January 2025 - Release Notes

Here are the most recent enhancements to Spotnana’s Travel-as-a-Service Platform. The features are grouped by functional category (Content, Self-service, etc.).

Content

easyJet direct connection

Spotnana has built a direct connection with easyJet. With this integration, travelers can:

• Access dynamic fares at a lower cost. 

• Purchase and reserve seats during booking.

• Receive automated refunds (minus any applicable cancellation penalties) within the first 24 hours of booking.

• Be serviced by TMC agents or by agents at easyJet. Changes made by either set of agents will be reflected across both the airline and Spotnana.

This integration has been developed through an API provided by Kyte. Users with the permission to view content source labels will see “Kyte” as the content source.

For details on all our direct NDC and direct airline integrations, see our NDC Overview. 

Travel Management

Define "Overnight" cabin class

When configuring overnight cabin class policy in the platform, company administrators now have the ability to define what constitutes an overnight flight and configure the following:

• Cabin class upgrade options: Select maximum allowed cabin class for overnight flights.

• Nighttime hours: Configure start and end times for the nighttime period based on the departure timezone of a given flight. The default setting is 10 PM to 6 AM.

• Nighttime travel time calculation: Define the number of hours a traveler must spend in nighttime hours in order to qualify for the overnight policy, with the option to include or exclude layover time in the calculations.

For more details, see Set flight policies. 

Payments

TMC payment compliance and automation for air fares

We have released the following features to help automate and streamline the payment selection and settlement process when booking air travel:

• Credit card restrictions at checkout: Ensures travelers use only accepted forms of payment at the point of checkout. Travelers are shown the forms of payment that are accepted by the airline at the point of checkout. If the traveler's credit card is not supported by the airline, the system automatically blocks the card and prompts the traveler to select an alternative payment method. 

• Central card override: When a company central card is not accepted by an airline, the traveler is presented with the option to use an alternate form of payment directly at checkout. This enables the traveler to continue booking without disruption and eliminates the need to contact an agent.

• QC checks for all payment scenarios: Flags bookings made with unaccepted payment methods during the Quality Control (QC) process, allowing TMC agents to correct the issue before ticketing. This minimizes the risk of airlines issuing Agency Debit Memos (ADMs) to TMCs and ensures compliance. 

• Market-specific rules: Applies airline acceptance rules dynamically based on market geography, point of sale, and fare type (e.g., corporate, published, private). Spotnana’s system evaluates these criteria at checkout using airline, fare type, and Global Distribution System (GDS) Pseudo City Code (PCC) data to ensure compliance.

The features above are available to our TMC channel partners who provide a CSV file of their Form of Payment (FOP) rules. Please reach out to your Partner Success Manager to enable.

For our TMC channel partners who have an active integration with Stripe, we have also released the following enhancements:

• Cash payment automation (via Stripe): When cash is the only accepted form of payment, the traveler can now use any credit card to proceed. The credit card payment is processed through Stripe, who then passes a cash payment to the airline, removing the need for manual cash workflows by agents. The TMC acts as the Merchant of Record for these transactions.

• Exchanges and ancillaries for cash bookings (via Stripe): Extends the automation of cash payments to post-booking changes and ancillary purchases. Refunds or charges are processed using the same credit card originally used for the booking.

• Shell PNR cash support (via Stripe): Facilitates cash payments for bookings created via Shell PNRs in the GDS when the airline only accepts cash. QC checks alert agents to update the form of payment to cash. Once corrected, the system automatically charges the assigned credit card via Stripe.

TMC Infrastructure

Self-service suppler content management

TMC administrators now have access to self-service tools to manage supplier content, providing them with flexible control over PCC assignments. This includes:

• Self-service credential management – TMC administrators can now view and configure credentials for each supplier across Spotnana’s ecosystem of content partners including Sabre, direct NDC integrations, direct integrations with Southwest, RyanAir, and easyJet, Travelfusion, Trainline, and more.

• Granular ability to enable and disable access to supplier content – TMCs now have the flexibility to enable or disable content for specific suppliers per client, client currency, client country, legal entity, TMC, or by point of sale.

• Supplier-specific management interfaces – Each supplier can now be configured independently, allowing TMCs to set up and manage credentials, control supplier availability, and configure credential assignment rules specific to their clients’ needs.

• Flexible, rule-based credential assignment with centralized rule evaluation – Administrators can now define specific credential rules by client, country, or currency and centralize rule evaluation. Our new rules engine ensures efficient and accurate credential selection every time, with prioritized organization-level rules and TMC-level defaults as fallback options.

For additional information on how to set up your PCC configurations, please contact your Partner Success Manager.