US 11,687,842 B2Granted

Method and server for providing fare availabilities, such as air fare availabilities

AssigneeSkyscanner Limited

InventorGareth Williams

Life of this patent

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Abstract

The field of the invention relates to methods, servers and computer program products for inferring which fare classes are available. There is provided a method of inferring fare class availability for a specific flight or flights by: (a) receiving observable, live bookable prices for that flight(s), in which that price information is not accompanied by complete fare class information for those flight(s); (b) comparing the observable, live bookable prices with a set of prices calculated from stored data, such as valid itinerary data, fare data such as FROP data, and tax/surcharge data; and (c) determining which fare class was used in the observable live bookable price by determining which fare class was used in the calculated price that matches most closely to the observable live bookable price.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A computer-implemented method of reducing data storage requirements, and of inferring which airfare classes are available, the method including the steps of:

(i) receiving observable, live bookable prices for flights, including price information, wherein the price information does not include complete fare class information for those flights;
(ii) storing the received observable, live bookable prices for the flights, including the price information, in a computer data store embodied on a non-transitory storage medium, to provide a stored incomplete historical travel-related price dataset which does not include complete fare class information for the stored received observable, live bookable prices for the flights including the price information, wherein the stored incomplete historical travel-related price dataset uses a smaller data storage capacity than a complete historical travel-related price dataset;
(iii) a computer server receiving a request for a price for airfares, together with parameters defining those airfares, the server responsive to at least 66,795 different requests for prices for airfares;
(iv) configuring one or more processors to determine estimated prices from the incomplete historical price dataset in the computer data store embodied on the non-transitory storage medium by analysing statistical patterns in that dataset, at any time with respect to step (iii) above, wherein this step comprises
(a) obtaining historical price quotes from the incomplete historical travel-related price dataset stored in the computer data store embodied on the non-transitory storage medium;
(b) grouping the historical price quotes by category;
(c) deriving statistics for each group;
(d) storing on a computer for each group a classifier including the derived statistics;
and
(e) identifying groups with stored classifiers to which the requested prices correspond;
(v) configuring one or more processors to calculate estimates for the requested price for the airfares that satisfy the parameters, and calculating estimates for the requested price for the airfares that satisfy the parameters, including using the stored classifiers corresponding to the identified groups;
(vi) sending the request to a Distribution System for airfare prices;
(vii) receiving from the Distribution System the Distribution System's airfare prices;
(viii) comparing the calculated estimates for the requested price from step (v) with the Distribution System's airfare prices received in step (vii) to infer airfare class availability, and
(ix) the computer server providing the inferred airfare class availability to a computing device, and the computing device storing the inferred airfare class availability.

12 more elements

A system including a server, a storage computer, a computing device and a computer data store embodied on a non-transitory storage medium, the server configured to infer which airfare classes are available, the server configured to:

(i) receive observable, live bookable prices for flights, including price information, wherein the price information does not include complete fare class information for those flights;
(ii) store the received observable, live bookable prices for the flights, including the price information, in the computer data store embodied on the non-transitory storage medium, to provide a stored incomplete historical travel-related price dataset which does not include complete fare class information for the stored received observable, live bookable prices for the flights including the price information, wherein the stored incomplete historical travel-related price dataset uses a smaller data storage capacity than a complete historical travel-related price dataset;
(iii) receive a request for a requested price for airfares, together with parameters defining those airfares, and to respond to at least 66,795 different requests for prices for airfares;
(iv) configure one or more processors to determine estimated prices from the incomplete historical price dataset stored in the computer data store by analysing statistical patterns in that dataset, at any time with respect to (iii) above, wherein the configuring comprises:
(a) obtaining historical price quotes from the incomplete historical travel-related price dataset stored in the computer data store embodied on the non-transitory storage medium;
(b) grouping the historical price quotes by category;
(c) deriving statistics for each group;
(d) storing on the storage computer for each group a classifier including the derived statistics, and
(e) identifying groups with stored classifiers to which the requested prices correspond;
(v) configure one or more processors to calculate estimates for the requested price for the airfares that satisfy the parameters, and calculate estimates for the requested price for the airfares that satisfy the parameters, including using the stored classifiers corresponding to the identified groups;
(vi) send the request to a Distribution System for airfare prices;
(vii) receive from the Distribution System the Distribution System's airfare prices;
(viii) compare the calculated estimates for the requested price from (v) with the Distribution System's airfare prices received in (vii), to infer airfare class availability, and
(ix) provide the inferred airfare class availability to the computing device, wherein the computing device stores the inferred airfare class availability.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 15/179,036Filed 10 Jun 2016 · continuation
Priority: WO PCT/GB2013/05326111 Dec 2013
Published: US 2016/0283869 A129 Sep 2016
Granted: 27 Jun 2023
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification3 codes

G06Q 10/02
Administration; Management: reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
G06Q 30/0283
Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising: price estimation or determination
G06Q
Information and communication technology [ict] specially adapted for administrative, commercial, financial, managerial

Family

Application14/103,016Parent of this continuation-in-part · filed 11 Dec 2013
PCT/GB2014/052846Parent of this continuation · filed 18 Sep 2014
US 2016/0283869 A1Pre-grant publication · published 29 Sep 2016
US 11,030,635 B2Parent of this continuation-in-part
PCT/GB2014/052846Parent of this continuation-in-part
US 2015/0161636 A1Published application
US 11,687,842 B2This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.