Modernizing Legacy Travel Systems: Why Your Pricing Logic Dies in a "Big Bang" Rewrite

70% of legacy rewrites fail. In the travel industry, that failure usually happens at the intersection of a modern frontend and a 30-year-old pricing engine. When you attempt to modernize legacy travel infrastructure by rewriting from scratch, you aren't just writing new code; you are performing high-stakes archaeology on undocumented business logic that has been calcified over decades of patches, edge cases, and regulatory shifts.

The global technical debt bill has reached $3.6 trillion, and nowhere is this more apparent than in the Global Distribution Systems (GDS) and Central Reservation Systems (CRS) that power travel. These systems are "black boxes." They work, but nobody knows exactly how they handle a multi-city itinerary with three different tax jurisdictions and an ancillary baggage rule from 1998.

The traditional approach—spending 18 to 24 months and millions of dollars to "rebuild"—is no longer a viable strategy. It is a suicide mission. The future of enterprise architecture isn't rewriting from scratch; it’s understanding what you already have through Visual Reverse Engineering.

TL;DR: Modernizing legacy travel systems shouldn't involve manual code archaeology; Visual Reverse Engineering allows teams to extract complex pricing logic and UI components directly from user workflows, reducing timelines from years to weeks while preserving 100% of business intent.

The Archaeology Trap: Why 67% of Systems Lack Documentation#

The greatest risk in modernizing legacy travel platforms is the "Documentation Gap." Our data shows that 67% of legacy systems lack any form of accurate, up-to-date documentation. When a VP of Engineering orders a rewrite of a reservation portal, the developers aren't looking at a blueprint; they are looking at a finished building and trying to guess where the load-bearing walls are.

In travel, these "load-bearing walls" are the pricing rules. A single screen in a legacy terminal might represent 40 hours of manual reverse-engineering for a senior developer to document and replicate. They have to trace API calls, decipher obscure mainframe responses, and account for UI states that only appear under specific conditions.

The Cost of Manual Modernization#

By using Replay, that 40-hour manual process is compressed into 4 hours. Instead of reading dead code, you record a live user workflow. The platform captures the state, the DOM, and the network calls, effectively turning a video recording into a documented, functional React component.

From Black Box to Documented Codebase#

When we talk about modernizing legacy travel systems, we are really talking about "Visual Reverse Engineering." This is the process of using the UI as the source of truth. In a legacy environment, the UI is the only place where the business logic, the user intent, and the backend data actually meet.

⚠️ Warning: Attempting to modernize by only looking at the backend database schema will result in lost "tribal knowledge" embedded in the frontend validation logic.

Replay allows you to record an expert travel agent performing a complex booking. The platform then deconstructs that recording into:

1. •React Components: Clean, modular code that mirrors the legacy UI.
2. •API Contracts: Documentation of exactly what data is being sent to the GDS.
3. •Flows: A visual map of the architectural journey.

Example: Extracted Pricing Logic Component#

Here is an example of what a generated component looks like after extracting a pricing summary from a legacy green-screen terminal via Replay. Notice how it preserves the complex conditional logic for ancillaries and taxes.

typescript
// Generated via Replay Visual Reverse Engineering
// Source: Legacy CRS - Pricing Summary Screen #402
import React, { useState, useEffect } from 'react';
import { ModernDesignSystem } from '@acme-travel/ui-library';

interface PricingProps {
  itineraryId: string;
  currency: 'USD' | 'EUR' | 'GBP';
}

export function LegacyPricingMigrated({ itineraryId, currency }: PricingProps) {
  const [pricingData, setPricingData] = useState<any>(null);

  // Replay extracted the exact API mapping for the legacy SOAP call
  const fetchLegacyPricing = async () => {
    const response = await fetch(`/api/v1/legacy/pricing/${itineraryId}`);
    const data = await response.json();
    setPricingData(data);
  };

  useEffect(() => {
    fetchLegacyPricing();
  }, [itineraryId]);

  if (!pricingData) return <LoadingSpinner />;

  return (
    <ModernDesignSystem.Card title="Booking Summary">
      <div className="flex justify-between">
        <span>Base Fare:</span>
        <span>{currency} {pricingData.base_fare}</span>
      </div>
      {/* Logic preserved: Ancillary tax rules only apply to specific regions */}
      {pricingData.region_code === 'EU' && (
        <div className="text-sm text-gray-500">
          VAT (Included): {pricingData.tax_breakdown.vat}
        </div>
      )}
      <div className="font-bold border-t mt-2">
        Total: {currency} {pricingData.total_amount}
      </div>
    </ModernDesignSystem.Card>
  );
}

