Agency Booking and Ticketing Policy

A. Introduction.

Cathay Pacific Airways Limited (CX) has implemented the following agency Booking and Ticketing Policy (Policy).

We recognise the important role that travel agents play in serving our mutual customers. By providing clear and transparent guidelines, this Policy is intended to support a productive, efficient, and sustainable booking and ticketing environment for all parties.

B. Application

This Policy applies to all travel agents who make bookings and/or ticketing on air transportation on CX operated flights, except Section D which applies only to ticketing agents but not booking agents (if different).

The terms and conditions set forth in this Policy shall constitute additional terms and conditions to any applicable travel agent agreement or arrangement between any travel agent and CX. The provisions of this policy and its associated practices and procedures are subject to change from time to time and at any time upon notice from CX.

CX reserves the right to conduct periodic reviews of appointed agents for commercial and business reasons, and the right to terminate an agent's appointment and/or withdraw the agent's authority to issue CX tickets and access CX's inventory at any time at its sole discretion without prior notice.

Travel agent must ensure that, before finalizing any booking, each customer: (i) is notified of and given the opportunity to review Cathay’s General Conditions of Carriage, Conditions of Contract, and applicable tariffs (collectively referred to as the “Terms and Conditions”); and (ii) confirms through an affirmative action that they have read, understood, and accepted the Terms and Conditions prior to completing the ticket purchase.

C. Booking Practices

CX hereby reserves all rights to audit all booking transactions to identify noncompliant booking practices.

As a reminder, the cancellation of a booking on a CX or non-CX flight before ending the booking can still be detected by CX although the cancellation is not reflected in the passenger name record (PNR) history.

Agents should respect CX's inventory and CX considers any attempt to use any system loophole to take advantage of CX's inventory control as abusive booking practices and a violation of this Policy.

Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, travel agents must adhere to the procedures outlined below.

1. Unwanted Booking Segments
   Travel agent must promptly remove all unwanted / cancelled/ inactive segments from PNR, including but not limit to all cancel segment status code (e.g. HX/NO/UN/UC)
   Travel agent must review bookings constantly and cancel all unwanted segments promptly.
2. Segment Status Code Change
   Travel agent must action queues promptly and regularly to ensure that all the segment status codes and departure time/arrival time are updated and notify passengers of any changes as soon as possible.
   Travel agent must use status code genuinely and avoid dummy segment status during booking creation.
3. Passive Segments
   Travel agent must promptly remove rejected passive segments and ensure passive booking details match with those of active booking PNR.
4. Unnecessary GDS Distribution Cost
   Travel agent must use the Global Distribution System (GDS) itinerary pricing function instead of creating a PNR with active segment merely for performing fare quotations.
   Travel agent shall ensure there is no additional booking fee generated from GDS migration, such as extra cancellation or duplicate booking activities.
   Travel agent must use GDS non-billable status segment for administrative activities such as itinerary printing or any back office administration.
5. Avoid Inventory Wastage Practice
   Travel agents must avoid making bookings that result in the unnecessary use of CX inventory. Practices leading to inventory wastage include, but are not limited to, the following:
   
   
   1. Duplicated Abuse:
      
      Travel agent must not create duplicated booking in the same PNR or across PNRs for the same passenger
      • Duplicated booking samples:
        
        • Passenger holding 2 bookings on the same day with the same flight number, even though the bookings are made by different agents.
        • Passenger holding bookings on multiple flights departing on the same day with the same Origin and Destination (OD).
        • Passenger holding bookings on the same flight number on 3 continuous dates.
      
      
   2. Uncommitted Bookings:
      Travel agent must not take longer than the average time necessary to close the sale or hold multiple segments without End of Transaction (EOT). These are called uncommitted bookings and must be cancelled / completed in timely manner. The number of uncommitted bookings being held, including the time they are being held for, is regularly monitored.
   
   
   3. Churning Bookings:
      Travel agent must avoid repeatedly cancelling and rebooking the same flight (also known as “churning”) to circumvent the ticket time limit or for any other reason.
      • Churning booking samples:
        
        • Repeatedly book on same date’s flight for the same passenger. Creating a new booking when there were 2 identical bookings being cancelled previously will be considered as abuse.
        • Even if the previous bookings were cancelled due to the ticket time limit or by travel agent, such booking will still be considered as churning.
      
      
   4. Waitlisting:
      Travel agent must not repeatedly create waitlist segment, which in any case does not increase the chance of waitlist promotion. Travel agent must limit the number of waitlist segment to one segment on each identical date and sector for each passenger.
      
      
   5. Impossible travelling itineraries:
      Travel agent must not create impossible travelling itineraries by holding concurrent confirmed flights in the same time period where the passenger could not travel simultaneously.
      Travel agent must also not create booking which violates the minimum connecting time requirement as defined by individual airlines.
      
      
   6. Non-ticketed No Show:
      Travel agent must take appropriate and timely follow-up actions for any unticketed bookings, including cancelling any reservations that have been cancelled by the customer and releasing such CX inventory. All bookings that are no longer required must be cancelled promptly. Unticketed bookings must not be retained beyond the scheduled flight departure time.
      
