Computer Reservation Systems

Auditing Headaches in the Airline Industry

Case Study

The Real problem

Can we really help?!

• By
Evon Abu-Taieh
Computer Information Systems Department

• Amman-Jordan
Phone:-962-6-5858822,
Fax: 962-6-552-7233

Email:Evon2k@yahoo.com ,
Kindly hold your questions till the end of presentation
 "If small businesses wish to increase their
profitability and gross sales then they are well
advised to consider not only putting into place
good strategic measures but to computerize
accounting and recording systems as these are also
related to sound preparation of operating budgets
which contribute to financial effectiveness."
• Dr. Monir Zaman , Central Queensland University
• http://www.bus.cqu.edu.au/Faculty/News/november2001/serzamangadenne.htm
 What is GDS & CRS?
• CRS: a Computer Reservation System for an
individual airline containing information on that
airline only and used by that airlines’ employees.
• GDS: Global Distribution System - a computer
reservation and information system that is often
operated by multiple airlines, used by travel agents
& other travel professionals and contains
information on all types of travel products. It is
also used for hotel, car rental, etc..
 Airline Reservations Before CRS’s
• Manual processing of calls from agents
• Costly call centers to handle growing air travel
volume
 History Of CRS
• Prior to 1960-: availability boards and “Lazy
Susan” & desk sets for travel agents.
• 1953-64: IBM and American Airlines created
SABRE
– new operating system (Transaction Processing Facility)
– fast response time (< 3seconds)
– international network - no down time.
• 1965-1976: other similar systems were developed
e.g. APOLLO, PARS.
 Beginning Of GDS concept
• 1974: Joint Industry Computerized
Reservation System (JICRS) was initiated.
• 1976: Retail automation: terminals in travel
agents offices.
• 1978: Co-host program
• 1980’s: many airlines merge partially due to
CRS needs
• 1986: GDS operations split off from airline.
 Global Connectivity
• 1981/2: SystemOne and DATAS
• 1987: Galileo and Amadeus in Europe and
Abacus in Asia.
• 1990: PARS & DATAS merge to form
WORLDSPAN
• 1993: Galileo and Apollo merge.
• 1995: SystemOne and Amadeus merge.
 Major Airline Affiliations with
GDS
• SABRE • American Airlines
• Tavelocity On line
• GALILEO • UAL, BA, Swiss,
KLM, USAir,Alitalia,
Air Canada, Austrian,
Aer Lingus
• AMADEUS
• Lufthansa, Air France,
• WORLDSPAN Iberia, Continental
• Delta, NW,
TransWorld, Abacus
The competition will be determined in the following value added
services where GDSs seems to build a strong position.

Res
System

Yield management Co-hosting Integrated services

- Collect, store and analyze
data on customers, changes
in the markets for seats. (as
co-hoster or res system
provider)
- gather competitive data
on seat allocations, most
attractive routes, and direct
marketing campaigns
according to the data. (as
res system provider)
- Offer co-hosting services
to other airlines which can
display their seats on the
res system. This allows res
system providers to
participate in other airlines’
growth.
- Offer a product portfolio of
integrated booking services
for airline tickets, hotel and
car reservations.
- Building a partner network
will create a competitive
advantage.
 GDS Accessibility
GDS

Interface Booking Engine GDS data

network

INTERNET

Consumer Travel Agency

 GDS Hardware software
• Sabre Oracle sun java
• Galileo/Apollo Oracle sun
• Amadeus Oracle sun
• Worldspan Oracle database usesCompaq Web servers
 Market Shares of the GDS
Air Segments Booked

• Sabre 32.8%
• Galileo 30.7%
• Amadeus 24.4%
• Worldspan 12.1%
 Market Share of Travel Agencies
Number of Terminals
• Sabre 59,000 15%
Galileo 160,000 41%
• Amadeus 155,000 39.5%
• Worldspan 18,000 4.6%
TRAVEL AGENT USE of GDS
• 98% of all agencies in US are connected to GDS
• some have multiple systems
• they use GDS to book:
– 95% domestic air
– 86% international air
– 74% car rentals
– 55% hotel bookings
– 60% rail
– 7% cruise
Airlines
and other
suppliers

CRS CRS CRS

Systems and public / private network

infrastructure

GDS

public / private network

Customers

travel travel
agent agent
 Airline

Agent

aMaDUES
Customer

Auditor

Customer
 CRS and Internet
• The Travelocity site has more than 300,000 Web
pages which can be searched instantaneously.
• their servers are powerful and fast, and
• can churn out 30 to 40 Web pages per second
• database handler being able to process 5,000
requests per second
• * From www.networkmagazine.com/case_studies/working.html
 Agent & CRS
• Interface (see next slides)
• Speed (GemStone's Facets 2.0 & SynXis)
Interface & GDS/CRS

•
Speed and CRS/GDS
Case : GemStone's Facets 2.0 & SynXis

• SynXis: a leading provider of reservation management and distribution systems

for the hospitality industry, with real-time critical business data availability
helping their customers consolidate and control hotel inventory across all
distribution channels.

