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GDS Booking Policy Updated: August 25, 2009 Delta Revises GDS Booking Policy Fees - Integrates Delta and Northwest/KLM Policies Delta's guidelines are designed to set clear expectations for subscribers concerning the use of a GDS for reserving, booking and ticketing Delta air transportation. Emphasis has been placed on the importance of adherence to tariff rules as they are designed to allow pricing and travel flexibility for all customers. Enforcing these rules benefits customers as this allows us to offer passengers a greater number of discounted seats while reserving last seat availability for business customers. We will continue to provide information to our Agency Partners to ensure that all GDS users take a consistent approach when using GDS services to reserve space and issue tickets for Delta customers. GDS practices that are considered a violation of Delta's policies will be addressed appropriately. To prevent such violations, please review the below links that encompasses booking rules and abusive type ticketing practices. Under no circumstances should Delta personnel or Delta-appointed travel agents suggest or solicit any type of abusive ticketing practice that would violate Delta's tariff rules. Note: This page also provides an overview of Delta's GDS Booking Enforcement policy. Administrative Fees for Debit Memo Issued Delta/Northwest/KLM will each assess a $50 administrative fee for each debit memo issued. Delta's policy as stated in tariff rule 100 specifically prohibits the practice of back-to-back ticketing, which is defined as follows: The issuance or use of coupons from two or more tickets issued at round-trip fares or the combination of two or more round-trip fares end to end on the same ticket, for the purpose of circumventing applicable tariff rules such as advance purchase and minimum stay requirements. Agents engaging in this practice are held accountable for these violations and appropriate action is taken, including issuing debit memos, and where appropriate, terminating their Delta appointment. Return to topSegments must be canceled and inventory released immediately when a ticket has not been purchased in accordance with the fare rule, or when notified by a customer that travel is no longer needed, whichever comes first. Canceled space for one passenger shall not be used for another customer even if that customer desires an identical itinerary. Canceling and rebooking the same itinerary in the same or different classes of service across one or more PNRs or GDSs is prohibited. This type of "churning" is not permitted for any reason including, without limitation, to circumvent or extend ticketing time limits, to hold inventory, or to find a fare. Updated: July 17, 2008 Claim PNR allows travel agencies to programmatically take control of Delta created bookings for ticketing purposes in markets that are not e-ticket eligible. Delta created bookings that are wholly e-ticket eligible will be secured and unavailable for automated transfer of control (Claim) by travel agencies via their GDS. Delta bookings such as those with more than 9 passengers or those booked in SkyMiles award classes are secured and continue to be excluded from Claim functionality. If you have additional questions, please contact your GDS Help Desk. A GDS subscriber that uses more than one GDS in its business must book and ticket a specific passenger itinerary within the same GDS. All duplicate bookings generated by a single GDS subscriber are prohibited, including:
Additionally, creating a reservation where it is logically impossible to be used on each segment created across one or more PNRs or GDSs is not permitted. See examples of fee application related to Duplicate Segments. Fraudulent, Fictitious, or Speculative Bookings Fraudulent, fictitious, or speculative bookings are forbidden. These are defined as reservations where a booking is entered into a GDS regardless of input codes, using fictional or fabricated names, with no intent for travel and is not directly related to a request from a passenger to purchase a ticket. Examples of such bookings include reservations that list the following in the PNR:
Additionally, creating such PNRs to hold or block reservations due to expected demand, customer indecision, or for any reason including, without limitation, to circumvent any of Delta Air Line's fare rules or policies is not permitted. An acceptable group booking may include segments entered passively into a GDS. These passive segments must match segments already existing in Delta's Reservation System. Passive segments may only be entered at the time, and for the purpose, of ticket issuance. Group bookings entered into a GDS that are not directly related to a customer request and are subsequently canceled prior to ticketing are considered speculative. Groups booked in a manner designed to circumvent these procedures are subject to penalties and/or cancellation by Delta Air Lines. This includes, without limitation, creating hidden groups by making multiple, small bookings which are intended as a group. Delta prohibits creating speculative and hidden group bookings. Delta Northwest Journey Control technology eliminates the ability to book one flight segment at a time (point-to-point) when more than one flight is necessary to get the passenger to his or her final destination. Creating a reservation that includes connections must now be booked from a schedules or availability display that includes the passenger’s complete origin and destination (O&D). This technology will review every booking and itinerary change to ensure compliance with O&D guidelines. Bookings or cancellations which violate Journey Control rules will receive a unique error message denying the transaction. Journey Control provides customers with consistent availability found across all distribution channels. Note: Journey Control technology allows Delta Air Lines improved detection and enforcement efforts for ticketing abuses. Agents engaging in this practice are held accountable for these violations and appropriate action is taken in accordance with Delta's Abusive Ticketing policies. Off-Shore/Cross Border Ticketing Delta's base commission structure varies by country. Delta-appointed travel agents shall not, directly or indirectly, circumvent the Delta base commission rate structure applicable to sales in one country by collecting base commissions at rates applicable in other countries, which encompasses the following:
