move to PCs from videotex. The reason is that it
`
`is very easy to be proved wrong by actual events
`when trying to do any form of crystal ball gazing
`in the field of technology in travel and tourism.
`However, I hope I have alerted you to some of
`the major issues that the industry is facing at the
`present time and some of the factors affecting the
`trends that may well have a significant impact on
`the future. One thing is certain and that is that you
`must always be looking to the future whenever
`you consider anything in the area of IT for travel
`
`and tourism. The only effective way of doing this
`is to keep up with developments as they happen
`or as they are debated. A good way to do this is
`to get yourself on the circulation lists of several
`of the leading computer and telecommunications
`magazines, as well as the travel trade press. Read-
`ing these publications will at least bring to your
`attention the level of debates on the emerging PC
`software technologies, the new peripheral devices,
`evolving telecommunications technologies and the
`price of PC hardware.
`
`314 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 321
`
`

`
`7 T
`
`ravel agents
`
`In this Chapter I am going to discuss and explore
`the various technologies that are used by travel
`agents as part of their day—to—day business opera-
`tions. We have already seen how the distribution
`systems allow agents to access and sell products
`from a variety of suppliers. Now it is time to see
`how travel agents actually record these sales and
`process the resulting financial transactions. The
`technology used for this function is called the
`‘agency management system’. Choosing a good
`agency management system is one of the most
`important and strategic decisions a travel agent
`will have to make: with over 700 general purpose
`accounting system software packages on the mar-
`ket and a growing number of front—office support
`tools,
`it
`is by no means a trivial task. In this
`chapter I hope you will gain a basic understand-
`ing of the components of such systems, which
`should enable you to understand how travel agen-
`cies identify their requirements and evaluate the
`Various products on the market.
`Before we embark upon our review of the type
`of agency management systems available to travel
`agents, it is important that you first understand
`that there are different types of travel agents for
`different types of travel businesses. These distinc-
`tions are important because there are different types
`of agency management systems for each of these
`types of businesses. So, what are the different types
`of travel agents and how do their business needs
`for IT differ?
`
`Types of travel agents
`
`There are almost 5,000 ABTA registered travel
`agency branches in the UK. This network of agents
`
`is dominated by only a few of the larger chains
`usually referred to as the multiples. A multiple in
`this sense is taken to mean a travel company with
`more than 20 branches. Table 7.1 shows the top
`few multiples (by number of branches), and the rest,
`which is made up of a number of other smaller
`multiples (sometimes also known as miniples), plus
`other independent travel agents.
`r-
`
`Table 7.1 ABTA travel agents
`
`Total agent
`branches
`
`796
`
`712
`
`386
`
`291
`
`236
`
`190
`94
`
`83
`
`78
`74
`
`60
`
`53
`49
`
`40
`
`40
`
`ABTA member
`
`Lunn Poly
`
`Going Places
`
`The Thomas Cook Group Ltd
`
`MTG (UK) Ltd
`
`Cooperative Wholesales Society Ltd
`
`American Express Europe Ltd
`Travelworld (Northern) Ltd
`
`Midlands Cooperative Society Ltd
`
`Carlson Wagonlits Travel UK Ltd
`IT Travel Ltd
`
`United Northwest Cooperatives Ltd
`
`Hogg Robinson (Travel) Ltd
`Bakers World Travel Ltd
`
`Woodcock Travel Ltd
`
`Portman Travel Ltd
`
`Sub-total of multiple travel agencies
`
`All other agents
`
`UK grand total
`
`(Source: ABTA, 1997)
`
`TRAVEL AGENTS 315
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 322
`
`

`
`Within this overall community of almost 5,000
`agency branches there are several different types
`of travel agency outlets and each type has its own
`way of using IT. One important and very relevant
`fact here is that the vast majority of all UK agency
`outlets have an IATA licence that enables them
`
`to issue airline tickets on their own premises. It
`is therefore important that I explain the type of
`location and the kind of business undertaken by
`each.
`
`THE BUSINESS TRAVEL CENTRE (BTC)
`
`Well, as the name implies, this type of travel agent
`is one that is dedicated to business travel. Because
`
`it usually deals with its customers over the tele-
`phone, the actual choice of location is not critical.
