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Booking Policy (Part I)


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This page details AA Booking Policy - Part I.

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| AA CRS Booking debit memo policy | AA CRS Booking fee monitoring policy |

| Booking do's and don'ts. Helpful hints | AA policy on name changes |

| Tickets issued in married/divorced names not matching the names on the travel documents |

| AA procedures for schedule changes |


| Return to Booking Policy Home Page |



AA CRS Booking debit memo policy

In August 1996 American Airlines released its CRS booking fee monitoring policy. The policy defined and discouraged abusive and fraudulent booking practices and advised continued abusive activity would be subject to debit memo issuance. Additionally in Dec 1996, American Airlines notified all travel agencies that it intended to issue debit memos for excessive duplicate booking activity.

American's definition of a duplicate booking is the use of the same passenger name for an additional flight for the same market/date/IATA number -- regardless of flight number, class of service, or status code. As duplicate bookings continue to drive unnecessary CRS costs, in May we will issue debit memos to recover the associated booking fee expense. These debit memos are based on March 1997 booking activity and include a $50 administrative fee per debit memo. Booking cost will be based on the CRS used to create the duplicate segments. Although costs vary by CRS, the range is 1 USD to 4 USD per passenger, per segment.

Debit memo program expansion to include churn
Effective with June booking activity, booking fee debit memos will also include - churn - volume. American defines churn as any cancel/rebook activity intended to circumvent ticketing time limits or hoard inventory. Like duplicate bookings, inventory hoarding limits your opportunity to sell seats that should be available to the traveling public. We hope the need for debit memo issuance will be minimal, and appreciate your continued assistance in achieving greater mutual business efficiency.

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AA CRS Booking fee monitoring policy

Overview
Initiatives
Policy Changes

Overview

AA recognises CRSs as a valuable distribution channel, and as such, we participate in all major systems. As part of our participation, we pay incremental fees for travel agent bookings. billable activity includes sell, cancel, waitlist, desire, change, schedule change, etc....

While the following initiatives and policy changes are in support of our ongoing effort to monitor and control our CRS costs, they will also improve your work environment by eliminating non-productive activity, allowing your agents to work better and work smarter.

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Initiatives

  • Waitlist reduction:
    We have reduced waitlist ceilings and eliminated waitlist in most discount classes of service. This modification provides a waitlist product that allows you to waitlist inventory that has the most potential of clearing.
  • Schedule change notification:
    Notification for minor time changes has been reduced, eliminating unnecessary queue and telephone activity.
  • Claim PNR:
    AA currently participates in claim products for Apollo, Sabre, System One and Amadeus. We expect to implement with Worldspan by the end of next month. These products allow you to claim bookings made by AA reservations personnel, eliminating the need to create additional active or passive bookings. This will be a real time saver for your agents.

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Policy Changes

  • Duplicate bookings:
    We will monitor monthly booking activity at the travel agent level in order to identify duplicate bookings. Duplicate bookings are segments booked by your agency for the same passenger travelling on the same day to the same destination. You should never book duplicate space, as this is a waste of your time and a loss to us.
  • Ficticious bookings:
    We will monitor monthly booking activity at the travel agent level in order to identify fictitious bookings. Fictitious bookings are those with name field items that read test/traveller/tourist or a surname with fictitious initials, i.e. a/b/c/d/e. You should eliminate the practice of holding space under speculative passenger names.
  • CRS conversions:
    Agencies will be responsible for payment of booking fees associated with conversion to a new CRS.
  • Passive PNR abuse:
    With the implementation of claim PNR, we see little reason, if any, for passive bookings. In addition, we are working with the CRS to eliminate the use of billable passive codes (YK/BK/GK/MK).
  • Schedule change:
    We are billed for both the original /WK/ and replacement /SC/ segment, and only receive credit if the WK/WL segment is cancelled. When working your schedule change queue you should always cancel these WK/WL segments and your PNR will be easier to read and to ticket.

In addition to these programmatic and policy changes, you can assist us in controlling booking fee costs by remembering that every time you action an air segment, there is a charge. Other suggestions that will keep booking fee costs down and save you time are:

  • Eliminate excessive cancel and rebook activity by ticketing within the time limit specified in the fare rule.
  • When using low fare products, complete the booking and low fare entry in one transaction.
  • For locations with multiple CRSs: book and ticket using the same system.
  • PNR clean up, cancel unnecessary segments with status code of HX/UC/UN/WL/WK/DS/DL: this will also help reading, pricing and ticketing the PNR.
  • Don't book air segments for administrative reasons: use auxiliary segments whenever possible.
  • Limit the use of open segments. Your passenger will be better served being confirmed.
  • Get out of the passive business and use claim PNR.
  • Eliminate the practice of holding speculative space under fictitious names.

