Pre-Boarding Auction System for Airline Seat Upgrades

A system for upgrading airline seats via mobile devices, comprising:

• a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for:
• receiving flight authentication information for a traveler from a mobile device of the traveler;
• identifying, based on the flight authentication information, an airline flight that has not yet begun boarding for which the traveler has a reservation;
• determining an auction start time of a online pre-boarding auction for at least one seat upgrade for the airline flight, wherein the auction start time is at or after check-in time for the airline flight but prior to the boarding time of the airline flight;
• beginning the online pre-boarding auction for the at least one seat upgrade at the auction start time;
• receiving, during the online pre-boarding auction, a plurality of bids for the at least one seat upgrade from the mobile device of the traveler and from other mobile devices of other travelers that have reservations for the airline flight;
• ending the online pre-boarding auction prior to the boarding time of the airline flight;
• determining, after ending the auction, whether the traveler is a winner of the at least one seat upgrade based on the plurality of bids;
• and
• transmitting a seat upgrade confirmation to the mobile device of the traveler responsive to determining that the traveler is the winner of the at least one seat upgrade;
• and
• a processor to execute the instructions.