6.5 GDS Pricing, Ticket Issuance & Post-Ticketing Servicing

Quick Answer: A fare display lists published fares for a city pair before anything is booked; a fare quote prices the itinerary actually held in the PNR. Only a stored fare can be ticketed - Amadeus calls it a TST (Transitional Stored Ticket), Sabre a PQ (Price Quote) record, Travelport+ a Filed Fare. After issue, the three servicing routes are void (same day under BSP), refund (per fare rule Category 33) and exchange/reissue (fare difference plus penalty plus tax difference).

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1. Fare Display vs Fare Quote

A fare display is a tariff lookup: no PNR, no passenger, just the published fares filed for a city pair.

A fare quote (pricing) takes the segments, dates and booking classes actually in the PNR and prices them, applying every rule the fare carries. The two are not interchangeable: a display can show a EUR 320 fare in class Q while your PNR is held in M, so the priced total is higher.

2. Informative Pricing vs the Stored Fare

Informative pricing answers "what would this cost?" and leaves nothing behind - Amadeus FXX, Sabre WP without storing. Pricing and storing writes a fare record into the PNR.

Why storing matters: at the moment of issue the system re-prices unless a fare is stored - Sabre's own ticketing documentation warns "FP lines do not guarantee the fare". The stored fare freezes the fare calculation, taxes, fare basis, endorsements and commission so that the ticket matches the quote the client accepted. Amadeus FXP also auto-creates the FV (validating carrier) and FE (endorsement) elements. Any change to the name field, itinerary or a split deletes the stored fare - always re-price after touching the PNR.

3. Best Buy and Rebooking to a Lower Fare

The words available and possible are exam vocabulary: the lowest available fare is the cheapest fare whose booking class still has seats, while the lowest possible fare is the cheapest filed fare even if its class is closed. When the cheaper fare sits in a different RBD, the best-buy entry rebooks the segments into that class, so the segment status cycles back through the airline and the new class may belong to a stricter fare family with tighter change rules. Amadeus warns against automatic rebooking on standard-access carriers, where the rebook may not reach the airline.

4. Read the Rule Before You Ticket

Fare rules are filed with ATPCO by numbered category, and the GDS retrieves them category by category.

Retrieval: Amadeus FQN4 for the notes behind line 4, FQN4//PE for penalties only, FQNTAX/FR for a country's taxes; Travelport+ FN*1 then FN*1/16; Sabre $V1 then $V/16. Travelport structured rules use mnemonics - ADV (Cat 5), MIN (6), MAX (7), STP (8), CHG (16), VOL (31), VOR (33). Reading the rule is not optional: the carrier, not the GDS, decides what you may do, and an unread Category 5 is a classic Agency Debit Memo.

5. Issuing the Ticket

Issuance does two things at once: it writes the electronic ticket into the validating carrier's database (creating the ETR the airport reads) and it books the sale into the agency's daily sales report, which flows to BSP or ARC for the billing period. That is the moment agency money is at risk. Before issuing, check the ticketing time limit element (TK TL15JUN/1800); if it lapses the airline's robot cancels the segments and returns HX or UN.

Coupon status controls what you may do next. OPEN allows void, refund or reissue; USED, EXCHANGED, REFUNDED and VOID are terminal; ARPT or CKIN means the coupon is under airport control and the carrier must release it before the GDS will act.

6. Void, Refund and Exchange

If the new fare is lower, the balance is residual value: on a restricted fare it is normally forfeited, and where the carrier allows it to be kept it is issued as an EMD-S rather than returned in cash. Refunding a residual the rule does not permit is a textbook debit-memo trigger.

Involuntary vs voluntary. When the airline changes or cancels the schedule, the reissue is involuntary: no penalty, no fare difference, and the waiver code goes in the endorsement box (for example Southwest requires an endorsement such as WAIVESC1234061871 to avoid a debit memo). If only the date or flight number moves within the same fare, some carriers permit revalidation - updating the coupon without a new ticket (Sabre WETRL/S2/C2, Travelport+ #REVAL). A voluntary change always costs penalty plus fare difference plus tax difference.

7. Worked Reissue Calculation

A client holds LON-DXB return: fare GBP 480.00 plus taxes GBP 128.60 = GBP 608.60. She moves the return two weeks later. The new applicable fare is GBP 610.00, new taxes GBP 132.10, and Category 31 sets a GBP 150.00 change penalty.

1. Fare difference: 610.00 - 480.00 = GBP 130.00
2. Change penalty: GBP 150.00
3. Tax difference: 132.10 - 128.60 = GBP 3.50
4. Additional collection = 130.00 + 150.00 + 3.50 = GBP 283.50
5. New document value 742.10 plus 150.00 penalty = 892.10; the old 608.60 is applied through the FO element, leaving 283.50 to collect.

Had the new fare been GBP 400.00, the 80.00 difference would be residual - forfeited on a restricted fare - and the GBP 150.00 penalty would still be collected.