Introduction

The Flight Details datagroup can be used to register all flights a person is going to have and book the flights.
To be able to work with the Flight Details datagroup, you should first select needed travel interface in Global Options.
Go to Setup > Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface.
It is possible to choose between RightRez, None, Instone, CrewLink, Griffin Marine, E-Mail and Manual interfaces.

The information you need to input depends on the travel interface you choose.
Let's review each of them in details.

RightRez Travel Interface

RightRez provides dynamic air booking solutions, air itinerary management tools and innovative re-shopping tools.
It manages your air reservations from start to finish to support and improve your current air department processes.
It is solely focuses on the 'life of your air reservations' from booking, changes, finding lower fares, ticketing and reporting.

Interfacing with Adonis
Travel bookings requests are sent directly from the Adonis Personnel Manager to the RightRez booking server.
The response with flight details is received almost instantly.
Currently, there are two places in APM where this integration is implemented:

• the Flight Details datagroup (to book a flight for one person);
• the Crew Change module (to book for several crew members at the same time).
  
  

Expand
title Integration Setup
Open Setup > Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface, select RightRez from drop-down in Interface field: If RightRez interface is chosen, it may be necessary to contact RightRez for settings details: http://www.rightrez.com/ There are new possibilities to identify sites which make bookings and distinguish between vessels/account codes. Earlier, vessel account information could be taken from Ship Code and Account Code fields. It was not always convenient for companies where several vessels could be charged for booking flights. This situation has been amended in the following way: A new option Ship code from vessel rates is added to Global Options. It is possible to select this option and define, which vessel rates will store ship code and account information in Vessel properties > Rates tab. When this option is set, the Ship Code and Account Code fields become disabled and not taken into account. For the program to understand, vessel rates of which Vessel should be considered, you need to choose a vessel from the drop-down in Vessel to be Charged field that was added to Book Flight window in Flight Details datagroup. To identify, which site makes bookings, it is needed to define, which security level will be making bookings for this or that site. This can be done also in Global Options: Click , input level and vessel. To remove the record, click . In our example, the settings are defined in such a way: all users on security level 01 (security level 01 on each site) will make bookings for Spring vessel; from security level 02 - for an Office; security level 03 - for Summer vessel. When Default arriving date one day before Crew change ETA option is selected, the default arrive date/time for On-signing crew is one day before the ETA of the crew change.  This means that if the Book button is clicked on the Flight Bookings tab (on to Vessel view), the Arr.Date is set to ETA minus 1 day and Arr. before time to 23:59. If a user manually enters another Date, this Date is used for the booking.  This option is used for those companies who use Crew Change module for flight bookings. Info In addition to information that is needed for input in Global Options, Passport data and Nationality must be defined for the person that is going to fly. That can be done in Personal Details datagroup > Personal tab. Passport can also be defined in Travel Documents datagroup.

None Travel Interface

With None interface you can not book flights from APM, but you can register records to store all flights information of person(s) in one place.
It can help to find the needed data easily and quickly.
Open Setup > Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface, select None from drop-down in Interface field:

E-Mail Travel Interface

Open Setup > Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface, select E-mail from drop-down in Interface field and enter all needed data.
If E-mail interface is chosen, you are not able to book flights directly from APM but can send the flights requests to special responsible for flights booking person.
You register the records to store all flights information of a person in one place.

That defined information will be added to mails by default: Address, Subject, Header, Footer, Signature (user's name).
The body of the mail will be flight details (PIN, Name, Nationality, Passport information, Airports, etc.).
See How to work with Flight Details section below.
If the option Add users name is selected, then the name of the user who created a flight record, will be shown at the bottom of the mail.
Click OK to save the settings.

Manual Travel Interface

In addition to the existing RightRez, E-mail, Griffin Marine and None travel interfaces, we have added a new one called Manual.
This new type of interface enables the users to add the flight records with segments themselves.
It also allows to add and view flight information from Activities datagroup screen, and to link an activity to the flight.
Before start working, you should make necessary settings.

CrewLink

Check this article Click here.

Griffin Marine Travel Interface

Setup
This is the travel interface introduced for booking flights through Griffin Marine travel company by your travel agent.
Open Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface, select Griffin Marine from the drop-down in Interface field:

Follow-up Workflow in Travels Module

Once the request is created (via Flight Details datagroup or Crew Change module), it is added to the Flights Requested tab of the Travels module.
Each request offers you an expanded list with the description of flight options that are related to your itinerary (flight connection, transit airports, etc.).
To access it, click icon on Modules ribbon.

• Travels module is enabled only if Griffin Marine travel interface is chosen for flights booking (in Global Options). 

You'll see the next screen:

Use View Filter to switch between From/To Vessel pages to see corresponding requests.

Flights Requested tab displays the requests that were created in Flight Details datagroup/Crew Change module.
Cancel Requests tab displays the requests that were cancelled in APM but not yet cancelled by the travel agent. Once they are, system moves them to Cancelled tab.
Change Requests tab displays all bookings that were modified to change departure/arrival details as per initial request.
Using Approve button is possible only for Flights Requested to confirm that you agree on the offered flight options for selected request. This operation can be performed for several bookings simultaneously.
Import button performs the check of flight segments on the side of travel agent & imports them into Adonis database for corresponding bookings, linking them via Purchase Order field. The status is automatically set to Approved & bookings are moved Approved tab.

