Method and System of Building Actual Travel Fares
First Claim
1. A method of building actual travel fares in a computer (160) from at least one fare database (218), said method including the steps of:
- building a graph of nodes (220), said nodes (221) representing travel destinations from other said nodes, said graph comprising edges (226) connecting pairs (221, 225) of said nodes, each said edge referencing (240) a lowest travel fare (231) for the said pair of nodes;
building a tree of fares (230) for each said graph edge, said each tree comprising at least a root node (231), said root holding said lowest travel fare for said graph edge, said tree possibly including more nodes (232) comprising a context key (2321) and an associated travel fare (2322), said tree organized to have children nodes (234) holding a said travel fare equal to or larger than said travel fare in a parent node (232);
extracting (200) fare paths from said graph of nodes, said graph edges (222, 224) included in said fare paths referencing associated said trees of fares to built said fare paths.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A method of building actual travel fares in a computer, from fare databases, is disclosed. A graph of nodes representing travel destinations is built which comprises edges connecting pairs of nodes. Each edge references a lowest travel fare. Also, a tree of fares is built for each graph edge. Trees comprise at least a root node holding the lowest travel fare of the corresponding graph edge. They possibly include more nodes comprising a context key and an associated travel fare. Trees are organized to have children nodes holding a travel fare equal to or larger than travel fare of a parent node. Thus, less expensive fare paths can efficiently be extracted since graph edges, included in the fare paths, reference the associated trees of fares and are gone through in ascending order of their lowest fare values. A learning entity is used to build and update the trees of fares.
-
Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A method of building actual travel fares in a computer (160) from at least one fare database (218), said method including the steps of:
- building a graph of nodes (220), said nodes (221) representing travel destinations from other said nodes, said graph comprising edges (226) connecting pairs (221, 225) of said nodes, each said edge referencing (240) a lowest travel fare (231) for the said pair of nodes;
building a tree of fares (230) for each said graph edge, said each tree comprising at least a root node (231), said root holding said lowest travel fare for said graph edge, said tree possibly including more nodes (232) comprising a context key (2321) and an associated travel fare (2322), said tree organized to have children nodes (234) holding a said travel fare equal to or larger than said travel fare in a parent node (232);
extracting (200) fare paths from said graph of nodes, said graph edges (222, 224) included in said fare paths referencing associated said trees of fares to built said fare paths. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16)
- building a graph of nodes (220), said nodes (221) representing travel destinations from other said nodes, said graph comprising edges (226) connecting pairs (221, 225) of said nodes, each said edge referencing (240) a lowest travel fare (231) for the said pair of nodes;
- 12. A system, in particular a travel planning system (105), including said fare learning component (110), wherein said travel planning system is made capable of proposing thematic travel options to said end-users (600).
Specification