Working within our initiatives, policy changes, and suggestions will improve your overall productivity and support our cost control efforts.

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Booking do's and don'ts. Helpful hints

DO DON'T
Use low fare/pricing search entries before ending transaction Don't use low fare/pricing search entries after end transaction
Book a passenger once. Only book passengers who intend to ticket within AA's ticketing time limit Don't use billable passive booking for itinerary/invoicing purposes (YK/PK/BK/MK). Amadeus users - do use non-billable /GK/ action code to create PNRs for itinerary/invoicing purposes
Use PNR search entries to ensure the passenger is not already holding a reservation Don't book software systems to churn or hoard inventory
Use claim PNR products instead of passive status segments Don't book passengers on multiple flights for travel on the same date/market/time
Encourage your CRS provider to create non-billable status codes for itinerary/invoicing purposes Don't make bookings with fictitious names to meet CRS productivity agreements: If your productivity quote is inconsistent with your booking volume, please ask your CRS provider to reduce it

Frequently Asked Questions:

What is a duplicate booking?
Same passenger booked on more than one flight within the same city pair, regardless of flight number/class or status code, passive or active.

Examples - included but not limited to:

Duplicate booking within the same PNR
Duplicate booking within the same city pair
Dupe booking - active and passive status code



Duplicate booking within the same PNR

1.1 DUPLICATED/D
2 2224Y 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0700 0909 US/CRC/8
3 2224K 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0700 0909 US/CRC/8
4 2228K 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0800 1015 US/CRC/8
TKT/TIME LIMIT
1.TL30
PHONES
1.CRCPWCT
RECEIVED FROM-P
CRC.CRC8RAB 0935/20APR97 SMEHTM


Duplicate booking within the same city pair

1.1 DOE/JANE
1 222K 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0700 0909 US/CRC/8
TKT/TIME LIMIT
1.TL30
PHONES
1.CRCPWCT
RECEIVED FROM-P
CRC.CRC8RAB 1018/20APR97


1.1 DOE/JANE
1 222K 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0600 0808 US/CRC/8
TKT/TIME LIMIT
1.TL30
PHONES
1.CRCPWCT
RECEIVED FROM-P
CRC.CRC8RAB 1018/20APR97



Dupe booking - active and passive status code

1.1 DOE/JOHN MR
1 2224Y 25AUG M DFWORD HK1 0700 0909 US/CRC/8
2 2224Y 25AUG M DFWORD YK1 0700 0909 US/CRC/8
1.TL30
PHONES
1.CRCPWCT
RECEIVED FROM-P
CRC.CRC8RAB 1018/20APR97


How is churn defined?
Any book/cancel/rebook activity intended to circumvent AA's ticketing time limits

Example:
1.1MOUSE/MICKEY
1  1790K  25MAY  S  DFWATL  HK1   630A  926A
7T-SEE HISTORY
PHONES
1.HDQPWCT
RECEIVED FROM-P HDQ.CRC8YRA 1825/28APR97 UYAAOV H
Entry Response
*H AS  1790K  25MAY  DFWATL  NN/SS1   630A  926A
R-P
HDQ.CRC8YRA 1827/30APR97

XS  1790K  25MAY  DFWATL  NN/HK1   630A  926A
R-P
HDQ.CRC8YRA 1827/30APR97

AS  1790K  25MAY  DFWATL  NN/SS1   630A  926A
R-P
HDQ.CRC8YRA 1827/28APR97

XS  1790K  25MAY  DFWATL  NN/HK1   630  926A
R-P
HDQ.CRC8YRA 1827/28APR97

How many agencies will receive debit memos?
Only the most excessive duplicate and churn volume agency will be targeted each month.

How does schedule change transactions affect churn?
Churn volume does not include transactions generated by AA.
WK/SC/TK/UN status codes are excluded from the audit.

How does this apply when AA does a dupe booking in an itinerary... Does the agency get penalized when we advise them to DS/HL a segment or if we DS/HL a segment for them?
No. An agency is not penalized for a DS or HL segment. In the audit process.... All HL/DS and SC segments are excluded from the duplicate booking report.

Is an agency charged for a booking when it is made or when the PNR is ended?
A status code becomes billable when an agent ends transaction.

Should an agency use passive booking in a PNR when their intent is to only issue boarding passes? For example, if agency books a record through a cruise line...they will passively sell the segment in their systems to issue boarding passes. The accounts are receiving a message from AA stating they should not do this and may incur dupe booking debit memos.
This is considered to be duplicate booking activity. some CRS's have a non-billable status code which can be used for invoicing/itinerary purposes. We are asking subscribers to use these codes if they have that option. If an agency does not have this as an option we suggest they contact their CRS and ask such a product.