• Used : JBoss application server and GemStone Facets 2.0 object database
caching technology over other leading providers.
• Now they are able to : to easily process an average of over 400,000 reservation
related messages per day.
• The GemStone technology allows us to respond to each of these inquiries within
1-2 seconds
• and has enabled SynXis to increase customer base from 500 to over 2500
hotels in the last 12 months.
• These benefits will in turn help customers access reservation details faster and
with more accuracy while allowing SynXis to develop the solution within our
existing infrastructure."
• * from sunjava
The Auditing Problem
 Why Audit?
• To cut distribution costs, you must reduce computer reservation
fees, such as passive and duplicate bookings
in other words
• After what is all said and done, the problem boils down to MONEY
– Duplicate reservation= loss $$$
– Booking and canceling= loss $$$ .20$ for each
– False names= $$$
– Over booking
– Waite list
– Issuing tickets and canceling them
– Open flight #
– False dates :- transaction and flight date
– False class
 Why Audit?
• In one BIDT the difference between the
audited and not audit bill was
$25,000
With 2698 bad names i.e test, AAA
 Auditing: How?
• GDS/CRS send to Airline BIDT with BILL
every month.
• Airline must check and audit the data.
GDS Airline
.DBA
.txt GDS
.Dat
.RAW Travel
Auditor Agents

Rejects & bills

audited
 What is BIDT?
• BIDT : Monthly reports that capture detailed information on every
booking a CRS subscriber makes on a participating airline’s behalf
• Benefits

– Assists accountants in monthly reconciliation for more accurate billing

records
– Enhances understanding of GDS billing activities, including fees
– Combines with Marketing Information Data transfer (MIDT) for improved
trend analysis and targeted business planning
• Attributes

– Includes detailed, transaction-level information for each subscriber,

including IATA number, flight date/number, city pairs, transaction date, and
booking class
– Electronically sorts information to produce a variety of valuable reports
– Is deliverable electronically, on hard-copy tape, or CD-ROM
 BIDT Segments
• BIDT includes
– PNR: Passenger Record Number
– Flight #
– Flight date, dept time, arrival time
– Reservation date
– Name of passenger
– From ,To
– Territory
– Line type
– Billing category
See Example
 Example of BIDT Raw data
200301RJ 512 HUSD000000001000000000
200301RJ 512 645DN3ZP01501840000134872SPRINGDALE TRAVEL MOBILE ALUS1 0000000020030129AMS AMM 010420030219M
NNSSN53ELWSG0010452000000045200000USDNJULINOT/HELMUT N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN3ZP01501840000134872SPRINGDALE TRAVEL MOBILE ALUS1 0000000020030129AMM AMS 010320030226M
NNSSN53ELWSG0010452000000045200000USDNJULINOT/HELMUT N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030112AMM BEY 040120030112M
TKTKN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118M
HKHXC57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118M
UCUCC17WUYZ60010404000000040400000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117BEY AMM 040220030118M
HKHXC57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117AMM JFK 026120030118N
NNSSN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DN44G01575180000500533WRIGHT TRAVEL HUNTSVILLE ALUS1 0000000020030117BEY AMM 040220030118M
NNSSN57WUYZ60010452000000045200000USDNELARO/GEORGE N06+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNHKC57XRJNI0040414000000165600000USDNMURRAY/ERNEST N05+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNHKC5LXU8RX0040414000000165600000USDNBOGGS/CLINTON N05+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNHKC57XYPFB0030414000000124200000USDNHENRY/NATHAN N05+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNHKC5MN7N890010414000000041400000USDNMINGGIA/TRAMEL N05+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNHKC5MN2GJN0010414000000041400000USDNRYBACKI/JAMES N05+00000
200301RJ 512 645DNAPS01591670000507243NN AETC/MAXWELL AFB MAXWELL AIR FORALUS1 0000000020030108FRA AMM 012620030114Y
NNSSN57XRJNI0040414000000165600000USDNMURRAY/ERNEST N05+00000
 Why Audit is so hard?
• Too much data (more than 100,000-300,000 per
month per CRS/GDS)
• Different CRS/GDS has different BIDT Format.
• Tedious and Time-consuming
• Each CRS/GDS has its own way of billing base
and rules and lookups – business rules
• Business rules change almost every year
• Need for intersect data from different GDS/CRS.
• Scattered data (segment).
 Example of hardship
How to calculate a bill
• Each segment has Five important field:
– Link type(A,B,C,D)
– Territory(1,2,3,4,5,6)
– Bill category( 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9)
– Transaction Type (B,C,T): Booked canceled ticketed
– Availability (I/_)
CHARGE = EACH COBINATION HAS A PRICE AND
THEY INTERSECT when booked and canceled
ALL This for one GDS/CRS
See Excel example
 Example of hardship -
intersection
• Data intersect not only cross GDS/CRS But
Also on months (45 days claims)
BIDT Sabre month#1 BIDT Sabre month#2
BIDT Galileo month#1 BIDT Galileo month#2
BIDT Amadeus month#1 BIDT Amadeus month#2
BIDT Worldspan month#1 BIDT Worldspan month#2
 Is there any Audit Software
available?
• YES….
– Zeus
– Cornerstone www.ciswired.com
• BUT…..
– Produces too many reports (as if s/he needs more)
– Reports very hard to follow
– Most software are not WYSIWYG
– Expensive
 Examples of reports
• Duplicate PAX
– By agency
– By GDS
Remember that
• Top Ten Travel Agents each GDS/CRS
• Invoice Match provide the Auditor
• By Status Code of the airline 100s
• By country code of 1000s of
• By booking class
segments
• Cost by
– Booking class (Records)
– By agency
– Link type
– Billing detail
Is the Auditor expected to be an
SQL statement, selecting from
different data bases?
How can we Help??
 Proposed Solution
• Computer system that provides the
following:
– GUI
– WYSIWYG
– Easy to handle
– Accurate
– Flexible: because rules are changing.
– MUST be Distributed in nature and on line