Booking engine for booking airline tickets on multiple host environments

• US 20040249680A1
• Filed: 06/06/2003
• Published: 12/09/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Orbitz LLC (Expedia Group, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Orbitz LLC (Expedia Group, Inc.)
• Inventors: Hoffman, Steve, Nisley, Warren, Ball, Greg, Liew, Roger, Chism, Leon, Sokel, John, Shemenski, David
• Granted Patent: US 7,962,354 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• 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

Abstract

A system and method of booking an itinerary on at least one of a multiplicity of host environments include a plurality of host adaptor modules. Each host adaptor module is configured to interact with one of the plurality of host ticketing environments. A booking engine is provided for receiving commands related to booking the air travel itinerary and determining an appropriate host ticketing environment for processing the commands based on a number of predefined criteria. When the booking engine receives a command it forwards the command to a first host adaptor module which is associated with first host ticketing environment selected by the booking engine for processing the command. The host adaptor module receives the command and issues the command to said first host ticketing environment. The first host adaptor module in turn receives a response from the first host ticketing environment and determines whether the response comports with an expected response. If the response does not comport with the expected response, the booking engine identifies a second appropriate host environment for processing the command and forwards the command to a second host adaptor module associated with the second host ticketing environment. The second host adaptor module then issues the command to the second host ticketing environment.

Claims

1. A method of booking an air travel itinerary on one of a plurality of different host ticketing environments, comprising the steps of:

providing a plurality of host adaptor modules, each host adaptor module being configured to interact with one of said host ticketing environments;

providing a booking engine for receiving commands related to booking said air travel itinerary and determining an appropriate host ticketing environment for processing said commands based on predefined criteria;

receiving a command at said booking engine related to booking said air travel itinerary;

said booking engine determining a first appropriate host ticketing environment for processing the command;

said booking engine forwarding said command to a first host adaptor module associated with said first host ticketing environment; and

said first host adaptor module issuing said command to said first host ticketing environment.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

said first host adaptor module receiving a response to said command from the first host ticketing environment;

determining whether said response comports with an expected response; and

if said response does not comport with said expected response, said booking engine determining a second appropriate host environment for processing said command;

said booking engine forwarding said command to a second host adaptor module associated with said second host ticketing environment; and

said second host adaptor module issuing said command to said second host ticketing environment.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of:

said first host adaptor module receiving a first response to said command from said first host ticketing environment;

said first host adaptor module determining whether said response matches an expected response within a predefined tolerance range;

if said response does not match the expected response within the predefined tolerance range, said first host adaptor module issuing a second command to said first host ticketing environment.

4. The method of claim 3 further comprising the steps of:

said first host adaptor module receiving a second response from said first host ticketing environment;

said first host adaptor modules determining whether said second response matches the expected response within the predefined tolerance range; and

if the second response does not match the expected response within the predefined tolerance range, the first adaptor module sending an error message to the booking engine.

5. The method of claim 4 further comprising the steps of:

said booking engine receiving an error message from said first host adaptor module;

selecting a second appropriate host ticketing environment for processing the command; and

forwarding the command to a second host adaptor module associated with the second host ticketing environment.

6. A method of booking an air travel itinerary comprising the steps of:

receiving customer travel requirements;

performing an initial search to gather itineraries meeting said requirements;

displaying results of said search to the customer;

receiving an indication of an itinerary of interest from said customer;

determining an appropriate host environment for re-pricing said itinerary of interest;

re-pricing the itinerary of interest on said appropriate host environment to obtain details of and confirm the availability of the itinerary of interest;

receiving an instruction from said customer to book the itinerary of interest;

determining an appropriate host environment on which to book the itinerary; and

booking the itinerary on the appropriate host environment.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of determining an appropriate host environment for re-pricing said itinerary of interest further includes the steps of:

identifying an air carrier whose flights are described in the itinerary of interest; and

determining whether a direct link is available to said air carrier'"'"'s host environment.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of re-pricing the itinerary of interest is performed on the air carrier'"'"'s host environment if it is determined that a direct link is available and re-pricing the itinerary on a global distribution system if a direct link to the air carrier host environment is not available.

9. The method of claim 7 wherein the step of re-pricing the itinerary of interest is performed on the air carrier'"'"'s host environment, the method further comprising the steps of:

receiving re-priced fare data for the itinerary of interest from the air carrier'"'"'s host environment;

determining whether the re-priced fare data match fare data gathered from the initial search within tolerances; and

re-pricing the itinerary on a global distribution system if the re-priced fare data do not match the fare data gathered in the initial search.

10. The method claim 6 wherein the step of determining an appropriate host environment includes determining whether the search was performed on a global distribution system.

11. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of determining an appropriate host environment on which to book the itinerary of interest includes determining whether the step of re-pricing the itinerary was performed on a global distribution system, and if so, booking the itinerary of interest on the global distribution system.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein the step of booking the itinerary on the appropriate host environment further includes re-pricing the itinerary a second time on the appropriate host environment.

13. The method of claim 7 further comprising the step of designating a default host environment, and if a direct link to said air carrier'"'"'s host environment is not available and booking said itinerary of interest on said default host environment.

14. A system for booking air travel itineraries on a plurality of different host ticketing environments, the system comprising:

first and second host adaptor modules, each host adaptor module configured to interact with one of said host ticketing environments; and

a booking engine, wherein said engine is configured to receive commands and data objects from said application layer and to selectively send said commands and data objects to said first and second host adaptor modules based on predefined selection requirements and to receive said data objects from said first and second host adaptor modules in response to said function calls.

15. The system of claim 14 further comprising an application server and a first interface module between the application server and the booking engine, a second interface module between the booking engine and the first host adaptor module and a third interface module between the booking engine and the third host adaptor module.

16. The system of claim 15 wherein the interface modules each provide substantially the same functionality such that communications between the booking engine and the first and second host adaptor modules are transparent to the application server, and communications between the application server and the booking engine are transparent to the first and second host adaptor modules.

17. The system of claim 14 wherein the booking engine is configured as a logical switch such that commands received from the application server are passed on to one or the other of said first and second host adaptor modules and data objects received from said first or second host adaptor modules are passed on to the application server.

18. The system of claim 14 further comprising a low fare search engine so that air travel itineraries may be searched independently of said first and second host environments.

19. The system of claim 18 wherein one of said predefined selection requirements comprises a determination as to whether an itinerary search was performed on said independent database or on one of said host environments.

20. The system of claim 14 wherein one of said host environments is designated a default host environment, and wherein one of said predefined selection requirements comprises determining whether a prior received function call had been processed by the default host environment.