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WestJet

Ticketing Policy

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Updated: February 2016

1. Agreement between WestJet and Agent:

1.01 This Booking and Ticketing Policy (the “Policy“) sets forth the rules and guidelines for Booking or Ticketing (each as defined herein) of air transportation operated and/or marketed by WestJet or Encore (hereafter WestJet and Encore shall be referred to as “WestJet“).

1.02 Any Booking or Ticketing of air transportation operated and/or marketed by WestJet by an Agent (as defined herein) shall be subject to the terms and conditions of this Policy, as the same may be amended from time to time by WestJet in its sole discretion.

1.03 Each Agent which engages in Ticketing or Booking agrees that each of its directors, officers, employees, agents, partners and contractors shall comply with this Policy, including future amendments.

1.04 No waiver by WestJet of any of the terms and conditions of this Policy shall be effective, unless such waiver is in writing and any waiver shall affect only the matter and the occurrence thereof specifically identified and shall not extend to any other matter or occurrence.

2. Definitions:

2.01 Definitions – Where used in this Policy, in any amendment to this Policy hereof or in any documents to be delivered pursuant to this Policy the following words and phrases shall have the following meanings, respectively:

  1. “Accredited Agency” means an Agency approved by ARC or IATA to issue Airline Traffic Documents.
  2. “Affiliated Agency” means any entity/person who issues airline tickets on behalf of a Non-Accredited Agency.
  3. “Agent” or “Agency” means any travel agent, corporate travel department, , Accredited Agency, Affiliated Agency, Non-Accredited Agency, and includes any other entity/person, other than WestJet or an affiliate of WestJet, which is approved by ARC, BSP, or IATA which is able to: (i) issue Airline Traffic Documents; (ii) create a Booking; or (iii) complete a Ticketing, and shall include the respective directors, officers, employees, agents, partners and contractors of each of the foregoing.
  4. “Agency Debit Memo” or “ADM” means an invoice issued by WestJet, which shall impose any costs, penalties or fees payable by the Agent as a result of such Agent’s failure to comply with, or otherwise meet its obligations arising under or associated with this Policy.
  5. “Airline Travel Documents” means all exit, entry, health and other documents required by law, regulation, order, demand or other requirement of the countries concerned.
  6. “Ancillary Services” means WestJet products or services, other than a Ticket, which may be sold separately or included as part of a Ticket.
  7. “Approved Industry Designator” means a Verified Travel Counselor (VTC) number assignment by ARC or Travel Service Intermediary (TSI) number assignment by IATA to a Non-Accredited Agency located within the US, US Virgin Islands or Puerto Rico, or Travel Industry Designator Service (TIDS) number assigned by IATA to a Non-Accredited Agency located outside the US, US Virgin Islands, or Puerto Rico.
  8. “ARC” means Airlines Reporting Corporation.
  9. “Booking” means an agreement reached between WestJet and a Guest whereby a seat is withdrawn from WestJet Inventory and set aside for the use of a Guest.
  10. “Churning” or “Churn” means the process of repeated Booking, cancellation and re-Booking of the same Segment for the same or similar travel dates.
  11. “Credit Memo” means a refund of monies to the Agent based on overpayment to WestJet.
  12. “CRS/GDS” means computer reservation system or global distribution system.
  13. “Debit Memo” means a refund of monies to WestJet based on overpayment to the Agent.
  14. “Duplicate or Impossible/Illogical Booking” means any Booking or Bookings for the same Guest on flights traveling on or about the same date between one or more of the same or nearby origin and/or destination locations (e.g. YYC/YVR and YYC/YXX or e.g YYC/YYZ and YYC/YHM) and includes but is not limited to, any Booking with connections that depart before the arrival of the inbound flight or any Booking less than 35 minutes after the arrival of the inbound flight.
  15. “Fare Rules” means applicable requirements or restrictions associated with a particular fare, including, but not limited to, whether a Ticket is refundable, applicable Ticketing time limits, class of service requirements, minimum/maximum stay requirements, or advance purchase ticketing requirements.
