BILLING AUDIT REPORT SYSTEM
(BARS)

Contents:

Product Summary

Worldwide, travel agents generate in excess of 80% of all air transport bookings. In developed areas, like North America, over 96% of travel agents are automated with a Computer Reservation System (CRS). The rest of the world is rapidly automating, and in the next decade will draw even.

Computer Reservations System (CRS) booking fees, which globally average $2.75 per segment, typically make up between 1-3% of a carriers total expenses - creating multi-million dollar expense items even in relatively small airlines.

Despite their magnitude, usable information available in support of CRS booking fees, until now, has been deficient. Backup billing information previously provided, on microfiche or paper, was cumbersome and no standard format or content was in evidence across the many CRSs in use.

CRSs now make available to participating carriers, standard CRS booking fee billing information in tape format. The product, called Billing Information Data Tapes or BIDT are available now from the CRS vendors at a nominal monthly cost to participating carriers.

The Billing Audit Report System (BARS) software, developed by The Park Group, is designed to accomplish three tasks related to the BIDT specifically requested by our clients:

• Audit CRS Booking Fee statements for errors that can be billed back to the vendors.
• Identify aberrant travel agency practices that increase carrier CRS distribution costs, in order that remedial education can occur.
• Understand where and how booking fee monies are being spent for budget allocation and cost control purposes.

BARS can be acquired in differing forms depending on what the carrier desires. For a client wishing to perform report processing in house, The Park Group will license the BARS software for a fixed cost plus a monthly fee for software maintenance, enhancements, training, and help desk support.

Alternatively, BARS reports can be subscribed to on a menu driven, service bureau basis, taking reports selectively, only in areas and on those systems needed.

BARS services are currently available on AMADEUS, APOLLO, SABRE, WORLDSPAN, GALILEO, ABACUS, INFINI, and AXESS.

Key Features

BARS - BILLING AUDIT REPORT SYSTEM

BASIC PACKAGE: CRS CARRIER COST REPORTS

These reports assist the carrier in:

• Exercising control over distribution cost expenditures and the distribution budget.
• Correctly allocating distribution costs within the airline's organization, i.e. where do the sales originate.
• Understanding the correlation between direct access/link bookings and primary display bookings

BASIC REPORT INCLUDES:

*A separate analysis can be performed by market (city pair) or flight number

ADDITIONAL OPTIONS:

OPTION A

OPTION B

OPTION C

OPTION D

OPTION E

C-1 CRS TRANSACTION COST SUMMARY BY STATE/REGION

• Grouped by system
• Sorted by state/country within region.
• Identifies "Link" and "Non-Link" net transactions and costs on a monthly and year to date basis.
• Reflects difference over last year in actual costs and percent change

C-1A CRS TRANSACTION COST SUMMARY BY SYSTEM AND REGION

• This report is a summary of the subtotals in report C-1, for each region and grouped by system.

C-2 CRS COMBINED BIDT COST SUMMARY BY STATE/COUNTRY

• This report combines the net transactions and costs for all CRS - provided BIDTs processed in BARS.
• Report reflects the same logic of report C-1.

C-2A CRS COMBINED BIDT COST SUMMARY BY REGION

• This report is a summary of the subtotals in report C-2, for each region (for the combined transactions and costs).

C-3 NET TRANSACTION COST SUMMARY BY SYSTEM

• Identifies number of transactions booked, cancelled, and net transactions of current month.
• Reflects year to date total of transactions, cancellations, and net transactions.
• Reflects this and last year's YTD costs and identifies cost difference in costs and percent.
• Summary by system, analysis can also be performed by market (city pair) or flight number.

C-4 MONTH TO MONTH COMPARISON ON FISCAL YEAR BASIS

• Reports costs for each system and reflects a grand total for all systems.
• Compares year over year cost on a month by month basis, and reflects the differences in currency and percent.
• Totals the cost on a current year to date basis and compares same to last year.
• Reflects each system's share of total cost on a year to year basis.

C-5 MONTH TO MONTH COST TO BUDGET COMPARISON

• This report uses the same format as C-4 but reflects a comparison of current year costs to budget.

C-6 TRANSACTION COST SUMMARY REPORT

• Grouped by system, this report details the current month's transactions, costs for the transaction, and year to date comparisons in currency and percent for each status code.
• Provides the type, quantity, and costs per status code on a system basis.

OPTION A

BA-1 FLIGHT EXCEPTION REPORT

• Identifies transactions billed to the carrier based on invalid flight information.
• Compares BIDT flight data against the SSIM database. (For carriers who cannot deliver SSIM data, the BIDT is compared against valid flight number and segment tables).
• Report can be used as the basis for charge backs.
• Report can be ranked by IATA/ARC agency number, thus abuse patterns by travel agencies become readily apparant.

OPTION B

BA-2 FICTITIOUS GROUP BOOKING REPORT

• Identifies excessive transactions by one agency on a single flight/date/segment. Grouped by agencies within state/country or region.
• Assists in analyzing speculative bookings on heavily booked routes and seasons, or in reviewing travel agencies who use this procedure to circumvent an airline's group deposit policy.
• Helps monitor wholesalers who hold space allocations.

BA-3 MULTIPLE BOOKING CLASS REPORT

• Lists PNRs with multiple booking class transactions for one passenger on the same flight/segment/date without corresponding cancellations.
• Sorted on agency number and grouped by state/country and region.
• Assists in determining fraudulent travel agency habits which circumvent airline controls by e.g. decrementing a higher class inventory through direct access and creating an identical passive segment in a lower class for pricing.
• Forms the basis for debit memos and coordination with CRSs in order to deter potential future abuse.
• Assists those airlines who cannot control this behaviour through their DCS functionality.

OPTION C

BA-4 OPEN SEGMENT REPORT

• Summarizes all open segment debits
• Reports are delivered either in route or agency number order
• The information assists the airline in determining who and what causes excessive open segment bookings.

BA-5 PASSIVE BOOKING REPORT

• Based on carrier's specified parameters (i.e. a defined percentage of all net booking activities).
• Lists surfeit of passive booking transactions, thus identifying travel agencies with excessive passive booking activities.
• Sorted by agency number and grouped by state/country and region.

OPTION D

BA-6 CANCELLATION REPORT

• Based on carrier's specified parameters ( i.e. a defined percentage of all net booking activities).
• Provides airlines with information about travel agencies who cancel space excessively, and who may therefore either contribute to excessive distribution costs (where fees are based on transactions) or lost sales opportunities.
• Sorted by agency number and grouped by state/country and region.

BA-7 WAITLIST REPORT

• Based on carrier's specified parameters.
• Highlights agents who aggressively waitlist and thereby contribute to excessive distribution costs.

OPTION E

BA-8 DUPLICATE BOOKING REPORT

• Listing of the same passenger name over the same segment on different flights/date

CRS Providing BIDT

• Apollo • Galileo (VIDT)

• Sabre • Amadeus

• Worldspan • Gets

• Axess • Abacus

• Infini

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