Housekeeping

The Flight Inbox module lists all flights booked/processes by an end user.

How to work with ATPI-CrewLink – see here
In this manual we will review how to work with the Flight Inbox module using Instone travel interface.

So, first you need to set connection with Instone.

Step 1: Go to 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; Agency information.
Server url, Client ID, Login section are mandatory as they should contain your credentials for data exchange with your travel agent.

Please contact ATP Instone company to get all data and credentials.

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: Create Admin & Cost Center Codes

These fields are necessary for managing ATP & can be defined in Setup > General Codes > Travel:

Click button to add needed codes:

You can also allocate Cost Center & Account Number for corresponding Cost Centre general code (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).

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

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

Functionality

The Flight Inbox module manages the flights requests for a crew member created In the Adonis Personnel Manager, follows all processions of flights performed by the end user.

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 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.

Booking from 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.
   
   
   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.

References

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

The CrewLink Travel Interface user manual you can find here