  16. “Fraudulent Booking” means any Booking made by an Agent without a request being made by a Guest or potential Guest and includes, but is not limited to, any Duplicate or Impossible/Illogical Booking or any Booking designed to hold or block any WestJet Inventory for the purpose of obtaining lower fares or upgrades that may not otherwise be available, or to circumvent this Policy, the Tariff Rules or any other WestJet policy or rule concerning Booking or Ticketing.
  17. “Guest” means any person who makes a Booking or purchases a Ticket where WestJet is the marketing carrier and such Booking or Ticket carries a WestJet Airline Designator.
  18. “Group Booking” means booking nine (9) or more Guests which share any of the following: (i) one or more common Segment(s) within their Itinerary; (ii) a common destination in a single PNR; or (iii) a common destination in multiple PNRs.
  19. “IATA” means International Air Transport Association.
  20. “Inactive Segment” means any Segment with a status code of UN, NO, HX, TL, WK, WL, or WN, or any other status code which WestJet may from time to time designate as an inactive status code, which has not been removed from a PNR.
  21. “Itinerary” means the travel document(s) recording a route or journey Booked or Ticketed by a Guest.
  22. “Non-Accredited Agency” means any entity/person, without ARC or IATA accreditation, who makes a Booking or otherwise issues Tickets, and for avoidance of doubt, will be deemed to include any travel agency whose bookings do not contain a valid ARC/IATA number of an Accredited Agency in the PNR point of sale information.
  23. “No-Show” means any Segment which is Booked or Ticketed which is neither consumed by the Guest nor cancelled more than 24 hours prior to such Segment being flown.
  24. “Online Travel Agency” or “OTA” means any entity/person that predominantly sells airline tickets through their website, and includes but is not limited to, such entities as Expedia , Travelocity, Flight Network, Priceline and Orbitz.
  25. “Passive Segment” means a segment entered in a CRS/GDS that does not result in a Ticket being issued.
  26. “PNR” means passenger name record associated with a Booking and/or Ticketing.
  27. “Published WestJet Fare Class” means fares generally available for sale to the public, as the same may be found in www.westjet.com.
  28. “Queues” means a GDS management feature that operates like an electronic file cabinet in which information including messages and Passenger Name Records (PNRs) can be stored and retrieved at a later date. The Queues allow vendors (airlines, car and hotel) and the GDS system to communicate information with each other and their travel agency customers.
  29. “Redress Control Number” means a unique 13-digit identifier issued by the Department of Homeland Security to individuals who have been misidentified as being on the terrorist watch list.
  30. “Secure Flight Passenger Data” or “SFPD” shall have the meaning ascribed to such term as may be determined, from time to time, by the TSA.
  31. “Segment” means a portion of a Ticket or Booking typically connecting two cities.
  32. “Split Ticketing” means breaking out a Booking that would logically be booked on one Ticket onto two or more separate Tickets.
  33. “Tariff Rules” means published fare, rates, charges and/or related conditions of carriage of WestJet.
  34. “Throwaway Ticketing” means the Booking and/or use of less than the total number of Segments comprising a Ticket for the purpose of one-way or partial travel only.
  35. “Ticket” means the record of agreement, including electronic tickets, for the carrier(s) to provide transportation and related services under certain terms and conditions to the Guest named on such ticket in accordance with the Tariff Rules, applicable governing tariffs and regulations.
  36. “Ticketing” or “Ticketed” means any or all of the processes involved in collecting fares and issuing Tickets for any form of transportation.
  37. “TSA” means the Transportation Security Administration of the United States of America.
  38. “WestJet Airline Designator” means the two-digit or three-digit alphanumeric code identifying WestJet as an air carrier.
  39. “WestJet Group Desk” means a customer service team dedicated to support booking requests of nine (9) or more guests made at the same time.
  40. “WestJet Inventory” means any seat which is offered for Booking on any flight operated by WestJet, an affiliate of WestJet or operated by another carrier but marketed by WestJet under a WestJet Airline Designator.

