Booking policy

System abuses

System abuses consider any fraud and fraudulent transactions or behavior intending to gain benefit for the agent, agency or the passenger and at the same time creating damages to Air Serbia inventory or reputation. Some of the examples are:

• Presenting regular passengers as agency employees to get discounts;
• Adding fake discount documents or DOB;
• Failure to add travel documents or adding fake travel documents to the PNR;
• Ignoring minimum connection time;
• Manual price override;
• Creating the PNR and issuing the ticket in “single transaction” to issue ticket before receiving confirmed or canceled flight segment;
• Rebooking fee missing

System abuses are not limited to the examples provided above, and the agencies who are responsible for repeating fraudulent transactions or behavior will be restricted to display or sell any Air SERBIA flight or service.

Lack of passenger contact information

Contact information of the passengers in the PNR is mandatory. IATA resolution 830d mandates that agents must actively ask each passenger whether they wish to have their contact details (mobile number and/or email) provided to airlines participating in the itinerary for contact in operational disruption. The agent is responsible for the accuracy of the provided data and it is the agent’s responsibility to act in compliance with the data protection directives and regulations.

In the event the passenger exercises his or her right not to provide contact details it is incumbent on the Agent to indicate that the passenger has declined to provide such details, and to enter the refusal in the PNR to limit any statutory liability. In such a case, the Agent must actively advise the passenger that they may not receive information from the airline relating to flight cancellation or schedule changes (including delay in departure).

The Agent shall notify the customer of the reservation status of all segments and associated services and any changes thereto.

Agent may not substitute any contact information or provide the agent’s contact information instead of the customer’s information without the consent of Air SERBIA.

According to the European Court of Justice, carriers are required to communicate information about flight delays. Agency is required to enter in the SSR form (CTCM and CTCE) the email and the telephone only for the passengers who are in the PNR, to enable our automatic system to send a timely notification to the passenger in the event of any flight schedule and other operative changes. In a case where passenger declines to provide contact information SSR CTCR must be inserted in the PNR.

Should non-compliance with these provisions result in penalties for Air SERBIA imposed by any regulatory or judicial body, your agency will bear the cost of such penalties or court decisions, your agency will promptly be denied the possibility of issuing tickets on our flights, and every legal means and measure will be taken to protect Air SERBIA against harmful actions.

SSR CODES MANDATORY FOR IROP NOTIFICATION TO THE PASSENGER BY THE AIRLINE – entries for the travel agents

With SSR Codes CTCM/CTCE passenger emergency contact information is provided to the airline, to be used in the case of irregular operations following IATA resolution 830d.

If the passenger refuses to provide this information, SSR CTCR should be applied to the booking, indicating that the passenger has refused to provide IROP contact information to the airline.

During the SSR adding, pay special attention to:  

• Enter passenger IROP Contact information with passenger association.
• Characters to use when inserting SSR CTCE in the PNR:
• // is used in place of the @ sign in the e-mail address
• .. is used in the place of _ (underscore) in the e-mail address
• ../ is used in the place of – (hyphen) in the e-mail address

Sabre Travel Network (1s and 1B)

Amadeus (1A)

Travelport (1G/1P/1V)

Travelsky (1E)

For additional clarifications and instructions, please contact your respective GDS Help Desk Offices.

Fare rules / Conditions of Carriage

Informing the passengers about the fare rules and Conditions of Carriage is mandatory. Please read the Fare Rules carefully and advise passengers in clear terms about the content, benefits, and restrictions of the chosen fare type. Passengers must receive comprehensible information about all the material terms, including without being limited to, price, terms of purchase, booking change terms, ticket cancellation terms, baggage carriage terms, additional services included in the chosen fare brand, and check-in terms.

Avoiding the fare rules is strictly forbidden, agents should always adhere to the fare rules to avoid issuance of ADM.

Examples of fare rules misuses:

• Selecting Air SERBIA as validating carrier without selecting Air SERBIA fare
• Incorrect fare application and combinability (e.g. routing or sales restrictions)
• Incorrect fare value (under-collection)
• Non-compliance of fare rules e.g. minimum/maximum stay, advanced purchase rules
• Avoiding seasonality rules or flight applications rules
• Using of Codeshare flights not allowed on specified routings or fares
• Avoiding charging for stopovers, transfers and surcharges
• Incorrect Fare Base Code, Ticket Designator & incorrect or missing Tour Code
• Open or waitlisted sectors (where reservation is required)
• Misuse of eligibility and applicability of fare issuance (e.g. Seamen, Global Products, AD offers)
• Free baggage allowance discrepancies
• Incorrect form of payment according to the contract

Transportation shall be subject to the fares and charges in effect on the date of ticket issuance for travel on the specific dates and itinerary shown on the ticket.

