On-Demand Flight Accident Insurance

• US 20100049553A1
• Filed: 08/14/2009
• Published: 02/25/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Flightsurance GmbH (2e Systems GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Flightsurance GmbH (2e Systems GmbH)
• Inventors: Bauer, Daniel, Douglas, Philip M., Forbes, Alistair J., Ortgiese, Jens, Kastner, Zoltan
• Granted Patent: US 8,224,676 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A system for providing flight accident insurance at low price and fixed coverage comprises means for limiting the number of policies that can be sold on any given flight to not more than a predetermined number. The predetermined number may be 20.

Claims

1. A system for providing flight accident insurance to a traveler, said system comprising:

a. means for accepting an application for said flight accident insurance from said traveler, said application comprising a listing of a flight on said traveler'"'"'s itinerary;

b. means for querying a flight database to determine if flight accident insurance is available for said flight, said availability being confirmed if there is less than a first number of said flight accident insurance policies already sold to other travelers for said flight;

c. means for receiving confirmation of the availability of said flight accident insurance for said traveler;

d. means for calculating a premium for said flight accident insurance; and

e. means for providing said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said first number is 20.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein said listing of said flight comprises a designation of an airline and wherein said premium is a function of the GDP of the country in which said airline is domiciled such that said premium is a decreasing function of said GDP.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for calculating said premium comprises means for calculating a minimum Risk Premium according to the equation:

5. The system of claim 4 wherein (1−

α

) is 90% and wherein Z<sub>(1−

α

)</sub> is the Z parameter for a multinomial distribution.

6. The system of claim 1 which further comprises a Web Server and a Web Server Cluster wherein said Web Server is specifically modified to serve as the extranet application portal and said Web Server cluster is specifically modified to serve as the insurance booking engine such that said premium and said offer of coverage can be provided in real time to said traveler.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said flight database comprises a listing of all airlines offering said flight such that said number of policies already sold is the sum of all policies sold to travelers booking under each said airlines.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein different airlines and different flight numbers will be considered to refer to the same flight if:

a. the different airlines belong to the same alliance;

b. the departure airports and arrival airports are the same for each of the different airlines and different flight numbers; and

c. the departure times are within 5 minutes of each other.

9. The system of claim 1 which further comprises means for updating said number of policies sold for a given flight after an insurance policy is issued such that conflicts due to simultaneous bookings by more than one traveler are prevented.

10. The system of claim 1 wherein means are provided for ceding a portion of the risk of said insurance policies to a reinsurer and wherein said portion is 90% or greater.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said means for providing said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler comprises one or more of a workstation in communication with the Internet or a mobile device.

12. A method for offering flight accident insurance to a traveler, said method comprising the steps of:

a. accepting an application for said flight accident insurance from said traveler, said application comprising a listing of a flight on said traveler'"'"'s itinerary;

b. querying a flight database to determine if flight accident insurance is available for said flight, said availability being confirmed if there is less than a first number of said flight accident insurance policies already sold to other travelers for said flight;

c. receiving confirmation of the availability of said flight accident insurance for said traveler;

d. calculating a premium for said flight accident insurance; and

e. providing said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler

wherein at least a portion of said steps is carried on at least one server specifically modified to securely provide said offer.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said premium is a fixed premium.

14. The method of claim 13 wherein a Risk Premium is calculated, said Risk Premium is used to calculate a final premium and wherein said premium is set equal to said final premium if said final premium is greater than said fixed premium.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said flight comprises two connecting flights and wherein said final premium is calculated based on the sum of the calculated final premiums of each of said connecting flights.