3. Redistribution, Trademark and Keywords

3.01 Redistribution – Unless otherwise approved in writing by WestJet, an Agent shall not redistribute, share or in any other manner, make any of WestJet Inventory available to any 3rd party, including but not limited to, any affiliate or agent of the Agent, any GDS, OTA, other Agent, metasearch engine, search engine or any other entity/person who operates or controls a website and further, unless otherwise approved in writing by WestJet, an Agent shall not accept WestJet Inventory from any 3rd party Agent or any entity/person other than WestJet and no Agent shall allow any such 3rd party Agent or any entity/person other than WestJet to link to the Agent to access directly or indirectly WestJet’s Inventory.

3.02 Online Redistribution in Canada – Online Travel Agencies located in Canada must have a sales incentive contract directly with WestJet or Book and Ticket through an Official WestJet Online Redistributor.  Any OTA who does not have a sales contract with WestJet or Book and Ticket through an Official WestJet Online Redistributor will have their ability to Book and/or Ticket suspended and/or terminated and/or be liable for ADMs until they are in compliance with this policy.

3.03 Trademark and Keyword Usage – Unless pre-approved in writing by WestJet, no Agent directly or indirectly, or through any affiliate or third-party, shall:

  1. Bid on or purchase any keyword that is used to trigger a sponsored link advertisement through any internet or other search engine that is comprised of, contains, or is confusing with, any trademark, whether it is registered or not, or trade name owned or controlled by WestJet or any affiliate of WestJet;
  2. register, use or adopt any domain name that is comprised of, contains, or is confusing with, any trademark, whether it is registered or not, or trade name that is owned or controlled by WestJet or any affiliate of WestJet;
  3. use, display or exploit any intellectual property of WestJet or any affiliate of WestJet; or
  4. publish any landing page or lead capture page containing any WestJet Inventory.

4. Booking & Ticketing Policy:

4.01 Administrative Bookings – The Agent shall only use auxiliary Segments or non-billable status codes to produce invoices and Itineraries for administrative or accounting purposes. For example, non-billable status codes include the following: AMADEUS – GK, GALILEO/Apollo – BK, SABRE – YK, WORLDSPAN – MK

4.02 Ancillary Services – For the sale of any Ancillary Services, including but not limited to, any Ancillary Services that are included as part of a fare as indicated in the Tariff Rules, the Agent is responsible for ensuring that such Ancillary Services are fully booked and fulfilled with WestJet, otherwise WestJet may issue an ADM (e.g. if a Guest purchases seat selection or a fare that includes seat selection as part of the Tariff Rule the Agent is responsible for either booking the seat through the CRS/GDS or calling the WestJet call centre).

4.03 Duplicate Bookings / Segments – Any duplicate booking made (regardless of whether the duplicated booking was canceled) for the same Guest that cannot be flown in entirety because such booking is an Impossible/Illogical Booking is not allowed.

4.04 WestJet Airline Designator – No Agent directly or indirectly, or through any affiliate or third-party shall create any fictitious flight number or any other fictitious data element in conjunction with any Booking or Ticketing of WestJet Inventory.

4.05 Guest Cancellations – If a Guest cancels a Booking or any portion of a Booking the Agent must immediately release any WestJet Inventory which was withdrawn pursuant to such cancelled Booking and unless the Agent creates a new PNR, the Agent may not reuse or reapply any cancelled WestJet Inventory for any other Guest, even if such Guest desires the identical Itinerary.

4.06 Customer Name/ID – The Agent shall ensure that each Guest’s full first and last name are inputted for every Booking.

4.07 Fees – Any fees specified in the Tariff Rules must be collected and submitted to WestJet as required in the Tariff Rule, or WestJet may issue an ADM for the amount of the fee in CAD plus applicable taxes and costs.

