ATPCO Optional Services. Supporting Processes

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ATPCO Optional Services

Supporting Processes

This document is a basic research document to give further information on the infrastructure that exists to accommodate the selling of Optional Services. This includes the following items:

1. Introduction ... 2

2. Glossary ... 3

3. Executive Summary of Solutions ... 6

4. Availability ... 7

5. Booking ... 9

6. Ticketing ... 13

7. Fulfillment ... 22

8. Revenue Reporting ... 25

9. Conclusions ... 26

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1. Introduction

There are a number of methods which can be used currently for the booking, ticketing, and fulfillment of services. Historically, these services have been rather basic, being limited to a strict set of one-alpha Reason for Issuance Codes – for example upgrades, refunds, taxes. With the advent of airlines selling of services, carriers require:

(1) Availability for services which require such a check (2) A robust booking method

(3) A method of fulfillment

(4) A ticketing method with the right level of granularity for the full lifecycle of the service transaction and for many different types of service to be reported at the service fee sub code level

(5) A method for reporting the service to revenue accounting

(6) Enough granularity to revenue manage services at a meaningful level

The industry has designed, through the IATA/ATA Ticketing Committee and the Optional Services Task Force, a standard for a solution which supports the above processes. This involves the use of a new booking method, the SSR ASVC, and also a new ticketing method, the Electronic Miscellaneous Document. Development of these new methods to support Optional Service, while the ideal solution in the long run, has taken too long to support the market need to date.

This paper explores alternative existing methods for availability, booking, fulfilling, ticketing, and reporting services in lieu of the development of the Electronic Miscellaneous Document.

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2. Glossary

Term Definition

Accountable Document A sold passenger document, such as a ticket or a Miscellaneous Charges Order.

ACH Airlines Clearing House, the Air Transport Association (US) clearing house for interline funds for domestic US journeys.

AIRIMP Airline Interline Message Procedures Manual, the document that contains message procedures and coding directory for Airport Messages.

ARC Airlines Reporting Corporation - entity responsible for managing travel agency ticketing, reporting, and settlement for US Travel Agency sales.

Availability The amount of inventory which is not currently reserved is shown in an availability display.

Billing and Settlement Financial completion of the transaction which ensures that the airline performing the service receives the funds for the airline selling the service.

Booking The reservation of a fare or fee product for an itinerary by a customer.

BSP Billing Settlement Plan - the IATA entity responsible for settling funds and reporting accountable information between the travel agency and the airline, as well as controlling accountable ticket stock. CAT Carrier Accounting Tape - file of accountable transactions sent from ARC to participating airlines. Check-in The interaction of the customer with the operating carrier system which makes the customer presence

known prior to the flight or service which has been pre-paid.

DCS Departure Control Systems, which manage the operation of the flight and related services.

DISH Data Interchange Standards Handbook, the definitive guide of file standards and specifications for the BSP HOT file.

Display On customer request, the information shown to the customer or agent of all fare and fee products available.

EDIFACT Electronic data interchange for administration, commerce and transport. The current standard used for messaging electronic ticketing information.

EMD Electronic Miscellaneous Document, a new document that will replace the MPD and MCO as a paperless transaction that can record miscellaneous charges in either a standalone or a flight coupon associated capacity.

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Interline Any ticket which is sold by one airline, and has at least one sector operated by a different airline, is deemed to be 'interline'. The operating carrier bills the validating carrier for prorate shares of the journey. JPSC Joint Passenger Services Conference, the group that meets annually to approve the JPSC Resolutions

changes that become effective on 1st June of the following year.

JPSC Resolutions Rules documented in the JPSC Resolutions Handbook which govern passenger service for airline–to-airline and airline–to-airline-to-travel agency relationships.

JPTC Joint Passenger Ticketing Committee, which reports to the JPSC and determines resolution changes relating to ticketing practices.

MCO Miscellaneous Charges Order - an accountable document which may be issued to cover miscellaneous charges and is used in exchange for the service.

MPD Multi-Purpose Document - an accountable document which may be issued for a specified use (e.g. Excess Baggage Ticket) or for unspecified use to cover miscellaneous charges.

PADIS Passenger and Airport Data Interchange Standards which lay out message structure and code content for various business messaging requirements.

PNR The abbreviated form for Passenger Name Record or Personal Name Record used in computer

reservations systems. A PNR contains all of the passenger's information contained in a specific booking flights, services, and phone number.

