GDS Message Definitions

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Last updated: Feb 28, 2019
5 min read

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

  1. 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: 

  All = All

  PNR = Passenger Name Record - Refers to incoming messages associated with making a reservation. This could include eticket messages, regular reservations and cancellation messages.

  UNK = Unknown - This would include any type of message that isn’t recognized by the GDS. It could include any of the types of messages above, which are slightly different than they are supposed to be. For example, if an eticket came in with extra numbers/letters in the eticket, it may not recognize it. It also includes all of the message types in the Unsupported message types below. 

  NAR = New Arrival Info - This type of message happens when your Passengers have flight information from another airline that is prior to the segments they have with you. For example, if they were flying on Air Canada and then flying on your airline, the travel agent might want you to have their Air Canada flight information

  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.

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.

PRCD = Processed - This is for messages that have been looked at AND processed. Once you have looked at and taken action on a message it will be put into the Processed Queue.

PEND = Pending - This is for any messages waiting to be processed. It could mean that our automatic message processing is currently looking at the message. Messages do not get sent here very often. But it is good to occasionally check the pending messages, just in case.

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.

QD YQMTSYY

.TSTRMDE 081046

TSTDE NEHFKF

1SAUNDERS/ALEX

YY235D25NOV YQMYYC SS2/1000 0300

Above is a sample GDS message, which would generally be used to book a reservation. Below is this message broken down into pieces.

QD YQMTSYY:  This is part of the address. YQMTSYY is the address that the message was sent to. This particular agency address is for Intelisys.

.TSTRMDE 081046 This is an addressing line. You should not have to change or alter this. It tells you where the message came from. 

TSTDE NEHFKF: The second part of this is the Record Locator (NEHFKF). The record locator will be attached to the reservation and can often be used to search for the reservation. Under the advanced options on the reservations screen.

1SAUNDERS/ALEX: This section holds the names of the passengers. There are several different ways that names can be entered here. Each name is preceded by the number of passengers that will be listed under that last name. The following list are different formats that the names can be in.

  • 1Saunders/Alex (1 Passenger, under the last name of Saunders, with the first name of Alex)

  • 2Saunders/Alex/Creamery (2 Passengers, under the last name of Saunders, with the first names of Alex and Creamery)

  • 1Saunders/Alex 1Smith/Creamery (2 passengers, 1 Last Name Saunders first name Alex, 1 Last name Smith, first name Creamery)

YY235D25NOV YQMYYC SS2/1000 0300: This line is your standard sell segment line. The breakdown is below:

 YY235D25NOV: The first part of this line contains your airline code, flight number, fare code and departure date.

YY = Airline code

235 = flight number

D = fare code

25NOV = Departure date (Keep in mind there is no year present here, as it will automatically look at the next date. Example: Today’s Date was the 18th of August. If I send a GDS message attempting to book for the 18th of August, it will search for the 18th of August of the next year. Which at the time this was written would be 2016)

YQMYYC SS2/1000 0300: The second part of this line contains the Departure City, Arrival City, Segment Status Code, Departure time, Arrival Time.

 YQM = Departure City (In this case it’s Moncton, New Brunswick)

 YYC = Arrival City (In this example it’s Calgary, Alberta)

 SS2 = Selling Seats 2. This means they are selling 2 seats from the flight. Look at the portion of this document called "Segment Status Codes" for more information. 

 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)

 XX1 = Cancel Seats, 1.

 HK1 = Holding Confirmed 1 Seat.

 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.

So AC123 = UA234. These codeshare status codes, indicates that the inventory being sold is from another carrier, selling space on your flight. They are similar to the regular status codes and are preceded by the letter ‘C’.

  CS1 = Selling 1 Codeshare seat.

  CX1 = Cancelling 1 codeshare seat.

  CH1 = Confirmed Holding 1 codeshare seat.

  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.

SSR Lines: These lines are for adding supplementary info or any information to the bottom of a GDS message. For example, if you use e-ticketing you may have seen the following:

SSR TKNE: This particular type of request, will precede an e-ticket line. This line will add an e-ticket to a reservation.

SSR OTHS: This particular type of request can be used to add other information to a reservation. If you are replying to a GDS message, it can be used to give the travel agent more information. SSR’s can be used for request relating directly to a particular passenger for instance if they require or are traveling with a wheelchair.

Example: SSR WCHR pax travelling with wheelchair

OSI Lines: OSI stands for “Other Supplementary Information”, such as Agency information. For example, say you have no more availability on a flight. You could use the following example to advise the travel agent why you cannot confirm their request.

Example: OSI YY CTCT Demand exceeds availability for booking code H on 2015/08/19 15:25