Credit Card Form of ID

You’ve probably heard about the US Secure Flight program.  May 1, 2009, is the industry start date when airlines should begin accepting and receiving the personal passenger information from external booking sources.   The TSA will require all airlines to provide full name, date of birth, and gender for all passengers flying to, from, within, or over US airspace and the date of this mandatory collection varies by airline as the government is working with them individually.

To help you understand your role in this initiative and the best practice for providing this information to airlines, Travelport is offering an instructor-led class during the last week of April and the first week of May.  If you prefer, you may also listen to our Recorded Secure Flight Training session.

We look forward to answering any questions you may have when you attend the Secure Flight classes.

To register for the class or listen to the recorded session:

1.        Go to: http://support.galileo.com/SGC/LMS/AMERICAS/en-ca/

2.        Enter your pseudo city code and agency PIN, and then enter your Apollo sign-on and initials.

3.        In the Catalog Search box, enter:  Secure Flight

4.        Complete the registration for your preferred session or click the green arrow for the recorded session.

Due to increased airport security since 9/11 and the introduction of U.S. Department of Homeland Security restrictions, we want to make sure that all agents are aware of this important fact.

Most airlines do not allow name changes on international PNRs.  Name changes are airline policy, not fare rules. If you change the name in the PNR, the airline most likely will cancel the space in their system.  If space is lost due to a name change, our Help Desk cannot assist.  You will have to contact the airline directly to request that the space be reinstated, which many times results in higher fares that are not covered by Travelport.

To avoid issues for you and your customers, always verify the spelling of the name when you create the PNR. It is imperative that you verify the customer’s name, as it appears on the passport or government-issued identification, prior to making international reservations. Even the most common names can have alternate spellings.  Is it Smith or Smythe? 

Make sure to contact each carrier included in the PNR directly to verify their name change policy prior to making any name changes on international PNRs.

Please pass this important information on to all agents in your office. 

Here are a couple scenarios. 

• Bruce Businessman calls to set up a new itinerary.  You see that he traveled last month and you can still retrieve his old PNR because of the retention segment.  You decide to save time and add his new flights to the old PNR.
  
• Wanda Wanderlust cancelled her flights to New York last week and now is calling to rebook.  You retrieve the cancelled PNR and book her new itinerary on it.

Here’s our advice. 

• Don’t do it!  Create new PNRs for these itineraries.

Here’s why. 

• Once a PNR is used, airlines consider it to be a "dead" or "recycled" PNR.  They may not send an acknowledgment or even create a PNR in their system.  You may not be able to issue an e-ticket and the airline may not be able to assist you in getting the space.

So remember, recycle your paper and plastic, but never recycle your PNRs.

Do you ever need to see a list of PNRs in a queue without going through every single record? Queue List Display
(QLD) gives you an overview of the PNRs in queue and lists the names, travel dates, and the date and time the
PNRs were last placed on queue.  There’s even a record locator prompt for quick PNR retrieval.

Here are a few formats for queue list display.

For more information, see:  HELP QLIST

Insert Segment

For more formats, see: HELP INSERT

Automated Upgrades

1. Include the passenger’s frequent flyer number in the PNR.
2. Request an upgrade using the FQTU SSR.  Example:  ¤:3FQTUS1/N1
3. The airline prioritizes and processes the upgrade request based on passenger frequent flyer level.
4. If the airline confirms the upgrade, the PNR appears on queue a schedule change.  The original segment has an HX status code and the new, upgraded segment has a TK status.
5. Update the PNR and assign seats based on the upgraded segment.

 For more formats, see:  HELP FQTU

For more information on FQTU SSRs, see:   S*GEM/FQTU SSR

Qualified PNR Remarks

¤:5ADVSD PROOF OF RESIDENCY REQUIRED

But do you know you can also add a qualified remark by including a one- or two-character qualifier. Qualifiers signal your agents that the remarks apply to specific topics.

Your agency defines the qualifiers and their meanings. Examples: A for air, H for hotel, C for car, F for form of payment, etc. Another way to use qualifiers is by customer. Examples: C1 for customer 1 (in the PNR), C2 for customer 2, etc.