PNR Wrap-Up A message sent consolidating all of the PNR details including passenger, itinerary, and fee detailed information which provides an update to down line systems to allow passenger servicing.

RET Reporting Tape - file of accountable transactions sent from ticketing systems to the BSP to be processed on to airlines.

RFIC Reason for Issuance Codes, which are included on the EMD document, and determine the generic reason for issuance of the document, as defined in IATA JPSC Resolution 722f Attachment A. SSR A message containing a Special Service Request.

Ticketing The issuance of an accountable document, which serves as a record of the product purchased by the customer, and gives a record to all airlines involved in the itinerary of the services paid for and expected to be delivered.

Validating Carrier The airline which 'plates' the accountable document, and is responsible for collection of funds from the point of sale.

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S5, S6, S7 ATPCO Optional Services data records holding information for application of optional services, defined as:

The Record S5 – Sub Code Services Record provides basic information about the optional service in terms of who owns it, what it is and how it may be offered.

The Record S6 – Optional Services Concurrence Record specifies carriers and the associated Industry Sub Codes to which the Record S6 owner concurs.

Record S7 provides applicable information for optional services that the carrier offers to the customer. Items in this record are defined as services for which the customer has a choice regarding whether or not to accept the service.

OA, OB, OC IATA defined code used for fees which are sold at the ticket level (ticketing fees), defined as: OA - booking fees (optional - validating carrier only - not interlineable)

OB - ticketing fees (optional - validating carrier only - not interlineable) OC - service fees (optional - validating carrier only - not interlineable)

Note that the only Optional Service which has been agreed to be sold on the passenger ticket (carrier fee area) using code “OC” is the fare related optional service or rule buster.

SST Special Service Ticket, used to ticket special services such as upgrades.

SSIM Standard Schedules Information Manual. The purpose of the Manual is to establish a set of common standards for external exchanges. It does not set out to dictate how airlines, or other organizations should handle their own internal schedule information.

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3. Executive Summary of Solutions

These are the alternative methods for distribution of services:

Availability Booking Ticketing Exchange Fulfillment Reporting

Carrier internal Carrier internal Carrier internal Airline internal billing process

Airline internal sales reporting

Seat Maps SSR Seats

(e.g. SSR NSST)

Miscellaneous Services Record SSR APAY Manual DEI503 * Manual (telephone call) Current booking method (SSR or OTHS (free text only))

No ticket issued SSR EPAY

Airline :

ESST (Special Service Ticket) EMD (Electronic Miscellaneous Document)

EMCO (Miscellaneous Charges Order)

Airline internal billing process Agency : Automated MCO Virtual MPD (vMPD) Airline : ESST EMD EMCO

Automated MCO Standard BSP/ARC

Settlement

BSP HOT Rev 20.1 ARC CAT

Virtual MPD (vMPD) BSP HOT Rev 20.1

SSR ASVC * Agency Electronic Miscellaneous Document *

BSP HOT Rev 20.2 * ARC CAT *

Agency processes Airline processes

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4. Availability

Prior to booking the Optional Service, the Booking Source may filter down the number of Optional Services being displayed based on the passenger itinerary, which may already be known. In order to facilitate this, airlines are able to file a value in DEI503 in Chapter 2 of the Standard Schedules Information Manual (SSIM) which indicates that there are Optional Services available on the flight requested. The current values are as follows:

1 Movie

2 Telephone

3 Telex

4 Audio programming 5 Television

6 Reservation booking service 7 Duty Free sales

8 Smoking

9 Non-smoking 10 Short Feature Video 11 No Duty Free sales 12 In-seat power source 13 Internet access 14 E-Mail

15 In-seat Video Player/Library 16 Lie-flat seat

17 Optional Services

Value ‘17’ will direct the pricing engine/ booking source to read the ATPCO Optional Services records S5, S6, and S7 prior to displaying offers to the passenger.

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In addition, some airlines also use seat characteristics to control the seats available for “Pay for Seats” options, specifically those seats marked ‘P’ for premium, an industry indicator.

Alternatively, availability search can be a manual process using standard SSR request and response protocols. Note most of these SSR are not-interactive today and therefore not a real time availability check process.

The last option is that several optional items are sold on a “free-sale” basis which means that it is assumed always to be available to be sold.

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5. Booking

The booking process requires a request from a travel agency to the service provider airline, and a confirmation of that booking back to the agency. The booking is the last step which must reside with the travel agency, as the primary customer interaction is through this distribution channel.

