Dear Travel Partner,

During the last few months we have seen an increase in booking policy violations.  The purpose of the MSL (Married Segment Logic) is to extend airline inventory controls to connecting segments via the GDS Direct Connect Sell product.

Most airlines allocate seat inventory based on the passenger’s entire itinerary (origin to destination), point of sale and the revenue associated with the itinerary. When a flight is shown in an 'Availability Display' as part of a connection, the entire connection or travel option must be sold together. MSL is a mechanism to designate a “married unit” for connection segments sold together.

MSL provides the airline with control of transactions subsequent to the initial sale when the segments are married together. If a partial cancellation is desired, the airline may or may not allow the cancellation. This will depend on the availability and revenue associated with the remaining portion of the itinerary.

As per the airline policies Agency Debit Memos will be issued starting at $250 and going up for each infraction.  These ADMs are booking violations and cannot be disputed, reduced and/or closed.

Starting January 1, 2012, if Air World Travels receives an ADM for breaking of married segments on a reservation and/or ticket which was booked by you, our valued customer, we are obligated to pass the charges onto the origin of the booking policy violation and will bill your account the full value of the ADM received.  These will be for all tickets issued on/before/after January 1, 2012 without any exceptions.

Below are some guideline to help clarify and explain married segments and married segment abuse.

Correct and proper way to book to ensure that your segments are “married”

• Book segments only from the current availability display
• When rebooking, cancel all connecting flight segments of a married O & D
• Rebook all new selected flights of a married O & D in the same entry

Married Segment Abuse Constitutes one or more of the following:

• Cancellation of partial itineraries
• Booking flights to a fictitious destination in order to find flight availability in a lower booking class
• Segments booked separately in a multi segment O&D, in a booking class for which there is no availability for the required O&Ds
• Creation of multi segment O&Ds which is not the required journey

• Other mean of transaction to manipulate the O&Ds system

Guidelines to Verify Married Segments Bookings

Married segments can be recognized by the asterik in fromt of the boarding point. Also the PNR is flagged with 'MSC' (=married segment control) and with RTIM or RTAM the married segments are displayed.

More information in AMADEUS under HE MSC.

Example: segments 2 and 3 are married, segments 4 and 5 have been booked separately.

  1.NAME/FIRST NAME MR                                                           

  2  LH 457 T 21JAN 6*LAXFRA HK1   315P1110A 22JAN  E 

  3  LH 760 T 22JAN 7*FRADEL HK1   130P 115A 23JAN  E 

  4  LH 757 H 19FEB 7 BOMFRA HK1   315A 735A 19FEB  E  

  5  UA8845 H 19FEB 7 FRALAX HK1  1015A1255P 19FEB  E 

>rtam

RP/LAXXXXXXX/LAXXXXXXX            SI/SU   2JAN12/1304Z                 

LAXXXXXXX/1035SI/2JAN12                                                        

  2  LH 457 T 21JAN 6 LAXFRA HK1   215P B   315P1110A+1 *1A/E*  A01                    

  3  LH 760 T 22JAN 7 FRADEL HK1  1250P 1   130P 115A+1 *1A/E*  A01                    

  4  LH 757 H 19FEB 7 BOMFRA HK1   145A 2   315A 735A   *1A/E*                 

  5  UA8845 H 19FEB 7 FRALAX HK1        1  1015A1255P   *1A/E*                 

OPERATED BY LUFTHANSA

An asterisk (*) symbol appears after the arrival city of a flight to indicate a Married Segment.

A -LEGITIMATE MARRIED SEGMENT BOOKING

The asterisk (*) indicator is placed on the right of each segment of the two legged Married connection,as shown in the face of the PNR:

1.1LAST NAME/First name

1 LH 439H 10OCT M DFWFRA*HK1 425P 925A 11OCT T /DCLH /E

2 LH1300H 11OCT T FRAIST*HK1 105P 455P /DCLH /E

Married connection details, determining groups and sequences for Married Segments can be displayed using the *IMSL entry. Following is the system response to the *ISML entry for the above PNR. 1/1 indicates the first segment of group #1. And 1/2 indicates the second segment of group #1.

*IMSL«

1 LH 439H 10OCT M DFWFRA* 1/1 HK1 425P 925A 11OCT T /DCLH/E 

2 LH1300H 11OCT T FRAIST* 1/2 HK1 105P 455P /DCLH /E

B -CORRUPT MARRIED SEGMENT BOOKING

The asterisk (*) indicator is missing on the first leg of the two legged connection in the face of the PNR. Whereas the second segment does show an asterisk *). This discrepancy is the result of an invalid segment sell procedure.

1.1LAST NAME/First name

3 LH1319L 14APR Q ALGFRA HK1 240A 615A /DCLH*232CJW /E                       

4 LH 430L 14APR Q FRAORD*HK1 1045A 1240P /DCLH*232CJW 

Married connection details, determining groups and sequences for Married Segments can be displayed using the *IMSL entry.

Following is the system response to the *ISML entry for the above PNR. The married connection details along with the asterisk (*) for the first leg of the two leg connection are missing.

The second segment in this PNR indicates 3/2. It is broken from 3/1.

*IMSL«

3 LH1319L 14APR Q ALGFRA HK1 240A 615A /DCLH*2………/E

4 LH 430L 14APR Q FRAORD* 3/2 HK1 1045A 1240P /DCLH*2………

WORLDSPAN

When Air Segments are sold, marriage indicators are appended to the segments to identify them as a single unit. The Married Segment indicator, the letter J, and the two digit marriage unit number ranging from 01-99 are visible in the face of the PNR.

1.1NAME/FIRST NAME *ADT 2.1NAME2/FIRST NAME2*ADT

1 LH 455S 30JUN TH SFOFRA HK2 220P 1005A#1/O $ SK E

2 LH1010S 01JUL FR FRABRU HK2 1145A 1240P/O $ E

3 LH2287S 11JUL MO BRUMUC HK2 1245P 200P/O $ J01 E

4 LH 458S 11JUL MO MUCSFO HK2 415P 710P/X $ J01 SK E P-1.B80 415 356

The *IJ entry displays all marriages within the above PNR

)>*IJ                                                                                                                             

3 LH2287S 11JUL MO BRUMUC HK2 1245P 200P/O $ J01 E

4 LH 458S 11JUL MO MUCSFO HK2 415P 710P/X $ J01 SK E