IATA NDC Demonstrator - A Walkthrough

Roderick Ross, Ross Consulting

Aurelie Krau, TravelThink

December 2015

Table of Contents 1. Access and feedback ................................................................................... 2

2. Landing page ................................................................................................. 2

3. Search .............................................................................................................. 5

Anonymous search selection........................................................................... 5

Search results screen: web versus mobile views ........................................... 6

Viewing ancillary information and selecting optional ancillaries ............ 10

Advanced search ........................................................................................... 16

Filtering results ................................................................................................... 16

Comparing alternatives .................................................................................. 18

Selecting options and proceeding to check-out page............................ 21

Itinerary page ................................................................................................... 24

Personalized search......................................................................................... 26

4. Admin section ............................................................................................... 28

Basic policies on fares and class and notice period ................................. 31

Policies on access to rich content ................................................................ 31

Policies on ability to purchase optional ancillaries .................................... 32

Policies on carrier usage ................................................................................. 33

Policies on Distribution Channels ................................................................... 34

5. Reporting section .......................................................................................... 34

Ancillary information report ........................................................................... 35

Static ancillary spend dashboard ................................................................. 37

Dynamic ancillary spend dashboards ......................................................... 38

6. Persona section ............................................................................................. 41

Normal user ....................................................................................................... 42

Executives ......................................................................................................... 44

Directors ............................................................................................................ 46

Travel Manager ................................................................................................ 47

1. Access and feedback

The upgraded NDC demonstrator can be accessed at http://85.90.244.89.

The site can be viewed on any browser (not just Chrome as in the previous

version) and works well on mobile as well as the web (albeit that some

functionality is hidden in the mobile views to enhance usability).

We will keep the beta version of the upgrade on the test server and run it

in parallel with the previous NDC demonstrator (http://ndc.iata.org/cbt)

until all parties are ready to port across to the IATA domain.

IATA plans on having a startNDC site that will link to the NDC

demonstrator. The exact layout of that is yet to be determined.

Please send feedback to roderick@ross.consulting..

2. Landing page

The landing page summarizes the context of the Demonstrator and

contains the following sections:

Background and context

How best to explore the sandbox

o Personas: covered in section 6 of this training document

o Search: covered in section 3 of this training document

o Admin: covered in section 4 of this training document

o Reporting: covered in section 5 of this training document

Educational content as you navigate the sandbox

o Explains how to look out for NDC alerts for NDC-specific

benefits pertaining to a given feature.

Additional information specific to Business Travel processes not

shown in the Demonstrator such as Approvals and Ancillary

purchases during travel

A disclaimer about the Demonstrator being purely an educational

tool and not a system.

Web view for landing page

Explanation of what the Educational alerts are and how to look out for them.

Information about how NDC could empower approval processes. An important aspect, but one not dealt with in the demonstrator.

Information about how NDC could empower ancillary purchases during a trip. An important aspect, but one not dealt with in the demonstrator.

3. Search

Although there are various menu options (Personas, Search, Admin and

Reports), the natural place to start is with a Search. You will see in the top

right hand corner that by default the Persona of the user is Marsha

Anderson (who belongs to the Executive group and has certain extra

NDC-features enabled, such as personalized search). This can be

changed later to various Personas defined in the Persona section, as

discussed in section 6.

Anonymous search selection

The Search feature allows one to toggle between anonymous and

personalized search. We can start with anonymous search first and will

address personalized search later on.

Anonymous search

Personalized search

Educational alert highlighting anonymous versus personalized search.

Note: It is important to realize that the data being returned in these

searches is dummy data that is hard-coded in the app. So there is no

point in changing routes and dates. That is not the purpose of the

demonstrator. Just hit the search button.

Search results screen: web versus mobile views

Note that different people will use different terms for this. Search results =

Quote response = Offers = Shopping results. At an NDC API level these are

referred to Offers as part of the NDC AirShopping use case.

The Search results screens for the web and mobile views are shown below.

Web view for Search results screen. Various people will use different terms: Quote response = Search results = Offers = Shopping results.

Mobile optimized Search results screen. Click on View Details to see information surrounding connecting flights.

In order to save screen real estate for the mobile optimized view, quotes

that have connecting flights have a “View Details” button that you can

click on to see connecting flight details.

Mobile view with expanded flight details for connecting flights. Click the toggle in the bottom right to minimize the view again.

If a quote has no connecting flights then the “View Details” toggle is not

included in the mobile view. The screenshot below shows a quote in the

inbound leg that has no connecting flight information.

Mobile optimized view for a quote with no connecting flight. Now we have real estate to display ancillaries.

Viewing ancillary information and selecting optional

ancillaries

The Search results screens contain rich information about flight options

and distinguish between ancillaries included in the price and optional

ancillaries.