The booking process may consist of:

(1) BOOK message sent from the Booking Source to the Member requesting the service

(2) REPLY message sent from the Member to the Booking Source confirming the service (possibly requiring further action from Booking Source such as the issuance of an Electronic Miscellaneous Document)

(3) ADVICE message sent from the Booking Source to the Member advising of a further action (e.g. issuance of EMD) There are existing booking processes which have existing SSR codex (e.g. an unaccompanied minor - UMNR) and would be displayed as follows:

HDQRMBA

.HDQRM1S 061503

HDQ1SQWERTY/89D1/12345678/CBB/1S/T/BO/BOB

1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR

BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1

SSR UMNR BA NN1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07

The above example shows the SSR code of ‘UMNR’ for unaccompanied minor along with carrier, boarding point, off point, flight number and date. In other parts of the message, details of the Booking Source, Member, date and passenger name can also be found. All of these details form the PNR which is used as the fundamental booking record to drive ticketing of the itinerary.

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The booking process today, with a book and reply step, would look like the following for the above unaccompanied minor:

BOOK REPLY

From Booking Source From Member

To Member To Booking Source

HDQRMBA .HDQRM1S 061503 HDQ1SQWERTY/89D1/12345678/CBB/1S/T/BO/BOB 1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1 SSR UMNR BA NN1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07 HDQRM1S .HDQRMBA 061519 HDQ1SQWERTY 1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1 SSR UMNR BA KK1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07 The Booking Source requests space for an

Unaccompanied Minor using the standard SSR message UMNR ‘Need Need’ (NN).

The ‘KD’ message shows the Booking Source that an EMD is required to confirm this service.

A standard has also been developed – although this currently exists only as a standard and has not (according to current information) been implemented by any system to date - specially for optional services, which builds onto the existing process by adding a new SSR code (ASVC) to indicate the service fee sub code (in this case L04) and the marketing text for the optional service. The advice step from the booking source (travel agency) to the member (airline) returns the Electronic Miscellaneous Document Number.

BOOK REPLY ADVICE

From Booking Source From Member From Booking Source

To Member To Booking Source To Member

HDQRMBA .HDQRM1S 061503 HDQ1SQWERTY/89D1/12345678/CBB/1S/T/BO/BOB 1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1 SSR UMNR BA NN1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07 HDQRM1S .HDQRMBA 061519 HDQ1SQWERTY 1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1 SSR UMNR BA KK1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07 SSR ASVC BA KD1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.L04/UMNR/

SSR ASVC BA /// UNACCOMPANIED MINOR

HDQRMBA .HDQRM1S 061525 HDQ1SQWERTY 1ZIMMER/DANIELMSTR BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK1 SSR UMNR BA HK1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.UM07 SSR ASVC BA HS1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY.L04/UMNR/ SSR ASVC BA /// UNACCOMPANIED MINOR/1250242345678C1 The Booking Source requests space for an

Unaccompanied Minor using the standard SSR message UMNR ‘Need Need’ (NN).

The Booking Source appends the EMD number to show payment/ entitlement for the service to the Member.

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Where no existing SSR code exists for the service, the ASVC can be used for all messages in the book – reply – advice process, as for the below example of in-flight entertainment:

HDQRMBA .HDQRM1S 061519 HDQ1SQWERTY/89D1/12345678/CBB/1S/T/BO/BOB 2SMITH/WALTMR/MARYMRS BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK2 SSR ASVC BA NN1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY-SMITH/WALTMR.E23//INFLIGHT SSR ASVC BA /// ENTERTAINMENT HDQRM1S .HDQRMBA 061519 HDQ1SQWERTY 2SMITH/WALTMR/MARYMRS BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK2 SSR ASVC BA KD1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY-SMITH/WALTMR.E23//INFLIGHT SSR ASVC BA /// ENTERTAINMENT HDQRMBA .HDQRM1S 061520 HDQ1SQWERTY/89D1/12345678/CBB/1S/T/BO/BOB 2SMITH/WALTMR/MARYMRS BA 0202Y14MAY LHRCDG HK2 SSR ASVC BA HS1 LHRCDG 0202Y14MAY-SMITH/WALTMR.E23//INFLIGHT SSR ASVC BA /// ENTERTAINMENT/1250241234567C3 The Booking Source requests space for In

Flight Entertainment using the new SSR message ASVC ‘Need Need’ (NN).