Focalpoint®:

Here are some PNR qualified remarks format examples:

¤:5C/RQ ZI ICAR IF ZD NOT AVAILABLE

¤:5F/VERIFY NAME ON CC

¤:5C1/RQ CTC AT PSGR DESTINATION

¤:5C2/CEO*S ADMIN ASST

Here are some formats to display PNR remarks:

For more information, see: HELP ¤:5

Viewpoint™

To add a qualified remark in Viewpoint:

1. On the Customer menu, select Create/Edit Remarks, General.
2. In the Remarks Text area of the General tab, type the one- or two-character qualifier, a slash, and the remark. Example: C2/CEO*S ADMIN ASST
3. Click Add.

To view the qualified remarks:

1. Expand the General/Notepad Remarks in the PNR window.
2. Right-click General/Notepad Remarks.
3. Select one of the following options:

• Sort by Qualifier (from "all remarks" display only)
• Sort by Original Order (from "all remarks" display only)
• Show this Type only (from "all remarks" display, highlight the remark type to display, then choose this)
• Show all Notepad/General remarks (to return to the full list)

Infant with Seat:

For infants with seat, no name remark is required, but you should add a manual SSR to indicate the infant and age.  Name select is required and segment select is permitted when appropriate.

Here are examples of the new manual SSR for infants with seats.

Loyalty Program Formats

Spring is in the air. Time for spring cleanup. But don't just clean up your closets--clean up your PNRs, too.

There are lots of reasons to remove inactive segments with action statuses: HX, NO, SC, TK, UC, UN, US, and WK

Here are some ways to ensure that your PNRs are as clean as your closets:

For more information, see:

An airline just announced that they are ceasing operation. You’re negotiating with a local hotel and need to know what bookings are in the pipeline. You need a fast way to search your active PNRs on particular criteria. What to do?

Preview Plus uses fill-in formats in Apollo to sort PNRs. You can control processing costs by selecting one of these processing options:

Here are the basic steps to complete your Preview Plus request.

To display the Main screen, type PP/ and press Enter.
The fill-in format appears.

Fill in the four mandatory fields and any additional fields required for the sort results you need.
- For field help, type a pillow in a field and press Enter.
- The following fields are mandatory: preview options, processing options, return options, and ticket status.

Press Enter after the last typed character.
- If additional search criteria are available, another fill-in format appears. Complete the screen.
- If no additional search criteria are available, the Main screen reappears.

When all search criteria are entered, tab to PP/END and press Enter.

Notes:

For more information, see:

Or go to the Galileo 360 Portal and download a quick reference

Display PNR History

Infant Date of Birth

Effective June 1, 2007, infant without seat Name fields are required to include birth date in name remarks. Birth date replaces age in months. If there are fewer birth dates than infants, the first birth date is applied to any names without birthdates. Here are some format examples:

When you enter the birth date in the infant without seat Name field, an INFT SSR is sent to the airline including the birthdate.

Although the birth date is not added to an infant with seat Name field, you should send the airline an SSR message with the infant’s birth date. For a PNR with multiple passengers, name select is required. You can also use segment select, if applicable. Here are some format examples:

For more information, see:

Past Date PNRs

 Past Date Quick™ (PDQ) is the Apollo® product that allows you to view past-date PNRs.

Effective June 15, 2007, there is a new CHLD SSR available. Although the CHLD SSR is optional, it is strongly recommended that you include it in PNRs so that airlines can take appropriate safety measures when a child is present.

