GDS messages are a crucial part of any airline wanting to sell to a wider audience. Below are the meanings of some of the most crucial GDS Message terms. How to Check your GDS Messages is the companion article to this and will show you how to process them.
GDS Message Types
Type: If you look in the top left hand corner of this example you will see that there is a “Type” drop down menu. There are different types of messages that you can view. There are many different types of messages but the main ones you will look at on a daily basis are:
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NCO = New Continuation Info - This type of message happens when your passengers have additional flights after the flight they have with you. For example, they may be flying with your airline into Orlando, Florida. When they reach MCO, they will transfer to another flight on Air Canada.
Unsupported Message Types
Unsupported message types will always show up in your Message interface as UNK. Below are the definitions for the various unknown types.
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CHNT = Change Name To - These messages are requesting a name change. The old version of the name will be above the CHNT designator and the new version of the name will be Below the CHNT designator. Open the file manually and change the name to process this message. Then change the message type to PNR and the Status to Processed. Once you save the message will disappear.
DVD = Divide Passenger
GDS Message Statuses
RCVD = Received - This is for messages that have not been looked at yet. Any of the previous Types can have this status.
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SENT = Message Sent - Messages that you have sent out, or any responses you send to a message will end up in the Messages Sent folder.
Part 2: GDS Message Syntax
The following is a quick tutorial on GDS message Syntax. This will go over the content of GDS messages.
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1000 = Departure time
0300 = Arrival time.
Segment Status Codes
SS1 = Selling Seats, 1. (The number following the SS is the number of seats that are being sold)
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HL1 = Waitlisted 1 seat.
Segment Status Codes you can use to respond to GDS Messages:
UC1 = Unconfirmed 1 seat (This could be used whenever there is a reason that you cannot book the passenger on that flight.)
UN1 = Flight not operating (This is used rarely, but could be used if say you had a flight and it had to be cancelled, but for some reason you’ve received a request to book seats on that flight)
Codeshare Segment Status Codes (Does not apply to all clients):
Some of our clients do codeshare flights. Codeshare flights are flights that are shared with other airlines. For example: Air Canada might offer United Airlines some space on their flight. This flight would be AC123. For United Airlines to sell space on this Air Canada flight, they would make a United Airlines flight number, which corresponds to the space on the Air Canada flight. It would be different than the original Air Canada Number and for our example might be listed as UA234.
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CL1 = Waitlisted 1 codeshare seat.
Other GDS Message lines:
Not included in the example above are a few different message lines, which are mainly used for adding additional notes or requests to a reservation.
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