Airline fare filing that shows you what a shopper will see before ATPCO publishes it
Every filing shopped before it publishes, so a mistake fare never reaches a shopper.
See one case, screen by screen ↓Airline fare filing is the work of turning a pricing decision into the ATPCO fare records and rule categories — with footnotes and routings — that every GDS, online agency and the airline's own website sell from. Airline Fare Filing is fare filing software with seven agents that read the decision, draft the filing, convert currencies at Treasury's rate and shop the filing as a shopper would, so the airline pricing analyst sees what a shopper will pay before it publishes, decides each flagged line and signs.
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Airline fare filing turns a pricing decision into the records the industry actually sells from: fare records with market, fare class, amount, currency, footnote and routing, and rule records in ATPCO's standard categories — eligibility, seasonality, advance purchase, minimum and maximum stay, stopovers, combinations, blackouts, sales restrictions, penalties, voluntary changes and refunds. Today that decision travels from a memo or a revenue management recommendation into a spreadsheet, where amounts are typed and currency conversions pasted from a rate sheet, and then into the filing tool or fare management system, where footnotes and routings can be carried over from last season's filing.
Structure checks catch most bad filings, but they cannot know what the decision meant: a well-formed $41.20 fare is valid. Once it publishes, it sells at that price on every GDS, online agency and the airline's own site within the hour. DOT forbids raising the price after purchase (14 CFR 399.88), so the choice is to honor the tickets or cancel them and reimburse the non-refundable costs passengers incurred relying on them. The question no filing tool asks before publication is the one that matters: what will a shopper see, and is that what the decision said?
Estimated split for one pricing decision filed in two markets, by hand and with the solution.
Seven agents read the decision, draft the filing, shop it 64 times and check each other; the analyst decides each flagged line and signs.
Thursday, October 15, 11:42 am ET. Corvane Airways' next ATPCO publication is at 1:00 pm, and filings must be signed by 12:30 pm. Rachel Dunmore's decision D-4471 — match the Paris winter sale from Chicago and Boston — has become filing F-1015-03: 24 fare records, rule WS26, footnotes S7 and S8. Here is how the airline fare filing gets to the window, screen by screen, in the working solution.
Three filings are due at 1:00 pm, four lines need Megan in the Paris winter sale — one critical, a $41.20 fare — and one of seven live filings has an alarm. Beside the list, the agents say what they did and what they need, and she can ask them anything in plain words.
Shopper agent: “Paris winter sale: I shopped it 64 times. 22 searches do not match Rachel's decision, from 4 lines. One is critical: Chicago–Paris at $41.20.”
On the left, Rachel's memo said back: Economy Saver from €389 in Chicago and €369 in Boston, travel Jan 12 – Mar 26, 2027, sell Oct 15 – 22, book 14 days ahead, no refunds, free changes, nonstop only, holidays out — every value numbered to its source. On the right, a Chicago–Paris search as a booking site shows it, built from the drafted records: the Economy Saver fare at $138.60, marked “Not as decided”.
“Silent on a no-show fee: asked below.”
The decision reader read D-4471 and the import sheet. The fare drafter wrote 24 fare records, rule WS26 with 12 categories, footnotes S7 and S8 and routings 0418 and 0420. The currency agent converted at Treasury's pricing rate, 1.0592 USD per EUR. The shopper agent ran 64 searches in a sandbox — both markets, both directions, nonstop and connecting, one-way and round trip, four travel dates: 42 as decided, 22 not, each tied to the line that causes it.
€389 at Treasury's 1.0592 is $412.03, rounded to $412.00, but line 7 of the import sheet carries 41.20. A shopper would pay $138.60 with $97.40 of taxes and fees, against $509.40 as decided. Megan asks “Why $412.00?” and the currency agent answers with each source; the checker, which re-derives the amount from the decision and never reads the draft, agrees.
“Up to 2,900 seats are on sale in the window; at $370.80 under the fare each, an estimated $1.08 million if it sold out.”
Footnote S8 on the 12 Boston records ends travel Mar 28, copied from last winter's filing; the decision says Mar 26, and a Boston search for Mar 27 sells $488.40 instead of $746.40. Routing 0418 on the Chicago records allows ORD–LHR–CDG and ORD–DUB–CDG on a partner; the decision says nonstop only. The proposed routing 0419 allows the nonstop and nothing else.
