What an Email between GDS Pros looks like.
Even though I am independent, I am with a larger (and great) association called “The Travel Society”. They have some truly excellent staff . One of them, is probably even better at GDS than I am. Here is a reply to her. We are talking about possible seminars and here are my ideas and a big thank you. The newest GDS ‘Smartpoint’ for Travelport has some features that are new. One is an improvement of using a #. She turned me onto that, which I am loving.
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YES! That hashtag is exactly what I was looking for. It screens out all but the actual airline I am looking for.
The FS part I've long adapted to. That's to the point that a fairly standard look at a ticket to Europe for me might look like FS2DEN20MAYPAR¤C--LON30MAYDEN¤W//SO/RMC0445/+/*A/PE25
But the hashtag is AWESOME!!!!! When availability is truly hard to find, FS commands hit a limit and many times I'm back to looking for specific fare classes on specific airlines. The Hashtag in an FS or Availability search takes out other airlines. Wow. I've looked for a solution like that on MyTravelport, where did you find it?
If you wanted to do a timesaver seminar. Here are some of my favorites with FS, I feel like taking a minute to write this out is the least I can do, I'm very grateful for that new command key!
FS2DEN20MAYPAR¤C--LON30MAYDEN¤W//SO/RMC0445/+/*A/PE25
This Line is FS for 2 from DENver on 20 MAY to PARis (ORY, CDG and even in some cases XPG and XED on a train) in Business Class ¤C -- OPEN JAW from LONdon (LHR,LGW, STN, LCY and LTN) on 30MAY to DENver in Premium Economy ¤W//Stopping Once/Restricting Maximum Connection to 04 Hours 45 Minutes/+/*A on Star Alliance only with a maximum PEnalty // of 25% of the base fare
I hold your own GDS skills in a very high regard, but we all have our own ways of working in these systems. I realize you may know all of these commands, so here is my rational on a few points.
I feel strongly that City Codes should be used over Airport Codes in cities with multiple airports. Whenever there is a national Airline and National Rail Service(LH in Germany, AF in France, LX in Switzerland) it's not uncommon for a train connection to be available. Sometimes these can be very convenient and very well priced.
Note: PAR, pulls Orly, Charles Degualle, Gare De Nord and Disneyland Paris. The other TGV trains you can connect to flights are not in paris. LON is for Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, City and Luton. For reasons uknown to me Southend has to be brought up on it’s own.
In Leisure Travel that has multiple legs, I nearly always try for Open Jaw Itineraries, the value is proven.
Business class is really nice going to Europe on an overnight, but on the way home, it's a bit more optional as that flight is more like a really long day than an overnight. Premium economy is usually combinable with Business class. People should always price both ways, sometimes it really is cheaper to just do business class in both directions
Nobody wants to stop more than once and if we were in a gateway like NYC or LAX, I'd likely replace the /SO with a /D for Direct. I should point out that, of course, if the aircraft stops without a change of flight number, there really can be another 'stop'.
Nobody wants a really long connection so I restrict the maximum connect time using max of just under 5 hours.
Most of my clients have get a lot of value out of their Frequent Flyer programs, so while I do try to ticket on their preferred Carrier, I start the search by merely restricting to the their consortium.
Given this age of Cancellations and rampant schedule changes, Refundable or mostly refundable tickets have gotten more valuable than ever and often, also for better prices. While a completely refundable ticket is best, there are multiple carriers that have a relatively small administrative charge only. I set at 25% maximum base fare penalty as a way of winnowing down a bit to go for a completely refundable fare.
Again, Thanks so much for the Hashtag command key. I feel like that has to be new! Thanks so much!
