Disclaimer: I built airline reservations systems with ITA Software.
I don't recall there being a minimum character count for SSR codes, but in legacy reservations systems (and the passenger name records (PNR) that contain these SSRs) there's for sure a max. Airline reservations systems never met a fixed-width format they didn't like, and the reason is that for a long, long time the unit of storage for a PNR was a block on disk and disk space was precious, so every few bits (literally bits, not bytes) counted. Those constraints have persisted through the ages.
Upthread someone wondered about disrupting this industry. It is expensive (there's a lot of moving parts) but it's basically engineering and integration, with the integration being the far harder part. For example, to participate in the airline networks (the networks that send messages to other airlines to handle cross-carrier booking, talking to GDSes, control departure, speak to DHS, etc) you need to understand the meaning of various airline protocol messages. These messages have unclear semantics; one airline may regard message A as meaning "create a ticket for this passenger" while another airline may regard the same message as "create a reservation for this passenger" which are two different things. The only way to know what these messages mean is to get on the phone with each airline and ask. The documentation is wrong and outdated; the meaning of those messages is the outcome they have to that specific airline and not anything else. Oh and the network connection you send these messages over is a VPN that you need to agree to setup with the carrier you want to talk to. Airline messaging is the reason most modern reservations system can only handle small airlines, since getting the semantics, routing, and other details of airline messaging requires too many humans and too many business relationships.
Additionally, switching reservations system can kill an airline. Most airlines operate with a day or less of cash reserves so if the switch to a new res systems stops operation of the airline for any amount of time you could kill the airline. There's no incentive big enough to switch to a new res system since the rewards are not immediately revenue-impacting.
I know a guy with the last name 'Tester' that had to have a gate agent book their flight every ~10 minutes until their flight departed because the reservation system in production would delete any reservations with the last name 'Tester'.
Thought it was a fun story related to the immaturity of reservation / booking systems.
>I know a guy with the last name 'Tester' that had to have a gate agent book their flight every ~10 minutes until their flight departed because the reservation system in production would delete any reservations with the last name 'Tester'.
Jesus. Given that one of the Senators from Montana is named Tester, I would have thought someone would have been up the FAA's ass to get up their asses about this.
In Ontario Canada, someone recently had trouble trading in their car because it had a lien from "Pebbles and Fred Flintstone". It took 9 months to correct.
> Most airlines operate with a day or less of cash reserves so if the switch to a new res systems stops operation of the airline for any amount of time you could kill the airline
Was this true in 2001? How did they make it through the post-9/11 shutdown? That was about two full days without flights, then a few more heavily limited.
Indeed, but the drop in demand after the 2 day shutdown was more impactful than the 2 days alone. Demand dropped, and didn't return to pre 9/11 levels for 3 years.
Indeed, disrupting airline-related industry is hard if you're an outsider. The technology is one hard thing, but knowing all the actors in the industry is the main advantage of GDSes.
BTW switching the reservation system is hard, but not impossible. Southwest migrated its international reservations from internal system to Amadeus this very week (after a lengthy development of course).
The farther I get in my career, the more I realize that relationships are often just as, or more important than the engineering in order to get a business off the ground.
This is true on a lot of levels. My therapist says that when a group is working toward a goal, there are two levels of operation that need to be managed. At the first level there's the way the group works together to solve the problem. But sometimes group members need to dip down to the personal level and resolve issues with the way individuals relate to each other in order to be able to focus on the original goal. Organizations composed of people that can't relate to each other are less effective because the personal issues get in the way of problem-solving.
I don't recall there being a minimum character count for SSR codes, but in legacy reservations systems (and the passenger name records (PNR) that contain these SSRs) there's for sure a max. Airline reservations systems never met a fixed-width format they didn't like, and the reason is that for a long, long time the unit of storage for a PNR was a block on disk and disk space was precious, so every few bits (literally bits, not bytes) counted. Those constraints have persisted through the ages.
Upthread someone wondered about disrupting this industry. It is expensive (there's a lot of moving parts) but it's basically engineering and integration, with the integration being the far harder part. For example, to participate in the airline networks (the networks that send messages to other airlines to handle cross-carrier booking, talking to GDSes, control departure, speak to DHS, etc) you need to understand the meaning of various airline protocol messages. These messages have unclear semantics; one airline may regard message A as meaning "create a ticket for this passenger" while another airline may regard the same message as "create a reservation for this passenger" which are two different things. The only way to know what these messages mean is to get on the phone with each airline and ask. The documentation is wrong and outdated; the meaning of those messages is the outcome they have to that specific airline and not anything else. Oh and the network connection you send these messages over is a VPN that you need to agree to setup with the carrier you want to talk to. Airline messaging is the reason most modern reservations system can only handle small airlines, since getting the semantics, routing, and other details of airline messaging requires too many humans and too many business relationships.
Additionally, switching reservations system can kill an airline. Most airlines operate with a day or less of cash reserves so if the switch to a new res systems stops operation of the airline for any amount of time you could kill the airline. There's no incentive big enough to switch to a new res system since the rewards are not immediately revenue-impacting.