      
   7. Fake/Test Bookings:
      Travel agent must not create any fictitious bookings including testing or training bookings that could block off CX inventories in the live GDS environment.
      Travel agent must never create any booking / transaction solely for achieving productivity (incentive) target set by GDS providers.
      
      
6. Booking Sequence and Married Segments
   Travel agent should always book the itinerary in sequence from first departure flight, and make sure Married Segments are not separated to avoid possible abuse. Details regarding Married Segments and Inventory Integrity are outlined below:
   
   
   1. Married Segments and Connecting Flights
      Travel agent must not separate Married Segments for any purpose nor manipulate the central reservation system or GDS to circumvent CX’s Married Segment Control logic.
      CX’s Married Segment Control logic can apply to CX-CX and CX-Other Airline connections and their code-share flight segments.
      
      Travel agent must not partially cancel segments within a bundle of connecting flights or partially cancel any Married Segments within a PNR. Flights with connection relationship should be treated as one OD; travel agent must cancel all related flights together if they wish to cancel any of those flights.
      
      
   2. CX and Interline Connection Flights
      Travel agent must not cancel the interline segment alone if it is originally sold as a connecting flight with CX. This is because immediate interline connection with CX is considered as OD bundle. Cancelling only the interline connecting flight in the booking is an OD violation.
      
      The correct practice is to cancel the whole bundled booking if it is no longer required and create a new booking for the desired segment. CX considers partially cancelling segments from a bundle as abusive practice.
      
      

      Considering following itinerary; Segment 1 : AA2580D01MAY YYCLAX HK1 Segment 2 : CX 883D01MAY LAXHKG HK1 Segment 3 : CX 785D03MAY HKGDPS HK1 - Travel agent booked 3 segments with OD YYCDPS. If Agent cancelled AA2580D01MAY YYCLAX, this will be considered an OD and POC violation since the OD and POC becomes different with original bundle YYCDPS. - Even if above steps are completed before ending the booking, it can be detected by CX even though the separation action is not reflected in PNR history.

      
      
      
   3. Ticketing Itinerary does not align with Booking Itinerary
      Bundled OD itinerary refers to the OD itinerary that is booked as bundled to create the abusive sector.
      When ticketing the booking, agent should ensure the ticket Itinerary is aligned with booking itinerary. Splitting the booking itinerary into multiple tickets is prohibited.
      
      

      Considering following itinerary; Segment 1 : BA2580D01MAY LONHKG HK1 Segment 2 : CX 791D02MAY HKGSIN HK1 - Segments 1 and 2 are booked as a connecting itinerary. Fare of LON/HKG/SIN will be applied to calculate the fare difference. - If the itinerary is partial ticketed, e.g. Only “HKG/SIN” is ticketed at the end, this will be considered as abusive practice.

      
      
   4. Inventory Integrity
      Travel agent should always book the itinerary in sequence from first confirmed departure flight booking return flight(s) prior to first confirmed departure flight is not allowed.
      If the passenger decided to change the first confirmed departure flight with a different country of origin, the whole PNR should be cancelled and rebooked.
      Travel agent should not cancel segment(s) that result in a different country of origin no matter if it is a CX or non-CX flight (before or after ending the booking).
      
      Do not add new segment(s) to a PNR containing any one or more flown segment(s), as the booking is marked with the departure origin of the previous flown segment which may be different from that of the newly added segment.
      
      Married Segments and Inventory Integrity Samples:
      
      

      Considering following itinerary; Segment 1 : BA761V20JUL OSLLHR Segment 2 : CX250V20JUL LHRHKG .1. Segment 3 : CX406V21JUL HKGTPE .1. Segment 4 : CX495V28JUL TPEHKG .2. Segment 5 : CX251V28JUL HKGLHR .2. Segment 6 : BA768V29JUL LHROSL - Travel agent should always book the itinerary in sequence from first departure flight, which is starting from BA761V20JUL OSLLHR (Segment 1), and ending with BA768V29JUL LHROSL (Segment 6) - If the passenger decided to change the first departure flight, which is BA761, travel agent should cancel whole PNR and rebook starting from first departure flight. If BA761V20JUL OSLLHR (Segment 1) in the above example is cancelled, the departure country origin is changed from NO to GB and the OD is changed from OSLTPE to LHRTPE. It is considered as abusive action. - Travel agent must not partially cancel any Married Segments within a PNR. In the above example, CX250 (Segment 2) and CX406 (Segment 3) are Married Segments, and CX495 (Segment 4) and CX251 (Segment 5) are another pair of Married Segments. Travel agent should cancel all related Married Segments and rebook if the passenger decided to change any flight(s) in the Married Segments. This means CX250 (Segment 2) and CX406 (Segment 3) should be cancelled together. - As Segment 1, 2 and 3 are connecting flights, travel agent should cancel all 3 segments if the passenger decided to change any of these flights, even if the departure country of origin is unchanged.

