Ground-based travel portal

• US 20030046331A1
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Published: 03/06/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: OʼDonnell, Mary E.
• Granted Patent: US 6,993,554 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/201
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• 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 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A ground-based travel planning portal is provided that is in communication with a counterpart in-transit portal so that the content presented through each portal is consistent to a traveler. The ground-based travel planning portal includes information for both business and leisure travel planning, in addition to other more general information. The traveler is able to identify and store a user-defined profile that includes personal traveling preferences such as airlines, hotels, rental cars, and personal content layout preferences which determines what content of the portal is presented to the traveler. Accordingly, the traveler has discretion to change and modify the content layout throughout the portal. Further, the user-defined profiles are shared across the ground-based portal and a counterpart in-transit portal so that the traveler accesses a common interface regardless of their travel status.

Claims

1. A ground-based Internet portal comprising:

travel planning content;

a plurality of user-defined profiles; and

at least one link to an in-transit Internet portal,

wherein the user-defined profiles are shared between the ground-based Internet portal and the in-transit Internet portal thereby providing a consistent interface to a traveler.

2. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 1, wherein the user-defined profiles further comprise:

personal preferences of a traveler; and

content layout preferences of a traveler,

wherein the traveler can customize the ground-based portal.

3. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 1, wherein the travel planning content comprises:

universal navigation pages; and

content pages,

wherein the universal navigation pages provide administrative functions and the content pages provide travel related and general information to the traveler.

4. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 3, wherein the universal navigation pages and the content pages are accessible through a home page.

5. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 4, wherein the home page and the content pages comprise a tabbed navigation scheme, wherein the tabbed navigation scheme comprises buttons that are present throughout all of the content pages.

6. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 1 further comprising:

a button palette that allows the traveler to quickly link to the travel planning content,

wherein the button palette is shared between the ground-based Internet portal and the in-transit Internet portal thereby providing a common interface to the traveler.

7. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 6, wherein the button palette is customizable by the traveler.

8. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 1 further comprising an agent bot that searches, identifies, and presents travel reservations to the traveler.

9. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 8, wherein the traveler books the travel reservations presented by the agent bot.

10. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 1, wherein the travel planning content further comprises a virtual office, wherein the traveler can access a corporate network to send and receive electronic data.

11. A ground-based Internet portal comprising:

travel planning content;

user-defined profiles;

a button palette that links to the travel planning content; and

at least one link to an in-transit Internet portal,

wherein the user-defined profiles and the button palette are shared between the ground-based Internet portal and an in-transit Internet portal thereby providing a consistent interface to a traveler.

12. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 11, wherein the button palette is customizable by the traveler.

13. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 11, wherein the user-defined profiles further comprise:

personal preferences; and

content layout preferences,

wherein the traveler can customize the ground-based portal.

14. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 11, wherein the travel planning content further comprises:

universal navigation pages; and

content pages,

wherein the universal navigation pages provide administrative functions and the content pages provide travel related and general information to the traveler.

15. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 14, wherein the universal navigation pages and the content pages are accessible through a home page.

16. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 15, wherein the home page and the content pages comprise a tabbed navigation scheme, wherein the tabbed navigation scheme comprises buttons that are present throughout all of the content pages.

17. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 11 further comprising an agent bot that searches, identifies, and presents travel reservations to the traveler.

18. The ground based Internet portal of claim 17, wherein the traveler books the travel reservations presented by the agent bot.

19. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 11, wherein the travel planning content further comprises a virtual office, wherein the traveler can access a corporate network to send and receive electronic data.

20. The ground-based Internet portal of claim 19, wherein the virtual office further comprises a corporate intranet.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the user-defined profiles further comprise:

personal profile preferences; and

content layout preferences.

21. In a ground-based travel portal comprising travel planning content, user-definable preferences, and a link to an in-transit Internet portal, a method of automatically coordinating the user-definable preferences between the ground-based travel portal and the in-transit Internet portal, the method comprising the steps of:

(a) receiving through the ground-based travel portal the user-definable preferences from a traveler;

(b) sending the user-definable preferences to a central content management system;

(c) storing the user-definable preferences on the central content management system; and

(d) sending the user-definable preferences from the central content management system to the ground-based travel portal and the in-transit Internet portal so that a traveler is provided a consistent interface.