generated: '2026-07-28'
method: searched
source: https://agencyconnect.qantas.com/en-au/policies/agent-information/ndc-shopping-policy
docs: https://agencyconnect.qantas.com/en-au/policies/agent-information/ndc-shopping-policy
note: |
  Qantas publishes no per-second/per-minute request quota and no rate-limit response
  headers, because it publishes no API contract at all. What it does publish — and it
  is unusually specific for an airline — is a numeric fair-use limit expressed as a
  Look-to-Book (L2B) ratio governing NDC shopping traffic on the Qantas Distribution
  Platform, together with the remedies Qantas will apply when it is exceeded. The
  limit is enforced per agency, not per API key.
enforcement: per-agency
signalling:
  headers_documented: false
  response_codes_documented: false
  note: No rate-limit or quota headers are documented; there is no published contract
    on which they could be defined.
rate_limits:
- name: Maximum Acceptable Look-to-Book (L2B) Ratio
  limit_count: 2500
  limit_unit: shopping requests per completed ticketed booking
  scope: agency
  surface: Qantas Distribution Platform (QDP) NDC shopping
  source: https://agencyconnect.qantas.com/en-au/policies/agent-information/ndc-shopping-policy
  quote: 'Maximum Acceptable L2B Ratio : 2500:1'
  note: Qantas states most agencies are expected to maintain a ratio well below this
    threshold.
excessive_shopping_sources:
- Robotic shopping — automated processes used to populate offer caches
- Meta search activity — marketing-driven queries producing high-frequency requests
- Content aggregators — multiple queries seeking alternative fare or routing options
- Invalid requests — shopping origin-destination pairs Qantas does not service
- Duplicate requests — multiple submissions for the same customer across platforms
  or pseudo city codes (PCCs)
remedies:
- Offer limitation
- Request throttling — capping the number of NDC requests processed within set time
  intervals
- Access restriction
mitigation_guidance:
- Use BestPrice qualifiers so shopping requests target only best-price offers
- Use calendar-based shopping instead of many individual date queries
- Validate origin-destination pairs against Qantas Routelist data via the technology
  partner
- Configure targeted meta-search rules to limit low-conversion traffic
- Avoid robotic queries not tied to bona fide customer interest
- Implement smart caching to reuse recent valid shopping requests