Travel planning in SAP

[Former Member]

Can we use SAP ALONE to plan a travel/trip and search flights, hotels etc , price it and book it WITHOUT using any third party travel agencies like AMADEUS or GETTHERE etc and also WITHOUT using any GDS access for queries?

If this is possible then how does SAP manages to do it? where is the data stored in SAP for the prices of flight, hotel etc? Is there any background job to be run every day to sync such information from external sites to SAP? even then it wont have minute to minute changes of booking data right? So, this makes me think that only way is to have 3rd party travel agency coupled with SAP to achieve travel booking? am I correct? Your guidance is appreciated.

[former_member131723 · Accepted solution]

Hi there

Yes your understanding is correct, if SAP is not integrated with GDS eg Amadeus, Galileo etc, it is not possible to book flights, hotels etc without an external reservation system and you would have to integrate with 3rd party travel agent.

I had a similar query recently and gave some information in relation to offline travel planning so this answer might be useful to you

Starting ERP2005 Enhancement Package 2, the request on Travel Services

within the travel request has been implemented as a new functionality

functionality which means in Travel Request there is a additional

button "other services" for offline purposes.

It's generally possible to use the travel plan without a connection

to an external reservation system. But the problem is that within the

standard it is not possible to create a travel plan without booking

any travel services. Some customers use the option 'Other Services' for

booking e.g. pool car or even the private car - you can customize any

offline travel service for this option.

Hope it helps

Sally

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Sally. Well, is there any other later sap document on travel planning other than the version of AC275 dated

'R/3 System Release 46C 05/01/2001'? Please let me know how/where can I access that? I feel 2001 material is not up to date.

[former_member131723 · Accepted solution]

In the SAP Help, there is a link for travel planning integration with GDS

http://help.sap.com/erp2005_ehp_05/helpdata/EN/f0/439f37ddeec857e10000009b38f889/frameset.htm

I will do a further check for any other documents but indeed havent come across any others so far... although there is some planned development with mobile travel expenses functionality also so sure details of this will be released and updated.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Sally,

a) if we are using third party travel agency like GetThere.com, they do the checks on company travel policy requirement, and so we in SAP need not implement the travel policy checks right? because the moment the user clicks 'travel planning' it takes them to the GetThere website where everything in the company policy is validated before booking(ofcourse we should provide the client's travel policy to the 3rd party agency beforehand).

b) Same question for maintaining Airport codes, Airline names, rental car company names, hotel names etc in SAP will NOT be needed as the booking is done in GetThere (which then sends internally the info to Sabre to book the actual tickets) . Is my understanding correct for NOT maintaining these values in SAP as there are SO MANY IMG nodes related to that. Am I missing anything in config by not maintaining these in SAP? Then why do they have these config in SAP?

Thanks.