Reservation system and method

• US 10,586,180 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2016
• Issued: 03/10/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sita N.V. (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Original Assignee: Sita N.V. (Société Internationale de Télécom Aeronautiques (Switzerland))
• Inventors: O'Sullivan, Kevin D, Irminger, Renaud, Cheikh, Stephane
• Primary Examiner(s): Scott, Randy A
• Application Number:
  US14/995,954
• Publication Number:
  US 20160132794A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,517 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 15/17306 Intercommunication techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies

Abstract

A reservation system for travel, accommodation, venue ticketing and other purposes may be accessed on-line, for example via a social networking website. A user enters their social networking identification into the reservation system. When a subsequent user makes a reservation, they also enter their social networking ID and the system retrieves a list of associated parties from the social networking website, which may be a friends or contacts list, and searches for reservations made by any of those parties which have an overlapping criterion, such as date and destination. The overlap may be used to identify parties who will be at the same destination at the same time as the subsequent user, and/or are travelling on the same flight or journey. On check-in, the system may use the list of associated parties to notify the party checking-in that one of their friends or contacts has also checked-in.

Claims

1. A computerized on-line reservation system, comprising:

a computerized booking system comprising at least one hardware processor for receiving a reservation enquiry from a user, the computerized booking system being configured to receive the user'"'"'s existing social networking identification (SNID) on an external social networking platform by the at least one hardware processor, wherein the external social networking platform is maintained in a separate system from the computerized booking system;

a physical data store for storing the SNID of the user in a database associated with the computerized booking system;

the computerized booking system further being configured to, in response to receiving a reservation enquiry from a subsequent user;

retrieve a list of SNIDs for the subsequent user from the external social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the external social networking platform with whom the subsequent user is already associated;

the system further comprising a search engine for searching, at the computerized booking system, for third party reservations having at least one overlapping reservation criterion and an associated SNID from the subsequent user'"'"'s list, wherein the reservation is a seat reservation and the third party'"'"'s SNID from the external social networking platform is displayed together with the seat reservation to which that SNID has been allocated where the third party has checked in; and

the computerized booking system being configured to send to the subsequent user for display, the SNID of the third party identified by the search together with information regarding the reservation.

2. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computerized booking system is configured, on receipt of the subsequent enquiry, to send a request to the external social networking platform to retrieve the city of residence of each party in the subsequent user'"'"'s list of SNIDs;

to compare the residences of the list of SNIDs with the chosen destination of the subsequent user; and

to send to the subsequent user for display, an identification of any party from the list of SNIDs recorded by the external social networking platform as resident in the subsequent user'"'"'s destination city.

3. The system according to claim 1, wherein the overlapping reservation criterion comprises destination and date.

4. The system according to claim 2, wherein the system is a travel reservation system and the overlapping reservation criterion comprises an instance of travel being reserved by the subsequent user.

5. The system according to claim 4, wherein the instance of travel is one of a flight, rail journey, road journey or water journey.

6. The system according to claim 1, wherein the computerized booking engine is configured, on receipt of a check-in request message received at the booking engine from the user, to retrieve the identifications of the list of SNIDs on the external social networking platform and to compare the identifications of the list of SNIDs with other passengers checked in or scheduled to check-in to the same journey as said user;

and

on finding a matching SNID, to send the matching SNID to the user for display.

7. The system according to claim 1, wherein the booking system is configured to receive the user'"'"'s SNID from the user as part of the reservation enquiry.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the booking system is configured to retrieve the SNID from the physical data store associated with the booking system.

12. The system according to claim 1, wherein the external social networking platform is a website.

9. A computerized on-line check-in system for check-in to a previously made reservation, comprising a computerized booking system comprising at least one hardware processor, wherein the at least one hardware processor:

receives a check-in request from a user;

receives the user'"'"'s existing social networking identification (SNID) on an external social networking platform, wherein the external social networking platform is maintained in a separate system from the computerized booking system;

retrieves a list of SNIDs for the user from the external social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the external social networking platform with whom the user is already associated;

the system further comprising a search engine that searches for third party reservations having at least one overlapping criterion and an associated SNID from the user'"'"'s list; and

determines, by the booking system, whether a third party identified by the search has checked in, and if it has, displaying to the user the SNID of a third party from the external social networking platform identified by the search together with a seat number of the third party in the user'"'"'s browser.

10. The system according to claim 9, wherein the previously made reservation is a reservation for travel and the user'"'"'s browser is caused to display the associated SNIDs of parties making the same journey.

11. The system according to claim 10, wherein the booking system determines whether the third party identified by the search has checked-in and, if it has, send the seat number of the third party to the user for display.

13. The system according to claim 9, wherein the external social networking platform is a website.

14. A computerized on-line reservation system, comprising:

a computerized booking system that receives a reservation enquiry from a user, the computerized booking system receiving the user'"'"'s existing social networking identification (SNID) on a social networking platform at the computerized booking system, wherein the external social networking platform is maintained in a separate system from the computerized booking system;

a store for storing the SNID of the user in a database associated with the computerized booking system;

the computerized booking system, in response to receiving a reservation enquiry from a subsequent user;

retrieves a list of social networking identifications (SNIDs) for the subsequent user from the external social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the external social networking platform with whom the subsequent user is already associated;

the system further comprising a search engine that searches, at the computerized booking system, for third party reservations having at least one overlapping reservation criterion and an associated SNID from the subsequent user'"'"'s list, wherein the reservation is a seat reservation and the third party'"'"'s SNID from the external social networking platform is displayed together with the seat reservation to which that SNID has been allocated where the third party has checked in; and

the computerized booking system sending to the subsequent user for display, the SNID of the third party identified by the search together with information regarding the reservation.

