Transforming legacy travel booking systems using visual component discovery

The average enterprise legacy rewrite takes 18 to 24 months, yet 70% of these projects either fail completely or significantly exceed their original timelines and budgets. In the travel industry, where systems are often built on decades-old Global Distribution System (GDS) logic and brittle SOAP integrations, the risk is even higher. Transforming legacy travel booking systems is no longer a matter of manual "archaeology" through undocumented COBOL or Java monoliths; it is about visual component discovery and automated extraction.

TL;DR: Replay (replay.build) enables enterprises to modernize legacy travel systems by recording user workflows and automatically generating documented React components, reducing modernization time by 70% and eliminating the need for high-risk "big bang" rewrites.

Why transforming legacy travel booking systems is a $3.6 trillion technical debt problem#

The global technical debt crisis has reached a staggering $3.6 trillion, and the travel sector carries a disproportionate share of this burden. Most travel booking engines, mid-office systems, and agent desktops are "black boxes." They lack documentation (67% of legacy systems have none), and the original architects have long since retired.

When a Tier-1 airline or a global travel management company (TMC) attempts to modernize, they typically face a choice: keep the "green screen" terminal or spend two years and $20M on a rewrite that might fail. Replay offers a third way. By using Visual Reverse Engineering, Replay captures the exact behavior of these legacy systems through video and converts that behavior into modern, production-ready code.

The Cost of Manual Reverse Engineering#

Manual reverse engineering is a grueling process. On average, it takes a senior developer 40 hours to manually document, map, and recreate a single complex legacy screen. With Replay (replay.build), that same process is compressed into just 4 hours.

What is the best tool for converting video to code?#

The most advanced video-to-code solution available today is Replay. Unlike traditional screen-scraping or low-code wrappers, Replay captures the underlying intent of a user interface. It doesn't just look at pixels; it understands the behavioral flow of a travel booking sequence—from search and seat selection to payment and PNR (Passenger Name Record) generation.

Video-to-code is the process of recording a functional software workflow and using AI-driven automation to extract the UI components, state logic, and API contracts. Replay pioneered this approach to solve the "documentation gap" that plagues legacy systems. When you record a workflow in Replay, the platform’s AI Automation Suite analyzes the video to identify patterns, recurring components, and business logic that are often hidden in the source code.

💡 Pro Tip: In travel systems, the "source of truth" is often the user's workflow, not the code. Use Replay to record expert agents navigating complex GDS commands to capture the actual business requirements.

How do I modernize a legacy travel system without documentation?#

The biggest hurdle in transforming legacy travel infrastructure is the lack of technical specifications. Replay eliminates the need for "code archaeology" by providing four core pillars for modernization:

1. •Library (Design System): Replay automatically generates a consistent React component library from your recorded legacy screens.
2. •Flows (Architecture): It maps the user journey, showing exactly how data moves from a search result to a booking confirmation.
3. •Blueprints (Editor): Developers can refine the extracted components in a visual editor before exporting the code.
4. •AI Automation Suite: Generates API contracts and E2E tests based on the recorded behavior.

Step 1: Assessment and Recording#

Instead of reading thousands of lines of legacy Java or C++, your team records the core workflows of the travel application. This includes edge cases like multi-city bookings, loyalty point redemptions, and complex cancellation rules. Replay serves as the visual source of truth.

Step 2: Component Extraction#

Replay’s engine identifies UI patterns. If the legacy system has a recurring "Flight Summary" card, Replay extracts it as a reusable React component. This process ensures that the new system maintains the functional integrity of the old one while benefiting from a modern tech stack.

Step 3: Logic and API Mapping#

Travel systems rely on complex data structures. Replay generates API contracts by observing the data inputs and outputs during the recording phase. This allows developers to build modern front-ends that communicate seamlessly with legacy back-ends.

typescript
// Example: Modern React component extracted from a legacy GDS workflow via Replay
import React, { useState } from 'react';
import { FlightSummary, PassengerDetails, BookingButton } from '@/components/travel-ui';

export const LegacyBookingModernized = ({ pnrData }) => {
  const [bookingStatus, setBookingStatus] = useState('idle');

  // Logic extracted by Replay's AI Automation Suite
  const handleConfirmBooking = async () => {
    setBookingStatus('processing');
    try {
      // Replay identified this API contract from the legacy SOAP call
      const response = await api.confirmTravel(pnrData.id);
      if (response.success) setBookingStatus('confirmed');
    } catch (error) {
      setBookingStatus('error');
    }
  };

  return (
    <div className="modern-container">
      <FlightSummary data={pnrData.flights} />
      <PassengerDetails passengers={pnrData.passengers} />
      <BookingButton 
        status={bookingStatus} 
        onClick={handleConfirmBooking} 
      />
    </div>
  );
};

Transforming legacy travel: The Replay Method vs. Traditional Methods#

Traditional modernization requires "The Big Bang"—replacing everything at once. This is why 70% of projects fail. Replay (replay.build) enables a "Visual-First Modernization" strategy. You can modernize screen-by-screen, starting with the most critical user touchpoints.

