Introduction
The FareSearch transaction is a stateless XML data transaction to search for best available fares not requiring a PNR to be booked in the CRS host system. It supports multiple origin/destination requests. Responses are indexed to multiple flights within each origin/destination pair. It is possible to taylor the search by adding different pricing parameters.
FareSearch versions and their meaning
There are different versions for FareSearch message available for some GDS to be able to choose different pricer engines with different features, response times, number of results,...
The version is specified in /FareSearchRQ/@version attribute.
| Provider system | Version | Pricer name | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amadeus | - | ValuePricer (VP) | The default selection if no version-attribute is specified is still the ValuePricer, which is no longer supported by Amadeus. As Amadeus (non-WS version) is deprecated for 2016 there will be no more change of the default setting for backward compatibility. |
| AmadeusWS | - | MasterPricer Expert (MPE) | The default selection if no version-attribute is specified is the same as version-attribute MPE2.0. |
| Amadeus/AmadeusWS | MPE0.9 MPE2.0 | MasterPricer Expert (MPE) | A maximum of 6 OriginDestination groups can be requested and you get up to 20 recommendations from Amadeus. The purpose of MPE is to work with real time availability rather than cache. For this reason MPE is designed to work with a limited flight domain according to your preferred times. Like MP the reply is built upon as much diversity as possible and it is limited to 50 recommendations. So if you want to see all flights and their cost, you should work with smaller time windows. This will force the system to select more flights within the given time window. Bigger time windows or no time windows will cause MPE to check a more random selection of flights for best fare. Corporate applications are in general given MPE and not MP. But for applications showing the best fare on all possible flights MP with 250 recs and possibly also Agent Fare Families to secure one airline to appear with all departure times, could be a better solution. MPE is not designed to give the lowest fare by date or to give all flights within a time frame, it is purely designed to find the best available alternatives according to your schedule. Difference between 0.9 and 2.0 version:
|
| Amadeus/AmadeusWS | MP0.9 MP2.0 | MasterPricer (MP) | A maximum of 3 OriginDestination groups can be requested and you get up to 250 of the cheapest recommendations per itinerary with full recommendation details (price, fares, taxes, flights, price per passenger). For applications showing the best fare on all possible flights MP with 250 recommendations is a good solution. Difference between 0.9 and 2.0 version:
|
| Amadeus/AmadeusWS | TB0.9 TB2.0 | MasterPricer TravelboardSearch (TB) | A maximum of 3 OriginDestination groups can be requested and you get up to 200 recommendations from Amadeus. Difference between 0.9 and 2.0 version:
|
| Amadeus/AmadeusWS | CS1.0 | MasterPricer CalendarSearch (CS) | Addresses the needs of travelers who are flexible with their travel dates. Returns cheapest flights on a 7 x 7 calendar range. It uses same technology as TB and returns full recommendation details (price, fares, taxes, flights, price per passenger). Benefits: Ease the traveler's decision process with a range of flight and price options from multiple airlines in a wide calendar format and provides an easy way to view when the cheapest deal is available. |
| Sabre/SabreWS | - | Low-Fare Search (formerly known as BargainFinder Plus) | The default selection if no version-attribute is specified is Low-Fare Search. Although a response to the Low-Fare Search entry returns 9 options as a default, you can use a specific qualifier (/FareSearchRQ/@NumberOfAlternates) to request up to 19 options. The maximum number of segments (/FareSearchRQ/OriginDestination elements) that can be priced is 16. |
| SabreWS | BFM | BargainFinder Max | In a single request, you can request 50, 100, or 200 low-fare options for all simple trips (one /FareSearchRQ/OriginDestination element) and 19 low-fare options for all multi-destination trips worldwide (multiple /FareSearchRQ/OriginDestination elements). |
Implementation help
Please take care for the following rules when working with FareSearchRQ/RS and the follow up XX1 messages, to ensure the bookability of the selected flights and to make sure that you get the same prices as shown in the FareSearchRS:
- If for the selected FareGroup the FareGroup/OriginDestination/Flight/Segment elements contain MarriedSegment attributes, then make sure to always specify them the same way in:
- /FlightPriceRQ/OriginDestination/Flight/@MarriedSegment
- /PNRCreateRQ/CompletePNRElements/Itinerary/Flight/@MarriedSegment
- If for the selected FareGroup the FareGroup/OriginDestination/Flight/Segment elements contain SellIndicator attributes, then make sure to always specify them the same way in e.g.:
- /PNRCreateRQ/CompletePNRElements/Itinerary/Flight/@SellIndicator
- If for the selected FareGroup multiple OriginDestination elements exist, make sure that all OriginDestination/Flight/Segment elements that you want to book in PNRCreateRQ later and that belong to the same OriginDestination group have the same /PNRCreateRQ/CompletePNRElements/Itinerary/Flight/@OriginDestinationID attribute value.