Travel$ense User's Guide (PDF, 139 MB) - NBAA

TRAVEL$ENSECHAPTER 8. TAB 2 – COMPARABLE AIRLINE TRIP81Automatically Defining Airline ComparisonsTravel$ense automatically creates from one to 10 comparable airline trips withpassengers assigned to each when the corporate trip is fully defined. If multipleairline trips were created, the trip drop-down menu at the top of the “Select ATrip” box is displayed with a summary of the first two city codes in each trip. Atypical round trip can be completed in about two minutes, including some timeto establish the online connection.Once the corporate trip has been fully defined, click on the second tab,“Comparable Airline Trip” to begin to retrieve the comparable airline data fromthe CRS. Assuming your default setting is to obtain airline data automatically,the Online Status box pops up, counts down five seconds and then connects tothe reservation system via your selected communications method, using yourInternet connection or directly dialing into CompuServe. If your Internetconnection is a dial-up type connection, Travel$ense may trigger your dialer toconnect or you may need to do this yourself, such as by starting your Webbrowser.At this point the OnlineStatus screen pops up(see left). In a smallframe two circles labeledT and R, representTransmit and Receiveactivity between yourcomputer and eitheryour modem or your Internet connection. If using CompuServe, Travel$ensefirst dials your modem, logs in to CompuServe and then logs to thecomputerized airline reservation system. This can take anywhere from 30 to 90seconds. Via the Internet you may directly log in to the reservation site if youuse a network connection or you may first need to wait for your modem todial for dial-up type connections (Travel$ense is not doing the dialing in thiscase).The first indication that both logins were successful and that your trip requesthas been transmitted to the CRS successfully is the appearance of the phrase“Flights: 0” to the left of the Transmit and Receive lights. Data from the CRSthen should follow quickly, counting the number of flights that are beingconsidered by Travel$ense and ranked based upon eight separate criteria.The goal of the airline pricing module of Travel$ense is to obtain the best andmost realistic airline option for a given business travel situation. Travel$ense isexpected to have some basic intelligence in doing this, roughly comparable to acorporate travel agent. The travel calculation includes extensive information onCopyright © 1999, National Business Aviation Association, Inc.