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Where the service has no relation to a flight, it is booked using a service segment (SVC) instead of an SSR, as in the below example of lounge access:

HDQRMDL

.MUCRM1A 231051 MUC1A

2GLYIP/NCL7X2063/96129250/NCL/1A/N/GB//GS 2ARENA/BRUNOMR/MARINAMRS

SVC DL NN1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE ACCESS//NM-1ARENA/BRUNOMR

SVC DL NN1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE ACCESS//NM-1ARENA/MARINAMRS

OSI YY CTCT NCL TRAVEL AGENT

HDQRM1A

.MUCRMDL 231051 MUC1A 2GLYIP

2ARENA/BRUNOMR/MARINAMRS

SVC DL KD1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE ACCESS//NM-1ARENA/BRUNOMR.LOUNGE AT GATE 43

SVC DL KD1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE ACCESS//NM-1ARENA/MARINAMRS. LOUNGE AT GATE 43

OSI YY CTCT NCL TRAVEL AGENT

HDQRMDL .MUCRM1A 231051 MUC1A 2GLYIP/NCL7X2063/96129250/NCL/1A/N/GB//GS 2ARENA/BRUNOMR/MARINAMRS SVC DL HS1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE ACCESS/0061234567890C1/NM-1ARENA/BRUNOMR.LOUNGE AT GATE 43 SVC DL HS1 ORD 30JUN/E23/LOUNGE

ACCESS/0061234567891C1/NM-1ARENA/MARINAMRS. LOUNGE AT GATE 43 OSI YY CTCT NCL TRAVEL AGENT

The Booking Source requests space for Lounge Access using the new SVC message ‘Need Need’ (NN).

Alternatively, a manual booking method could be used by e-mail or telephone call to the airline in order to book the service in the airline system.

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6. Ticketing

There are a number of ticketing methods available, some of which can be performed internally by the airline, and others which go through standard agency ticketing practices:

Agency

Virtual MPD (currently available in BSP only, not available in US market) Automated MCO (currently available and implemented by selected systems) Electronic Miscellaneous Document (currently only a standard, not implemented)

Airline

Special Service Ticket

Miscellaneous Services Record Electronic Miscellaneous Document Electronic Miscellaneous Charges Order No ticket issued (ticketless solution)

The agency solutions can be used at two levels:

(1) to create the primary document for the service (limited functionality available)

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Virtual MPD

Basic Description: This is an IATA document within BSP Link which was originally intended to provide some relief for carriers who would lose the automated Miscellaneous Document (MD50) when paper ticket stock was 100% withdrawn from IATA travel

agencies. In addition it provided an automated mechanism for reporting MCO transactions governed by Resolution 725d for both OPTAT and ATB markets. It is a one coupon document which produces no exchange coupon, and as such it can be compared to an Automated MCO (ARC) and Virtual MCO (IATA), but without the technical security and lifecycle system links to satisfy either the airlines or the travel agencies. There are in particular potential workflow issues for the travel agency due to the necessity of signing onto a different system to their GDS supplier. However, it does have merit in that it exists in 100% of BSP markets for use by travel agencies.

The vMPD is sent to the airline as an e-mail to action the passenger request, and is reported as normal through the BSP. Some manual action is required on the part of the airline to work the e-mail, and as such this is an unpopular solution to the problem of automating MCO issuance. The e-mail looks like this:

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Current Users: This solution is widely available across BSP markets. It is not available in the USA. Any airline using BSP Link can authorize the issuance of a vMPD.

Limitations: Aside from being a one coupon manual solution, this document can be used in similar ways to the Automated MCO (US) and the vMCO (non-US), albeit in a more limited manner as there is no linkage into either airline systems or agency systems to close the usage of the document. One could envisage either the issuance of a service on this document, followed by a manual process by the airline to entitle the passenger to usage with the e-mail, or alternatively, exchanging the vMPD to an ESST or Miscellaneous Services Document in-house to create the accounting document for the service.

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Automated MCO

Basic Description: ARC uses an automated version of the MCO which is described to the travel agent as being available for the following services:

Air or Surface Transportation Car Hire/Rental

Split Payments/Refunds Excess Baggage Charges Hotel Accommodation Senior Citizen Fares Deposits/Down Payments Additional Collection

Individual Area Type Air Fares Taxes

Sleeper/Berth Surcharges

Land Arrangements for Inclusive Tours

Collection of Sundry Charges, e.g. a charge for a reservation or routing change. The ARC version is as follows:

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This is a copy of the document representing the Virtual MCO (vMCO), within the PNR display:

Known Users: This document is in common use in both the ARC and the BSP environment. Typically used by Travel Agencies for simple charges, it only has one exchange coupon. This is because typically the type of charge issued on the document is for one coupon only, for example residual value, refundable balances. This document would typically be exchanged for the actual service ticket at the airport, or used as an exchange vehicle in a financial transaction.