“Routing 0418 allows all three paths; the decision says nonstop only.”
Megan accepts the three fixes, and the shopper view updates in front of her. The fourth line is not an error: the decision says no refunds and free changes, and nothing on no-shows. Corvane's rule library sets a $99 no-show fee in Category 16 for basic transatlantic fares, and last winter's Paris sale carried it. The decision reader raises it; the checker confirms both options are valid filings and asks a person to choose.
“A judgment call, not an error. The agents will not guess it.”
Megan adds the $99 no-show fee with her reason: “Library default for basic transatlantic; Rachel confirmed by chat.” The shopper agent re-shops the filing with her decisions: 64 of 64 searches now sell as decided, and the Chicago–Paris Economy Saver shows $509.40.
“Every amount, date and routing now matches Rachel's decision.”
Each of the 12 categories in rule WS26 reads in plain words beside its number: Category 5, book and ticket at least 14 days before the outbound flight; Category 15, sell from Oct 15 to Oct 22; Category 16, not refundable, changes free, the fare difference applies, no-show fee $99 / €89. Any category can be asked about, or changed by proposal, with the check run again.
“A shopper reads this in the fare rules before buying.”
The sign-off lists what the agents checked: every flagged line decided, 64 of 64 searches as decided, amounts at Treasury's rate of the day, fare rules that show the full price (full fare advertising, 14 CFR 399.84) and the 24-hour right. Megan signs at 12:06 pm with her statement. The sale cuts ORD–CDG Economy Saver from $689.00 to $412.00, 40%, above the 30% threshold, so Rachel co-signs at 12:11 pm and the filing is queued for 1:00 pm.
Megan's statement: “Every line matches D-4471 or carries my reason.”
After publication the watch agent compares bookings with plan for 72 hours. Seattle–Seoul business, published at 11:00 am, is selling 14× plan: 37 tickets in 31 minutes at $1,980 round trip against $5,980 decided, because a record was edited in the filing tool after signature. The agent drafts a suppression of sales and corrective filing CF-1015-00a; Rachel decides to suppress, honor the 37 tickets and file the correction for 1:00 pm.
“DOT forbids raising the price after purchase; canceling needs reimbursement of what passengers spent relying on it.”
The same filing, seen by the airline pricing analyst and the three people who carry it with her — what their day looked like, and what it looks like now.
Seven agents read the decision, draft the filing, shop it 64 times and check each other; the analyst decides each flagged line and signs.
Reads each pricing decision memo or revenue management recommendation and says it back in plain words — markets, classes, amounts, dates and conditions — with each fact tied to its passage.
Builds the fare records, rule categories, footnotes and routings from the decision and the airline's rule library, citing the source of every value.
Converts each amount at Treasury's pricing rate of the day, applies the currency's rounding rule and checks each amount against the decision and the current fare.
Shops each draft in a sandbox the way a shopper would — origins, directions, trip types and dates — and shows the total price a shopper pays, taxes and fees included.
Checks rule categories against each other, footnote travel and sales dates against the decision, every path a routing allows, and fare ladder order across classes.
Re-derives every amount and date from the decision alone and agrees or disagrees with each finding, so a slip in the draft cannot pass because the draft agrees with itself.
Queues signed filings for their publication window, then compares bookings with plan for 72 hours, catches edits made after signature and drafts suppressions and corrective filings.
The analyst decides every flagged line and signs; the manager co-signs big cuts and decides every rollback. The agents propose; a named person decides.
Ask about any amount, footnote, routing, rule category or alarm — or tell the agents what to do. Every answer shows the passage it came from, and nothing changes in a filing until a person accepts it.
Why would ORD–CDG sell at $41.20?
Line 7 of the import sheet carries 41.20. The decision prices Chicago at €389; at Treasury's 1.0592 that is $412.00. A shopper would pay $138.60 instead of $509.40. The checker agrees with $412.00.
Which filings can't make the 1 pm window?
None, if the open lines are decided by 12:30 pm. Paris winter sale needs your 4 lines and Rachel's co-sign. Halvorsen Logistics needs Nate on one line. Denver–Tokyo is ready.
What do DOT rules say if a mistake fare sells?
