The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) has published its 2006A specifications, which include XML-based messages for airlines, hot

The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) has published its 2006A specifications, which include XML-based messages for airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines and travel integrators critical to both efficient operations and enhanced travelers’ experience

Published: 08 Jun 2006

The OpenTravel Alliance (OTA) has published its 2006A specifications, which include XML-based messages for airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines and travel integrators critical to both efficient operations and enhanced travelers’ experience

Additionally, OTA, which works on specifications that make data transmission flow smoothly throughout travel, tourism and hospitality, continues to publish technical reference guidelines so the travel industry can build interoperability cheaply and easily using web services.

Highlights of the 2006A Specification are as follows:

Hotel Work Group – With the continued participation of the APEX initiative, the hotel work group has enhanced and extended OTA’s existing group hotel rooming list request and response message pair to meet APEX’s rooming list data requirements. In addition, the hotel work group created a request and response message pair that allows a user to request detailed property rule information for a specific room type or booking code for a designated property.

Car Rental Work Group – The car work group has created a new message pair to be used when a supplier would like to push information to a trading partner to add or update rental location information in the trading partner’s system. Another message created by the car work group is a request for more detailed information (for example, advanced booking requirements, minimum or maximum day rental requirements) on a quoted rate or confirmed booking.

Cruise Line Work Group – The cruise work group created several new message sets covering many components of the cruise booking cycle, including availability of dining arrangements, availability of hotel packages associated with a specific voyage, availability of shore excursions during a specific voyage, availability of any special services during a specific voyage. Also included in this release are a cancellation pricing request to determine costs and penalties of canceling an existing cruise reservation, a PNR update message to notify other travel partners of a change to a cruise booking, and an itinerary request message pair to allow the request of a detailed itinerary of a specific sailing.

Architecture Subcommittee – The architecture sub-committee has created a reference guide to provide guidance for implementers to build interoperable systems based on OTA messages transported over SOAP.

Airlines Work Group – The air work group extended an existing message to display items for a systems internal queue. The response displays the item information or the whole booking file, as requested.

The specifications can be downloaded at http://www.opentravel.org/ota_downloads_form.cfm.

“Like clockwork, the OTA produces value for its members and for the travel industry,” said John Turato, chairman of the OTA and vice president, technology for Cendant Car Rental Group. “In this first of two publication cycles in 2006, we are pleased to release a reference guide for those travel companies who want to transport OTA messages over SOAP. In addition, we’ve added substantially to our cruise message library and continued our great partnership with Convention Industry Council’s APEX initiative in the hotel space.”

Upcoming OpenTravel Alliance Activities

OTA’s executive director Valyn Perini will speak at HITEC (www.hitec.org) in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Tuesday June 20, 2006 as part of a panel discussion entitled “Progress in Systems Integration.”

The vice-chairman of the OTA board of directors, Ron Anderson-Lehman, CIO of Continental Airlines, will speak at EyeForTravel’s Travel Distribution Summit in Chicago, Illinois (www.eyefortravel.com) on October 4, 2006 as part of a panel discussion on lowering distribution costs through standardization.

The 2006B publication cycle is underway. Member review will begin on August 14, 2006, and public review will begin on September 27, 2006. The 2006B specifications will be published on December 12, 2006.

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