have missed their flight and is not eligible to rebook onto another flight. Reporting of Service usage allows the communication of adjustments in tax amounts between sales and usage time, when calculated by the OMS.

OrderClosingNotif

Order Closing Notification (OrderClosingNotifRQ) is used to inform an Accounting System that no further updates are to be expected for an entire Order. Once an Order is closed, no further changes can be made to it. Closed Orders may, however, still be retrieved.

Order Closing Notification is the only mechanism to set an Order to “CLOSED” status. After this, no further changes may be made to an Order. Typically, an Order is only closed when all of the Services in the Order have been delivered.

OrderSalesInfoAccountingDocNotif

Same as the OrderSalesInformationNotif message in the context of Tickets.

Other

Acknowledgement

This message response is reserved to reply to an unsolicited Notif to advise the sender that the message was delivered.