System and method for discounting fuel

• US 10,528,967 B2
• Filed: 09/26/2014
• Issued: 01/07/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Excentus Corporation (Professional Datasolutions, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Excentus Corporation (Professional Datasolutions, Inc.)
• Inventors: Nicholson, G. Randy
• Primary Examiner(s): Ahmed, Afaf Osman Bilal
• Application Number:
  US14/498,171
• Publication Number:
  US 20150012347A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,929 Days
• Field of Search: 705 1436, 705 1425, 235375
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/18 involving self-service terminals [SST], vending machines, kiosks or multimedia terminals
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/24 Credit schemes, i.e. "pay after"
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0207 Discounts or incentives, e.g. coupons or rebates
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0226 Incentive systems for frequent usage, e.g. frequent flyer miles programs or point systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0227 Frequent usage incentive value reconciliation between diverse systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0232 Frequent usage rewards other than merchandise, cash or travel
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0236 Incentive or reward received by requiring registration or ID from user
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0238 at point-of-sale [POS]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0239 Online discounts or incentives
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

A system and method of discounting a price-per-unit (PPU) of fuel during a fueling transaction by a customer at a fuel merchant. In one aspect, the invention identifies an issuer of the customer'"'"'s credit card, associates the issuer with a PPU discount for the fuel, and discounts the posted PPU by an amount equal to the PPU discount associated with the identified credit card issuer. In another aspect, the invention determines that the customer participates in a reward program with a vendor with whom the fuel merchant has a relationship agreement for providing PPU discounts for fuel in exchange for redeemed reward points from the reward program. The customer'"'"'s reward points are converted to a PPU discount, and the posted PPU of the fuel is discounted accordingly.

Claims

1. A fuel pump configured to provide customers with real-time access to frequent flyer miles earned by the customers via participation in a rewards program operated by a rewards program host and to convert at least a portion of the frequent flyer miles into a price-per-unit (PPU) of fuel during fueling transactions initiated by the customers at a fuel merchant, the fuel pump comprising:

a financial card reader configured to read information from a financial card inserted into the financial card reader during a fueling transaction initiated by a customer associated with the financial card, wherein the information read from the financial card includes at least a financial card number;

a fuel dispenser; and

a controller configured to perform operations for real-time conversion of frequent flyer miles to PPU discounts during fueling transactions, wherein the operations comprise;

transmitting a message requesting information that indicates a number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption by the customer to a system operated by the rewards program host, wherein the request includes at least a portion of the financial card number, and wherein the rewards program host determines an identity of the customer based on at least the portion of the financial card number included in the request; and

receiving, from the system operated by the rewards program host, the information that indicates the number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption by the customer;

determining, based upon an exchange rate for converting frequent flyer miles to a PPU discount, whether the number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption satisfies a first threshold number of frequent flyer miles, the first threshold number of frequent flyer miles corresponding to a first PPU discount, wherein the exchange rate is specified by an agreement between the fuel merchant and the rewards program host;

determining, based upon the exchange rate for converting frequent flyer miles to a PPU discount, whether the number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption satisfies a second threshold number of frequent flyer miles, the second threshold number of frequent flyer miles corresponding to a second PPU discount that provides a higher PPU discount than the first PPU discount;

in response to a determination that the number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption satisfies the first threshold number of frequent flyer miles, presenting first information that indicates the first PPU discount for fuel is available to the customer by redeeming a first portion of the frequent flyer miles available for redemption, the first portion of the frequent flyer miles corresponding to the first threshold number of frequent flyer miles;

in response to a determination that the number of frequent flyer miles available for redemption satisfies the second threshold number of frequent flyer miles, presenting both the first information and second information, wherein the second information indicates the second PPU discount for the fuel is available to the customer by redeeming a second portion of the frequent flyer miles available for redemption, the second portion of the frequent flyer miles corresponding to the second threshold number of frequent flyer miles, wherein the second portion of the frequent flyer miles available for redemption is greater than the first portion of the frequent flyer miles available for redemption;

receiving an input indicating an authorization to redeem one of the first portion of the frequent flyer miles in exchange for the first PPU discount and the second portion of the frequent flyer miles in exchange for the second PPU discount;

when the input indicates the authorization to redeem the first portion of the frequent flyer miles;

reducing a price of fuel posted on the fuel pump by the first PPU discount to produce a first discounted price for the fuel; and

causing the fuel dispenser to dispense the fuel to the customer at the first discounted price;

when the input indicates the authorization to redeem the second portion of the frequent flyer miles;

reducing the price of fuel posted on the fuel pump by the second PPU discount to produce a second discounted price for the fuel; and

causing the fuel dispenser to dispense the fuel to the customer at the second discounted price.

2. The fuel pump of claim 1, further comprising a redeemed discounts calculator configured to:

calculate a redeemed discount by multiplying a PPU discount for fuel by a number of units of fuel purchased in the fueling transaction, wherein the PPU discount for fuel is one of the first PPU discount and the second PPU discount, wherein a cash value equal to the redeemed discount is credited to an account associated with the fuel merchant.

3. The fuel pump of claim 2, wherein the controller is configured to initiate transmission of information indicating a number of frequent flyer miles redeemed during the fueling transaction to the rewards program host.

4. The fuel pump of claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to initiate transmission of information indicating a number of frequent flyer miles redeemed during the fueling transaction to the rewards program host.

5. The fuel pump of claim 1, wherein the financial card reader includes a magnetic card reader, a radio frequency identification (RFID) controller, a contactless smart card reader, an audio recognition device, a biometric recognition device, an optical reader, or a combination thereof.