Focus TMCs benefit from having a secret weapon in the Focus Fares Desk. This desk answers all fares related queries and is included in your Focus Partnership membership. We asked Laura Currie, who manages this helpdesk, what is a typical query..
We had one TMC Partner who needed help, they are a multi-sector itinerary where the client had booked a comfort plus ticket, this is an little gem of a seat which is in between economy and premium economy, you are technically in economy but you get more legroom and more amenities but there is a slight premium price for it. The client wanted to change the return which again was to be in comfort plus. Now this sounds straight forward enough but this airline files fares using dual inventory (this is where the booking class for example is S and the fare is calculated on lower inventory depending on what is available, which could be L, V etc). We worked out the new fare which would be based on the flown fare outbound and calculating the new fare inbound (this is all dependant on dates). Together we had to recalculate the fare, which we managed by recreating the journey, adding future date sectors for the flown outbound and the new return dates. The sectors were then priced and manipulated by using command pricing and historical fares to build the new fare. The resulting fare was then compared to the original fare display to ensure the new was applicable on the original travel dates.
This is classic example of where GDS auto re-issue tools struggle as there are so many different scenarios and making sure everything was correct ensures that the TMC doesn’t receive an ADM (Agent debit memo) from the airline.