Agent Instructions

Updated 2024-07-17

Please feel free to copy this to a new document and edit it to reflect the options you are using.

Introduction

BookingBuilder NDC Butler™ consists of several components that work seamlessly together.  Just like a butler who appears when you need help, and makes everything seem simple, NDC Butler™ is always waiting for you.  When activated, NDC Butler™ takes care of the tedious work, making it seem simple and easy.

NDC Butler™ has been designed to operate just like the traditional GDS you are familiar with.  It stays in the background until it’s needed, and does not interfere with your work.

Using NDC Butler™

One of the most common and important uses of NDC Butler™ is to fill in the graphical NDC shopping forms.  Doing this manually is slow and tedious.  NDC Butler™ remembers your availability request, or reads the itinerary from sold segments, and copies that information into the shop form very quickly and accurately.  This saves you a lot of time!

Launching NDC From Your Last Availability

When you are working in the GDS, simply type NDC and press enter. NDC Butler™ will then open the graphical shopping form and fill it in from your last availability.  It defaults to round-trip, and for the return date uses the day after the departure date.  If you prefer it to default to one-way, your administrator can configure this as an option.

Please note that NDC is not a valid GDS command.  Our software sees this and activates NDC Butler™, but your GDS will still respond with some variation of “invalid command”. This is all correct.

NDC Butler™ is smart, so if you first enter an outbound availability then a return availability, NDC Butler™ will fill in the correct city pair and date date.

NDC Command Options

In addition to just typing NDC, there are many additional options, including NDC just like a GDS availability command (A for Apollo/Galileo/Worldspan; AN for Amadeus; 1 for Sabre).  Type NDC HELP at any time to see the options available.  There are also videos at https://bookingbuilder.com/products/ndc-butler/ that show the functionality.

Let’s say you start with a Sabre availability of 115JUNNYCLAX9A.  If you type NDC you will get a depart date of 15JUN, return date of 16JUN and NYC-LAX city pair.  To specify a return date, use:

NDC R18JUN2P or NDC *18JUN2P or NDC R18AJUN or NDC *18JUN

Please note that the space after NDC is optional, so NDCR18JUN2P and NDC R18JUN2P do exactly the same thing.  This document generally includes the space to make it easier to read.

To make the request airline-specific:

NDC #AA or NDC R18JUN2P#AA  Any character that is not a letter or number followed by an airline code makes the search specific to that airline.

Using “NDC” Like an Availability Command

To use NDC like a GDS availability command:

NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9A

Please note that NDC is used instead of the GDS availability command (A/AD/1).  For example, in Sabre you would type 115JUNNYCLAX9A.  For NDC Butler™ you type NDC15JUNNYCLAX9A, leaving out the extra “1” you would type in a Sabre command.  If the date is supposed to 2MAY and put in the extra “1”, NDC Butler™ will see the date the 12MAY.

You can also include a return date
NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9AR18JUNP

And airline-specific:

NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9A#AA or NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9AR18JUNP#AA

You can also specify the airline similar to the Amadeus format:

NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9A/AUA or NDC 15JUNNYCLAX9AR18JUNP/AUA

Some other notes on Availability

• Specifying a time is optional:  NDC 15JUNNYCLAX#AA will work.
• Multiple airlines may be specified (up to 4): NDC 15JUNNYCLAX#AAUA
• Amadeus-style return availability is supported: NDC 15JUNNYCLAX*18JUN
• If you specify just a return date or time, a round-trip is assumed: NDC 15JUNNYCLAX*18JUN will result in NYC-LAX on 15JUN, returning 18JUN.
• Multiple legs are supported, up to 4:
  • NDC 15JANNYCLAX (defaults to round-trip or one-way if the option is set)
  • NDC 15JANNYCLAX*18JAN (round-trip, returning on specified date)
  • NDC 15JANNYCLAX1AR18JANLAXSFO2P (open jaw)
  • NDC 15JANNYCLAX 18JANLAXSFO3P*22JANSFOMIA (3 legs)
  • NDC 15JANNYCLAXR18JANLAXSFO3PR22JANSFOMIA2P 24JANMIANYC (4 legs)
  • Please note that you can use R, *, & or a space between each leg

Launching NDC From an Itinerary

Many agents prefer to sell flights in the traditional GDS first, then launch an NDC search.  To do this, sell flights, or display any existing PNR, and type:

NDC ITIN or NDC FLIGHTS (as a reminder, the space is optional)

NDC Butler™ will display the itinerary (*IA, RTIA, etc.), read the flight details, open the NDC shop form and fill it in.

You can also make it airline-specific:

NDC ITIN#AA or NDCITIN/AUA

“Name Display” OTH Line

In Sabre, if there are multiple NDC bookings for the same traveler, when a list by name is displayed, the NDC bookings will often show no dates or city pairs.  One way to help with this is to add an OTH segment at the top of the PNR with the departure date and first destination.

NDC Butler™ can help with this.  Type NDC OTH (or NDCOTH).  It will display the itinerary, and add an OTH segment if there isn’t already one for the correct date and destination.  It will not duplicate the OTH segment, so there is no problem with typing NDC OTH more than once for the same PNR.

The format of this line can be customized by your system administrator.

There is also an option for NDB Butler™ to recognize when you display a PNR with an NDC booking and not OTH and display a prompt asking if you want to add the OTH line.