Reservations and Yield Management Study Group 1998 Meeting

You are cordially invited to the 1998 AGIFORS Reservations and Yield Management Study Group meeting scheduled to be held May 6-8 at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, Melbourne, Victoria 3000
Australia.

will host the meeting and the local arrangements coordinator is Julie Matthews of Ansett Australia. Please pass this invitation to anyone who may be interested in attending upcoming AGIFORS - Reservations and Yield Management Study Group.

Hotel Accommodations

Grand Hyatt Hotel is located in the heart of Melbourne's central business and shopping district. Conveniently close to arts, parks, entertaintment and convention facilities. Ansett negotiated deluxe room at 180 AUD per room, or regency club at 250 AUD per room.

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 March 20, 1998.

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 Ümit 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 360.00 AUD 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. Fee will be collected on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning at the registration.

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.

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. Ümit 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 Ümit as soon as possible. Ümit will also need a short summary or abstract of your presentation by April 3, 1998.

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 Alan Moore, at the Grand Hyatt in Melbourne, (Tel: 613 9657 1234 or Fax: 613 9650 3491) 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 AGIFORF Yield Management and Reservations Study Group to give everybody an opportunity to meet the other participants before the conference. Vendors fees, conference fees and Wednesday night dinner fees will be collected during the reception. Vendor fee must be paid to an Ansett representative in the form of a check, or money order payable to AGIFORS.

On Wednesday evening, our host Ansett Australia arranged a dinner at the Emu Bottom Homestead, Sunbury (Program includes Bomerang Throwing, Australian Bush Band, Aboriginal Tribal Dancing, Campfires, Billy Tea, etc.). We will meet at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby to take the bus for the the restaurant. The fee for the night will be around 70 AUD. 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, Ansett will provide a limited number of positive space and space available tickets on Ansett Australia. Study Group Chair Ümit Cholak will coordinate the distribution of the complimentary tickets provided Ansett and potentially by other airlines. Participants who need ticket should let the Study Group Chair 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.

Important Information for Visitors

Anyone wanting to enter Australia must carry a valid passport or similar certificate of identification and everyone, except holders of Australian and New Zealand passports, requires a visa to enter Australia.

Australia Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs offers important information on coming to Australia as a visitor and a printable Application to Visit Australia (Form 48).

For more information on VISA requirements, please go to the next page.

Venue for 1999

We will need a host airline for the 1999 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, Asia or Europe. 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 Melbourne.

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

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Go to AGIFORS Online

22 April 1998, by John D. Quillinan