System and method for travel carrier contract management and optimization using spend analysis

• US 7,286,998 B2
• Filed: 04/22/2002
• Issued: 10/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 04/20/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Florio, Dionino, Sauser, Olivier
• Primary Examiner(s): Hafiz, Tariq R.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Jarrett, Scott L.
• Application Number:
  US10/127,483
• Publication Number:
  US 20020194038A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,010 Days
• Field of Search: 705/7
• US Class Current: 705/7.37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/04 Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem" market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities G06Q30/0202
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06375 Prediction of business process outcome or impact based on a proposed change
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination

Abstract

A method and system for air carrier contract management and optimization is disclosed. In particular, the present invention receives and tracks client travel data and air carrier contract data, analyzes this data and configures the data structure to be used in a goal programming algorithm to determine an optimum travel carrier solution.

Claims

1. A travel carrier contract management and optimization method, comprising the steps of:

receiving travel contract data relating to a travel carrier contract, wherein said travel contract data includes at least two of volume, segments, volume share, segment index, volume index, contract code, contract description label, contract validity period, referred client code, cost measurement indicia, agency International Air Transport Association (IATA) code, carrier code, booking code, tour type, tour box information, destination country code, fare basis code, ticket currency code, eventual IATA currency country, threshold value, and percentage of corresponding rebate value;

receiving client travel data associated with a client, wherein said client travel data includes at least two of primary ticket number, tour type, travel carrier code, booking code, fare basis code, travel port pair, corporate accounts number, corporate travel ID, ticket date, ticket currency, ticket amount, ticket amount in US dollars, ticket tax amount, IATA code, ticket currency code, ticket credit amount, sequential travel data, travel port description, travel departure, travel arrival, departure country, arrival country, and sub-mileage distance;

matching said travel contract data with said client travel data;

defining a plurality of sectors from said client travel data, wherein said plurality of sectors comprises a travel carrier, travel port pair, ticket origin, and class of service;

determining a sector price for each of said plurality of sectors, wherein a potential price is considered when a number of said plurality of sectors that are assigned exceeds an actual number of sectors and a base price is considered when a number of said plurality of sectors is less than or equal to said actual number of sectors;

generating a constraint from said plurality of sectors, said client travel data and said travel contract data;

wherein said generated constraint comprises at least two of segment data, class of service data, travel port pair data, sector data, travel carrier data, client travel spend, and market share derived from said client travel spend and said sector data;

generating a penalty function constraint based on said travel contract data, wherein said penalty function constraint limits travel carrier values per sector according to travel factors, wherein said travel factors include evaluating a maximum potential capacity per carrier and at least one of carrier seat capacity, flight frequency, quality of service, and availability of direct connections per sector;

performing a spend share shift analysis based on said sector price, said generated penalty function constraint and said generated constraint;

utilizing goal programming to optimize said client travel spend based on said spend share shift analysis; and

,

creating a report based on said optimized client travel spend.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said performing step further comprises configuring an analytical solutions software to facilitate said spend share shift analysis.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein said analytical solutions software is at least one of statistical analysis system (SAS), SPSS, STATA, MINITAB, Matlab, and Mathematica.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising creating an objective function to evaluate said generated constraint, wherein said objective function facilitates optimization of said client travel spend.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring a price weighting factor.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating potential prices.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising evaluating an average sector price by at least one of:

travel carrier, class of service, route, country of ticketing, and travel contract conditions.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising configuring said generated constraint by adding a series of sectors.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising fixing a ticket price.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a potential price;

wherein said potential price comprises a ticket price as a function of a number of tickets assigned to a specific travel carrier.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising benchmarking said optimized client travel spend with an original solution to compute incremental savings.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein said client travel data is received from a travel agency system.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein said travel contract data is received from a travel carrier system.

14. A system configured to facilitate travel carrier contract management, comprising:

a data acquisition component configured to facilitate acquisition of travel contract data and client travel data;

wherein said travel contract data includes at least two of volume, segments, volume share, segment index, volume index, contract code, contract description label, contract validity period, referred client code, cost measurement indicia, agency International Air Transport Association (IATA) code, air carrier code, booking code, tour type, tour box information, destination country code, fare basis code, ticket currency code, eventual IATA currency country, threshold value, and percentage of corresponding rebate value;

wherein said client travel data includes at least two of primary ticket number, tour type, travel carrier code, booking code, fare basis code, travel port pair, corporate accounts number, corporate travel ID, ticket date, ticket currency, ticket amount, ticket amount in US dollars, ticket tax amount, IATA code, ticket currency code, ticket credit amount, sequential travel data, travel port description, travel departure, travel arrival, departure country, arrival country, and sub-mileage distance;

a processing component configured to define a plurality of sectors from said client travel data, wherein said plurality of sectors comprises a travel carrier, travel port pair, ticket origin, and class of service;

said processing component configured to determine a sector price for each of said plurality of sectors, wherein a potential price is considered when a number of said plurality of sectors that are assigned exceeds an actual number of sectors and a base price is considered when a number of said plurality of sectors is less than or equal to said actual number of sectors;

said processing component configured to generate a constraint from said sector, said client travel data and said travel contract data;

wherein the generated constraint comprises at least two of segment data, class of service data, travel port pair data, sector data, travel carrier data, client travel spend, and market share derived from said client travel spend and said sector data;

said processing component configured to generate a penalty function constraint based on said travel contract data, wherein said penalty function constraint limits travel carrier values per sector according to travel factors, wherein said travel factors include evaluating a maximum potential capacity per carrier and at least one of carrier seat capacity, flight frequency, quality of service, and availability of direct connections per sector;

said processing component configured to facilitate a spend share shift analysis based on said sector price, said generated penalty function constraint and said generated constraint;

and configured to utilize goal programming to optimize said client travel spend based on said spend share shift analysis; and

,

a reporting component configured to create a report based on said optimized client travel spend.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a data storage component configured to facilitate hosting at least one of a client travel data directory, a contracts directory, a relational data directory, and an aggregated data set directory.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein said reporting component further comprises result data tables.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said result data tables comprise a benchmark summary table, an travel carrier summary table, a benchmark table and a solutions table.

18. The system of claim 14, further comprising a data quality engine configured to facilitate ensuring quality and integrity of said travel contract data and said client travel data.