`In fact a BTC is often situated in standard office
`
`premises off the high street where the rent is as
`low as possible. In the USA, for example, some
`large agencies have set their BTCs in towns in the
`middle of the country where communication costs,
`office space and wage rates are low.
`BTCs often bear a passing resemblance to a
`stock exchange dealing room in the City of Lon-
`don. They tend to be noisy, frantic places littered
`with the most advanced technology in the industry.
`In general though, the average BTC looks much
`more like your average office than the kind of
`travel agent we are used to. The staff will probably
`each have their own airline reservation terminal
`
`or at least will share one between two. In many
`cases they will use telephone headsets, which leaves
`both hands free to work the CRS visual display
`unit (VDU) and write while talking on the tele-
`phone with their customers.
`There will often be a separate equipment room
`where the computer and telecommunications kit
`is housed. This room will usually house a fast set
`of fast printers for automatically producing airline
`tickets, invoices and itineraries on continuous com-
`puter stationery. A dedicated computer operator
`or operations person will be found in the larger
`BTCs.
`
`large and often has three distinctly separate depart-
`ments. On the ground floor is the leisure travel
`shop, which sells holidays and other travel ser-
`vices to customers who walk in off the street. Also
`on the ground floor will be the bureau-de—change
`if the agency operates one of its own. Upstairs or
`perhaps in the back of the premises will be the
`business travel department. Most travel agency
`locations of this type are operated by the major
`multiples.
`It is the ground floor travel shop that stands
`out to passers by. This will invariably be ABTA
`registered and will usually have its own IATA
`licence, which is of course shared by the business
`travel department. The principal technology used
`to service the leisure travel business is viewdata,
`although at least one CRS airline reservation ter-
`minal is available for shared use by the sales staff.
`In many cases the viewdata screen is on a swivel
`so that it can be used by the sales person and then
`shown to the customer.
`
`Also on the ground floor is the bureau—de—
`change. This usually comprises only two or three
`teller positions and is located to one side of the
`leisure sales area. If a bureau—de—change service is
`provided, then it is law that the exchange rates
`and commission charges must be on display to cus-
`tomers. So a rate board is an integral part of the
`layout in this area. The operators are often called
`tellers or cashiers. In some travel agents the tellers
`are responsible for collecting payments from cus-
`tomers for their holiday bookings. Tellers will use
`a dedicated terminal to transact their business. This
`
`is very compact because bureau-de-change ‘cages’
`are often quite small and space is a premium.
`Upstairs or at the rear of the premises will be
`the business travel department. Its customers nearly
`always contact the agents over the telephone and
`so the agents do not need the shop front. How-
`ever, it is usually convenient to share some of the
`facilities of the leisure operation and make use of
`economies of scale especially in terms of rent.
`Members of this department will use CR5 airline
`reservation terminals for the bulk of their work.
`
`THE HIGH STREET TRAVEL AGENCY
`
`INPLANT
`
`The average high street travel agency is probably
`well known to most readers. It tends to be quite
`
`An inplant (or implant as it is sometimes known)
`is a feature of business travel. It is a sub-branch of
`
`316 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 323
`
`

`
`a travel agency and it is located within the premises
`of one of the agent’s large corporate customers.
`Because this involves considerable extra over-
`
`As previously mentioned, they must by law display
`the exchange rates and commission charges that
`form part of their terms of business.
`
`heads it is only justified for the really big business
`travel customers. It is staffed by the travel agent’s
`employees, and airline reservation terminals are
`often installed within the inplant.
`The large multiples operate the major inplants
`and some of these have an IATA licence in their
`
`own right. This means that airline tickets can be
`printed on the spot for their customers. If no IATA
`licence is held,
`then the inplant will make the
`reservation on its CRS terminal and the nearest
`
`travel agency branch office will access the CRS
`from its own terminal and issue tickets for deliv-
`
`ery to the inplant. This is known as the main and
`satellite office type of operation.
`
`BUREAU
`
`This is similar in many ways to an inplant but
`may have nothing to do with a bureau—de—change.
`It is a leisure travel agency located within a major
`shopping store or some other high street retail shop.
`It functions just like a high street travel agency
`except that it
`is located inside another retailer.
