Party
The Party section of the messages contains the information on the various entities who are involved in the transactions.
All entities, except Corporates, must be registered for our NDC API, and their credentials are stored in our data management tables against which they are validated. Today these registered entities must have either an IATA Number (issued to accredited Travel Agents), or a TIDs number, or a Pseudo IATA number issued by Iberia or British Airways.
These identities must be included in the Party section of the messages to identify the entities involved. As of today Iberia works with the following entity types:
TravelAgencySender
This is the customer facing Travel Agent who is selling the product to the passengers who are travelling. They may be connected directly to our API, or be using an NDC Aggregator (Service Provider) who is connected to our API and will be identified as an AggregatorParticipant in the message. All tickets will be issued and reported to BSP/ARC for IATA accredited travel agency using the IATA number sent in this section.
IATA Delegation
If using the IATA Delegation functionality for Servicing orders, and no CorporateSender information is included in the message, then the TravelAgencySender is used to identify the Servicing IATA, while the Responsible IATA of the previously created order is included as a TravelAgencyParticipant in the message.
CorporateSender
This identifies those Corporates that have contracted fares with Iberia. They may be connected directly to our API, or be using a Travel Agency, often a TMC (Travel Management Company) who in turn can be connected directly our API, or be using an NDC Aggregator (Service Provider).
If a company has a Corporate agreement with Iberia or British Airways, then they will have been issued with what is known as a “JBID” or “Client ID”. By passing this to us in the Shopping messages, once validated, it is used to ensure the applicable private corporate fares, together with any other benefits are returned in the offers and included in the booking.
TravelAgencyParticipant
This identifies Travel Agents who can be acting as a TMC for a Corporate customer, for whom they will organize and manage the corporations travel arrangements. All tickets will be issued and reported to BSP/ARC for IATA accredited travel agency using the IATA number sent in this section.
IATA Delegation
If using the IATA Delegation functionality for Servicing orders, this element can be used in two ways:
When no CorporateSender information is included in the message, then the TravelAgencyParticipant is used to identify only the Responsible IATA of the previously created order.
When CorporateSender information is included in the message, then there are two TravelAgencyParticipants, first the Servicing IATA indicated using the Type, and then the Responsible IATA also indicated using the Type.
AggregatorParticipant
This identifies NDC Aggregators, also sometimes called Service Providers. There can be more than one AggregatorParticipant in the message, such as when one Aggregator is providing services to another Aggregator.
It is only used if the TravelAgencyParticipant and/or the CorporateSender is connecting to Iberia’s API via an Aggregator, and is not required should they be connecting directly to our API.