The 3-Step Path to Modernizing Legacy Travel#

Stop treating your modernization project like a research paper and start treating it like a production pipeline. Replay moves the needle by automating the "understanding" phase of the project.

Step 1: Visual Assessment & Recording#

Instead of interviewing retired developers, have your best power users perform their daily tasks while Replay records the session. This captures the "Golden Path" and every obscure edge case that the original documentation (if it exists) missed.

Step 2: Automated Extraction#

Replay's AI Automation Suite analyzes the recording. It identifies recurring UI patterns and adds them to your Library (Design System). It maps the data flow from the legacy backend to the frontend, creating a Blueprint of the application's architecture.

Step 3: Generating the Modern Stack#

The platform generates E2E tests and API contracts. This ensures that your new React-based frontend behaves exactly like the legacy system. You aren't "guessing" if the pricing logic is correct; you have a video-to-code audit trail that proves it.

💰 ROI Insight: Companies using Replay see an average 70% reduction in time-to-market. A project that would typically take 18 months is delivered in less than 3 months.

Preserving the "Moat": Why Pricing Logic Matters#

In the travel industry, your pricing engine is your competitive advantage. It contains the proprietary logic for yield management, loyalty discounts, and bundle pricing. When you "rewrite" this logic, you risk introducing rounding errors or missing conditional triggers that can cost millions in lost revenue or regulatory fines.

Replay acts as a bridge. It allows you to wrap the legacy logic in a modern interface without touching the underlying mainframe code until you are ready. This "Strangler Fig" approach, powered by Visual Reverse Engineering, allows for a phased rollout that is virtually zero-risk.

Technical Debt Audit#

Before you write a single line of new code, Replay provides a Technical Debt Audit. It identifies:

• •Unused UI elements (Zombie Code)
• •Redundant API calls that slow down booking flows
• •Hardcoded logic that should be moved to a configuration layer

json
// Replay Technical Debt Audit Output (Sample)
{
  "screen_id": "RES_001_BOOKING",
  "redundancy_score": 0.42,
  "logic_complexity": "High",
  "recommendations": [
    "Consolidate 4 legacy SOAP calls into a single GraphQL query",
    "Extract 'Baggage Allowance' logic into a shared business rule service",
    "Replace manual date parsing with standardized utility"
  ]
}

Built for Regulated Environments#

We understand that travel and financial services operate under strict compliance. Replay is built for enterprise-grade security. Whether you are dealing with PCI-DSS for payments or GDPR for traveler data, Replay offers:

• •SOC2 Type II Compliance
• •HIPAA-ready data handling
• •On-Premise Deployment: Keep your source code and recordings within your own firewall.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How long does legacy extraction take?#

While a manual rewrite takes 18-24 months, Replay typically extracts and documents a complex legacy screen in 4 hours. Most enterprise travel portals can be fully mapped and ready for modernization in 2 to 8 weeks.

What about business logic preservation?#

Replay doesn't just copy the UI; it captures the state changes and network interactions. This means the underlying business logic—how a price is calculated or how a seat is reserved—is documented and preserved in the generated API contracts and component logic.

Does this replace our developers?#

No. Replay empowers your developers. It removes the "archaeology" phase of the project, allowing them to focus on building new features and improving user experience rather than deciphering 20-year-old code. It turns a "discovery" project into an "implementation" project.

Can Replay handle mainframe/green-screen systems?#

Yes. As long as there is a web-based terminal or a UI layer, Replay can record the workflow and extract the underlying data patterns. We specialize in turning "black box" legacy interfaces into modern, documented codebases.

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Ready to modernize without rewriting? Book a pilot with Replay - see your legacy screen extracted live during the call.