A fare and tariff are only guaranteed by the respective GDS when the fare was auto-quoted by the system and the ticket was issued on the same day, based on confirmed flights, and reported in BSP. Auto-quoted fares stored but not ticketed are subject to any price change. An auto-quoted ticketed fare remains guaranteed up to a voluntary first flight and/or itinerary change including the first flight. This applies to taxes, fees and surcharges equally that need revaluation in case of exchange/reissue before/after departure.

Air SERBIA tickets issued based on manual fare quotations are subject to control and any discrepancies are subject to ADM. Air SERBIA also reserve the right to audit and issue ADMs for tickets auto-priced / guaranteed by the GDS.

Fictitious / Speculative / Training / Testing bookings

Fictitious or speculative bookings are bookings made in anticipation of a sale where no definite passenger exists / or for productivity purposes or where no definite passenger exists by using fake names.

Request space and create a reservation only for the desired flights and only if requested by the passenger, IATA Resolution 830 as well as Selling Agreements between CRS users and CRS providers do not allow any reservation without a specific customer request. Thus speculative/fictitious bookings (entire fictitious bookings or single fictitious segments) violate contractual agreements as well as fare rules, paragraph SR (Sales Restriction).

Training / Testing created in a live mode for agency training/business tracking purposes / obtaining customer visa are considered test bookings. Those bookings must be made in training mode or non-billable status codes provided by the GDS. Creating PNRs for training/testing purposes using active sell segment status codes is prohibited.

Uncommitted bookings

Uncommitted Bookings are bookings not finalized with EOT (End of Transaction). If they are held longer than the usual time necessary to close the sale, seats are blocked in our flight inventory and Air SERBIA risks being priced-out and is unable to sell such seats.

Correct booking class

Correct booking class must be reflected in all the bookings, according to the fare paid. In most cases, the first letter of the Air SERBIA Fare Base Code denotes the RBD to be used; it is important to check the correct booking class. The ticketing agent will be held responsible if not complying.

Ticket time limit

The ticket time limit is a date and time deadline required for ticket issuance set in a PNR. Each fare has its ticketing time limit which is reflected in CAT 5/AP paragraph of the respective fare note chapter. However, in case of discrepancy between the time limit set in the system and the content coded in CAT 5, the most restrictive ticketing time limit will apply.

Air SERBIA uses an automated revenue integrity routine to cancel segments when ticketing has not occurred by the applicable time limit. Cancelation of such segment(s) is sent with a status code 'HX', which must be removed immediately. In case of PNRs with multiple names and ticket numbers not being issued for all names, the PNR should be split and the non-ticketed names will be canceled. A valid ticket number related to the PNRs customer and itinerary has to be issued and reported.

Incomplete Usage & Out of Sequence

Incomplete Usage & Out of Sequence means that itinerary segments are not being used as described in the selected fare. It is not permitted to make reservations different from the passenger’s real itinerary including fictitious segments to undercut the applicable fare. This includes but not limited to booking and issuing round-trips for one-way use or partial travel only as well as amending itineraries without passenger request.

Should the customer change their travel plans for return flight(s) at their destination, and the original ticket does not allow rebooking/rerouting, a new Air SERBIA ticket should be bought to avoid ADM.

Excess cancelation ratio

The cancelation ratio (number of canceled segments vs. number of booked segments) must not exceed percentages as described below or the agency will receive ADM and in the case of a substantial cancelation ratio agency will be restricted to display or sell any Air SERBIA flight or service.

Cancelation ratio above 70% must be avoided.

Markets where JU is not a member of BSP:

• Cancelation of >70% - restriction of inventory for both non-IATA and IATA agencies

Markets where JU is a member of BSP:

• Non-IATA agency >70% - restriction of inventory if cancelation ratio doesn’t change after first warning
• Non-IATA agency >80% - immediate restriction of inventory
• IATA agency - >70% - ADM > 80% restriction of inventory if cancelation ratio doesn’t change after first warning

Agencies whose display of JU's inventory is restricted can apply for a re-activation. Activation fee will be calculated based on a table that was separately communicated to the agents (Summary of abuse practices and consequent penalties). If the agency is restricted to access JU inventory for 3 consecutive months, next restriction will be permanent.

Inactive segments

The inactive segment can be identified with the segment status HX/UC/NO/US/UN. All inactive segments must be canceled from the GDS/CRS immediately when received but no later than 48 hours before departure.