4.08 Fictitious Name and Other Speculative Bookings – No Agent shall: (a) make any Fraudulent Booking; (b) withdraw any WestJet Inventory or make Booking unless the Agent has received a specific request from a potential Guest requesting the same; or (c) create any Booking or PNR which knowingly incorporates any fictitious, false, misleading element or information (e.g. Schedule A/B/C, Mouse/Mickey, Smith/A/B/C, Test/WestJet).

4.09 Group Booking – Any Group Booking must be booked directly through the WestJet Group Desk, provided however in accordance with the terms and conditions of section 4.16, an Agent may create a Passive Segment for the purposes of Ticketing a Group Booking.

4.10 Group Booking Prohibitions – No Agent shall create multiple PNRs for the purpose of circumventing or avoiding Booking a Group Booking through the WestJet Group Desk and if WestJet determines that an Agent has created multiple PNRs for the purpose of circumventing or avoiding Booking a Group Booking through the WestJet Group Desk WestJet shall have the right to cancel any such Bookings and/or issue an ADM.

4.11 Inactive Segments – At least 24 hours prior to the departure of any flight related to any Inactive Segment, the Agent must: (a) remove any Inactive Segment from the PNR; and (b) cancel any Ticketed or un-Ticketed Inactive Segment.

4.12 Interline Ticketing – The Agent must not validate any Ticket on 838 Ticket Stock if the Ticket contains a flight segment(s) on any other airline unless the other airline has a ticketing and baggage agreement with WestJet.

4.13 Itinerary Changes – When a Booking and/or Ticket is affected by a schedule change, flight firming, and/or flight cancellation WestJet will send notification directly to the Agent’s GDS queue. This notification communicates the change and directs the Agent to accept the changes in the PNR, advise the Guest, and remove the inactive Segment(s) within 24 hours of departure.

4.14 Invalid Class – Unless given explicit written permission by WestJet, no Agent shall create a Booking or issue a Ticket in any WestJet fare class except a Public WestJet Fare Class.

4.15 Name Changes – The full name of each Guest must be entered by the Agent at the time of Booking and the Agent shall impose a fee as per the Tariff Rules for all changes to the PNR other than a change to correct a misspelling or to reflect a legal name change of a Guest.

4.16 Passive Segments – An Agent may only utilize a Passive Segment for the purpose of Ticketing and each Passive Segment must at all times match and correspond with an active Booking, except as otherwise directed in writing by WestJet and any use of a Passive Segment for any other reason including but not limited to satisfying CRS/GDS productivity requirements, circumventing fare rules or fulfilling administrative functions is strictly prohibited.

4.17 Passports and Visas – The Agent shall not make any Booking for the sole purpose of obtaining a visa, passport, or any other documents on behalf of a Guest.

4.18 Taxes – Unless otherwise directed by WestJet in writing, the Agent must collect, report, and accurately code all taxes, WestJet fees and charges/surcharges and Agent shall ensure that its practices fully comply with all applicable advertising requirements, including not limited to, applicable all-in pricing requirements.

4.19 Secure Flight Passenger Data –The Agent shall not make any Booking or complete any Ticketing without entering into the PNR for each Guest the full name, date of birth, gender, and any other SFPD.

4.20 Ticketing – All Tickets must be Ticketed in accordance with the Tariff Rules.

4.21 Ticket Numbers – The Agent must issue and report a valid ticket number for each Guest and for each Itinerary in the PNR and the Agent shall not issue or report any Ticket number for the purpose of circumventing any Ticketing requirements or the Ticketing time limit as set forth in the Fare Rules.

4.22 Training and Testing – The Agent may create a test or training PNR only in the training mode of a GDS/CRS, provided however, that any action which destroys, devalues or spoils WestJet Inventory is explicitly prohibited and pursuant to the provisions of Section 4, WestJet reserves the right to recover all costs associated with any such destruction, devaluation or spoliation of WestJet Inventory.

4.23 Churning – Churning is not permitted by any Agent for any reason including, without limitation, to circumvent or extend any Ticketing time limit as the same may be set forth in the Fare Rules, to hold Inventory, to find a fare, or to carry forward special remarks from one Itinerary to another.

