This guide is designed to give a quick start to your integration with
the Travelfusion API. In the XML examples below, various XML elements
and attributes have been omitted for simplicity. There are also many
more details, features and functions available that you can read about
in our XML Request and Reponse Specifications. These specifications also set out
specific guidelines concerning how the API should be used and gives
various other information that should be read before your integration is
completed and released to end users.
Step 1: ConnectionThe first step in the integration process is to create a connection to the Travelfusion servers and submit the
Login request. This is fully described in the Connection Guide. The purpose of this is to receive your LoginId
which you will submit with every XML request in future as
authentication and identification. In each XML request there are 2
login fields that must be submitted - the XmlLoginId and the LoginId. You should initially insert your LoginId into both of these fields.By default your
LoginId will not change so you will never need to submit the Login
request again. However if you would like to make use of more enhanced
security options or you would like more details of the significance of
the XmlLoginId and LoginId, please see our Login Handling Guide. Step 2: Submitting the search requestThe
StartRouting request tells Travelfusion what you
are looking for. Once this is submitted, the Travelfusion servers will
evaluate which suppliers (e.g. easyjet, ryanair etc) and which routes
(e.g. LHR to MAD) are relevant to your requirements. For each
supplier-route, a Router is created which is responsible for connecting to the related supplier. Please see the Routing Guide
for details and rules related to how you should specify the locations
you wish to search and also for information about our city lists,
airport lists, and supplier route lists which may be useful if you wish
to calculate whether the user's journey can be covered by any of
Travelfusion's suppliers, or for various other uses.
The example below represents a request for a single (one-way) journey. If a return is required, the
ReturnDates element should be included after the OutwardDates element. It's structure should be similar to that of OutwardDates. There
are many features not demonstrated in the example below (for example
the ability to resolve place names like 'London', or to request
specifically the airports related to a city instead of using a search
radius). For full details of all fields shown in the example, and all
other XML functions, see the XML Request/Response Specifications. It is recommended that the
Type is set to airportgroup (see the Routing guide for more info). The response to the The
CheckRouting request is used to fetch the latest results in relation to a previous StartRouting request. To do this, only the RoutingId obtained in the previous StartRouting response needs to be submitted as shown in the example below. The response will be very similar to the
StartRouting response, except that any results received from the related suppliers will now be included within the Router elements as shown in the example below. There will always be the same number of Routerelements as were returned in the StartRouting response. Note that in the example below, the Air Berlin Router still has not received any results from the supplier and so it still has it's Complete status set to false. However the British Airways Routerhas received results and those results are included in a GroupList element. In the case of a return journey, each Group will contain a list of Outward options (as below), and a list of Return options. The round trip journey can only be made of outward and return options that appear within the same group. For full details of all fields shown in the example, see the Detailed XML Specification.
While there are
Routers with Complete set to false, further CheckRouting requests should be submitted with a suitable delay between each (at least 2 seconds). Note that in order to save bandwidth and processing, the contents of the GroupList for a completed Router will only be returned in full detail once. So, for example if the CheckRouting request above is submitted again, the British Airways Router will look like this: Note that the CheckRouting response may contain cached data. This means that prices may not be completely up to date. Prices may also be updated at a later stage for a number of other reasons. Please see the guide to Caching and Price Changes.
Step 4: Selecting a flight for bookingOnce the end user has decided which flight they would like to book, a
ProcessDetails XML request should be made to begin the booking process.
In the example, notice the HandoffParametersOnly element must be set to false and note that the OutwardId corresponds ot the id of the first
British Airways outward result in the example CheckRouting response in
step 3. In the case of a return journey, a ReturnId must also be
submitted after the OutwardId which will identify the chosen return
flight (which must be in the same Group as the outward selection). The ProcessDetails response can normally be ignored. However it may
contain a Router element which will contain any new data related to the
flight / price. This is used to handle special cases where the supplier
only supplies certain information after a flight has been submitted. For
example, some suppliers may not supply the flight number until a
specific flight has been chosen. Step 5: Submitting the booking detailsTheProcessTerms XML request is used to submit the travellers' details
and credit card details. See the ProcessTerms request specification in
the Detailed Specification for more details of the booking profile. The
ProcessTerms request relates to the flight selected in the most recent
ProcessDetails request. The response will contain a TFBookingReference element. This is the
Travelfusion booking reference for this booking (note that the booking
is not actually executed until the StartBooking request is submitted). A
Router is also returned which will contain any new data related to the
flight / price. THE PROCESSTERMS RESPONSE IS THE ONLY RESPONSE THAT CONTAINS THE EXACT PRICE THAT WILL BE FINALLY CHARGED TO THE CUSTOMER. THEREFORE IT MUST ALWAYS BE DISPLAYED TO THE USER BEFORE BOOKING. For example in the XML below, a 'Credit card surcharge'
is returned which was not known until this stage since it depends upon
the card type. Note that the XML below is for an easyjet flight and is
not related to the previous examples. See the Detailed XML Specification
for more details of the
Processterms request / response and the handling of
bookings in general. Step 6: Starting the bookingTheStartBooking XML request is used to execute the booking. The
TFBookingReference should have the value returned in the previous
ProcessTerms response. The ExpectedPrice element must be submitted so that Travelfusion can check that you have displayed the correct price to your user - see the StartBooking request/response spec for more details. The FakeBooking element is used for development
purposes to request a simulated booking. If the FakeBooking element is
omitted, a real booking will be made. See the Guidelines for
more details of fake bookings and booking handling in general. The StartBooking request is asynchronous, so a response will be returned
immediately (whilst the booking is still in progress in the
'background'). The response will contain no useful information. The
CheckBooking request, described below in step 7, is used to retrieve the
final status of the booking. Step 7: Retrieving the booking statusTheCheckBooking XML request is used to get the latest status of the
booking. The TFBookingReference should have the value returned in the
previous ProcessTerms response. The CheckBooking response returns the latest status of the booking.
While Travelfusion is waiting for a response from the supplier, the
status will be BookingInProgress. In this case the CheckBooking
request should be resubmitted after a few seconds delay. In some cases, the supplier may require special verification of the credit card. This involves forwarding the customer to a URL operated by the card issuer (Visa / Mastercard etc). The user then enters a password on the card issuer's website and is returned to a specified URL. The mechanics of this process are explained in detail in the Credit Card Verification Handling Guide. Once the booking has been completed, the CheckBooking response will
contain a different status. For a successful booking the status will be Succeeded and the supplier's booking reference will be returned. A
failed booking will have status Failed. There are also situations
where the booking has completed but the status is uncertain. For more
details of how to handle these cases and bookings in general, please see
the Guidelines, with particular reference to the Booking
handling guide. Step 8: Cancelling a flight bookingA previous booking can be cancelled via the API. This is only available for certain suppliers and bookings. Please contact Travelfusion for more information. The guide can be found here, and the details XML specification can be found here in the 'Air Cancellation' section.
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