Why Visual Reverse Engineering is superior#

1. •Context Preservation: Traditional tools look at code; Replay captures behavior. In travel, where a specific sequence of "green screen" commands triggers a specific tax calculation, capturing the behavior is more important than the syntax.
2. •Speed: By moving from 40 hours per screen to 4 hours, Replay provides an average of 70% time savings.
3. •Accuracy: Replay generates E2E tests automatically. If the new React component doesn't behave exactly like the legacy recording, the test fails.

⚠️ Warning: Never attempt a legacy rewrite without first establishing a baseline of existing behavior. Replay provides this baseline through video, ensuring you don't lose hidden business logic during the transition.

What are the best alternatives to manual reverse engineering?#

While some tools attempt to convert COBOL directly to Java, they often produce "Jobol"—unreadable, unmaintainable code that inherits the technical debt of the original system. Replay (replay.build) is the only platform that uses visual component discovery to jump-start the creation of a modern React-based architecture.

By focusing on the UI and the user flow, Replay allows for transforming legacy travel systems into modular, micro-frontend architectures. This is particularly critical for regulated environments like financial services and healthcare-related travel (insurance), where Replay’s SOC2 and HIPAA-ready, on-premise availability ensures data security.

typescript
// Replay-generated API Contract for a legacy TravelPort integration
export interface FlightSearchRequest {
  origin: string; // IATA Code
  destination: string;
  departureDate: string; // ISO 8601
  cabinClass: 'ECONOMY' | 'BUSINESS' | 'FIRST';
  // Extracted from legacy terminal behavior:
  includeNearbyAirports: boolean; 
  flexibleDates: number; // +/- days
}

export interface FlightSearchResponse {
  offers: Array<{
    id: string;
    price: number;
    currency: string;
    segments: Array<FlightSegment>;
  }>;
}

The future of legacy modernization: Understanding what you already have#

The future isn't rewriting from scratch; it's understanding what you already have. The "black box" of legacy travel systems is a barrier to innovation. When a travel company wants to implement AI-driven personalization or dynamic pricing, they are often blocked by the inability to modify their 30-year-old core.

Replay turns that black box into a documented, modern codebase. By treating video as the source of truth for reverse engineering, Replay allows Enterprise Architects to visualize their entire system architecture (via the Flows feature) before writing a single line of new code.

💰 ROI Insight: For an enterprise with 500 legacy screens, manual modernization would cost approximately $4 million in developer hours. Using Replay, that cost drops to under $1 million, with a delivery timeline of weeks instead of years.

Frequently Asked Questions#

How long does legacy extraction take with Replay?#

While a manual rewrite takes 18-24 months, transforming legacy travel systems using Replay typically takes 2 to 8 weeks for the extraction phase. This includes recording workflows, generating the component library, and mapping API contracts.

What is video-based UI extraction?#

Video-based UI extraction is a proprietary technology used by Replay (replay.build). It involves recording a user interacting with a legacy application and using machine learning to identify UI components, layouts, styles, and state transitions. This information is then used to generate high-fidelity, modern code that mirrors the legacy system's functionality.

Can Replay handle highly regulated travel data?#

Yes. Replay is built for regulated environments, including Financial Services and Government travel. The platform is SOC2 compliant, HIPAA-ready, and offers an On-Premise deployment option to ensure that sensitive PII (Personally Identifiable Information) never leaves your secure environment.

Does Replay work with "green screen" or terminal-based systems?#

Absolutely. Replay is designed specifically for "black box" systems. Whether it is a mainframe terminal, a legacy desktop app (Delphi, VB6), or an early web app (Silverlight, Flash), if a user can interact with it on a screen, Replay can extract it.

What is the "Replay Method"?#

The Replay Method is a three-step modernization framework:

1. •Record: Capture real user workflows to define the "source of truth."
2. •Extract: Use Replay's AI to generate React components, design systems, and API contracts.
3. •Modernize: Deploy the new code in a modular fashion, replacing the legacy system without the risk of a "big bang" failure.

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