If an agency changes the class of service i.e. doing an AAdvantage upgrade from Y to A, is that considered churning?
Class of service will be included in the audit. However upgrade activity will be excluded.

If there is an unrestricted fare being used /Y/ and the passenger changes dates/flights several times in the same PNR...is that a concern ?
Yes...this is still a concern as it continues to drive booking fee costs.

Should a travel agent create a whole new PNR if they need to rebook a flight due to not issuing the ticket within the 24hrs period?
No. Once again there are costs associated with creating a new PNR.

Will passive bookings be included in the debit memo program?
Passive segments will be part of the audit. Thus if an agency has an active and a passive booking for the same passenger this booking activity is considered to be duplicate behaviour. Also if an agent is using passive segments for itinerary/invoice purposes. They may be subject to a duplicate booking debit memo. Please advise your accounts that passives can be considered to be duplicates.

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AA policy on name changes

  • American Airlines does not allow name changes for the following class of service:

    Z / U / T / X / R .

  • The inventory will be cancelled if name changes are made. Please note: Agents ticketing multi-carrier itineraries where AA has cancelled the itinerary due to name change restrictions must contact each airlines individually for reinstatement.
  • Legitimate changes to passengers last name will be accomodated. The travel agent must call AA reservations or sales to complete the name change and retain inventory. Legitimate name changes include spelling changes (max 3 letters) or changes to last name due to marriage/divorce (proof in form of documentation may be required).
  • When performing a name change we suggest you cancel all seating elements and then re-request them.

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Tickets issued in married/divorced names not matching the names on the travel documents

What to do when a ticket for flights solely on American Airlines has been issued in the passenger's married/divorced name and that name does not match the name on their travel documents.

In this case the passenger will be allowed to travel on that ticket provided they present a copy of their marriage license/divorce certificate at the American Airlines check-in desk on the day of departure.
Once the ticket has been issued you are not allowed to change the name of the passenger in the reservation to match the name as it appears on their travel documents, you will have to insert a note in the booking via SSR/OSI with the correct spelling of the first and last name of the passenger as they appear on their travel documents and then advise the passenger to present the above license/certificate at the check-in desk on the day of their departure.

What to do when a booking for flights solely on American Airlines has been made in your system using the passenger's married/divorced name and that name does not match the name on their travel documents and the ticket has not been issued yet.

The above policy applies to reservations, which have not been ticketed yet.

What to do when the ticketed/unticketed reservation contain segments both on American Airlines and other airlines flights (i.e. codeshare flights, flights operated and marketed by another airline and so on) and the maiden/divorced name of the passenger does not match the name on their travel documents.

For American Airlines please follow the normal procedure outlined above. For any other airlines involved in the reservation you will be responsible for contacting the applicable airline and check with them whether the passenger will be allowed to travel although the name does not match the one on their travel documents.

Please note that you are never allowed to change the name in any reservations without contacting the airline first.

If you need any further clarifications you can contact our Reservations* department.

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AA procedures for schedule changes


AA does NOT send schedule change notification if:
  • Departure is 9 minutes or less earlier or not more than 29 minutes later than scheduled or
  • Arrival is up to 1.5 hours later or less than 45 minutes earlier than scheduled.

AA does advise a schedule change by phoning the travel agent/passenger if:
  • It is outside the above mentioned times
  • There is a change of the departure/ arrival airport
  • There will be a misconnection
  • A flight has been cancelled/ discontinued
  • Schedule change on another airline segment from an AA booking
(In cases where the booking does not contain contact numbers for travel agency and/or passenger contact, AA is not responsible for informing travel agency/passenger)

AA reprotects passengers only if:
  • The ticket has been issued.
(AA will book passenger on next available flight with AA and inform passenger/travel agency by phone)

Reprotection procedures
In case of a schedule change:
  • In case an overnight stay is necessary due to a Schedule change, AA will NOT cover the costs
  • If passenger is not happy with reprotection, AA will refund unused portion of the ticket
  • If passenger is holding a ticket fom another airline with a schedule change on the AA segment, AA will advise passenger/ travel agent, but if a misconnect derives from this schedule change AA refers to the other airline.
In case of a cancellation on day of departure:
  • If a cancellation occurs on the day of departure AA will reprotect passenger on to the next availabe flight.
  • If an overnight stay becomes necessary due to cancelled flight (day of departure cancellation only), AA will issue hotel voucher at the airport.
In case of discontinued flights:
  • AA will follow applicable reprotection agreements!

What travel agents may do:
For schedule changes only, the issuing travel agency may reissue a ticket provided the origin, destination, fare and fare basis remain unchanged. If origin, destination, fare and fare basis are different, American Airlines must reissue. Travel agency may not refund (unless otherwise authorized). Travel

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