`In other words, a bureau will usually concentrate
`on selling leisure travel to passing trade within
`the store. Sometimes, however, the bureau will also
`provide a business travel service to the staff of the
`store in which it is located, e.g.
`in large stores
`there are important staff called ‘buyers’ who travel
`extensively around the world buying merchandise
`for sale in the store and are therefore prime busi-
`ness travel customers.
`
`BUREAU-DE-CHANGE
`
`Bureau—de—changes are usually small kiosk—type
`premises located on the high street, which provide
`currency services to the general public. They are
`predominantly found in destination cities because
`they profit to a large extent from the purchase of
`foreign money and the encashment of Travellers’
`Cheques for inbound visitors to the UK. They
`also offer to sell Travellers’ Cheques and foreign
`currency.
`
`These days even the smallest bureau—de—changes
`use computerized equipment to process transactions.
`
`THE INDEPENDENT HIGH STREET TRAVEL AGENT
`
`These are the small travel agents that make up
`the majority of outlets in the UK. They are known
`affectionately in the USA by the term ‘Ma and Pa
`businesses’. These travel agents may be members
`of trade associations like ABTA and IATA or they
`may not. In most cases they do not possess an
`IATA licence. However, many are registered with
`ABTA and some may be members of NAITA.
`In the UK some people call unlicensed agents
`who are not members of any recognized trade
`association, ‘bucket shops’. These types of travel
`agencies used to have a negative image in the trade
`several years ago, although in most cases they are
`now recognized as respectable independent agen-
`cies. The term ‘bucket shop’ arises from the type
`of business they undertake, which tends to be soley
`the cheap and cheerful package holidays to the sun
`or seat—only packages (see Chapter 3 for a fuller
`description of the seat—only business).
`Although one can never generalize too much,
`the small independent travel agent does not usu-
`ally handle business travel to any great extent. This
`is primarily due to the lack of an IATA licence,
`which is costly to obtain because it requires a good,
`safe and fully trained staff in the area of airline
`ticket issuance.
`
`Like most other types of outlet in the leisure
`travel business, these agents use viewdata as the
`principal
`technology. The reasons for this are
`described in a subsequent chapter of this book.
`There is therefore a considerable stock of viewdata
`
`equipment tied up in these agencies throughout
`the country. Most use BT’s dialled telephone ser-
`vice to reach the viewdata systems but some have
`hardwired links into third—party networks (see
`Chapter 6).
`
`Automation of agencies
`
`Travel agents use a variety of technologies to help
`them access the information they need to service
`customers and process transactions for accounting
`
`TRAVEL AGENTS
`
`317
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 324
`
`

`
`purposes. The kinds of systems they use fall into
`two main areas:
`front—office systems and back-
`office systems. This division is becoming increas~
`ingly blurred but it nevertheless remains a pretty
`good way of distinguishing the two main categor-
`ies of technology used by most
`travel agents.
`
`There are certain functions that clearly fall into
`the front-office category, such as airline reserva-
`tions and tour bookings. There are also some that
`are undisputedly back—office systems, such as the
`general ledger and management information. How-
`ever,
`there are those that float
`in between the
`
`Figure 7.1 Front-, middIe- and back—office systems
`
`OOOOOOOO
`
`OOOOOOOO
`
`0 Tickets
`0 Invoices
`O Itineraries
`
`Front-office
`
`0 Information
`0 Reservations
`0 Ticketing
`
`Middle-office
`
`0 Diary control
`0 Trip file control
`0 Marketing
`
`Back-office
`
`0 Accounting
`0 MIS
`
`Sales ledger
`Purchase ledger
`General ledger
`MIS reports
`
`OOOOOOOOO
`
`OOOOOOOOO
`
`POS
`
`——————j Workstation
`
`cn=<:uoE—irn2
`
`Videotex
`
`Internet and
`Intranet
`
`Ledgers and
`management
`information
`
`Workstation
`
`318 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 325
`
`

`
`two categories, such as client files and automated
`diaries. Some people might describe these as mid-
`office systems. Figure 7.1 shows how the front—,
`middle— and back—office system functions coexist
`within a travel agency. However, for the sake of
`simplicity I am going to talk just about front— and
`back—office systems, but please bear this blurred
`distinction in mind while we discuss the functions
`
`and products available in each area.
