Travel Planning and Optimisation

Introduction

Your mileage may vary. Caveats

Basics

Title

Most airline systems are tightly interconnected. Both in terms operations, given the many different entities that are involved in modern air travel, but also in terms of ticket distribution and sales. Essentially, the airlines make their schedules, availability and fares, as well as ways to book tickets, public via a global distribution system (GDS). There are three main programs that airlines use for this: Amadeus, Galileo and Sabre. The reason for such a global distribution system is this is that airlines want their flight information, availability and fares to be as accessible as possible, so that third parties (such as travel agents, websites etc.) can easily find and book their flights. This system was developed over time, and grew historically, and with how the industry and user behaviour has shifted over time, the result is now quite complicated, as seen in the image on the right. The way of how flights are booked as changed drastically, and nowadays most tickets are sold either directly by the airline on their website, or via traditional travel agents (mostly corporate travel agents) and OTAs (Online Travel Agencies). The whole system in which all this information (schedules, availability and fares) is shared, including the GDS, is often referred to as the matrix. Displayed on the right-hand side are the distribution channels used by SWISS. The underlying system used is Amadeus, but the complicated diagram reflects the various different and oftentimes complicated ways on how information is made available, and how tickets are booked. A lot of this has historically grown, the main goal being to make information about available flights, and more important, purchasing those flights as easy as possible.

25MAY18**25MAY18/LH MUNCYC/NSP;AT/TPM  4025/MPM  4830
*** FOR STAR ALLIANCE RTWk SEE FQD XYXYZ EG:FRAFRA ***
LN FARE BASIS      OW   EUR   RT   B PEN  DATES/DAYS    AP MIN MAX R
01*FFCOUPON       9232      18464  F  -     -     -    + -  -  12M R
02+F77OW          7080             F  -     -     -      -  -   -  M
03+F77RT                     9440  F  -     -     -      -  -  12M M
04+FFFDEW                    8480  F  -     -     -    + -  -  12M R
06+FRCDE07W                  6120  F  +     -     -    +  + 2+ 12M R
07+ARCDE21W                  4220  A  +     -     -    +21  2+ 12M R
08+ANCDE28W                  3882  A NRF    -     -    +28  6+  1M R

25MAY18**25MAY18/LH MUNCYC/NSP;AT/TPM  4025/MPM  4830
*** FOR STAR ALLIANCE RTWk SEE FQD XYXYZ EG:FRAFRA ***
LN FARE BASIS      OW    EUR   RT   B PEN  DATES/DAYS    AP MIN MAX R
01+JCOUPON        6806       13612  J  -     -     -    + -  -  12M R
02+J77OW          4823              J  -     -     -      -  -   -  M
03+J77RT                      6430  J  -     -     -      -  -  12M M
04+JFFDE0W                    5620  J  -     -     -    + -  -  12M R
05+CFFDE0W                    4920  C  -     -     -    +  + -  12M R
06+DWRCDE7W                   4320  D  +     -     -    + 7  2+ 12M R
07+DXRCDE7W                   4120  D  +     -     -    + 7  2+ 12M R
08+DWRCDE4W                   4020  D  +     -     -    +14  2+ 12M R
09+DXRCDE4W                   3820  D  +     -     -    +14  2+ 12M R
10+ZWRCDE1W                   3620  Z  +     -     -    +21  2+ 12M R
11+ZXRCDE1W                   3420  Z  +     -     -    +21  2+ 12M R
12+ZWNC28W                    3370  Z NRF    -     -    +28  6+ 12M R
13+ZXNC28W                    3170  Z NRF    -     -    +28  6+ 12M R
14+PWNC60W                    3120  P NRF    -     -    +60  6+ 12M R
15+PXNC60W                    2920  P NRF    -     -    +60  6+ 12M R