Passive segments

Booking and ticketing must be done within the same system (GDS) to avoid passive segments. The creation of passive segments is not allowed whenever it is possible to claim a PNR instead.

Air SERBIA only allows passive segments that are used for ticketing. A passive segment must match an existing booking in Air SERBIA’s internal reservations system. The use of mismatched segments to issue tickets, or to generate false confirmation is strictly prohibited.

Industry standards require for passive segments to be used “for ticketing” only after a booking has been made in an airline inventory system. Air SERBIA does not allow passive segments to be used for other reasons, including among others:

• Administrative;
• Satisfying GDS productivity;
• Circumventing fare rule;

If a passive segment is rejected by Air SERBIA, then the passive segment should be canceled immediately by the agent.

Waitlisted segments

A travel agent must not repeatedly create waitlisted bookings, since these do not increase chances for their confirmation and result only in higher booking volumes and increased GDS fees for Air SERBIA.

The correct booking class must be available or available for wait-listing for an agent to make a booking. The booking class must correspond with a valid fare and fare rule for the complete itinerary

The travel agent must ensure all waitlisted bookings are removed from the active PNR at least 48 hours before departure. Waitlisted segments that are not canceled on time as well as repeatedly requested waitlists are subject to ADM.

Churning

Churning is defined as repeated canceling and rebooking of space to circumventing ticket time limits set down by Air SERBIA’s revenue management. Excessive and repeated booking and canceling of space is often done:

• By canceling and/or rebooking the same flight, class, date or route to circumvent the fare rule
• To achieve GDS productivity targets

Churning will be considered to have taken place if a segment is booked and canceled more than three (3) times.

Churning is not allowed for any reason and in the case of repeatedly booked segments will result in ADM.

Duplicate bookings

Duplicate Bookings are booking of more than one segment/PNR for the same passenger for the same/different route that cannot be logically flown. A travel agent must not create impossible traveling itineraries.

Segments booked (confirmed or waitlisted), for one passenger in the same or different PNR, in the same or different GDS used by the same agency and for the same flight or for a different flight that logically cannot be flown, are considered as duplicated.

No-Show

A no-show is inventory spoilage caused by a person who reserves a seat on a flight but neither it is attended nor canceled. When the Travel Agent fails to cancel a booking that is not required by the customer, which eventually leads to inventory spoilage. Failure to cancel a redundant ticketed or un-ticketed reservation in due time may result in a no-show. Detected excess ratio (more than 1% of all ticketed bookings) of no-show PNRs will be subject to the ADM.

JU has an automated routine in place which cancels all subsequent JU operating and marketing segments booked in one PNR after a no-show. It is recommended to create separate PNRs for separate tickets to avoid cancelations of unlinked journeys (for example, when one-way fares are used).

New Payment Acceptance Policy

Since 1 of March 2018 Air SERBIA is acting under amended IATA resolution 890. This means that Air Serbia will not accept the agency-owned payment cards unless we have granted our official approval on the agent’s request. This approval needs to be bilaterally agreed upon, between Air Serbia and an agent. If the agent needs to use his payment card, the official request must be sent to Air SERBIA with details of payment card and BIN range. In case of non-compliance Air SERBIA keeps the right to charge the agent for any cost increase Air Serbia will occur because of disrespect of our Policy.

IATA mandates The Agent may accept cards as payment for ticket sales on behalf of the Member/Airline whose ticket is being issued, subject to the rules and procedures outlined in IATA Resolution 890 and chapter 10 and/or 14 of the Billing and Settlement Plan manual for Agents.

The Agent shall ensure that the type of card processed during the sale is accepted by the Member/Airline whose traffic document is being issued.

Re-Distribution of AIR SERBIA product and services

Air SERBIA noticed that some of the agencies are changing the agency GDS offices or re-distributing Air SERBIA's (product and services) to other Agencies' during the reservation and ticketing processes. It is forbidden without the previous Air SERBIA consent to:

• to act as an intermediary for further distribution of Products and Services via other intermediaries and sales agents
• to distribute Products and Services via any other channel except between the Agency own branches authorized by Air SERBIA
• to offer or distribute Products and Services as part of a service provided by Agent that is re-branded so that it appears to customers to be a search, booking or ticketing service from a third party

Additionally, if Agency uses or works with a non-accredited entity in making a booking or issuing the Air SERBIA ticket then Agency acknowledges and agrees that Air SERBIA reserves the right to reject the booking in AIR SERBIA sole discretion and that the Agency nonetheless remains fully responsible to AIR SERBIA in all respects for any bookings made by third parties and ticketed via Agency office.