Educational alert on Search results highlighting the NDC benefits associated with Rich Content.

Educational alert on Search results highlighting included ancillaries.

Educational alert on Search results highlighting the NDC benefits of being able to purchase Optional ancillaries.

If NDC suppliers (airlines) have galleries of images associated with their

various ancillaries, this can readily be supported. Currently we have a

limited image set and so only some options show the ancillary gallery

capability, but this can readily be changed if more images are provided.

Ancillaries that are bundled into the price are clearly listed. This enables a like-for-like comparison with other services. Their details may be viewed by

clicking on them, which launches a pop-up window.

Ancillaries that have multiple images associated with them are viewable in a Gallery, with a click-through capability. Either Click on the images below

the main one to choose a particular image, or click on the left or right of the main image displayed to advance to the next one or go to the previous one.

Optional ancillaries (corresponding to an unbundled fare) are clearly listed. Furthermore, they may be selected for purchase (by clicking on the Select

button), which then instantly increases the total fare displayed.

The total round trip cost is updated dynamically after selection of ancillary. The total cost of optional ancillaries purchased for round trip price is also

updated.

Note that in the figure above we made a design decision to highlight the

optional ancillaries (in orange) that have been selected in the “included

in the price” section as they now contributed to the total displayed price

and are effectively included in the new dynamically bundled fare.

We needed to do this so that the mobile display was usable and

consistent with the web view. To save real estate the mobile view doesn’t

have two rows showing included and optional ancillaries. Instead, it uses

color coding to distinguish between those that are included in the original

fare (green), those that are optional but not selected (grey) and those

that have been selected (orange). The screenshot below shows this in

more detail.

Mobile optimized view showing a selected meal ancillary (highlighted in orange).

Advanced search

Advanced Search options can be launched by clicking on the “goggles”

before launching the search.

Advanced search options: for cases where the user knows upfront that certain information, particularly associated with ancillaries, is a non-

negotiable requirement for them and they only want to see Offers from suppliers that satisfy this requirement.

Due the hard-coded nature of the Search results and the fact that the

number of results is quite limited, for Demonstration purposes an

Advanced Search doesn’t really achieve much and you would have to

know beforehand what you want to filter on in order to be confident you

will even get any results. It is thus not really advised until more dummy

data is loaded. Loading more dummy data was not a focus of the work to

date though.

Filtering results

The Search results can be filtered by the usual aspects of flight details

(departure, arrival, duration, stops) as well as by the ancillaries that are

either included or optional. The filtering works both on web and mobile

views.

Filtering the outbound quotes based on flight details. Click on the Flight details filter in the table heading.

In addition to filtering by flight details one, one can filter the results based

on the ancillaries that are either optional or included in the price.

Choosing ancillary filters. Click on the Ancillary Services filter in the table heading.

Users can also sort results by features of importance to them (Price, Duration and so forth). One can also toggle the order of sorting.

Comparing alternatives

In addition to the Search results page that clearly demonstrates the

difference between different options, a powerful comparison page is

provided. This allows even more explicit like for like comparison in terms of

ancillaries, by laying it out in a matrix fashion.

NDC educational alert highlighting ability to for detailed like-for-like comparisons.

Select options for comparison by clicking the check-boxes and then clicking the Compare button in the top-left of the green table header. This

will filter and compare options on that specific part of the journey (the outbound route in this case).

A matrix comparison allows like for like comparison of alternatives. In this

view you can select ancillaries that are optional and you can also select the quote you want. Or you can return to the quote page.

By clicking on an ancillary in the green menu bar, the detailed summary of ancillaries at the bottom of the table is filtered, enabling a like-for-like

comparison of ancillary details.

Select optional ancillaries for further like-for-like comparison.

By clicking on an Ancillary icon (the meal symbol – which changes color to white to indicate selection) in the table heading it filters the display of the pictures at the bottom of the table, to allow for quick visual comparison of

a given ancillary’s quality across two suppliers.

Selecting options and proceeding to check-out page

After having explored various alternatives, you can select a desired

option for the outleg, and then one for the return leg.

Note: The data structures that we inherited assume round trip pricing. This

means a couple of things:

Selecting an option on the outbound select automatically filters

possible options on the return leg (as per screenshots below).

The fares are round trip totals, and so as you select ancillaries in each leg

you must bear in mind that the displayed ancillaries total is that for the

round trip, not just for the particular section of the journey you are on.

In terms of the actual NDC API, selection of Offers from the Shopping Use

case allows one to proceed to the Order Create use case (which is the

check-out page).

Selection of outbound and inbound options, with optional ancillary selection in each part of the journey. Once you click Select on the inbound

leg it will take you to a check-out page.