Here are format examples for entering the new CHLD SSR:

Here are profile formats to add and move the CHLD SSR:

For more information, see:

HELP CHLD

S*GEM/CHLD SSR

Having trouble reading PNR history? Here are some pointers:

• To display the entire PNR history, enter: *H
• Past-date segments that were active on the date of travel appear at the top of the history.
• The first RCVD line and the last RCVD line in the history include the Received field data and the agent sine of the person making the original reservation.
• Always use the name of the person authorizing a change in the Received field for a precise trail of activity.
• The most recent changes to the PNR appear at the top of the history.
• Display partial history to see a specific item. For example, to see history on stored fares, enter: *H$.
• Each addition/change to history is preceded by a 2 or 3 letter history code that identifies the action taken. Eg….XS - means Cancelled Segment. .
• Use Relay Response Capture to grab the history display. You can print it or display it in Notepad and use the Find command to locate a specific item.

To see the complete list of codes transaction and history codes, or for more information about displaying and reading PNR History see:

HELP HISTORY 
HELP DISPLAY 
For Help on any Relay screen, press F1.

Don’t you hate it when your clients can’t make up their minds? You’ve just stored the fare and ended the record for Mr. and Mrs. Vacillation and now Mrs. V. has decided to return home on a different flight. Here’s a refresher on everyone’s favorite procedure—Split and Divide.

1. Divide the second name. Example: DN1-2
   The PNR of the second name appears.
2. Make changes to the PNR.
3. Verify the ATFQ field and enter a Received field. Example: T:V and R:MRS V
4. File the PNR. Example: F
   The PNR of the first name appears.
5. Verify the ATFQ field and enter a Received field. Example: T:V and R:MRS V
6. End transact the PNR. Example: E

For more information, see: HELP DIVIDE

Have you tried sending email itineraries from Focalpoint® recently? Here are some new features that you’ll really like.

Here are some EM (end transact/email) formats with the new modifiers:

Other email formats and procedures remain the same.

For more information, see:

S*PRO/RSVN-EMAIL (Apollo Keyboard Mode)

S*PRO/DESKTOP-EMAIL(Standard Windows Keyboard Mode)

¤:3DOCSN1/P/CA/S12345678/CA/11MAR78/F/21JUN10/TANAKA/GRACE

Because SSR DOCS requires association to a specific passenger in the PNR, you cannot enter it in the profile as an always move (Y) line.  But, did you know that you can add the SSR DOCS to a profile as a related move line with a transfer code of R?  When you add R lines to a profile, you would omit the name select part of the format.

Here is a format example to add the above format to a profile.  Notice that the N1 (Name field 1) near the beginning of the format is omitted.

RC:7R/¤:3DOCS/P/CA/S12345678/CA/11MAR48/F/21JUN10/TANAKA/GRACE

Note:  You can also add the line to the profile with Relay Profile Editor.

When you move data from the profile to the PNR, you can move R lines after the names and segments are added to the PNR. Here is a format to move R lines.

MVP/R/P-1/+7   (Move from PAR/R lines/Name field 1/line 7.)

For more information, see:

• HELP DOCS
• HELP PROFILE

Or, to take a self-paced online course on Profiles:

1. Go to: http://support.galileo.com/SGC/LMS/AMERICAS/en-ca
2. Enter your pseudo city code and agency PIN, and then enter your Apollo sign-on and initials.
3. In the Self-paced Online section, click the course link and register.

Here is a quick review on requesting credit authorization and adding it to the PNR.

Your customer calls to book all her business trips for the next month. No problem, you say to yourself.  I’ll use REALL (repeat passenger data.) Repeat passenger data creates a new PNR with the same
passenger data as the first. Just add the new itinerary.

To repeat passenger data, follow these steps in Focalpoint®:

1. Create (or retrieve) the first PNR.
2. Add a Received field.
3. Enter the format: REALL
   Apollo® end transacts the first PNR and creates a new PNR with the same passenger data.
4. Add the new itinerary and complete the PNR.

But what if you have multiple passengers on the same itinerary, but different PNRs? You can create a new PNR with the same segment data with the format: RESALL

Or, you can repeat both passenger and segment data with the format: REALLSALL

For variations on these formats, see: HELP REPEAT

Need to brush up on your basic PNR building skills? To take a self-paced course:

1. Go to: http://support.galileo.com/SGC/LMS/AMERICAS/en-ca and log in.
2. In the Self-paced Online section, select the course you’d like to take and complete the registration