NDC and Direct Connections

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• NDC and Direct Connections
• What is NDC?
• NDC and Spotnana
• Other direct connections with airlines
• Our NDC integrations
  • American Airlines
  • Air France-KLM
  • Copa Airlines
  • Emirates Airlines
  • Lufthansa Group
  • United Airlines
• Other direct airline integrations
  • Southwest Airlines
  • RyanAir

What is NDC?

NDC is the biggest change to happen to the airline industry since the creation of the first online booking tool in the 1990’s. Spotnana is leading the industry through this transition by building the deepest direct NDC integrations to top airlines in record time along with significant other enhancements to our travel platform. 

NDC is an XML data schema for airline bookings that was created by the International Air Transportation Association (IATA) in 2012 to replace EDIFACT, a data schema that was created in 1984. NDC enables airlines to offer a greater variety of booking options and ancillaries at a wider range of prices, along with better customer service. Some specific advantages of NDC are: 

• Expanded travel options: Some airlines have removed inventory from EDIFACT channels and added additional inventory and ancillary products available exclusively via NDC and their websites. American Airlines and United Airlines both offer 40% more booking options via NDC.

• Continuous pricing: Some airlines offer additional price points via NDC that are less expensive than options available via EDIFACT channels. 
  

• Additional cost savings: Some airlines have raised prices in EDIFACT channels and lowered prices available via NDC in order to drive NDC adoption. In addition, some airlines have implemented surcharges for bookings in EDIFACT channels that are as high as $23 per flight.

• Personalized shopping experiences: NDC makes it easy for airlines to incorporate a traveler’s loyalty status during the booking process. If a traveler is entitled to a free seat in economy class, for example, this can be shown in the seat map. 

• Custom negotiated bundles: NDC allows a corporation with sufficient travel volume to negotiate custom bundles that include priority boarding, extra legroom, free WiFi, etc. Spotnana supports the ability to display these bundles in our booking experience.

• Servicing anywhere: NDC makes it possible for a traveler to receive assistance from Spotnana or an airline and for all parties to stay in sync. United supports this capability, for example.

NDC and Spotnana

Spotnana was designed from its inception to work seamlessly with any source of travel content, including NDC. It’s our strategy to build the deepest direct NDC integrations with the world’s largest airlines . We believe this approach is best, because it gives us the ability to deliver the full benefits of each airline’s NDC API to our customers. It also enables us to partner closely with major airlines and be the first to deliver future innovations.

Spotnana’s NDC integrations offer comprehensive functionality throughout the traveler journey, including support for self-service flight changes, cancellations, and (where supported by the airline) redemption of unused ticket credits.

Since agents using the Spotnana platform use the same underlying platform as our customers, they are able to easily service NDC bookings. 

Other direct connections with airlines

In addition to our NDC integrations, we have also built direct integrations with select airlines. These airlines currently do not support NDC, but our direct connection provides similar benefits to our NDC integrations.

Our NDC integrations

We currently have direct NDC integrations in place with the following airlines, which offer the following benefits:

American Airlines

• 40% more travel options, including NDC-exclusive fares: Main Plus, Main Select, and Flagship Business Plus.
• Discounts on NDC fares relative to EDIFACT booking channels.
• Ability to redeem unused ticket credits.

Air France-KLM

• Eliminates EDIFACT booking surcharge.

• Access to NDC-exclusive promotional fares.
• Dynamic offers on some ancillaries (seats and bags).
• Ability to hold a ticket.
• Automated refunds for cancellations.

Copa Airlines

• Access to exclusive sales promotions and ancillary products.
• Ability to hold a ticket.
• Avoidance of cost-recovery surcharges on reservations.

Emirates Airlines

• Eliminates EDIFACT booking surcharge.
• Access to NDC-exclusive promotional fares.
• Discounts on some ancillaries.
• Ability to hold a ticket.
• Automated refunds for cancellations.

Lufthansa Group

• Includes NDC booking options for Air Dolomiti (codeshares only), Austrian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Discover Airlines, Lufthansa Airlines, SWISS.
• Eliminates EDIFACT booking surcharge.
• Access to NDC-exclusive fares, such as Economy Light, Business Saver, and Green Fares. Green Fares reduce up to 20% of flight-related CO2 emissions by the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and offset parts or all of the remaining 80% of the CO2 emissions by an equivalent contribution to high-quality climate protection projects.
• Continuous pricing.
• Discounts on some ancillaries and fares relative to EDIFACT booking channels.
• Ability to hold a ticket.

United Airlines

• 40% more travel options. 
• Continuous pricing.
• Discounts NDC fares relative to EDIFACT booking channels.
• Ability to redeem unused ticket credits.
• Ability to hold a ticket.
• Ability to automatically apply a waiver for a rebooking when a flight schedule is changed.
• Support for servicing via Spotnana or United agents with all parties staying in sync.

Other direct airline integrations

Spotnana has developed direct integrations to some airlines that do not offer an NDC API, including: 

Southwest Airlines

• Access to full content including promotional fares (Week of WOW fares, etc.).
• Ability to purchase EarlyBird Check-In.
• Ability to redeem unused ticket credits.
• Ability to check in for a flight or cancel check-in using Spotnana.
• Ability to make same-day self-service flight changes and cancellations.
• Ability to hold a ticket.

RyanAir

• Access to content and fare options from all points of sales (POS).
• Ability to book flights without incurring a GDS fee (resulting in lower prices).
• Access two additional fare options that are not available via GDS (Regular and Plus).