The Check-out page highlights the selected quotes as well as any selected ancillaries. On this page it is possible to select additional ancillaries, or to

unselect any ancillaries that were chosen.

It is possible to select (or unselect) additional ancillaries for purchase on the check-out page. The price is dynamically updated.

Once the user is happy, you can click book.

Note that in a real corporate booking tool, an approval typically needs to

take place, although some companies only require approval if a booking

is out of policy. Regardless, this is a standard step that is independent of

NDC. All that NDC will enable is for approval information to be much

richer, and be based on a better estimate of the total journey cost.

Furthermore, approvals could be provided for additional ancillaries

purchased on the road.

This aspect is not covered in the current demonstrator, but mock-ups were

provided for the IATA video and a quick mention is made of it in the

landing page.

Itinerary page

At the completion of the booking process an itinerary page is displayed,

which summarizes the booked information. It also highlights ancillaries that

might be available for purchase during the trip (e.g. if a traveller is running

late and needs to purchase security fast-tracks or priority boarding).

Itinerary page summarizing the trip.

One can view ancillary information on the itinerary by clicking view

details. This then provides a summary of the ancillaries.

View details associated with the ancillaries.

NDC educational alert indicating ability to clearly highlight ancillaries purchased on the traveller ability plus the ability for them to purchase

additional ones on the road (all governed by Policy).

Personalized search

In certain situations users may prefer to identify themselves with suppliers

when doing flight searches. The user can do so by switching the

Personalized search toggle to “On” in the request page, as shown below.

Selecting personalized search option.

If this option is turned on, airlines will be able to:

• Return either pre-negotiated or on-the-fly packages and tailored

upgrade options.

• Return deals as per the traveller’s preferences and status, taking

into account frequent flyer details, preferred payment mechanisms,

seat preferences and preferred ancillaries. Refer to Section 4 (the

admin section) and Section 6 (Personas section) of this document

for more details.

Travel managers can control the level of personnalization allowed and/or

choose to switch off this feature and opt for purely anonymous search.

Naturally corporate rates can be returned regardless of the search mode.

NDC Educational alert highlighting the benefits of configurable Personalized search.

Response page highlighting personalized offering.

4. Admin section

The Admin section shows some examples of the types of features that

NDC could enable in terms of policy configuration.

Note: The policy data in the demonstrator is currently hard-coded and is

not configurable via the User Interface. In a real corporate booking tool,

one would be able to check/uncheck them, but since they are hard-

coded in the back-end of the demonstrator we have disabled the ability

to change selections.

Instead we have inserted educational alerts (accessibly by hovering over

the pink “Information” button) to highlight various aspects that NDC

enables.

Note: “Normal”, “Executive” and “Director” column titles refer to user

groups and associated rights defined in the Admin section of any

Corporate Booking Tool (cf. Section 6: Personas).

Admin section in web view: outlining policy configuration examples.

Mobile optimized admin view. As always, one can demonstrate this by simply reducing the browser size in terms of horizontal screen real estate.

Basic policies on fares and class and notice period

There are various parts to the admin configuration section. Essentially

each part deals with policy. The section labeled Policies is really about

traditional policies that corporates can specify. There is nothing there that

is NDC-specific.

Traditional policies on cost, class of travel, notice period and so forth. Nothing here is NDC-specific or enabled by NDC, but naturally an NDC

integration would support the enforcement of such policies.

Policies on access to rich content

In addition to the more traditional policies, there are some sections that

deal more specifically with NDC-enabled aspects. The first is the content

displayed to a user, as shown below.

Use an admin capability on content, one could configure the type of rich content that different users see.

Travel managers (or system administrators) can strengthen policy

enforcement and control the content displayed to users depending on

their profile and on their ancillary purchase rules. One thus has both rich

content and fine-grained control over who sees what.

In addition, one can control the level of personalization available to users

or only allow anonymous shopping.

Policies on ability to purchase optional ancillaries

An important set of policies is related to the types of ancillaries that

different users can book.

Note: Currently the demonstrator doesn’t support policy warning or

enforcement on these types of policies. It would be a very nice feature to

add in a mini-project as it would make for a powerful demo.

Policy configuration on the types of ancillaries that users can book, based on their role.

Policies on carrier usage

Another of the more traditional policies is that of which carriers one has

access to. This is not something that NDC either enables or hampers.

Policy configuration on preferred carriers and blacklisted carriers.

Policies on Distribution Channels

Travel managers (or system administrators) can control the channels used

to access various airline content. By controlling the source of the data

(GDS or Direct Connect or other Aggregators), travel managers have

some built-in redundancy (e.g. if a channel is down) as well as the ability

to choose the optimal channels and fulfillment partners per channel

(Airline, TMC, OTA/Aggregator).