Therefore it is possible to consider the sale of the vMCO and the automated MCO by travel agencies for Optional Services,

considered as “Sundry Charges”, or using a generic Reason for Issuance Code (e.g. Other) and as such could be exchanged at the airport for any customized solution such as an Electronic Special Service Ticket, Miscellaneous Services Document, or in

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Limitations: As a one coupon document, there are clear limitations in use and the value of reported information. In addition, the coupon may well not be available for the customer, necessitating a PNR update by the travel agency to ensure that the service is available for the customer. In addition, the more granular reason for issuance codes and reason for issuance sub codes designed for the Electronic Miscellaneous Document are not available within these documents.

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Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD)

Basic Description: The EMD is a multi-coupon document which can be associated to an Electronic Ticket (EMD-A), or may be Standalone (EMD-S). It has been designed with Optional Services in mind, and is widely seen by the industry as the strategic solution for paperless MCOs. It is also widely documented throughout the industry standards as such.

Users: At least one system is known to have developed an in-carrier version of the EMD-A for excess baggage, and other systems are known to be designing solutions for their hosted customers for both EMD-A and EMD-S.

Limitations: The limitation of this document is its complexity. The build is likely to take years rather than months, and as such some interim solutions must be found while this is being built.

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Airline Internal Ticketing Solutions

Brief Description: There are various solutions which have been designed within airlines for use as an electronic accounting document, to keep record of the passenger sale and use of the transaction. These are typically sold at time of check in, but could conceivably be extended to be sold in advance of the passenger flight, as has been achieved with the Miscellaneous Services Record used by one known airline.

Special Service Ticket: Known Users

There are some airlines who have opted to use an Electronic version of the SST for online (direct sales) upgrade selling. In all cases at the current time, the transaction is performed as part of the check-in function, and an automated document with a number is generated to Revenue Accounting so that the route revenue from the upgrade can be correctly attributed. Only one airline is known to be rolling out this solution to the agency community in the short term.

Miscellaneous Services Record: Known Users

One airline has rolled out both a direct sales and an agency version of “Pay for Seats”, which uses an SSR “APAY” process within the booking for fulfillment of the service (see Fulfillment section for the payment process). The PNR is queued to ticketing if the service has been sold by a travel agency, or is directly ticketed if sold online (i.e. by the carrier direct reservation system). An SSR message is sent back to the travel agency (if an indirect sale) to advise that the seat is confirmed.

Ticket issuance is handled using a customized “Miscellaneous Service Record” (MSR) which is cross referenced with the Electronic Ticket number in a remarks field, and the Electronic Ticket Record is updated with the MSR number as well as the fee information. Revenue Accounting link the two documents together using the cross referencing in both documents. If the ticket is exchanged, the MSR is refunded and a new document is issued. Fees are held in a merchandising table, and are listed inclusive of tax, but are broken out into individual fee and tax amounts at time of issuance of the MSR. The airline has not yet rolled out this solution to other non-flight related services, but otherwise the solution is proven because all of the ticketing, fulfillment, and billing is done directly by the airline, thus the travel agency is only involved in the booking process.

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Electronic Miscellaneous Document: Known Users

The functionality for the EMD in the airline world is very similar to the agency version, but is simpler to implement because the messaging is not so extensive (the issuance and void messaging is not included, nor is there interaction with a GDS as an agency system).

At the current time, one system is known to have developed a host version of the EMD which they are in the process of rolling out – this will be an associated version (EMD-A) and will be fully interlineable, in order to cope with excess baggage requirements. Two other systems are also known to be working on host solutions for the EMD in advance of an agency version, although rollout is not planned in the short term.

Ticketless Solutions

At this time, ATPCO are more engaged with carriers using a traditional ticket based solution, however there are a number of carriers (typically referred to as low cost) who do not use tickets and instead perform sales and usage monitoring, accounting, and analysis from the booking record. As such, it is likely that such carriers will look toward ticketless models for service entitlement. In addition, it is possible that traditional ticketing carriers may look toward ticketless models for selling optional services in order to avoid the administration overhead caused by development of the Electronic Miscellaneous Document.

