Vouchers

Targeting release 17.2 and onwards 

What is a Voucher in Offers and Orders? 

A voucher in offers and orders is understood to be a reference to stored value in an airlines internal system which can be used later. Vouchers do not have specific definitions in the Offer and Order messages apart from when selecting your payment method where a Voucher is explicitly defined. Vouchers can be fulfilled by the Airline and within the Offer and Order messages using one of three similar, but different ways: 

• Using an Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD-S) 
• Using a Ticket 
• Using an asset that is not an Order.

Support for Vouchers in Offers and Orders 

This section describes the guidelines around using the existing standard flows for consuming a voucher programmatically using the Offer and Order messages of the Enhanced Distribution Standards to create or modify an existing Order. This section addresses more into details the following three scenarios: 

1. Re-shopping an existing Order using a Document (Ticket or EMD) 

This scenario assumes an existing Order is still available and retrievable in the airlines OMS via the Offer and Order messages. In this scenario, the Seller simply re-shops for new flights and services using the standard re-shopping flows. 

2. Paying for a new Order using a Document in an existing order (Ticket or EMD) 

This scenario assumes there is no current Order and a new Order needs to be created. This follows the same standard flow to create a new order with deferred payment. At this stage, an Order is created, and the Voucher can be consumed using Order Change following the same flow as the first scenario. 

3. Paying for a new Order Using an asset that is not an Order 

Voucher can be used as a form of payment for any sale done on NDC channel using the classic initial sale flow. 

Paying for an Existing Order using a Document (Ticket or EMD) 

An existing Order can be changed using the current Offer and Order re-shopping messages using the current Change of Itinerary flow, see this flow on the Implementation Guide website. 

Initially the airline could send an OrderChangeNotif advising the Seller there was a change to the Order and a Ticket or EMD is available for reuse. The Seller could then, at a later stage, retrieve the Order from the airline to refresh the Order prior to making the customers desired change. The change flow would commence using OrderReshop. The Customer would choose their new flights as per normal to which the Seller would forward the request to the airline including the Customers voucher information in OrderReshopRQ. The airline can return the price differential taking into account the voucher value when returning new Offers. Once the Customer has selected the new Offer, the Offer can be sent through OrderChangeRQ with any additional payment information, if required, to execute this change. The OrderViewRS message will return the updated Order and ticket information. If there is any residual value on the voucher (be it an EMD or Ticket) this can also be shown in the response, at this stage.

Additional Information needed from the Seller

OrderReshopRQ: Requires the Seller to add the document Information to the request including the document number, document type and associated passenger. 

OrderChangeRQ: If the Voucher is a document then no additional information is needed in Payment Method, as the document information will already be known by the airline from the selected Offer. 

OrderViewRS: Airline may send back the previously exchanged tickets with the ‘Exchanged’ status along with any new documents which show a residual value after the Order has been purchased.

Suggested Preconditions 

• The Airline is not holding inventory
• The Airline has the original

Order Suggested Message Flow

The below flow is a guideline based off the standard Change of Itinerary flow found on the Implementation Guide.

Paying for a New Order using a Document in an existing order (Ticket or EMD) 

A new Order can be created using the current Offer and Order shopping flow as described on the Implementation Guide for shopping and ordering using deferred payment. Initially the Seller would shop for flights and ancillaries as per normal up to the point of order creation, where the Seller would then use the deferred payment flow. The Seller would create the order without payment and receive the Order information in OrderViewRS along with a payment time limit. 

At this stage, the same flow is used as Paying for an Existing Order using a Document (Ticket or EMD); the Seller will send in the document information using OrderReshop to get the differential between the document value and the amount owing for the Order. The airline may need the document number, document type, and the association with the passenger. 

Once the Customer confirms the intention to commit, OrderChange can be used to change the Order with the selected Offer and any additional payment required. 

The OrderViewRS message will return the updated Order and ticket information. If there is any residual value on the voucher (be it an EMD or Ticket) this can also be shown in the response, at this stage. 

Additional Information needed from the Seller 

OrderReshopRQ: Requires the Seller to add the document Information to the request including the document number, document type and associated passenger.

OrderChangeRQ: If the Voucher is a document then no additional information is needed in Payment Method, as the document information will already be known by the airline from the selected Offer. 

OrderViewRS: Airline may send back the previously exchanged tickets with the ‘Exchanged’ status along with any new documents which show a residual value after the Order has been purchased.

Suggested Preconditions

• The Airline is not holding inventory
• The Airline has no existing Order

Suggested Message Flow 

The below flow is a guideline based off the standard Shopping and Ordering with Deferred Payment and Change of Itinerary flow found on the Implementation Guide.

Paying for a new Order Using an asset that is not an Order 

As an additional scenario, any airlines using vouchers outside the context of an Order may simply use the standard payment flow. A new Order can be created using the current Offer and Order shopping flow (AirShopping, OfferPrice, OrderCreate). 

The Seller would shop for flights and ancillaries as per normal. When the Seller would provide the payment methods (either OrderCreate or OrderChange) he can simply add the Voucher as a Form of Payment along with any additional form of payments needed. 

The OrderViewRS message will return the updated Order. If the airline is using NDCLink, the reporting of the payment should note that the value of the voucher is already stored on the airline side (and not treated as cash) by simply providing a specific (airline internal) Form of payment. 

In case the voucher is supported by a document outside of the Order context, the airline should take the appropriate actions to close the documents (most likely through an internal refund). 

Suggested Message Flow 

Payment at OrderCreate 

Payment at OrderChange 

Displaying Voucher Rules or Conditions 

If the Voucher is a Ticket or EMD, the rules associated to the Voucher can be returned with Penalty information within the referenced Penalty List (within data lists) from the Ticket. 

Rules can be added to the Penalty structure. The Penalty Attributes and the Penalty/ApplicableFeeRemarks elements should be used to define the applicable rules associated to this voucher. 

Retrieving Voucher Information 17.2 to 18.1 

If the Voucher is a Ticket or EMD, the Seller may request the retrieval of the document using OrderRetrieveRQ, to which the Airline will return an OrderViewRS with the TicketDocInfo and any related Order. 

In 17.2 and later the Order is required when returning OrderViewRS. If you have an Order, the Airline shall return the order, however for this scenario, if no Order is available, the Order/Order Items element may be seen as optional. 

If there is no Order and the Airline decides to not return any Order Items, then the Airline needs to state this by returning dummy data in the Order element. Airline to set the Order ID as ‘dummy’. 

If the Airline does not return an Order, the flow “Paying for a New Order using a Document (Ticket or EMD)” should be used to create and pay for an Order. If the order is returned, the Seller can use the flow “Paying for an Existing Order using a Document (Ticket or EMD)” to re-shop. 

Please note that the order is required to be returned from 19.2 onwards. 

Not Supported 

Within the Offer and Order messages, there has not previously been a requirement to support the creation of a Voucher without the previous cancellation of an Order (for example to buy an ad-hoc voucher for a gift). Additionally, there has not been a need to specifically return the status of a voucher outside the context of an Order for a voucher status or current balance; however, this can be achieved through the TicketDocInfo structures if the Voucher is an Electronic Document.