Farelogix Technology and Solutions


	Overview - The New Multi-Source Environment
	Essential Bridging Technology
	Redemption and Loyalty Fulfillment Services

	Solutions for:
	Travel Suppliers
	Travel Management Companies
	Corporate Buyers

The New Multi-Source Environment

Components of the Farelogix Solution

A single-source Global Distribution System (GDS) model can no longer ensure total content for travel agents and travel consumers. As suppliers embrace direct supplier connections and Internet distribution continues to grow, a new platform is needed to aggregate disparate content and enable comparative shopping from multiple sources of fares and inventory. The Farelogix FLX™ Platform provides total content in a low-cost distribution platform that meets the needs of suppliers, travel agents, and travelers.

Components of the Farelogix Solution

FLX™ Multi-GDS Gateway
In July 2004, the U.S. Department of Transportation formally sunset all GDS regulations. Deregulation has empowered suppliers to reevaluate their participation in the four major Global Distribution Systems (GDSs). Travel suppliers are no longer required to maintain parity between the GDSs, and may decide to selectively distribute inventory at different levels in the four legacy providers. FLX™ provides a proven, multi-source GDS gateway that connects to all four GDSs, using structured data streams that normalize the communication in a common application programming interface (API). The multi-GDS gateway provides independence from the single-source GDS model and allows integration of multiple GDS inventory at the individual-itinerary level.

Travel Supplier Direct Connections
In an effort to reduce distribution costs, travel suppliers are seeking low-cost, direct-connection capabilities with their key travel distributors and customers. The FLX™ Platform connects directly into supplier reservation systems for real-time availability. The burden of faring is offloaded to the FLX™ Virtual Fare Store (VFS™).

Online Travel Inventory
The Internet has created a new, direct-distribution platform. Despite efforts to capture all inventories in the legacy GDSs, content from low-cost carriers (LCCs) and online travel sites continues to provide consumers with choices outside the traditional distribution channel. Farelogix provides sophisticated, next-generation, advanced Web search technology to capture and aggregate content from LCCs and online travel sites, which provides travel agents and travelers a comprehensive integrated-inventory solution.

Distribution Manager (DM™)
The Farelogix Distribution Manager (DM™) is a sophisticated business rules engine that allows control of travel supply sourcing at the individual itinerary segment level. The business rules dictate where travel supply is obtained and how it is booked.

Master Itinerary (MI™)
The FLX™ Master Itinerary (MI™) integrates inventory from multiple GDS, supplier direct connection, and Web inventory sources into a “super PNR” (Passenger Name Record) that acts as a single record repository for all travel itinerary information.

Virtual Fare Store (VFS™)
The FLX™ Virtual Fare Store (VFS™) incorporates published fares from the Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) and private fares from the FLX™ Fare Management System (FMS™) to calculate the lowest fare for every itinerary. The VFS™ technology uses a sophisticated business-rules engine to validate all fare rules for a given itinerary, and it limits availability searches to valid itineraries only. This limits the number of hits on either the legacy GDSs or the emerging direct supplier interfaces. The result is a comprehensive, comparative-shopping capability that seamlessly integrates information from multiple sources to provide the travel agent and traveler the lowest applicable fare for a travel itinerary.

Fare Management System (FMS™)
The FLX™ Fare Management System (FMS™) provides a new flexible platform to store private fares. FMS™ allows airlines to create and distribute private fares that no longer require the cumbersome reliance on traditional ATPCO fare filing. This allows airlines a new level of channel-distribution management that does not exist in the current ATPCO-driven, GDS-centric environment. The FMS™ also incorporates consolidator inventory into the faring process, allowing the seamless integration of published, private, and consolidator fares for each itinerary.

Business Intelligence
The Business Intelligence Module provides access to the FLX™ platform’s sophisticated business rules engine for reporting purposes. FLX™ platform provides detailed business intelligence reporting on operational performance and vendor analysis.

User Interfaces
Farelogix offers a standard certified third-party user interface for the travel agent call center. Alternatively, the FLX™ Platform can feed an existing neutral agent point-of-sale (POS) application. The FLX™ Platform can also feed existing corporate or consumer self-booking applications using a published set of APIs that use emerging Web Services technology.

Agency QA and Back Office Systems
FLX™ provides an open computing environment that allows easy interface with TMC based technology for quality assurance (QA) and back office accounting systems.

XML and Web Services
FLX™ is built on open standards using Web Services. The term Web Services denotes a standardized way of integrating applications using the Extensible Markup Language (XML), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web Services Description Language (WSDL), and the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. This robust open architecture enables seamless integration of disparate inventory sources. FLX™ uses standard Open Travel Alliance (OTA) XML schemas and traditional EDIFACT communication protocols to provide suppliers with familiar communication methodologies.