15. The system according to claim 14, wherein the computerized booking system, on receipt of the reservation enquiry from the subsequent user, sends a request to the external social networking platform to retrieve the city of residence of each party in the subsequent user'"'"'s list of associated SNIDs;

compares the residences of the list of associated SNIDs with the chosen destination of the subsequent user; and

sends to the subsequent user for display, an identification of any party from the list of associated SNIDs recorded by the external social networking platform as resident in the subsequent user'"'"'s destination city.

16. The system according to claim 14, wherein the computerized booking engine is configured, on receipt of a check-in request message received at the booking engine from the user, to retrieve the identifications of the list of associated SNIDs on the external social networking platform and to compare the identifications of the list of SNIDs with other passengers checked in or scheduled to check-in to the same journey as said user;

and

on finding a matching SNID, to send the matching SNID to the user for display.

17. A computerized on-line check-in system for check-in to a previously made reservation, comprising a computerized booking system comprising at least one hardware processor, wherein the at least one hardware processor:

receives a reservation enquiry at a computerized booking system from a user;

receives the user'"'"'s existing social networking identification (SNID) on an external social networking platform at the computerized booking system, wherein the external social networking platform is maintained in a separate system from the computerized booking system;

stores the SNID of the user in a database associated with the computerized booking system;

in response to a subsequent user submitting a reservation enquiry;

retrieves a list of SNIDs for the subsequent user from the external social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the external social networking platform with whom the subsequent user is associated;

searches, at the computerized booking system, for third party reservations having at least one overlapping reservation criterion and an associated SNID from the subsequent user'"'"'s list, wherein the reservation is a room accommodation and the third party'"'"'s existing SNID from the external social networking platform is displayed together with the room accommodation to which that SNID has been allocated if the third party has checked in; and

displaying to the subsequent user the SNID of the third party identified by the search together with information regarding the reservation.

18. The system according to claim 17, comprising, on sending the subsequent enquiry sending a request to the external social networking platform to retrieve the city of residence of each party in the subsequent user'"'"'s list of associated SNIDs;

comparing the residences of the list of associated SNIDs with the chosen destination of the subsequent user; and

displaying to the subsequent user, an identification of any party from the list of associated SNIDs recorded by the external social networking platform as resident in the subsequent user'"'"'s destination city.

19. The system according to claim 17, wherein the overlapping reservation criterion comprises destination and date.

20. The system according to claim 17, wherein the reservation system is a travel reservation system and the overlapping reservation criterion comprises an instance of travel being reserved by the subsequent user.

21. The system according to claim 20, wherein the instance of travel is one of a flight, rail journey, road journey or water journey.

22. The system according to claim 17, comprising the steps of:

on receipt of a check-in request message received at the booking engine from the user'"'"'s browser, retrieving the identifications of the user'"'"'s list of associated SNIDs on the external social networking platform and comparing the identifications of the user'"'"'s list of associated SNIDs with other passengers checked in or scheduled to check-in to the same journey as said user; and

on finding a matching SNID, displaying the matching SNID to the user.

23. The system according to claim 17, wherein the user'"'"'s SNID is received from the user as part of the reservation request.

24. The system according to claim 17, wherein the step of receiving the user'"'"'s SNID comprises retrieving the SNID from the database associated with the booking system.

25. The system according to claim 17, wherein the user'"'"'s SNID is received from an associated booking system.

26. The system according to claim 17, wherein the overlapping reservation criterion comprises destination and displaying to the subsequent user the SNIDs of parties with whom the subsequent user is associated and who have travelled to the destination in the past.

27. A computerized on-line check-in system for check-in to a previously made reservation, comprising a computerized booking system comprising at least one hardware processor, wherein the at least one hardware processor:

receives a check-in request at a computerized booking system from a user computer via a browser;

receives the user'"'"'s existing social networking identification (SNID) on an external social networking platform at the computerized booking system, wherein the external social networking platform is maintained in a separate system from the computerized booking system;

retrieves a list of SNIDs for the user from the external social networking platform, the list comprising a group of one or more other parties registered on the external social networking platform with whom the user is associated;

searches, at the computerized booking system, for third party reservations having at least one overlapping reservation criterion and an associated SNID from the user'"'"'s list; and

determines, by the booking system, whether a third party identified by the search has checked-in, and if it has, displaying to the user the SNID of the third party from the external social networking platform identified by the search together with a seat number of the third party in the user'"'"'s browser.

28. The system according to claim 27, wherein the reservation is a reservation for travel and the user'"'"'s browser is caused to display the associated SNIDs of parties making the same journey.

29. The system according to claim 27, wherein the reservation is a reservation for accommodation and the user'"'"'s browser is caused to display the associated SNIDs of parties having booked the accommodation for an overlapping period.

30. The system according to claim 27, wherein the platform is a website.