This software audits validity of fare charged by travel agents based on applicable fare circulars and charge the un-earned revenue to the sales agents.

In India, there are several domestic and international carriers. There are over 5000 sales agents, operating in various parts of the country. In 1996, all operating carriers had formed an autonomous committee called as 'BSP-India'. The BSP operates from all its offices in the four metros and other important cities. The BSP coordinates all the sale agents and airlines by acting as a central point for correspondence and settlement of billing issues.

When ticket sale is effected, the agent collects the fare and taxes from the passenger and issues a ticket using neutral ticket stock called as BSP tickets. The agent calculates commission amount applicable and sends the balance amount to BSP and thereby to the airline. The details of all such ticket transactions are submitted to BSP in electronic format.

BSP segregates the sale data for each airline, received from various agents, and sends it to the airline's account department. This data is available in electronic format, typically called as HOT Tape data. This data contains details of every ticket including itinerary, commission, and fare amounts. This data is received once in fortnight along with supplementary files if needed.

It is important to note that the rules in fare circulars are driven by the demands and supply in open marketplace. So these rules keeps on changing very frequently to attract more and more business. Many times the agent may misinterpret or miscalculate his commission amount.

Some of the classic reasons for such discrepancies are as follows:

• Incorrect calculation of commissions mentioned in fare circular
• Incorrect applicability of fare circular.
• Incorrect collections of taxes.
• Incorrect fare construction.
• Missing tickets - BSP data does not have any calculation reference for the ticket, which are sold, by the agent but the airline as not received money.

Aerosoft's Fare Audit Software Solution comprises of four modules viz:

• HOT Tape Data Extractor.
• Fare Circular Entry (GUI) Interface
• Administrator and Reports Interface.
• Fare Audit Engine.

The first three modules are implemented as web based (Internet and LAN enabled) applications. The Fare Audit Engine is implemented as a stand-alone server based application. The web-based modules are designed for remote as well as LAN users and there is no limit on the number of concurrent users except the one imposed by the limitation of hardware and Internet speed. The fare audit engine evaluates the discrepancies in fare amount. It runs only on server machine. So the maintenance and versioning of fare audit engine is made simpler.

List of sample rules incorporated:

• Rules based on flight numbers and their days.
  • Rules defined for a specific flight number(s).
  • Specific day(s) in week.
  • Specific carrier, code share flights and its class.
  • Specific class (es).
  • Specific sector in journey of the flight.
  • Conditions with a mandatory 'via' point(s) in journey.
• Rules based on group booking and FOCs.
  • Incorporates the condition whether FOC ticket is allowed/not allowed in BSP HOT tape data.
  • Number of adult tickets required for a group.
  • How child ticket is treated in calculation of a group.
  • Number of FOC tickets allowed (one or more) for a group.
  • Class(es) allowed for FOC ticket.
  • Class(es) allowed for corresponding group tickets.
  • At what point the FOC is applicable.
  • Is there a specific carrier required in association for group tickets?
  • Variations in discount percentage of FOC ticket from 100% to 0%.
  • (Unless specified FOC will be given 100% discount. Only taxes are collected)
• Rules based on minimum stay and maximum stay.
  • At what points (cities/countries) the min or max stay condition is defined?
  • Is there any specific class for min/max stays condition?
  • Number of days for minimum stay and maximum stay.
  • Does the min stay condition demands that minimum stay should be at least till oncoming Friday or Sunday etc.
  • Penalty charge if min/max stay condition is not satisfied.
  • Is ocean (Atlantic/Pacific) constraints specified for min-max stay?
• Rules based on Fare Basis and RBDs.
  • What are the allowed RBDs and fare basis?
  • What is the validity period for the specified Fare basis.
  • At what point (city/country) the specified fare basis is applicable and till which destination?
• Rules based on cancellation, and RAF.
  • Cancellation amount based on the ticket utilization status, and subsequent conditions.
  • Specifies which type of fare (net/net-net/DGCA/thru fare) is considered while calculating the refund amount.
  • RAF Amount depending on ticket utilization.
• Rules based on changes in reservation.
  • Show/No-Show conditions and ticket utilization status.
  • Specifies the allowed date slots for change in reservation and their corresponding charges.
  • Penalty charges.
• Rules based on allowed baggage.
  • Class-wise and fare basis-wise allowed weights for baggage.
  • Specified carriers for free baggage.
  • Specified point(s), only at which the baggage is allowed.
  • Specified carrier(s) only, which allows the baggage.
• Rules based on advance purchase.
  • Point(s) at which the ticket is advanced purchased (any City/Country)
  • At what point(s) the advance purchase is applicable.
  • Amount specified for advance purchase and its currency.
• Rules based on add-on sectors and their respective amounts.
  • What should be the origin for the add-on sectors, if applicable?
  • What is the permissible add-on sector (from and to points)
  • Add-on sector amount for inbound and outbound journey and its currency.
• Rules based on inbound and outbound journeys.
  • What are the journey start and end dates for inbound and/or outbound journeys?
  • What is the point of turn around?
• Rules for lost tickets.
  • Refund amount specified based on ticket utilization status.
  • Lost ticket compensation amount and its currency.
• Rules based on seasonal constraints (high season/low season etc)
  • Incorporates high/medium/low season along with their respective season start and end dates.
  • Applicable class(es) if any.
  • Is it dependant on ocean (Atlantic /Pacific)?
  • Blackout periods that appear in between the allowed season dates.
  • Flights, which are permissible, even during the blackout periods.

Apart from these rules, the system can define rules related to the common rated points, code share and involvement of other carriers and their respective RBD up sales respectively. The system also defines a waiver amount specific to each sales agent for simplicity in operations.

For details contact info@aerosoftsystems.com