The Purchase Order (PO) is generated by the following rule: <PIN><SiteNo><Number> where SiteNo contains 3 symbols defining the site that creates the booking, Number contains 4 symbols for unique order from 0001 to 9999 bookings.

Expired button sets the status of tagged bookings to Expired & moves them to Expired tab.
Move Expired Requests button is used when Arrival Date (for Joining flights) or Departure Date (for Leaving flights) is greater than the current date. Requests are set to Expired status & moved to Expired tab. You don't need to tag any records, the whole displayed list for requested flights is being checked.
Travel Costs button calls a pop-up window where you can add specific info related to the person's expenses that correspond to a trip. This may be accommodation, taxi bills or other. Grid also displays the total amount of expenses but does not distinguish if these are in different currencies (e.g. USD 100 & EUR 200 are displayed as 300).

The list of available expense types should be modified beforehand in General Codes > Travel > Costs.

The list of available currencies should be modified beforehand in General Codes > Payroll > Currency.
Update button calls a pop-up window allowing you to modify data for a batch of tagged records.

Note that normally the Vessel column displays the value that corresponds to the selected Vessel To Be Charged. Usually, it is the same as the crew change vessel. But if they differ, the Vessel field displays two values (first - for crew change Vessel; second - for Vessel To Be Charged) separated by semicolon.

Leave notes, if needed. For this: click Notes button under Manage menu.
By using button you will be switched to The Travels Module on-line user's manual

Please note:

• Any person can be added to a crew change from Rotation Planning module. There exist situations when a person is assigned to another shift but the previous shift has some already booked flights.
  You may want to keep these bookings. This is also possible.If a shift is modified from Rotation module, the system checks for existing bookings. If it finds any, the user is informed & offered whether he wants to keep the bookings. 

• If a person is kept assigned to remaining shift, it is not possible to remove bookings, they will be kept as they are.
  
  This also works when a user modifies the end date for Promoted_From shift of the promotion procedure. Warning message is displayed & system behaves according to user's decision. 

• It is useful to know: if a flight cancelling is the result of manipulations in Rotation module (modifying shift dates for a crew member), then the flight is set to Cancel_Req status.
  New booking is not created. 

Instone Interface

Setup

This is the travel interface introduced for booking flights through Instone travel company.
First you should make the necessary settings:

Step 1:
To be able to work with Instone travel interface you should select it in Setup > Global Options > Datagroups > Travel Interface:

Please select Instone from dropdown menu, then provide url for server that will process your bookings, your Client ID, login ID & password.
Server url, Client ID, Login section are mandatory as they should contain your credentials for data exchange with your travel agent.
Mandatory fields - you can as well define whether Admin code & Cost center will be required as mandatory fields for your flight bookings.
Show XML before/after send/receive - this is more an administrative option for debugging. When it is turned on, you will see each xml to be sent/received when you create bookings & get confirmations from processing center

Step 2: Admin Code & Cost Center
These fields are necessary for managing ATP & can be defined in General Codes > Travel.
Click button to add needed codes:

You can also allocate Cost Center & Account Number for corresponding Cost Centre general code.
This was done because various teams can have the same Cost Center but different Account Nr.

• Account Nr. is stored as text value (as an account number can start with zero).

Info
As there can be numerous codes defined for your company, we recommend you to set the availability filter (next to code field).

Setting the checkbox (in appeared window) for an organization level will make current code available for this level only.

Flights Booking

Booking from Flight Details Datagroup

You can proceed with bookings using Crew Change module or Flight Details datagroup.
A booking can be created in Flight Details datagroup for one person at a time.
Please select the correct person in your crew list then switch to the datagroup: click icon on Datagroups ribbon or press Ctrl+I hotkeys.

You'll see the folllowing screen, use button or command from right-click menu to create a booking for tagged person.
In Book Flight form input all needed information, e.g.:

You should first select the Direction of your trip. It will define which fields are mandatory and which are disabled:

• For To Vessel direction Arrival Date & Time are mandatory, Departure Date & Time are disabled.
  
  
  And vice versa:
  
  
• From Vessel - Departure Date & Time are mandatory, Arrival Date & Time are disabled.
  
  
  
• For To Vessel direction your Home airport is offered for Departure Airport, by default;
  
  When From Vessel direction is selected, your Home airport is offered for Arrival Airport.
• If you set Training check-box, select another Direction:
  
  
  Departure/Arrival Airport and Vessel to be Charged are mandatory for any direction.
  Select an airport from drop-down list.
  Passenger Type, Nationality, Passport Country, Passport Expires and Passport Number fields are filled in automatically (fetched from Personal Details/Travel Documents datagroups).
  button is disabled until all mandatory fields are filled in and the Departure Date is chosen correctly.
  After all requested data are filled, click Book! button.
• As from now, your flight booking can be found in the Flight Inbox module at Flights Requested tab and all further steps should be done there.
  