      
      
      
7. Providing accurate information in the reservation process
   Travel agents must ensure that all information provided during the reservation process is accurate.
   Travel agents are responsible for validating and providing the following information:
   
   
   1. Accurate Travel Agent Information
      Travel agent must provide correct agent information such as agent name and contact information to GDS.
   
   
   2. Accurate Passenger Information
      Travel agent must provide the passenger’s name exactly as it appears on the passenger’s travel document.
      Travel agent must also provide the passenger’s contact information, in the form of home telephone number, mobile number or email address to CX via the GDS phone field or SSR element. This is for ensuring that CX is able to contact the passenger for disruption handling.
      Travel agent must comply with applicable government regulations and requirements and provide passenger’s travel document information PNR as required.
      
   3. Follow CX Name Amendment Procedure
      Travel agent must comply with the Name Amendment Procedure posted in Cathay Agents website. Name change without authorization will be subject to liquidated damages determined by CX from time to time.
      
   4. Member and Corporate Bookings
      Membership (e.g. Cathay Membership Programme and oneworld Priority) and corporate benefits are dedicated to the member/eligible passenger and their travel companion(s) when travelling together with the member/eligible passenger (if applicable). Never misuse a passenger’s membership or corporate status to gain privilege for other non-eligible passengers. Improper use of one's membership or corporate status to abuse CX inventory and membership/corporate privileges is a serious issue.
      
   
   

D. Ticketing Policy (applicable only to authorised ticketing agents of CX)

Adhere to fares and ticketing requirements

1. Using correct fares
   Travel agent must adhere to all IATA Fare Rules and the fare rules imposed by CX and ensure passengers are properly informed of such fare rules.
   Travel agent must always use the latest and the most up-to-date fares rather than the pre-stored fares in the PNR to issue tickets.
   Travel agent must ensure fare restrictions are complied with when a booking is modified after the ticket is issued.
   Manual adjustment of pricing is prohibited unless instructed by CX. Furthermore, Fares are not guaranteed until time of ticketing.  This also applies for agents who use a consolidator for ticketing.
   
2. Ticket Time Limit
   Travel agent must issue the ticket or cancel the booking before the ticket time limit in PNR. Travel agent should respect the PNR’s ticket time limit.
   
3. Voiding and Refunding Tickets
   Voiding or refunding tickets repeatedly in order to manipulate the ticket time limit is prohibited.
   
4. Class Code
   Travel agent must ensure the class code booked on PNR is identical to the class code used for issuing ticket.
   
5. Ticket Issuance
   Travel agent should report a genuine ticket number that is valid for travel for an associated PNR.
   Travel agent must collect, report and accurately code all taxes, fees and charges/surcharges imposed by local and foreign countries.
   Travel agent must ensure commission rate is correctly stated when issuing ticket.
   Travel agent must ensure that the associated booking complies with all items listed in Section C of this Policy.
   Travel agent must ensure that ticketing country is the same as booking country when issuing ticket for bookings queuing from another booking agent.
   
6. Ancillaries on Ticket
   Travel agent must ensure the free baggage allowance is correctly stated when issuing ticket.
   
7. Collecting and Reporting Fee
   Travel agent must collect and report all applicable fees such as no-show fee and change fees imposed by CX according to fare restrictions.
   
8. Payment
   Travel agent should settle payment on time to avoid late payment charges or being defaulted. Travel agent should also submit financial statement to IATA or CX upon request.
   

E. Communication with CX

Travel agent should use Cathay Agents to access up-to-date information, such as news and promotions, policy and procedure.

It is the Agent’s obligation to ensure they are registered with Cathay Agents and signed up to receive email notifications, and ensure keeping the account active, and notify CX of any changes to their agency.

For group booking, travel agent must follow the local booking procedures provided by local CX sales office.

While there may by multiple ways an agent can contact CX, preferred communication methods include SSR and OLSR in Cathay Agents to preserve clear history of communications from both parties.

Travel agent must use GDS “Bridge and Branch” or “PNR queue” function to access the active PNR in the same GDS for ticketing purpose.

F. Consequences for Policy Violations

Noncompliant booking practices may result in the transactions being audited by CX. Compensation and administrative service fee (in such amount as CX may determine at its reasonable discretion and notify travel agents) may be applied for each policy violation without further notice.

The amount compensation and administrative service fees vary depending on the circumstances of each case and will be determined by CX in its sole discretion. The relevant agent must promptly settle the fee imposed by CX (including, without limitation, by way of ADM or Debit Note).

CX reserves all rights to cancel the relevant booking, suspend ticket status, hold the travel agent responsible and charge for any additional losses and damages due to violation of this Policy by the relevant travel agent.

CX further reserves the right to cease any travel agent’s access to view, book and/or ticket CX inventory and/or terminate the appointment of any travel agent that does not comply with this Policy and in such case any un-ticketed PNRs made by that travel agent will be subject to cancellation.