Policy configuration on channels used to access content.

5. Reporting section

Ancillary service expenditure is made trackable thanks to NDC. This offers

advanced reporting capabilities opportunities.

Note: Many reporting and data visualization possibilities exist with NDC.

The ones shown in the Demonstrator are just a few of the possibilities

available. Exhaustive exploration of alternatives is a mini-project in itself.

Ancillary information report

This report is offers a detailed view of the purchase of optional ancillaries

(unbundled fares) as well as the most popular included ancillaries. Travel

buyers can use this information to negotiate with suppliers and adjust

policy where necessary.

Real-time reporting on all aspects of air travel is improved as well as card

reconciliation. This is true both for ancillaries booked beforehand as well

as for those booked on the road (e.g. on mobile device), since the latter

are linked to the main booking for reconciliation and reporting purposes.

Ancillary information report: booking of optional ancillaries.

Ancillary information report: popular ancillaries bundled into fares.

NDC educational alert highlighting enhanced ability to track ancillary spend.

An “export to Excel” capability is included (although not active) in order to demonstrate to travel buyers/travel managers that data can be exported

and reused for any type of financial reporting

Static ancillary spend dashboard

The ancillary dashboard allows one to monitor the purchase of bundled

versus unbundled fares and the types of ancillaries that travellers value.

Travel buyers are empowered with enhanced forecasting, since richer

reporting information is now available on the overall corporate travel

spend, due to the controlled and trackable purchase of ancillaries.

Ancillary dashboard providing enhanced reporting and visibility on total air spend.

NDC Educational alert highlighting enhanced ability for forecasting.

Dynamic ancillary spend dashboards

Dynamic reports empowered with NDC can be developed in the form of

data visualization, including forecasting such as the following.

[Ancillary dashboard 1] – Dashboard with data visualization showing actual and forecast on ancillaries expenditure per airline – line view

Selecting a color in the pie chart will show dynamically statistics of the

selected airline. The below example shows Demeter Air:

[Ancillary dashboard 2] – Dashboard with data visualization showing actual and forecast on ancillaries expenditure per airline – bar chart view

[Ancillary dashboard 3] – Dashboard with data visualization showing shares of ancillaries in terms of airlines and type of ancillary services.

In the last dashboard above, the visualization is very dynamic, particularly

if you hover over an ancillary type in the pie chart. It will dynamically filter

the booking count and spend charts.

If you want to select a particular ancillary in order to lock it down, just click on it in the pie chart. Unlock it by clicking it again.

6. Persona section

The Person section summarizes the types of user groups that exist and

provides an instance of each. The demonstrator is set up to support the

following type of users:

1. Normal users

2. Executives

3. Directors

4. Travel Managers

The Admin section summarizes the different rights for different user groups.

The Persona Section lets you to select a user group and experiment to see

the different levels of access to ancillaries that NDC enabled Corporate

Booking tools could provide (depending on settings set in Admin menu,

for details refer to 4. Admin section).

The Personas section shows different user groups and their associated rights.

Educational alert highlighting policy enforcement possible by Personas.

Normal user

Normal user roles and rights: Clicking on the Persona (anywhere in the rounded box) takes you to a search page.

Pre-population of Normal User Name and Role based on Persona Selection.

Demonstration of policy enforcement for Normal User. They are not allowed to access Personalized Search.

Search results error for normal user. Notice the subset of results, as more expensive ones are out of policy

Policy Violation when this type user clicks on an ancillary that is not included in the price.

Executives

The policy configuration for Executive users is summarized below.

Executive user roles and rights: Clicking on the Persona (anywhere in the rounded box) takes you to a search page.

If you click on the Persona it will take you to a Search request page, but

with the Persona pre-populated in the top right, as shown below.

Pre-population of Executive Name and Role based on Persona Selection.

In the search results, ancillary images are viewable and optional

ancillaries can be selected, as shown below.

Executive users can view ancillary images and select optional ancillaries.

Executive users also have access to Personalized search, as defined by Policy.

Directors

The policy configuration for Directors is summarized below.

Policy for Directors is configured to show all information and allow any flight (e.g. the ones exceeding the EUR 900 round trip threshold).

Clicking anywhere on the Persona box for a Director takes you to a

Search Request page, but now with their Persona adopted, as shown

below.

Pre-population of Director Name and Role based on Persona Selection.

Search results for directors now allows the Zeus Airways option, which exceeded the EUR 900 cap for other users.

Travel Manager

If one selects the Travel manager user on the Personas page it takes you

to the Admin section.

The Travel Manager user has access to the Admin and Reporting sections.

Clicking on the Travel manager Persona takes you to the Admin section.