Patent ID: 7286998
Filing Date: 2007-10-23
Classification: G06Q

Abstract:
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.