System for, and method of, providing travel-related services
First Claim
1. A method of providing travel-related services to a recipient, including the steps of:
- determining from the recipient parameters defining a proposed travel-related service to be provided to the recipient, obtaining considerations through a wide area network from first competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, obtaining considerations through the internet from second competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, providing a display of the considerations offered by the first and second competitors for providing the travel-related services to the recipient, determining from the display whether a selected one of the travel-related competitors is at a disadvantage relating to other competitors in the consideration to be provided by the recipient for the travel-related services, and providing for a change in the consideration to be provided by the recipient to a selected one of the travel-related competitors to produce an advantage to the selected one of the travel-related competitors in performing the travel-related services to the recipient.
7 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Legacy transactions, and their costs, meeting specified parameters may be provided through a wide area network to a processing station (e.g. a travel agency). These parameters may be airline flights leaving on a particular day from a specified originating location to a specified destination and specifying established and published fares of primary airlines. Individual transactions (e.g., airline flights and fares) may be provided to a database at the travel agency through the internet from (a) airlines other than the primary airlines in the legacy servers, (b) the primary airlines with discounted fares, (c) consolidators offering wholesale fares and (d) an Orbitz web server. A display screen at the processing station respectively displays the legacy transactions and the other transactions on first and second portions of a display screen. The database selects one of the transactions and provides for the printing of a ticket for the selected transaction at a printer at the travel agency or a printer at the legacy server and for an accounting at the travel agency or the legacy server.
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Citations
34 Claims
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1. A method of providing travel-related services to a recipient, including the steps of:
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determining from the recipient parameters defining a proposed travel-related service to be provided to the recipient, obtaining considerations through a wide area network from first competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, obtaining considerations through the internet from second competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, providing a display of the considerations offered by the first and second competitors for providing the travel-related services to the recipient, determining from the display whether a selected one of the travel-related competitors is at a disadvantage relating to other competitors in the consideration to be provided by the recipient for the travel-related services, and providing for a change in the consideration to be provided by the recipient to a selected one of the travel-related competitors to produce an advantage to the selected one of the travel-related competitors in performing the travel-related services to the recipient. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 34)
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7. A method of presenting a need of a customer for travel-related services and of presenting offers from suppliers for fulfilling such needs and providing acceptance of the travel-related services offered by one of the suppliers, including the steps of:
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providing parameters defining the travel-related need of the customer, listing on a display screen from a number of different suppliers a plurality of travel-related offers fulfilling the travel-related need of the customer, providing for a commitment from a selected one of the suppliers to reduce the price of the offer from the selected one of the suppliers when the price quotation by another one of the suppliers is less than the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers, and reducing the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers in accordance with the commitment of the selected one of the suppliers when the price quotation from the other one of the suppliers is less than the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 11, 12, 25, 26, 28, 29)
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10. A method of presenting a need of a recipient for travel-related services and of presenting offers from suppliers to the recipient for fulfilling such needs and providing acceptance by the recipient of the travel-related services offered by a selected one of the suppliers including the steps of:
the travel-related services constitute airline flights and the consideration involved in the travel-related services include money payable by the recipient for the travel-related services and a certificate provided by the selected one of the travel-related competitors to the recipient and redeemable by the recipient at the selected one of the travel-related services, - View Dependent Claims (13, 30)
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14. A method of presenting a need of a customer for a travel-related service, of providing offers from suppliers of travel-related services for fulfilling such need and of receiving acceptance from the customer for the travel-related service offered by the selected one of the suppliers, including the following steps:
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providing parameters defining the travel-related need of the customer, using wide area network techniques to provide offers from first suppliers for the travel-related need of the customer, using internet techniques to provide offers from second suppliers different from the first suppliers to fulfill the travel-related need of the customer, presenting the offers from the first and second suppliers to the customer is closely positioned relationship on a display screen, receiving a prior authorization from the selected one of the first and second suppliers to reduce the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers for the travel-related service when the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers without any reduction in price is above the price offered by another one of the suppliers and the price offered by the selected one of the customers with the price reduction is below the price offered by the other one of the suppliers, and reducing the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers for the travel-related service without any further authorization from the selected one of the suppliers when the reduced price from the selected one of the suppliers is below the price offered by the other one of the suppliers. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 32, 33)
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18. A method of providing travel-related services to a recipient, including the steps of:
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determining from the recipient parameters defining a proposed travel-related service to be provided to the recipient, obtaining considerations through a wide area network from first competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, obtaining considerations through the internet from second competitors offering to perform the travel-related services in accordance with the parameters defined by the recipient, providing a display of the considerations offered by the first and second competitors for providing the travel-related services to the recipient, determining from the display whether a selected one of the travel-related competitors is at a disadvantage relating to other competitors in the consideration to be provided by the recipient for the travel-related services, and providing for a change in the consideration to be provided by the recipient to a selected one of the travel-related competitors to produce an advantage to the selected one of the travel-related competitors in performing the travel-related services to the recipient.
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24. A method of presenting a need of a customer for travel-related services and of presenting offers from suppliers for fulfilling such needs and providing acceptance of the travel-related services offered by one of the suppliers, including the steps of:
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providing parameters defining the travel-related need of the customer, listing on a display screen from a number of different suppliers a plurality of travel-related offers fulfilling the travel-related need of the customer, providing for a commitment from a selected one of the suppliers to reduce the price of the offer from the selected one of the suppliers when the price quotation by another one of the suppliers is less than the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers, and reducing the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers in accordance with the commitment of the selected one of the suppliers when the price quotation from the other one of the suppliers is less than the price quotation from the selected one of the suppliers.
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27. A method of presenting a need of a recipient for travel-related services and of presenting offers from suppliers to the recipient for fulfilling such needs and providing acceptance by the recipient of the travel-related services offered by a selected one of the suppliers including the steps of:
the travel-related services constitute airline flights and the consideration involved in the travel-related services include money payable by the recipient for the travel-related services and a certificate provided by the selected one of the travel-related competitors to the recipient and redeemable by the recipient at the selected one of the travel-related services,
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31. A method of presenting a need of a customer for a travel-related service, of providing offers from suppliers of travel-related services for fulfilling such need and of receiving acceptance from the customer for the travel-related service offered by the selected one of the suppliers, including the following steps:
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providing parameters defining the travel-related need of the customer, using wide area network techniques to provide offers from first suppliers for the travel-related need of the customer, using internet techniques to provide offers from second suppliers different from the first suppliers to fulfill the travel-related need of the customer, presenting the offers from the first and second suppliers to the customer is closely positioned relationship on a display screen, receiving a prior authorization from the selected one of the first and second suppliers to reduce the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers for the travel-related service when the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers without any reduction in price is above the price offered by another one of the suppliers and the price offered by the selected one of the customers with the price reduction is below the price offered by the other one of the suppliers, and reducing the price offered by the selected one of the suppliers for the travel-related service without any further authorization from the selected one of the suppliers when the reduced price from the selected one of the suppliers is below the price offered by the other one of the suppliers.
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Specification