`
`FRONT-OFFICE SYSTEMS
`
`A front—office system is one that has little to do
`with accounting and much more to do with ser-
`vicing customers. The ultimate front—office system
`is of course the GDS PC or the videotex terminal.
`
`These devices are the travel agent’s virtual window
`onto the market—place of all commonly required
`travel products and services. But reservation ter-
`minals are now so complex to use effectively that
`specialized system tools are being introduced to
`help travel agents become more productive. These
`system tools are particularly prevalent in the USA
`where, due to the dominance of air travel, the travel
`agent’s use of the GDSs is relatively sophisticated
`compared with other areas of the world. First, let
`me identify the main types of system tools that
`fall into the ‘front—office’ category.
`I think these
`are generally as follows:
`
`0 Reservation terminals, e.g. GDS PCs and video-
`tex terminals.
`
`Point—of—sale assistants, i.e. software products.
`Software robots.
`
`Automated quality control software products.
`Customer documentation, e.g. air tickets, itiner-
`aries and quotations.
`Client name, address and booking files.
`0 Automated diary functions.
`
`If you consider the above types of systems, you
`will no doubt observe that I have covered many of
`them in previous sections of the book, e.g. GDSs,
`client files and many other related functions in
`Chapter 4, Videotex in Chapter 6 and so on. But
`there are one or two particularly interesting areas
`that I have not yet covered. These are the front—
`office functions that fall into the category of point-
`of-sale assistants and software robots. Such tools
`
`are commonly used by travel agents in the USA
`but are only beginning to make an appearance in
`Europe and other parts of the world. Here is a
`presentation of just two of them.
`
`Point-of-Sale assistants
`
`A point—of—sale assistant is a software product that
`helps to make travel sales consultants more pro-
`ductive by automatically alerting them to certain
`pre—set conditions. The product that I am going
`to describe is one good example of this; it is called
`CRS Screen Highlighter (Fig. 7.2). It is a product
`that was developed by the Travel Technologies
`Group based in Dallas, Texas, and marketed in
`the UK by ICC Concorde.
`The underlying objective of CR5 Screen High-
`lighter is to guarantee the reservations accuracy of
`travel sales consultants and ensure that customers
`
`receive the highest possible level of service. It does
`this by: (a) carrying out a series of pre—set checks on
`the booking records received from GDS systems,
`and (b) popping—up appropriate messages on the
`travel sales consultant’s PC screen. The following
`are just a few examples of the kinds of automatic
`checks that can be performed by CRS Screen High-
`lighter. It can for instance:
`
`0 Call
`
`the travel consultant’s attention to the
`
`fact that today is the last day on which certain
`special fares can be purchased.
`Highlight penalties and restrictions on routes and
`fare categories that relate to the PNR received
`from the GDS for the current booking.
`Keep track of all the unused and non—refundable
`tickets that a traveller accumulates thus enab-
`
`ling them to be exchanged for a valid ticket at
`the appropriate time.
`Summarize the agency’s special fares and nego-
`tiated rates on routes and carriers that are
`
`directly relevant to the current PNR.
`Alert a consultant to switch sell a preferred
`airline when an override threshold is about to
`be reached.
`
`Automatically detect bookings for very import-
`ant persons (VIPs) by recognizing titles such
`as CEO and vice—president (VP) as well as pick-
`ing out certain travellers by their frequent flyer
`numbers.
`
`TRAVEL AGENTS 319
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 326
`
`

`
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`Instruct the sales consultant to follow a par-
`ticular sales process for certain pre-defined cus-
`tomers, i.e. by customer name.
`Notify the consultant if a particular corporate
`customer has reached a serious credit position
`that threatens to jeopardize the agent’s cash
`flow and financial risk levels.
`
`Inform travel consultants about visa require-
`ments on journeys overseas for the current
`booking.
`Recognize certain categories of bookings and
`offer pre—set customer service advice as deter-
`mined by the agency’s management.
`Remind sales consultants of tasks that must be
`
`completed by pre—set times of the business day.
