Managing Excessive NDC Shopping in the Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP)

The purpose of this document is to outline how Qantas manages excessive NDC shopping in the Qantas Distribution Platform.

Qantas acknowledges and accepts that some agencies generate higher shopping volumes than other agencies. When these shopping volumes become excessive it may have a negative impact on Qantas' response times and the functionality of the QDP. This policy aims to ensure that shopping requests are bona-fide and sustainable.  It requires all agencies to take steps to minimise wasteful and non bona-fide shopping requests.  Qantas will take reasonable steps to manage the impacts of excessive and/or illegitimate shopping as outlined in clause 6 of the Qantas Standard Agency Terms and Conditions.

Qantas promotes efficient shopping management by establishing maximum Look to Book (L2B) ratios for our agency partners. These L2B ratios measure total shopping requests received from an agency and compares these to the amount of tickets generated by that agency. Qantas continuously monitors each agency’s L2B ratios.

Note that Qantas expects the L2B ratio of most agencies to be significantly lower than this maximum ratio. 

Qantas requires all agency partners to work collaboratively with Qantas and their technology partners to prevent non bona-fide shopping requests and remain compliant with the Standard Agency Terms and Conditions. If Qantas detects agencies that engage in non bona-fide shopping or exceed the maximum L2B ratio it may take the following actions:

• Manage the number of offers returned in each shopping response: Qantas will limit the amount of offers in each Shopping Response to include only the best available price on each flight in the economy cabin.  If an agent requires an offer response for a higher cabin the agent should use a cabin qualifier in the Air Shopping request.
• Limit the number of shopping requests processed by the QDP. Qantas may also apply a limit to the number of shopping requests that will be processed by the QDP within a set time period. When the agency exceeds the set limit they will receive an error response until the time period lapses. The shopping limit will be reset at the end of the time period. Qantas will initially apply shopping limits in 5 minute intervals and may adjust these limits if excessive shopping volumes persist.  

• Robotics: Agencies may use robotic shopping processes to source airline prices for the purpose of filling offer caches
• Meta Shopping: Agencies may use Meta-search engines (METAs) for marketing purposes resulting in multiple shopping requests for a customer
• Content Aggregators: Agencies may use content aggregators to identify alternative price/route options resulting in multiple shopping requests for a customer
• Shopping Errors: Agencies may send shopping requests to Qantas for Origins and Destinations (O&Ds) not serviced by Qantas
• Duplicate Shopping Requests: Agents may send multiple requests for the same customer using different technology partners and agency identifiers (PCCs)

Qantas recommends the following actions by agencies and their technology partners.

• Use Best Price Qualifier for Air Shopping: Air Shopping requests should be qualified for Best Price to minimise unnecessary Offer responses in higher brands and cabins
• Implement NDC Calendar Shopping: Source the lowest available price on adjacent days using a calendar shopping request rather than using separate AirShopping requests for adjacent days
• Minimise Shopping errors:  Validate which Qantas O&D’s are serviced by the QDP using the Qantas Routelist data available via your technology partner
• Manage META Shopping:  Use targeted Meta shopping rules to minimise unproductive and duplicate shopping requests on Qantas flights    
• Avoid Robotics:  Avoid unnecessary and non bona-fide shopping requests by not using robots to create offer caches
• Implement smart caches: Implement smart caches that recycle recent bona-fide shopping requests