Delta reserves the right to collect any amount of inappropriately retained base commissions and terminate the Delta ticketing authority of any Delta-appointed travel agents who participates in practices contrary to Delta’s rules regarding its base commission structure. An acceptable passive segment is a segment entered into a GDS for the purpose of ticketing. It must match an existing booking. GDS subscribers must use claim PNR functionality when it is available and can be used for ticketing instead of passive segments. The creation of passive segments when it is possible to claim a Delta created PNR instead is not permitted. In order to better control costs and eliminate abuse associated with the use of passive segments Delta participates in passive segment notification in GDSs which offer this enhancement. This means that whenever a travel agent passively books a Delta segment, Delta receives a passive segment notification (PK, PL, PU, PX) message at end transaction. 1. Delta will automatically validate each passive segment notification message to determine that a matching segment exists in our internal reservations systems. 2. If an identical segment does not exist within Delta’s internal system a message will be sent back to the GDS PNR, changing the status code of the passive segment to "NO" (No Action Taken) . 3. An SSR will also accompany the rejected segment stating that the segment containing the passive is not valid. Passive segment(s) may be rejected by Delta for one or more of the following reasons:
4. Industry standards require that passive segments be used "for the purpose of ticketing" only after a booking has been made in an airline’s inventory system. Delta does not allow passive segments to be used for other reasons, including the following:
For all U.S.and exit U.S. point-of-sale locations (domestic and U.S. to international), when booking a premium group, follow the ticketing rules below:
Premium Group Process
Post Booking Additional information:
Payment Option Electronic Payment Option (Preferred Method) - accounts will wire payment directly to the Delta Air Lines, Inc. account with Citibank. Specific instructions will be provided via e-mail from the CSC desk. Non-U.S. agency/customer accounts cannot wire payments to pay for their groups. When changing itineraries in a passenger name record (PNR), it is necessary to re-request any special service requests from the original booking. This includes unaccompanied minors and special meal requests. When an SSR message is needed for only part of the itinerary, the special service request must be flight specific and not requested for all Delta flights. The training mode or non-billable segment status codes provided by the GDS must be used when testing situations or training personnel. Creating PNRs for training purposes using active sell segment status codes is prohibited. All Delta Air Lines reservations require a valid first and last name as provided by the passenger. Initials, in lieu of a first or last name, are not permitted. Invalid Name Changes Name changes are not permitted on reservations unless entered for the purpose of correcting a misspelling of the passenger's name. Contact the Global Service Center for assistance with misspellings to avoid cancellation of space. Wait listing B, M, H, Q, K, L, S, U, and T classes of service on Delta Air Lines is not permitted. Booking Violations Related to Duplicate Segments Violations at $15 will now be billed at the per segment level and not at the passenger per segment level. A segment will be billed at $15 per segment regardless of whether there are 1 or more passengers in the segment. Examples below detail how the $15 per segment fee is calculated. The bold CANCELLED indicates segments cancelled by Delta while the bold KEPT indicates segments that remain active in the PNR. This calculation applies to charges for Duplicate Segments, Fictitious/Speculative Bookings, Invalid Name Changes or Churn. All duplicate bookings generated by a single GDS subscriber are prohibited, including:
PNR Examples of duplicate segments within the same PNR: Multi Airport City Multiple Flight Dates Different Connect Point Overlapping Segments Different Classes of Service PNR Examples of duplicate segments across PNRs within the same IATA number: Passenger Smith is booked round-trip AMS-JFK in record locator ABCDEF. Passenger may not be confirmed in any other PNRs for surrounding time periods. Original Booking Alternate Travel Dates OR Alternate Itinerary GDS Booking Policy Enforcement Effective June 1, 2008, Delta will audit all GDS User transactions to identify Booking Policy violations. When a violation is identified, Delta will charge the GDS User a $3.50 per passenger, per segment fee or a $15.00 per segment fee, depending on the nature of the violation. Delta bookings include all bookings utilizing the "DL" "DL*"designator codes. Outlined below is Delta's enforcement policy:
Questions? For questions concerning the Delta Booking Policy or debit memos issued by Delta please refer to the Online Agency Service Center or submit questions by email to Bookingpolicy.dl@delta.com For questions concerning the Northwest/KLM Booking Policy or debit memos issued by Northwest please refer to WorldAgent Direct or submit questions by email to Agencyaudit@nwa.com For questions concerning GDS booking entries please contact your GDS provider. |
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