`Display a daily broadcast message to the sales
`consultants within an agency that eliminates the
`need for paper circulars and shouted messages.
`
`The CRS Screen Highlighter communicates with the
`travel sales consultant by means of pop—up mess-
`ages that are displayed on the PC screen. It goes
`without saying I suppose, that the travel agency
`needs to be using one of the major GDS systems
`with a PC as the terminal device. The message is
`popped—up as an overlay to the windows reserva-
`tions screen. Each message is tailored to the par-
`ticular check that has just been carried out. The
`consultant just has to read the message and then
`hit a pre—set key, e.g. the ‘escape’ key, to remove
`
`320 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`Figure 7.2 CRS Screen Highlighter — screen 1
`
`it. The CRS Screen Highlighter program comprises
`two main parts: (i) the control program that runs
`on the agency’s server, and (ii) the operational pro-
`gram that runs in each GDS PC:
`
`0 The control program This stores all of the
`point-of-sale checks that are to be performed
`for certain categories of PNRS. Each point-of-
`sale check is defined on a single window. The
`window contains two search criteria that may
`be linked by the logical operators ‘only’, ‘and’
`as well as ‘and not’. Searches may start at the
`beginning of a PNR line only, anywhere in
`the PNR or only at the end of a PNR line. The
`second part of the window defines the pop-up
`message that is to appear on the GDS PC screen
`if the search criteria are successfully detected.
`The message may be formatted in a variety of
`ways and in a number of different colour com-
`binations. Several action buttons are available
`
`that support the quick creation of a library of
`point-of-sale checks. The choice of ‘escape’ key
`may also be defined by the control program.
`The Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) pro-
`gram The CRS Screen Highlighter operational
`software that runs in each GDS PC is a TSR
`
`program (Fig. 7.3). This is a special kind of
`computer program that is loaded when the PC
`is powered on and remains active, even while
`other applications are running. This program
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 327
`
`

`
`Ii
`Elle Edit Search
`I’ '
`r
`
`7 CR5 Suecn Hl(|l|lig|lIlL‘l Lilmxr [No Use! Nu1u<~HC.\Il|lIl| Il\ln|.1c'.l.~..i] Hu_gh|ix_.h
`Szptlona
`flclp
`_
`
`Figure 7.3 CRS Screen Highlighter —
`screen 2
`
`‘wakes up’ whenever a PNR is received by
`the GDS PC. The PNR is scanned for the search
`
`criteria as originally created by the control
`program, as described above. If a search is
`successful, the TSR displays the appropriate
`message for the condition detected. Once the
`operator presses the designated ‘escape’ key,
`the TSR terminates but stays resident within
`the PC awaiting the next PNR to be received.
`From a technical perspective, it accomplishes
`this functionality by intercepting the Windows
`screen buffer, altering it to show the desired
`message and then repainting the screen after
`depression of the ‘escape’ key.
`
`These point—of—sale software assistants are written
`in a programming language that is especially effici-
`ent. This allows the programs to execute in the
`shortest possible times. So, provided the number
`of searches is reasonable, the GDS PC user will not
`notice any degradation in its response times. The
`software runs within Microsoft Windows Versions
`3.1 and 3.11.
`'
`
`Software robots
`
`These are even more sophisticated products than
`the reservation assistants that I have described above.
`
`Software robots grew from automated quality con-
`trol systems. These were systems that automatically
`
`intercepted booking records received on a GDS PC
`and performed checks on the PNR to ensure that
`all fields were compliant with an agency’s quality
`control programme. However, software robots go
`substantially further and undertake operations
`normally carried out by travel consultants. Being
`more complex, they require a far higher level of
`technical competence on the part of the travel
`agency. Nevertheless, given that the agency has
`at least one ‘super user’ who also possesses a fair
`degree of IT skill, software robots can increase the
`productivity of a travel agency by an enormous
`amount.
`
`The example I am going to present here is
`another of TTG’s products, i.e. the Centrally Ori-
`ented ResReview Edition (CoRRe — see previous
`section for a description of TTG and its UK dis-
`tributor). CoRRe was developed in C-H— and runs
`within a Microsoft Windows environment. It re-
`
`quires its own dedicated workstation PC, which
`itself is connected to the travel agent’s GDS, i.e.