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7. Fulfillment

If the travel agency performs the ticketing function, using the BSP (non US travel agency sales) or ARC (US travel agency sales) for reporting their data, typically the fulfillment for the service will take place in one of two ways:

(1) the agency takes the transaction on their own merchant agreement, and reports the transaction as cash to the airline

(2) the agency reports the transaction as “credit card” form of payment and relies on the airline merchant agreement for settlement. Typically this is handled by ARC (US Sales) or by BSP Cardclear (non-US sales).

For airline direct sales, the airline will typically drive credit billing from their internal system when the sale is received, generating a bill to the credit card acquirer.

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SSR EPAY

The SSR EPAY process is used once the ticket price and booking have been confirmed in the PNR. The standard processing for booking and creating a PNR is used. It is assumed that the total amount due has been returned in an SSR message. The agent keys in credit card information (or uses customer swipe) for booking payment. An SSR EPAY message is generated from this information, as follows:

11 SSR EPAY XX KK1 CCVIXXXXXXXXXXXX7889/EXP06 07/LAM WAI SHUN < == SSREPAY entered WILSON CXXX

In response, the airline reservation system will return confirmation of the debiting of the credit card account using an SSR OTHS as follows:

12 SSR OTHS 1M XXDEBIT 1211.00 TTL MO 1211.00 <== Airline XX confirm debit of credit card to system 1M 13 SSR OTHS 1M XXCONFO NBR SZ9YO0

After payment has been made using the SSR EPAY, modifications to the PNR may or may not be possible depending upon system functionality.

Known Users: Two systems are known to have developed the product for online use at the current time. A number of system users all have the SSR EPAY functionality listed as ‘in use’ in articles on the web.

Limitations: At the current time, documentation can only be found regarding payment for tickets rather than payment for services. There is no reason the same functionality might not apply to services, but would depend upon the plans of system providers

developing the SSR EPAY functionality. This process currently seems to be more geared toward ticketless airlines. There is no method documented for revenue accounting for these transactions for a ticket and sales based revenue accounting system. In addition at this stage, the functionality may be limited to certain types of credit card only.

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SSR APAY

One airline currently uses an adaptation of SSR EPAY called the SSR APAY message – not an industry standard, but used as a hosted solution – in the following format:

4APAY(SEG #)/SEAT/ACCPT/CCAX1232211222222EXP1210

The details of fulfillment are very similar to SSR EPAY, except that the SSR APAY process is fundamentally linked to the queuing and issuance of a Miscellaneous Services Record (MSR) by the airline. This provides the accounting record for payment for the service purchased.

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8. Revenue Reporting

If the ticketing and fulfillment has been performed by the airline, the reporting of the accounting document will be provided by the following channels:

(1) for transactions which involve the issuance of a document, standard carrier internal sales processing will occur, which may be driven by a carrier own solution, or if reservations are hosted, by the carrier host solution.

(2) For transactions which are driven from the booking (i.e. no ticket), bookings will instead be reported, and the revenue accounting system will not be driven by standard ticket sale use matching.

If the ticketing has been performed by the travel agency and the fulfillment is by the travel agency or by BSP/ARC on behalf of the airline, sales data reporting will be via:

(1) ARC Carrier Accounting Tape for US agency sales: currently supports automated miscellaneous documents, but does not yet support the EMD. Carriers should contact ARC regarding the development of the Electronic Miscellaneous Document for the US Travel Agency marketplace.

(2) BSP Hand Off Tape Revision 20.1: currently supports all miscellaneous document reporting except the EMD

(3) BSP Hand Off Tape Revision 20.2: has been designed, and standards are in place as of January 2008 awaiting the first launch of an agency version of the Electronic Miscellaneous Document.

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9. Conclusions

The process documented above fits together as follows:

At the current time, the best workaround solutions seem to be:

(1) for carrier direct sales, use a customized solution of the EMCO, EMD, MSR, or SST, or alternatively for ticketless transactions, simply use the PNR process to drive an SSR EPAY transaction.

(2) For agency sales, either use the PNR process to drive the booking from the agency and control ticketing and payment within the airline, or alternatively issue a one-coupon automated MCO document entitling the passenger to the entire service, and perform an exchange transaction at the airline to bring the optional service back in-house as a direct sales solution (with original issue at the travel agency).