Performing predictive pricing based on historical data

• US 20070021991A1
• Filed: 02/10/2006
• Published: 01/25/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Alexander Yates, Craig Knoblock, Oren Etzioni, Rattapoom Tuchinda
• Inventors: Etzioni, Oren, Tuchinda, Rattapoom, Yates, Alexander, Knoblock, Craig
• Granted Patent: US 7,346,520 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 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/201 Price look-up processing, e.g. updating
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0202 Market predictions or forecasting for commercial activities
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0206 Price or cost determination based on market factors
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0273 Determination of fees for advertising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0283 Price estimation or determination
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0611 Request for offers or quotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

Techniques are described for using predictive pricing information for items to assist in evaluating buying and/or selling decisions in various ways, such as on behalf of end-user item acquirers and/or intermediate item providers. The predictive pricing for an item may be based on an analysis of historical pricing information for that item and/or related items, and can be used to make predictions about future pricing information for the item. Such predictions may then be provided to users in various ways to enable comparison of current prices to predicted future prices. In some situations, predictive pricing information is used to assist customers when purchasing airline tickets and/or to assist travel agents when selling airline tickets. This abstract is provided to comply with rules requiring an abstract, and it is submitted with the intention that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.

Claims

1-67. -67. (canceled)

68. A method in a computing system for providing information on airline tickets to customers, the method comprising:

providing information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations for multiple airlines;

analyzing the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations;

receiving a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date;

when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will be lower than a current price for a desired airline flight,

offering to sell an airline ticket for that desired airline flight to the customer at an offered price that is between the current price and the future price; and

when the customer accepts the offer, purchasing on behalf of the customer the airline ticket for that desired airline flight after the price drops below the offered price; and

when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will not be lower than the current price for the desired airline flights, advising the customer that a future price will likely not be lower.

69. The method of claim 68 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for a time range.

70. The method of claim 68 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for multiple airlines.

71. The method of claim 68 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for multiple airports.

72. The method of claim 68 wherein when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will not be lower than the current price for the desired airline flights, advising the customer to purchase an airline ticket for one of the desired airline flights at the current price.

73. The method of claim 68 wherein when a customer is advised that a future price will likely not be lower, offering price protection insurance to the customer.

74. The method of claim 73 wherein when the customer accepts the price protection insurance and when a future price drops below the current price, providing a discount to the customer.

75. A method in a computing system for providing information airline tickets to customers, the method comprising:

providing information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations for multiple airlines;

analyzing the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations;

receiving a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date;

providing to the customer a likely direction of future price changes for a desired airline flight;

offering price protection insurance to the customer based on the likely direction of future price changes; and

when the customer accepts the offer for price protection insurance and the provided likely direction of future prices turns out to be incorrect, providing additional benefit to the customer.

76. The method of claim 75 wherein the additional benefit includes providing a refund of a desired airline ticket purchased by the customer.

77. The method of claim 75 wherein the customer purchases the desired airline ticket at the current price and the future price drops below the current price.

78. The method of claim 75 including

when the customer does not accept the offer of price protection insurance,

when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will be lower than a current price for a desired airline flight,

offering to sell an airline ticket for that desired airline flight to the customer at an offered price that is between the current price and the future price;

and

when the customer accepts the offered price, purchasing on behalf of the customer the airline ticket for that desired airline flight after the price drops below the offered price.

79. The method of claim 75 including

when the customer does not accept the offer of price protection insurance,

when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will not be lower than the current price for the desired airline flights, advising the customer that a future price will likely not be lower.

80. The method of claim 75 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for a time range.

81. The method of claim 75 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for multiple airlines.

82. The method of claim 75 wherein the analyzing of the provided information includes aggregating price information about airline tickets for multiple airports.

83. The method of claim 75 wherein when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will not be lower than the current price for the desired airline flights, advising the customer to purchase an airline ticket for a desired airline flight at the current price.

84. The method of claim 75 wherein the provided providing information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights for a specified interval of time.

86. The method of claim 84 including offering price protection insurance to the customer to protect the customer in the event that the predicted price trend for the desired airline flight is incorrect.

85. A method in a computing system for providing for the sale of airline tickets to customers, the method comprising:

providing information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations for multiple airlines;

analyzing the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations;

receiving a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date; and

advising the customer of the current price of a desired airline flight and of a predicted price trend for the desired airline flight so that the customer can decide whether to purchase an airline ticket for the desired airline flight at the current price.

87. A method in a computing system for providing notifications of airline ticket prices to customers, the method comprising:

receiving a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desire+d departure date;

receiving information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations;

analyzing the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations; and

when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will be different from a current price for a desired airline flight, sending an alert to the customer that that a future price will likely be different from the current price for one of the desired airline flight.

88. The method of claim 87 wherein the predicted price trend indicates that the future price will be lower than the current price.

89. The method of claim 87 wherein the predicted price trend indicates that the future price will be higher than the current price.

90. The method of claim 87 wherein the alert indicates that the current price is a good buy.

91. The method of claim 87 including automatically purchasing at the current prices an airline ticket for one of the desired airline flights.

94. The computing system of claim 91 wherein the component that analyzes the received information includes aggregates price information about airline tickets for a time range.

95. The computing system of claim 91 wherein the component that analyzes the received information includes aggregates price information about airline tickets for multiple airlines.

96. The computing system of claim 91 wherein the component that provides the notification indicates that the current prices is a good buy when the predicted price trend indicates that the future price will not be lower than the current price for an airline flight.

97. The computing system of claim 91 wherein the component that provides the notification offers price protection insurance to the customer.

100. The computing system of claim 90 wherein the additional benefit includes providing a refund of a desired airline ticket purchased by the customer.

92. A computing system for providing information on airline tickets to customers, comprising:

a component that receives information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations and analyzes the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations; and

a component that provides a notification of a price for an airline ticket that is between the current price and a future price when a predicted price trend indicates that the future price will be lower than a current price for the airline flight.

93. The computing system of claim 92 including:

a component that receives a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date wherein the component the provides the notification offers to sell the airline ticket for a desired airline flight to the customer at the price; and

a component that purchases on behalf of the customer the airline ticket for that desired airline flight after the price drops below the price when the customer accepts the offer.

98. A computing system for providing information airline tickets to customers, comprising:

a component that receives information about prices for airline tickets that were previously offered to customers for airline flights between origins and destinations and analyzes the provided information to predict price trends for airline tickets between origins and destinations; and

a component that provides a likely direction of future price changes for a desired airline flight and offers price protection insurance to the customer based on the likely direction of future price changes.

99. The computing system of claim 98 including:

a component that receives a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date; and

a component that provides additional benefit to the customer when the customer accepts the offer for price protection insurance and the provided likely direction of future prices turns out to be incorrect.

101. The computing system of claim 98 including

a component that receives a request from a customer for pricing information relating to desired airline flights between a desired origin and a desired destination for a desired departure date;

a component that, when the customer does not accept the offer of price protection insurance and when a predicted price trend indicates that a future price will be lower than a current price for a desired airline flight, offers to sell an airline ticket for that desired airline flight to the customer at an offered price that is between the current price and the future price; and

a component that, when the customer accepts the offered price, purchases on behalf of the customer the airline ticket for that desired airline flight after the price drops below the offered price.

102. The computing system of claim 98 wherein the component that analyzes the received information includes aggregates price information about airline tickets for a time range.

103. The computing system of claim 98 wherein the component that analyzes the received information includes aggregates price information about airline tickets for multiple airlines.

104. The computing system of claim 98 wherein the component that analyzes the received information includes aggregates price information about airline tickets for multiple airports.