`Sabre, Amadeus Apollo, Galileo or Worldspan,
`although at present it has only been ported to work
`with Galileo outside the USA. This workstation,
`which has its own unique GDS terminal address,
`needs only exist in a single location within an
`agency. Even if the agency has several branches, the
`CoRRe PC need only be installed at headquarters.
`This is because the underlying operating philo-
`sophy behind CoRRe is the automated working
`
`TRAVEL AGENTS
`
`321
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 328
`
`

`
`of GDS queues. Queues can be accessed from any
`location and shared within a single agency (or
`indeed by any group of agencies that are affiliated).
`The GDS queue system is therefore an integral part
`of the entire CoRRe operation (see Chapters 3 and
`4 for a description of GDS queues).
`The key to effective use of CoRRe is a queue
`structure that optimizes the way in which the pro-
`duct works. However, whereas quality control soft-
`ware products are based on working directly with
`GDS queues, CoRRe works them in a far more
`sophisticated way. It takes active queue items and
`builds its own internal data base that mirrors the
`
`active PNRs on all queues at certain times. This
`allows the program to process more than just a
`single function on a PNR, which may in fact be
`present on more than one queue. All modules
`within CoRRe therefore process each active PNR,
`thus minimizing activity on the GDS and maxim-
`izing the system’s internal efficiencies.
`Once the queue structure has been set up,
`CoRRe is ‘programmed’ with the functions re-
`quired by the agency. I use the term ‘programmed’
`because the way in which these checks are spe-
`cified is so detailed that it closely resembles a
`computer programming language; and the skills
`needed to create these functions are very similar
`to those used by programmers, e.g. how to struc-
`ture a program, how to organize and name the
`data, and so on. This is why the travel agency
`needs a so—called ‘super user’ who is also very
`IT—literate. The checks that CoRRe can perform
`automatically are virtually any of the checks that
`a human operator can perform on a GDS queue.
`These checks can be tailor—made for each customer
`
`serviced by the agency. For example, whereas one
`company may wish all its departments to comply
`with an overall pre—set corporate travel policy,
`others may have a different set of travel guide-
`lines and rules for each department and even for
`certain individuals. CoRRe can be set up to sup-
`port separate checks for each customer. Also,
`the frequency and timing of checks can be pre—set.
`A checking function can be set to be activated
`every few hours or within a certain time of the
`trip departure schedule. The functions provided
`by CoRRe fall into two general categories: (i) PNR
`checks; and (") PNR finishing routines. Some of
`the standard library functions available are:
`
`322 INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY FOR TRAVEL AND TOURISM
`
`0 QualityCheck This allows the agency to check
`every booking automatically for certain pre-
`defined quality control checks. For example,
`the presence of certain fields and the auto-
`matic completion of certain PNR field entries,
`depending upon pre—defined rules.
`SeatFinder CoRRe will automatically search
`the GDS for the kind of seat required by the
`customer. This is an example of a PNR fin-
`ishing function that produces as its end-result,
`a seat assignment for the customer selected
`according to their pre—defined preferences.
`FareFinder The system automatically searches
`the airlines and the fares on the GDS for the
`
`lowest possible fare for the journey specified
`within the PNR. It can also do this for a spe-
`cified alternate itinerary. All low fare options
`are obtained and stored for later review by a
`sales consultant.
`
`Clearance The system works on a wait—list
`queue and repeatedly attempts to clear wait-
`listed flights and fares. This involves the con-
`trolled initiation of repeated availability request
`messages to the GDS until either the time limit
`expires or the flight can be booked.
`UpGrade CoRRe automatically upgrades fre-
`quent flyers into first or business class in com-
`pliance with airline and GDS rules. It identifies
`these customers by comparing their name with
`their client profile details.
`ForeCast This is a pre—trip report generator. It
`allows the agency to print a detailed itinerary
`in a customized format. Many other reports
`can be constructed and produced by CoRRe
`either for display on the screen or printing in
`the agency.
`
`CoRRe works each of the travel agency’s queues
`in turn. At the appropriate pre—set time, it reads
`each item on the queue, which is of course a PNR,
`and processes it according to the queue type. Let’s
`take, for example, a PNR that does not have a
`seat assignment. This is a PNR finishing function.