  To get last update from Instone, click Refresh button.
  button will remove selected record.
  To view flight itinerary, click Itinerary button.
  To add travel costs record, click  button.
• Costs codes should be previously created in General Codes > Travel > Costs.
  To leave some notes, click  button. Then they will be visible for all users here and in Notes datagroup.

Booking from Crew Change Module

To access Crew Change module, click icon on Modules ribbon.

To perform bookings, please select the required crew change port & switch to its Flight Booking tab:

1. Select the target view in View Filter section to operate with:

   From Vessel (for Off-signers);

   To Vessel (for On-signers).

2. button will open Add Crew box containing all the crew that is assigned for On-/Off-signing crew change respectively.
   Tag pins that you want to book flights for & click Copy Selection button to proceed.
   Requests with NONE/Created status for crew members will be added to the Flight Booking tab:
   
   
   Use Remove button if you do not want to create booking request for some tagged persons.
   Certain fields are mandatory to fill before you are able to book.
   You can add some travel information in a batch. If you update/select the Nearest Airport, Dpt.Date, Dpt.after time & click Apply button, this airport will be added as Arrival or Departure Airport (for tagged On-/Off-signers respectively).
   You can as well tag needed persons & select Admin Code & Cost Center for any of them, then this value will be populated for all tagged crew members.
   

   Note that Admin Code & Cost Center can be setup as mandatory fields in Global Options.

   Standard grid functionality enables you to change columns order, sort by any field & hide some columns that are not relevant for your workflow – see User Interface chapter.
   
   

   Once you've filled in all necessary fields, tag your crew members & click Book Flight button. A progress window will be displayed to see persons being processed.
   The status of processed bookings is changed from NONE to PENDING.

   As from now, your flight booking can be found in the Flight Inbox module at Flights Requested tab and all further steps should be done there.
   
   Refresh – used to update latest status for tagged bookings. The request to a travel agent is re-sent to force the update of a booking status & get the latest information.
   Email Agent - opens you email client, setting the Agency Email (from Global Options). The subject of email is generated as Vessel Name + PNR + Person Name.
   Click Notes button, to leave some comments, if needed.

Follow-up Workflow in Flight Inbox Module

The Flight Inbox module manages the flights requests for a crew member created in the APM, follows all processions of flights performed by the end user.

• Flight Inbox module is developed specially for Instone travel interface.
  It is not available if any other interface is used. 

Currently, there are two places in APM where this integration is implemented:

• the Flight Details datagroup to book a flight for one person;
• the Crew Change module to book for several crew members at the same time.

For details, see Booking from Flight Details/Crew Change sections below.

After you booked travels from Crew Change module or Flight Details datagroup, it is added to the Flights Requested tab of the Flight Inbox module with NONE or PENDING status.
Then you proceed to work there.
To access the module, click icon on Modules ribbon or press Ctrl+Alt+T hotkeys:

1. Views Filtering
   You can filter the records to review My Flights & All Flights pages.
   They respectively display flights booked by current user or by all users.
   You can also switch between From Vessel/To Vessel views.
   They respectively display flights booked:

   for Off-signers (From Vessel);

   for On-signers (To Vessel).

2. Flights Requested tab contains information for bookings that were sent to travel agent for processing but you have not yet received any feedback with flight options. These are normally bookings with PENDING status.
   If it's with NONE status - the booking is created but is not sent to ATPI.

   Just click Refresh button -to update latest status for tagged bookings.
   
   Options Received tab displays the flight options for a booking, received from the travel agent.
   Each flight option provides detailed information of how to get to requested destination point.

   An option can contain several segments that correspond to transit airports (connections) that appear on your destination.
   
   Confirmed tab displays bookings that are confirmed by the user, but not ticketed by ATPI yet.
   Cancel Request tab displays all bookings & flight options that were cancelled but the cancellation has not yet been confirmed by the travel agent.

   You can cancel the flight request on the following process stages (tabs) – Options Received, Confirmed and Ticketed.
   
   Ticketed tab displays the bookings for which the tickets have been issued by the agent.
   Cancelled tab displays cancelled bookings & flight options that have been confirmed by travel agent.
   Expired tab contains expired requests.

Menu buttons
We provide you with several menu buttons to perform operations over existing bookings.

• Please note that some buttons are available on certain tabs and disabled on the others.

This is to support the functional logic that doesn't allow to confirm cancelled requests or vice versa.

Booking Statuses list:

Requests sent from APM:

1. Login request – receive Login confirmation.
2. New booking request – receive confirmation that booking request is received.
3. Refresh Booking List request – receive List of bookings that currently exists in the queue, each booking in the list has the "secure Item Id" that used by us to request details of booking.
4. Request Details of booking using received "secure Item Id" – receive Details of booking (e.g. air segments info, ticket number, amount, fare, etc.).
5. Accept/Cancel request - send list of PNRs which should be accepted/cancelled – receive confirmation that request is received.
6. Group Cancel request – send PNR and list of PAX names which should be cancelled.
7. Renew PNR request – refresh all booking data.