The government of Quebec has implemented a new program that will take effect on Feb 3, 2025. Instead of all-in fares of $250 or $500, the new program will now discount the regular fares by X percentage depending on the Origin/Destination Airport.

Here’s the grid we received from the government. Based on this grid, the passenger will receive a percentage discount if their origin or destination is one of these airports. Our understanding is that if the origin and destination have two of these airports, the airport with the lowest discount applies. For example, YBX has an 85% discount and YZV has a 50% discount. If you operate a route YBX-YZV, the 50% discount applies since it is the highest discount.

The Solution

Since this program was communicated at the last minute, the solution InteliSys proposes is to use promo codes to discount the applicable city pairs as per the grid above. The promo code feature in ameliaRES has all the functionality and security to properly support this program. Since the passenger making the booking must answer a question on whether travel is for business or leisure since the promotion is only for leisure travel, the solution will secure the promo codes where it must be booked on your IBE and not through OTA, GDS or Travel Agencies. If Travel Agencies are using the amelia Travel Agent site, the airline has the option to enable these promo codes for them and apply it to their agencies.

Fuel Surcharge

Since the program mentions certain city pair charges/taxes are applicable to the program (such as Fuel Surcharge), Intelisys recommends either bundling these charges into the Fare or adding these charges as a percentage of the Fare instead of fixed values. If for example, you have a fuel surcharge of $50, the promo code will not be able to discount this charge. However, if the Fuel Surcharge is 20% of the Fare, the Fuel Surcharge will be discounted by the same amount as the Fare.

Promo Codes

The solution requires the airline to generate promo codes for each discount. For example, routes that have a 50% discount should have a promo code for that discount. In my example, I created the promo codes PAAR50 for 50% and PAAR85 for 85% discount. Here are the fields you should really be paying attention to.

For sale date, travel date: You could create these promo codes today and have them for sale date start on Feb 3. This way, you do not need to wait to create all of this on Feb 3.

City Pairs: It is up to the airline to assign the promo code to only the applicable city pairs. Be very restrictive.

Fare Classes: Assign the promo codes to only the fare classes you make available to the public and not assign them to company fares for example.

Agencies: In my example, I will only apply the promo code to the IBE agency for the public users and the call center so they can apply the promo code. This is up to the airline to which agency they want to apply these promo codes.

Booking Widget

To facilitate this program, Intelisys has built a feature in the booking widget for the airline’s website to automatically apply these promo codes when the condition applies. The booking widget has 2 new features.

1 - Automatically apply the correct promo code when an applicable city pair is selected

2 - Ability to ask a question to the passenger whether the travel is for business or leisure so the promo code is only applicable if they select leisure.

Once the promo codes have been created by the airline staff, you need to provide your promo codes created and give this data to your website developer so they can make the necessary configuration n the Widget code to automatically apply these promo codes. The documentation is here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12ndmtv-pU5kEwhh_IAf8F6e1s6JfJyxwGUQ6y5W8DGY/edit?tab=t.0

in my example, we applied the following changes to the widget. This gives the airline complete control of the automated promo code application and can be used outside the PAAR program as well. If the government of Quebec makes changes, the solution is very flexible and the control is within the airline to make any changes.

{
"promocodeAssociation": {
"YUL-YBX": "PAAR85",
"YBX-YUL": "PAAR85",
"YUL-YZV": "PAAR50",
"YZV-YUL": "PAAR50",
"YZV-YBX": "PAAR50",
"YBX-YZV": "PAAR50"
}
}

These are the new parameters you can use as part of this program.

data-prop-travel-question="on"
data-prop-travel-question-default="off"
data-prop-travel-question-accept="inactive"
data-prop-auto-promocode-association="on"
data-prop-auto-promocode-require-question="on"

Travel Agencies/Call Center

If you want to provide this program to Travel Agencies or Call Center, we can’t automatically apply a promo code the way we do for public users since the functionality only exists within the booking widget. We recommend providing them with a grid of applicable city pairs and the promo codes they can use. And don’t forget to give those agencies access to the promo codes. You can provide them with something like this:

Reporting

Use your Web Reports Tool and access the report “Promo Code Usage Report” to provide reporting of tickets sold under this program. If there are modifications required for this report, please submit a ticket to support@intelisysaviation.com

Video

Here’s a video for the commercial team and web developers should watch that explains the configuration within amelia for this program.

Quebec New PAAR Program

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