`CoRRe will read the queue and select
`the first
`PNR.
`It determines the customer’s seating pre-
`ferences from the appropriate client profile record
`and formulates a customized seat request message.
`It then sends this request message to the GDS.
`When a reply is received, it will check to see if the
`
`Apple, Exhibit 1021, Page 329
`
`

`
`requested seat has been reserved and act accord-
`ingly. If the seat has been reserved it will place
`the updated PNR on an ‘actioned’ queue. If no
`seat of the required type is available, then CoRRe
`may either hold the PNR on a queue for further
`processing,
`i.e. try again later, or place it on a
`‘failed seat assignment’ queue for subsequent
`manual follow-up.
`Another example — ensuring that a customer’s
`travel policy is enforced; this is a CoRRe PNR
`check. Enforcing a company’s travel policy is an
`important servicing function that is expected of
`most travel agents in the business travel sector.
`CoRRe can automatically perform travel policy
`checks without the need to involve travel sales
`
`consultants. It can, for example, work a queue of
`pro forma bookings created from two possible
`sources: (i) skeleton bookings made by travel con-
`sultants, or (ii) bookings made by the company’s
`travellers using their
`lap—top PCs and special
`end—user software products (see the Chapter on
`GDSs for details of these). In either Case the PNR
`is retrieved from a ‘pro forma’ bookings queue.
`CoRRe automatically checks the PNR against the
`company’s stated travel policy. For example, the
`flight time and class of travel is checked. If first
`class is specified and the flying time is under eight
`hours then CoRRe will re—book the flight in Club or
`economy and cancel the original booking. Changes
`such as this can be identified for later reporting if
`necessary.
`
`Finally, one more example — getting a seat on
`a busy route. Again, the travel sales consultant
`will have created a booking record specifying the
`customer’s itinerary and preferences. However, if
`there was no availability at the time the booking
`was attempted, then the PNR will get placed on
`the wait—list queue. CoRRe will process each item
`on this queue in turn and try to find an available
`seat on an acceptable flight. Each PNR on the
`queue is retrieved and used by CoRRe to con-
`struct an availability message. This is automatic-
`ally sent to the GDS and the resulting response is
`carefully analysed by the program. If availability
`is shown,
`then the booking is placed on the
`‘actioned’ queue. However, if no seat was booked,
`then CoRRe can either make several more attempts
`to obtain a seat using different flight times and/or
`routings. The actual number of attempts and the
`
`degree to which the customer’s itinerary is to be
`modified, can be pre—programmed into CoRRe.
`The system can also be programmed to carry on
`trying to find a seat and to alert the travel sales
`consultant only within a certain number of hours
`before departure.
`There are many other examples that I could
`give on how these kinds of software robots can
`be used within a travel agency. However, I hope
`the few I have outlined above will give you some
`idea of the potential power of these products. But
`like many good things,
`there is unfortunately a
`down side. The GDSs don’t like their systems to
`be hit by a high volume of messages. From their
`viewpoint, every message should ideally be a one-
`hit booking on a flight — any additional hits are
`just an overhead. But from the agents’ perspective,
`they don’t get charged by the number of entries
`they make on their GDS PC terminals and so why
`should they worry about re—trying a wait—listed
`flight every five seconds (to take an extreme case).
`So, there is apparently nothing to discourage agents
`from flooding their GDSs with thousands of ‘hits’
`to get just one difficult booking for an import-
`ant customer. However, since the introduction of
`software robots in the USA, GDSs have indeed
`introduced penalties on agents that have high hit
`rates. In fact, generally speaking, if a USA agent
`generates more than an average of 250 hits per
`segment then the GDS will levy a penalty charge
`to cover the extra cost of processing. It is for this
`reason that CoRRe and other software robot pro-
`ducts carefully count the number of hits that they
`have automatically generated and advise the travel
`agent when the threshold of 250 hits per segment
`is about to be reached.
`
`Software robots are, as I have said before,
`sophisticated products. They hold the promise of
`several significant benefits for travel agents. Bene-
`fits such as: (a) very high productivity rates because
`only the most simple of PNRs need be created