Methods, systems, and articles of manufacture for providing fare trend information

A method for providing historical fare information, comprising:

• periodically collecting fares associated with every flight offered from each of a plurality of airlines within a predefined market, wherein each offered flight is associated with a source and a destination city;
• storing the collected fares into a variable information database;
• determining, for each flight associated with the same source and destination city, a lowest fare offered among the airlines for the respective flight;
• storing each of the determined lowest fares in a constant information database;
• and
• making the determined lowest fares available to a user in response to a request for historical fare information.

A method for providing historical fare information, comprising:

• collecting available fares previously offered by a set of travel service providers;
• collecting a set of lowest fares from among the collected available fares, wherein the collecting of available fares and a set of lowest fares are performed periodically for a predetermined amount of time;
• determining an estimate of future fares that may be offered by the set of travel service providers based on the collected set of lowest fares;
• and
• making the set of collected lowest fares and the estimate of future fares available to an entity in response to a request for historical fares.

A system for providing historical fare information, comprising:

• a first computer for requesting historical fare information associated with a travel opportunity;
• and
• a second computer for providing, to the first computer, a response including the historical fare information based on the request, wherein the second computer includes:
• a memory including:
• a first data component for periodically collecting historical fares offered by a set of travel service providers for a predetermined amount of time,
• a second data component for periodically extracting the lowest fares from among the collected historical fares, and
• a third data component for generating the response, wherein the response includes information reflecting the lowest fares associated with the travel opportunity previously offered by the set of travel service providers over the predetermined amount of time, and
• a processor for executing the first through third data components to provide the response to the first computer.

A system for providing historical fare information, comprising:

• a first computer for requesting historical fare information;
• and
• a second computer for providing, to the first computer, a response including the historical fare information based on the request, wherein the first computer includes:
• a memory including:
• a first data component for periodically collecting historical fares offered by a set of travel service providers for a predetermined amount of time,
• a second data component for periodically extracting the lowest fares from among the collected historical fares,
• a third data component for determining estimated future fares associated with the set of travel service providers based on the extracted lowest fares, and
• a fourth data component for generating the response, wherein the response includes the lowest fares previously offered by the set of travel service providers over the predetermined amount of time and the determined estimated future fares, and
• a processor for executing the first through fourth data components to provide the response to the first computer.

A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method, when executed by a processor for providing historical fare information, the method comprising:

• collecting fare information associated with one or more travel service providers;
• storing the collected fare information in a first database;
• extracting, from the first database, a set of fare information that conforms to a predefined travel rule;
• storing the set of fare information in a second database;
• and
• making the set of fare information available to a requesting entity in response to a request for historical fare information.

A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method, when executed by a processor, for providing historical fare information, the method comprising:

• periodically collecting fares associated with every flight offered from each of a plurality of airlines within a predefined market, wherein each offered flight is associated with a source and a destination city;
• storing the collected fares into a variable information database;
• determining, for each flight associated with the same source and destination city, the lowest fare offered among the airlines for the respective flight;
• storing each of the determined lowest fares in a constant information database;
• and
• making the determined lowest fares available to a user in response to a request for historical fare information.

A computer-readable medium including instructions for performing a method, when executed by a processor, for providing historical fare information, the method comprising:

• collecting available fares previously offered by a set of travel service providers;
• collecting a set of lowest fares from among the collected available fares, wherein the collecting of available fares and a set of lowest fares are performed periodically for a predetermined amount of time;
• determining an estimate of future fares that may be offered by the set of travel service providers based on the collected set of lowest fares;
• and
• making the set of collected lowest fares and the estimate of future fares available to an entity in response to a request for historical fares.