TRAVEL INFORMATION FARE HISTORY GRAPH

• US 20070198309A1
• Filed: 02/15/2007
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Crean, Hugh, Fridgen, Michael, Bartot, Jay
• Granted Patent: US 8,392,224 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 30/0603 Catalogue ordering

Abstract

A method and system for presenting travel information in a way that facilitates identifying travel plans that satisfy objectives is provided. A travel information system collects travel information for the travel items on various observation dates including the current date and presents the travel information to a user in a way that facilitates travel planning and travel shopping. The travel information system stores the travel information in an observation store. To provide travel information that satisfies a search criterion, the travel information system retrieves the travel information that satisfies the search criterion either from flight information of the observation store or from current flight information provided in real time from a source of travel information. The flight information system provides the travel information in various formats to facilitate travel planning. These formats include a fare history graph, an interval grid, a route map, a future fare graph, and/or a departure date/duration grid.

Claims

1. A method in a computer system for presenting airline fare information, the method comprising:

receiving from a user a search request having a search criterion;

retrieving, for various observation dates, flight information for airline flights that match the search criterion;

retrieving as search results current flight information for airline flights that match the search criterion;

generating a fare history graph from the retrieved flight information that illustrates the history of fares for the airline flights that match the search criterion over the observation dates; and

sending for presentation to the user the search results along with the generated fare history graph.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the fare history graph includes an observation date axis and a fare axis.

3. The method of claim 1 including collecting on observation dates flight information for airline flights.

4. The method of claim 3 including generating trip information by aggregating the flight information for airline flights associated with a trip.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the fare history graph illustrates the lowest fare available on an observation date for airline flights that match the search criterion.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criterion identifies a trip, wherein a trip is a combination of departure location and date and return location and date.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criterion includes a maximum fare.

8. The method of claim 1 including displaying fares of the current flight information at different time intervals of the departure date.

9. The method of claim 1 including displaying fares of the current flight information at different time intervals of the return date.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criterion specifies a one-way trip.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the search criterion specifies a round trip.

12. A computer-readable medium embedded with instructions for controlling a computing device to generate a presentation of airline fare information, by a method comprising:

receiving from a user a search request having a search criterion;

retrieving previously observed flight information for airline flights that match the search criterion;

generating a fare history graph from the retrieved flight information that illustrates the history of fares for the airline flights that match the search criterion over the observations; and

sending for presentation to the user the search results along with the generated fare history graph.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the fare history graph includes an observation date axis and a fare axis.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 including collecting on observation dates flight information for airline flights.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 14 including generating trip information by aggregating the flight information for airline flights associated with a trip.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the fare history graph illustrates the lowest fare available on an observation date for airline flights that match the search criterion.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 wherein the search criterion identifies a trip, wherein a trip is a combination of departure location and date and return location and date.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 12 including displaying fares of the current flight information at different time intervals of the departure date.

19. A computing device for presenting airline fare information comprising:

a component that collects flight information from sources of travel information at observation dates;

a component that generates summary flight information for combinations of destination location and return location;

a component that stores the summary flight information in a flight information store;

a component that receives a search criterion;

a component that retrieves summary flight information from the flight information store for flights that satisfy the search criterion;

a component that generates a presentation of the retrieved flight information; and

a component that sends the generated presentation for presenting to a person.

20. The computing device of claim 19 wherein the generated presentation is selected from a group consisting of a fare history graph, an interval grid, a route map, a future fare graph, and a departure date/duration grid.