Global Distribution System (GDS)/Computerised Reservations Systems (CRS) Booking Policy of SriLankan Airlines Limited

1.1. Inactive segment

Changes to a flight segment status by airline resulting in requirement to cancel, the booking segment(s), the segment(s) should be removed from GDS booking at the earliest or at least twenty-four (24 ) hours prior to the scheduled flight departure time. This includes ticketed or un-ticketed bookings with status codes such as UN, NO, HX, WK, WL, WN, UC, US and DS etc.

Even if the Travel Service Provider has taken action to remove segments, with above mentioned status codes, within twenty-four (24) of scheduled flight departure time , still the GDS cost will be applicable to the Airline. Hence the Travel Service Provider should ensure to remove such status code mentioned above twenty-four (24) hours prior to the scheduled flight departure time.

For segments not removed up to 24 hours and within 24 hours of flight departure, a penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the GDS cost and the administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

1.2. Churning

Churn refers to repeated booking and cancellation of same segment for same passenger regardless of class of service/date of travel.

Any cancellations done in excess of 2 for the same segment within a PNR, will be considered as billable churn and a penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the GDS cost and the administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations). Any churn segment in excess of 2 will be calculated from the first cancellation onwards within a PNR.

1.3. Duplicate booking segments / for the same passenger

A single Travel Service Provider should refrain from creating duplicate bookings for the same passenger on multiple flights or in multiple classes, on the same date of travel and same O&D, ticketed or un-ticketed , will result in unnecessary cancellations which increases GDS booking fees for the Airline and lead to spoil inventory. The Airline reserve the right to cancel all such PNRs/segments with or without prior warning .

Travel service providers who are in the habit of creating duplicate bookings will be identified and Travel Service Provider’s access to Airline inventory will be terminated.

A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the GDS cost and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

1.4. Speculative bookings

Holding onto SriLankan Airlines’ inventory by deliberately blocking seats, increases GDS booking fees and inventory wastage to the Airline and reduces the availability of SriLankan Airlines services to genuine passengers. Travel Service Providers should refrain from making speculative bookings or holding seats in Airline inventory without a booking.

Once these mal-practices are identified, such bookings will be subject to automatic cancellations and Travel service provider will be terminated from accessing the Airlines’ inventory from all GDS systems and other booking systems if deemed necessary without a prior warning. A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the inventory wastage and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

1.5. Group bookings

Block Space / Fictitious Block Space by Individual Bookings

Blocking space by means of many separate individual bookings instead of the established group procedure is prohibited.

Such malpractices mentioned above are subject to immediate cancellation without prior notification and terminate access to the Airline’s inventory. A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the inventory wastage and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

1.6. Passive bookings

An acceptable passive segment should be entered into a GDS for the purpose of ticketing. It must match an existing booking in SriLankan Airlines internal reservations system. The use of mismatched segments to issue tickets, or to generate false confirmation is strictly prohibited and will be rejected by SriLankan Airlines immediately without prior warning.

If a passive segment is rejected by SriLankan Airlines, then the passive segment should be cancelled immediately by the Travel Service Provider, in order to avoid unnecessary fees from SriLankan Airlines. Failure to do so will result in the Travel Service Provider being billed as per penalty mentioned under section B (consequences for policy violations).

Travel Service Providers should refrain from creating bookings with fictitious names, training and test bookings at all times. The Travel Service Provider may create test or training PNRs only in the training mode of a GDS provider. Reserving seats in SriLankan Airlines reservation system for the purpose of training and or testing purposes is strictly prohibited.

The Airline reserves the right to cancel such bookings immediately without prior warning and terminate access to the Airline’s inventory from all GDS systems if deemed necessary. A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the GDS cost and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

Travel Service Provider should refrain from entering Fictitious / Invalid ticket numbers as a method to hold a booking in the Airlines’ Reservation Systems and bypass ticketing time limit.