DOT forbids raising the price after purchase. Since 2015 it does not require a carrier to honor a mistaken fare if it reimburses what passengers spent relying on it. Seattle–Seoul is that case right now: 37 tickets at $1,980.
Show me what Rachel must co-sign today
The Paris winter sale cuts ORD–CDG Economy Saver from $689.00 to $412.00, 40%, above the 30% threshold. She also decides the Seattle–Seoul alarm.
13 screens from the working solution, on its sample data. Pick one to see it large.
The thresholds and rules every filing is checked against are settings, owned by your pricing systems administrator, and every change is logged.
| Setting | Default | Choose from |
|---|---|---|
| Co-sign when a fare is cut by more than | 30% | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| Critical line when an amount is off the decision by more than | 50% | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| Currency tolerance against Treasury | 0.5% | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| Shopper searches per filing (at least) | 64 searches | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| Live alarm when bookings run at | 5× plan | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| Signing cutoff before each window | 30 minutes | A threshold the administrator sets and saves, logged |
| No-show default | $99 / €89 on basic transatlantic Saver fares | A rule: changed by a proposed rule change, logged |
| Publication windows | 10:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 5:00 pm, 8:00 pm ET, weekdays | A rule: changed by a proposed rule change, logged |
Every figure is labelled: a target the solution is built to, an estimate, a typical published result, or a proven one.
“demo” = seen in the working solution, on its sample data · “target” = the design goal, measured in the live solution · “estimated” = our estimate · “typical” = published figures (AltexSoft, ATPCO explained — over 12 million fare changes a day, 400+ airlines; Apex, ATPCO Suppression of Sales — about 99% of erroneous fares caught on the front end, suppression within 15 minutes for US and Canada and within an hour for international) · 14 CFR 399.88 (no price increase after purchase) and 14 CFR 399.84 (full fare advertising). People, airlines, companies and figures named on this page — Corvane Airways among them — are fictional: characters and sample data in the working solution.
Airline fare filing is the work of turning a pricing decision into the ATPCO fare records and rule categories — with footnotes and routings — that every GDS, online agency and the airline's own website sell from. Airline Fare Filing is fare filing software with seven agents that read the decision, draft the filing, convert currencies at Treasury's rate and shop the filing as a shopper would, so the airline pricing analyst sees what a shopper will pay before it publishes, decides each flagged line and signs.
Structure checks pass a well-formed wrong fare, so mistake fare prevention has to check the outcome instead: the shopper agent runs at least 64 searches against the draft in a sandbox and compares every price with the decision, and an independent checker re-derives each amount from the decision alone. Anything that does not match comes back as a flagged line with its cause and a proposed fix, and nothing is filed until a person signs.
Yes. On every ATPCO fare filing, the rules and routing checker compares rule categories with each other, footnote travel and sales dates with the decision, every path a routing allows and fare ladder order across classes. In the demo it found a Boston footnote ending travel two days after the sale and a routing that allowed a London connection on a nonstop-only fare.
DOT forbids raising the price of a ticket after purchase (14 CFR 399.88). Under a May 2015 notice, DOT does not enforce that rule against a carrier that cancels a mistaken fare, provided it reimburses the non-refundable costs passengers incurred relying on it. When a live fare sells far faster than plan, the watch agent drafts a suppression and a corrective filing with both cited, and a pricing manager decides to honor or cancel.
No. The agents draft, shop, check and propose; they never file, suppress or roll back without a person, never use a rate other than Treasury's, never change a rule unseen and never touch live inventory from the sandbox. Where the decision is silent, they ask rather than guess.
Yes. The pricing analyst accepts, edits or rejects each flagged line with a reason and signs every filing with a statement. A pricing manager co-signs any cut above the threshold — 30% by default — and decides every suppression and rollback. Every step is on the audit trail.
Yes. The co-sign threshold, critical line, currency tolerance, shopping sample, live alarm pace, signing cutoff, rounding, no-show default, nonstop routings, blackout default and publication windows are all settings, and every change is logged.
The Agentic Solution Engine builds and deploys it from your requirements and documents — your pricing policy, rule library and a sample of past decisions and filings — and it goes live once every quality gate has passed. We will walk you through it on your own fares first.
One more point of revenue per flight, and no seat change posted without an analyst's yes.
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