Reservations and
Yield Management
Study Group
1997 Meeting

You are cordially invited to the 1997 AGIFORS Reservations and Yield Management Study Group meeting scheduled to be held 14-16 May 1997 at the Bonaventure Hilton Hotel, in the City of Montréal (YUL), within Québec, Canada. Air Canada will host the meeting and the local arrangements coordinator is Jacques Cherrier of Air Canada. Please pass this invitation to anyone who may be interested in attending the upcoming AGIFORS Reservations and Yield Management Study Group meeting.

Hotel Accommodations

Montréal Bonaventure Hilton Hotel is located in the heart of downtown Montréal. Air Canada negotiated a standard, single or double, room at $149.00 CA, and executive floor room $199.00 CA single or $224.00 CA double.

There will be no charge for children sharing the same room as their parents, regardless of age (maximum 4 persons per room).

Furthermore, with the Hilton Family Plan, children 6 years and under eat free in the hotel restaurant from the children menu, when accompanied by a dining parent who is a hotel guest. Children between 7 and 12 years old eat half price off the regular menu.

Delegates should book directly with the hotel using the attached form and settle their own account. Sufficient number of rooms have been blocked for the Study Group participants. The hotel will not guarantee availability for the bookings received after April 1, 1997.

A seven percent (7%) Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as a six and one-half percent (6.5%) Quebec Sales Tax (TVQ) currently apply on all room rates. Visitors to Canada can claim a refund for some of the tax on accommodation, and for eligible goods you take home; you can apply for all tax refunds using the same application form.

All the charges quoted in this invitation are in terms of Canadian Dollar (CAD).

Registration

You can register for the meeting by using the on-line registration form. You may print out the form, and forward the completed form to Umit Cholak preferably by Fax (or mail), or send the required information via SITA (HDQKBUA) or email. If your organization is sending more than one delegate, please submit a separate form on behalf of each registrant.

There will be a fee of $300.00 CA for each person attending to cover the local expenses. This fee will cover study group proceedings, conference room, equipment rental, refreshments during coffee breaks, as well as the two course business lunches for Wednesday and Thursday. The fee will be collected in cash or charge on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning during registration. The hotel will charge an additional 5% fee for the registration payments made by a credit card.

Program Schedule

The general provisional agenda is shown seen below. If you would like to see the detailed schedule of planned presentations with approximate times, please click here.

Provisional Agenda

Airline, Vendor, and Academics' Review

Each participating organization is required to give a 3-5 minute oral summary of its current activities related to Reservations and Yield Management. The presentation should focus on the projects addressed in the last year since the last meeting, the progress made, and the plans for the coming year. Last year, some participants requested that these presentations also should be included in the proceedings. If you send me written summary of your presentation, preferable by Email, I will include them in the next years proceedings.

Presentations

Active participation by the attendees of our meeting is necessary for it to be successful. The usefulness of this study group is only realized by a meaningful exchange of ideas between the participants. We therefore encourage you to share your work and ideas with the others in our industry in the form of a presentation to the group. Umit will also need a written copy of this presentation during the meeting for inclusion in the proceedings.

Presentations do not need to describe a completed or implemented work. An update on a long-term project or a discussion of ideas for the future development is often as interesting and useful to the group. If you are planning to make a presentation - it is highly encouraged - please indicate the title and the approximate length on the registration form and send it back to me as soon as possible. Umit will also need a short summary or abstract of your presentation by April 15, 1997.

Due to time constraints, we will give more priority to technical papers in the area of:

Passenger Forecasting,

Revenue Optimization,

Overbooking,

Simulation of Control/Optimization Strategies,

Performance Evaluation of the Yield Management Systems,

Developments in the Computerized Reservations Systems, and

Pricing Strategies

Vendors and Academics' Participation

Vendors and academics are allowed to attend our study group meetings, both to make presentations to our group and to attend the airline presentations.

Vendors who would like to set up a demonstration should contact directly Viviane Brisson, Sales Manager of the Montréal Bonaventure Hilton Hotel, (514) 878 2904 or (514) 878 0028 fax, to make necessary arrangements.

The definition of vendor is any person or company wanting to demonstrate tools, techniques, or hardware applicable to the study group. To the extent that AGIFORS members or their airlines are demonstrating products or techniques for the purpose of making sale, they are also defined as vendors and subject to the same conditions.

AGIFORS bylaws require that each vendor (each company, not each individual) pay a fee of $500 US to attend the meeting. The fee applies whether or not the vendor chooses to make a presentation or to display any products. The fee should be in the form of a check or money order payable to AGIFORS and will be collected on the Tuesday night at the registration. Airlines will not be allowed to sponsor a vendor to circumvent the vendors fee.

Welcome Reception and Social Events

On Tuesday, from 19:00 to 22:00 there will be a welcome reception hosted by Decision Focus Incorporated (DFI) to give everybody an opportunity to meet the other participants before the conference. Vendors fees, conference fees and Wednesday night dinner fees, and fees for the trip to Québec City will be collected during the reception. Conference fee can be paid to the hotel representative in cash or charge. Vendors fee must be paid to an Air Canada representative in the form of a check or money order payable to AGIFORS.

On Wednesday evening, our host Air Canada has arranged a dinner in a beautiful restaurant in Old Montréal. We will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby and arrive at the restaurant after a 20 minute walk. We recommend everybody to be in the restaurant by 7:00 p.m. if they chose to come separately. The fee for the night will be around $40 CA and will not include alcoholic beverages. The fee for the dinner will be collected in cash during the Tuesday night reception.

Transportation

For transportation, participants who are working for an airline are asked to go through their regular interline channels. For non-airline participants, Air Canada will provide a limited number of positive space and space available tickets on Air Canada. Participants who need ticket should let me know as soon as possible. Active participants will have higher priority in the distribution of these tickets if there is excess number of tickets requested.

Venue for 1998

We will need a host airline for the 1998 meeting. It has been our practice to alternate between different geographic areas. The last two meetings were held in Europe and North America. For the next year, our first choice would be South America or Asia. If your airline is based in those areas, and attends the study group meetings regularly, and has not hosted in the recent past, please seriously consider offering to help by hosting the meeting next year. And it would be helpful if the volunteers receive an approval from their administration before they arrive in Montréal.

Miscellaneous

The mailing list of the study group has been placed on-line at our Web page. In order to keep it current, please check your records and submit corrections, if needed.

If you have never completed an AGIFORS Application for Affiliation, it is very likely that you are neither a member nor correspondent of AGIFORS. If this is the case, you are missing out on other AGIFORS activities, and perhaps, the annual AGIFORS Symposium. Being on the mailing list for the Study Group does not imply that you are on the official mailing list for AGIFORS. You are invited to visit AGIFORS Online, and to complete and submit your AGIFORS Application for Affiliation.

Contacts

Umit Cholak
Jacques Cherrier

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30 May 1997, by John D. Quillinan