Small Deep-Dive into Basic Economics

Booking classes, historically, where a way for the airlines to segment the market and to get the customer to pay the maximum that the customer was willing to pay. So in addition to simple suppl and demand (the curve on the right reflects the demand for different ticket prices) and using one price, with the profit reflected by the area of the rectangle drawn from this point, the airlines try to maximize their profits through revenue management, and trying to get each customer to pay the maximum that they are willing to pay. However, since that maximum is not the same for everybody, the airlines are trying to find ways to segment their customers and set the prices based on various different attributes with which they can discriminate their customer base. These factors are included in the fare rules, and result in the different fares and price points for tickets. Factors include, but are not limited to Product (Economy, Premium Economy, Business, First), Route (Direct Flight vs. Flights with connections), origin, destination, type (OW vs RT), felxibility (Refundable vs non-refundable), Dates (specific dates, Thanks Giving, Christmas), weekday (Week-End vs. Week-Days, Duration (Short vs. Long and over the Week-End), Advance Purchase (How far in advance the ticket is bought), sales channel (where the ticket is bought (TA, OTA, CTA etc.), etc. A lot of it essentially comes down to Business vs. Leisure Travellers. In addition, a system checks the forcasted demand, estimated willingness to pay etc. and steers the availability of booking classes (which indirectly affect the available prices)

Text about the routing stuff

Text about the routing stuff

Show Schedule: (Flight number, origin, destination, times (arr & dep) equipment, booking class availability. What is a booking class? Fares: Fare Basis, Price (OW,RT) Fare Rules (Days, AP, Min, Max, eligibility etc.) Encoded Information: - Fare Basis - Price (OW / RT) - Fare Rules (Days, AP, Min, Max, Change Fees, Cancellation Fees, Routing Options, Flight Eligibility etc.) Public fares, there are also private negotiated fares.

ITA Matrix

Basic text

Booking Optimisation

All my tips for booking and getting cheap flights, find listed fares, and then find dates that fit criteria with availability. Reposition for cheaper fares / offers etc.

Trip Optimisation

Basic text, give tips on how to optimise travels, treat staff well, give it a try at check-in. Asking usually doesn't hurt, unless your request is very silly. Give examples. Strategically mentioning things and going to talk to people. Usually people are willing and trying to help you out. Example: last minute rebooking and I got put in the worst seat on the plane. Use expertflyer and airline check in system to check seat map and any available flights. No joy. At check-in go to the agents and talk to them, if there are any seats available, mention that you saw it was overbooked, op up hint hint. While in this case i did not get the op up, the person that was left behind one of the best seats in Business into which I was then moved. This is not standard procedure and simply because I had talked to the agent did she shuffle things around in my favour. Very nice. DO care, but not too much, so when things don't work out, you shoul not be disappointed. Don't forget to actually enjoy the experience. When trying to optimise every aspect of travel, especially during traveling, it is easy to forget to enjoy the little things. Give examples.

Loyalty Optimisation

More strategic, instead of focusing only on one journey and finding the optimal price, optimise travel to be focused on one airline / alliance and maximise status and benefits that way. While it may be cheaper to always book the cheapest option, depending on your travel pattern, this will usually prevent you from significantly accumulating miles or points, which would let you achieve a higher status with this airline and alliance. Hence by focusing your flights on an alliance, and optimise the routings you book, you may be able to achieve status, with which you get benefits, such as lounge access. Overview of the three alliances, regions and status levels and how does alliance relate to airline and vice versa. Generally you are only able to earn with one loyalty program

Further Reading & Links

Tools

• ITA Matrix: A free tool to search matrix fare information of airlines.
• Matrix powertools: Extensions for ITA Matrix that enables you to be forwarded to airline and OTA booking pages to directly book found flights, if available.
• Google Flights:
• expertflyer.com: A subscription service that enables you to access certain parts of airline systems, such as class availability, seat maps, fare information and more.
• FlyerTalk: A community of frequent flyers to aks questions and get information from.
• aeroLOPA: The page to get precise seat maps
• Travel-Dealz: A decent resource to be informed about good fares and offers.
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Glossary

Let us clarify the terms!

• OTA: Online Travel Agency
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