Setting Optimal Prices
Case Study
Interface Between a Flight Bookings System and Railroad Company
Case Study
Interface Between a Flight Bookings System and Railroad Company
Conveniently Manage Travel Bookings Across Varied Means of Transport and Providers
Today, mobility often means combining varied means of transport when traveling to a destination. To help customers more easily plan their journeys, transport companies offer booking options whereby they integrate partial routes from other providers within their own offers.
For one particular airline, we developed a management solution that combines air and rail travel—with software integrating booking and management systems operations, automating selected administrative processes and ensuring flight and rail timetable data is up to date.
Challenge
Addressing timetables and bookings is an already complex task for individual means of transport, as delays can jeopardise connections, and the need to exchange vehicle types disrupts existing reservations. For journeys dictating a combination of transport routes and vehicles, the volume of parameters to reconcile increases considerably. In addition, data from varied booking and management systems of respective providers must be merged and coordinated in such a way that the customer reaches desired connections, easily finds his/her booked seat and enjoys a seamless travel experience.
Our Contribution
For one airline client, we developed a management system boasting a graphical user interface to manage travel bookings wherein a portion of the journey is made by train. Our solution ultimately replaced previous manual synchronisation of flight and train schedules—which was notably error-prone—and added flexibility to the time period within which reserved train seat allotments can be adjusted to match current demand.
The solution we delivered combines timetables retrieved from the train provider’s server with flight schedules, integrating all airline booking and management systems within the overall process. Timetable and flight schedule changes are thus automatically matched, and existing bookings are adjusted accordingly.
Benefits for the Client
- By automating essential coordination processes, the airline can view all relevant data at any time and avoid errors caused by manual data record editing.
- Integrating relevant booking and management systems ensures the latest data can always be processed across all systems.
- The software improves reliability and accuracy with respect to travel planning, significantly increasing customer satisfaction.
- The benefit of more flexible reservation quota adjustments prevents over- and under-utilisation, avoiding unnecessary costs on the part of the airline and guaranteeing passengers desired train seats.
- With respect to processes requiring clerk intervention, the management system informs relevant staff via e-mail—reducing personnel involvement to minimal thresholds.