Travel Service Providers identified for blocking seats with fictitious ticket numbers will be screened by SriLankan Airlines and such bookings will be immediately cancelled without prior notice and Travel Service Providers access to Airlines’ inventory will be terminated. A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the inventory wastage and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

Travel service providers who are in the habit of booking and cancelling segments resulting in unproductive transactions (0 productive segments) will be identified by pseudo city/ office ID on quarterly basis and Travel service providers access to Airlines’ inventory will be terminated.

A penalty will be applied to Travel Service Provider to cover the GDS cost and Administrative overheads as per section B (consequences for policy violations).

Transactions by performing excessive availability display functions shall create additional costs to the Airline. Every effort should be made by the Travel Service Provider, especially online travel agents to reduce the excessive transactions being generated to the Airline. Online travel agents should ensure to filter unnecessary via points and sectors that does not have direct fares and any other combinations that does not sell.

If the excessive transactions made by a Travel Service Provider increases in an unacceptable manner, the Airline will without prior notification to the Travel Service Provider terminate access to the Airline’s inventory from all GDS systems and other booking systems.

5.1. Point of Commencement (POC) and Out of Sequence

All bookings — including those involving connecting flights on other airlines — must be created in the correct sequence, reflecting the passenger’s actual intended journey. Any booking made out of sequence, or containing dummy segments (intentionally or unintentionally), that results in access to booking classes not otherwise available, will be treated as a Point of Commencement (POC) violation.

Booking Sequence Must Follow the Actual Journey

All flight segments — including those on partner or connecting airlines — must be booked in the correct order (i.e., the order in which the passenger will actually fly).

No Out-of-Sequence or Dummy Segments

Flight segments cannot be inserted out of chronological order.

Adding dummy segments—flights that are not intended to be used—solely to access better availability or lower fares is not permitted.

Invalid Sequence (POC Violation):

Example 1:

• Passenger's actual journey: Melbourne(MEL) → Colombo (CMB) OW
• Booking made as: Colombo (CMB) → Melbourne(MEL) → and return
• Cancel CMB-MEL segment before finalizing the PNR.

Example 2:

• Passenger's actual journey: Melbourne(MEL) → Colombo (CMB) → Delhi (DEL) and return
• Booking made as: Colombo – Singapore(SIN) on Other Airline flight (To change POC) and then book MEL-CMB-DEL and vice versa
• Cancel CMB-SIN OAL segment before finalizing the PNR

5.2. Married Segment Violations

O&D represents a continuous journey from the point of origin to the final destination — essentially, where the passenger begins and ends their travel. Bookings and sell requests must always be made using the availability display for the intended Origin & Destination (O&D). A complete O&D availability is required, regardless of whether the reservation includes only the airline’s flights or a combination of interline or codeshare flights, in the correct chronological order for each O&D.

Once booked, married flights cannot always be changed independently of each other. Booking a connecting O&D using separate local O&Ds (per segment availability) is considered an attempt to bypass inventory rules.

1.1 In addition to legal remedies available to SriLankan Airlines for Travel Service Provider’s violation of this policy, SriLankan Airlines reserves the right to hold the Travel Service Provider responsible and liable for any unproductive costs due to violation of this GDS/CRS policy (and violation of the SriLankan Airlines Agency Debit Memo Policy).

1.2 The penalties mentioned below are non-exhaustive and SriLankan Airlines reserves the right to issue ADMs for violations not listed above (under Section A – Policy).

1.3 In the event the Travel Service Provider is defaulted in BSPLink, any ADM pertaining to the Travel Service Provider will be raised on their Head Office or any other branch of the Travel Service Provider in question.

Table 01: Penalty Structure applicable for violation of policy

SriLankan Airlines reserves the right to block any Travel Service Provider’s access to view, book or ticket SriLankan Airlines inventory in case of non-compliance of the booking policy or any other violations to the Airline’s inventory. If a Travel Service Provider has been blacklisted, SriLankan Airlines reserved the right to charge the applicable GDS cost / inventory wastage cost of such PNRs and the administrative overheads due to violation of policy prior to reinstallation of the access to the Airline’s inventory.