In compliance with the IATA Resolution 830(a) and 850(m) of the Passenger Agency Conference (PAC) Resolution Manual, Air Astra (2A) (2A) hereby publishes its Booking Policy.

 

Effective Date 

Air Astra (2A) will implement this Booking Policy with effect from 15th October 2022.

 

This policy applies to all travel service providers, including travel agents, who make bookings and/or ticketing for air transportation on Air Astra (2A) operating flights for IATA, Non-IATA, Domestic and International, and any person or entity accessing Air Astra (2A)’s internal reservation system content.

 

The objective of this Booking Policy is to ensure that the booking and ticketing rules and other agreements made between the Travel Agents and Air Astra (2A) are rightly abiding by them and in case of any contrary, to settle the difference in an adequate and logical way, equal for all Distribution Channels.

 

The purpose of this Booking Policy is not to generate extra revenue for Air Astra (2A), but to reduce the cost associated with improper GDS booking and ticketing practices.

 

Air Astra (2A) will continue to provide information to travel agents to ensure that all GDS users take a consistent approach when using GDS services for booking and issuance of tickets for Air Astra (2A) customers.

 

The obligation of the Travel agents is described in IATA Resolution 824 which states that the issued tickets are the responsibility of the travel agents and could not be held responsible for GDS system mistakes.

 

The following sections define different Violations or Non-Compliance practices of travel agents that will be detected by Air Astra (2A) and could result in the issuance of ADM.

 

 

 

1. Ticketing Time Limits (TTL): A date and time deadline will be provided in the PNR, Travel agent should either issue a ticket or cancel the booking before the TTL. Air Astra (2A) will cancel unticketed bookings at the time limit.
 

2. Duplicate Booking: Passenger’s contact address is a mandatory element to create a PNR. So, all sorts of contact like Phone no, Mobile no, e-mail address, etc. of a travel agent as well as a passenger for both ends are to be available in the booking. If any important information related to the journey could not be communicated with the passenger due to inadequacy of contact information, the concerned agencies will be held responsible for that.
 

3. Inadequate Contact Address: Each PNR will be checked for duplicate booking for the same passenger and/or same route and same date. Duplicate unticketed bookings will be canceled by Air Astra (2A).

 

4. Impossible Journey: Bookings will be checked for segments where the passenger is due for departure on the same date but on a different route/destination. will cancel unticketed bookings and send a warning for ticketed bookings.

 

5. Fake/Fictitious Names: Booking will be checked to determine if it is with a genuine name or a fake/fictitious name. 2A will cancel all bookings containing definite fake/fictitious names.

 

6. Test/Training PNRs: Booking will be checked to determine if it is a booking created by a travel agent purely for test/training purposes. 2A will cancel all test/training bookings.

 

7. No-Show: A No-Show occurs, when a passenger misses the flight or when a travel agent fails to cancel a booking either ticketed or unticketed but not required by the passenger which eventually leads to spoilage of inventory. 2A will cancel all subsequent segments followed by the No-Show segment.

 

8. Waitlisted Bookings: Travel agents must cancel and remove all WL/HL segments at least 72 hours before flight departure. 2A will cancel all unticketed waitlisted booking 72 hours prior to departure including any confirmed segment followed by the waitlisted segment.

 

9. Minimum Connecting Time (MCT): Travel agents must not create a booking that violates the MCT requirements. 2A will inspect and cancel all unticketed violations detected bookings and send a warning for ticketed bookings.

 

10. Duplicate Ticket: 2A will check for instances where the same ticket number has been used on more than one booking and will send a warning to the issuing agent.

 

11. Partially Ticketed PNRs: 2A will check for PNRs with multiple/group names and ticket numbers. If tickets have not been issued for all names, a warning will be sent to the agent and if no action is observed, then 2A will split the PNR and cancel all unticked passengers.

 

12. APIS Violation: It is an IATA mandatory requirement for the following information must be included in the PNR for the international journey:
                     A. Form of Identification (FOID)
                     B. Date of Birth (DOB)
                     C. Gender
                     D. Others

Air Astra (2A) will inspect and send a warning for booking with incomplete information and finally missing APIS PNR may also be canceled.

 

13. Group Bookings: Conditions specified in the Air Astra (2A) contract/policy will be audited, if any violation is detected action will be taken accordingly.

 

14. Hidden Group: Air Astra (2A) will also check across multiple individual bookings for a large group from the same agent and a warning will be sent to the concerned agencies.

 

15. Churning: Segments that are repeatedly canceled and rebooked to circumvent ticketing time limits or to meet GDS productivity are considered churning bookings. The threshold for churning (repeatedly canceled and rebooked) is three (3), So, ADM charges are applied as of the 04th.

 

16. Inactive Segments: Travel Agents must promptly remove all unwanted segments with status codes DL, KL, HN, HL, HX, NO, TK, TL, WK, WN, UC, UN, US, or UU. All inactive segments with the above status codes that are not removed 72 hours prior to departure will be treated as violations.

 

17. Passive Bookings: An acceptable passive segment is a segment entered into a GDS for the purpose of ticketing and must be canceled immediately after the issuance of a ticket. It must match an existing booking. GDS subscribers must use claim PNR functionality instead of passive segments. So the creation of passive segments is not permitted. Industry standards require that passive segments be used “for the purpose of ticketing” only after a booking has been made in an airline’s inventory system. Air Astra (2A) does not allow passive segments to be used for other reasons, including the following -

 

18. High Cancellation: A cancellation rate of more than 60% for international routes and 50% for the domestic route of the bookings for flights departing within the month will be considered high cancellations.

 

19. Invalid Name Changes: Name changes are not permitted on reservations unless for the purpose of correcting a misspelling of the passenger’s name. Contact Central Reservation Control of Air Astra (2A) for assistance with misspellings to avoid cancellation of space.

 

20. Coupon Sequence: Passenger must travel as per the sequence of coupons and itineraries shown on his ticket. Sequence break journey is strongly prohibited in Air Astra (2A).

 

21. Proper Ticket: Travel Agents must not issue a single sector ticket against a return sector booking for a visit visa passenger.

 

*Air Astra (2A) reserves the right to issue ADM for reasons not specified here.

1. • To satisfy GDS productivity requirements
   • To circumvent fare rules