4.24 Waitlist Segments – No Agent shall allow or enable any Guest or potential Guest to be waitlisted for any WestJet Inventory or Segment.

4.25 Dual CRS/GDS – No Agent shall: (a) use more than one CRS/GDS to complete any Booking and/or Ticketing; (b) create any Passive Segments in any CRS/GDS other than the CRS/GDS which is used for the associated Booking and/or Ticketing; and (c) move any Booking, Ticketing or Segment(s) between multiple CRS/GDS.

4.26 Fraudulent Bookings – No Agent shall make any Fraudulent Booking.

4.27 Split Ticketing – No Agent shall make a Booking using Split Ticketing in order to avoid paying appropriate taxes, fees or charges.  A debit memo will be issued to recover any uncollected taxes, fees, or charges.

4.28 Class of Service – No agent shall make any Booking or complete any Ticketing for a fare class or class of service that is not available at the time of such Booking or Ticketing is made or completed and WestJet shall have the right to cancel any Booking or Ticketing which contravenes the foregoing and issue an ADM for any costs associated with such contravention.

4.29 Other Prohibited Activities – No Agent shall engage or allow any affiliate, associate, director, officer, employee or agent of such Agent to engage in the following activities:

  1. completing any Booking or Ticketing where the Agent or any affiliate, associate, director, officer, employee or agent of such Agent knows, or reasonably should had known that: a) the Guest associated with such Booking or Ticketing would not actually fly on any or all Segments associated with such Booking or Ticketing; or b) the Guest associated with such Booking or Ticketing would No-Show.
  2. engaging in misleading or un–competitive advertising involving WestJet products or services; or
  3. creating any PNR for the primary or secondary purpose of holding or blocking other Bookings due to an expected demand, the indecision of any potential Guest, or to otherwise circumvent this Policy, the Tariff Rules or any other WestJet policy or rule concerning Booking or Ticketing.
  4. unless authorized by WestJet provide any portion of a payment on behalf of a guest for a flight operated or marketed by WestJet in order to promote unauthorized discounts to the filed fare that has been booked and ticketed.

5. Fees and Penalties:

5.01 Failure to Comply with Policy – Any Agent who makes or engages in any Booking or Ticketing or otherwise causes any WestJet Inventory to be withdrawn shall adhere to the terms and conditions of this Policy and such Agent agrees that at any time WestJet shall have the right to:

  1. issue an ADM to collect specific fees as follows: a) CDN $10 per policy violation, plus a CDN $50 administrative fee per ADM (plus applicable taxes) for all violations except; 1. Churning where a CDN $6 fee, plus a CDN $50 administrative fee per ADM, (plus applicable taxes) for each violation exceeding 6 churns will be administered 2. CDN $500, plus a CDN $50 administrative fee per ADM (plus applicable taxes) for all violations in section 4.27
  2. issue an ADM in order to recover any losses, including but not limited to, revenue losses, losses associated with the use or issuance of a Ticket in violation of this Policy or the recovery of applicable CRS/GDS transaction fees or any other form of consequential damage, associated with the Agent’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions of this Policy or the Tariff Rules, including but not limited to an Agent’s failure to collect and remit all applicable taxes, fees or charges/surcharges as may be required by the Tariff Rules;
  3. pursue any course of legal action as may be determined by WestJet in order to recover any losses, including but not limited to, revenue losses, losses associated with the use or issuance of a Ticket in violation of this Policy or the recovery of applicable CRS/GDS transaction fees or any other form of consequential damage, associated with the Agent’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions of this Policy or the Tariff Rules, including but not limited to an Agent’s failure to collect and remit all applicable taxes, fees or charges/surcharges as may be required by the Tariff Rules; or
  4. prohibit any Agent from accessing any or all WestJet Inventory, Booking or Ticketing.

5.02 Payment Respecting ADM – Unless otherwise specified in an ADM, any ADM received as result of any violation of this Policy shall be payable upon receipt.