METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR RESERVING FUTURE PURCHASES OF GOODS OR SERVICES

• US 20110301986A1
• Filed: 07/26/2011
• Published: 12/08/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Holdit, LLC
• Original Assignee: Option It Incorporated (Learning Technologies Group Plc)
• Inventors: Pappas, Christian S., Brown, Charles P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,301,550 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions

Abstract

A method and system for reserving future purchases of airline tickets using plural electronic options. The electronic options are used to reserve plural airline fares on a plural airline routes to plural destinations and a plural of fare classes for a pre-determined period. A final airline fare, route, destination and fare class is determined when the electronic option is actually exercised. All other reservations are automatically canceled. The method and system allows the electronic options to be purchased to book now and pay later for airline tickets and other travel related goods and services such rental cars, hotel rooms, event tickets, local attraction tickets, theme park tickets, etc.

Claims

1. A method for providing automatic execution of electronic options, comprising:

providing a plurality of electronic options for airline tickets to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network, wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow the reservation of a plurality of airline fares on a plurality of airline routes to a plurality destinations and a plurality of fare classes for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

receiving securely on the first server network device a pre-determined option fee from a first client network device to purchase an electronic option with the specialized airline option terms for a desired airline ticket via the computer network;

recording on the first server network device the purchase of the electronic option for in a database associated with the server network device;

receiving on the first server network device one or more selection messages for selection of a plurality of desired airline fares on a plurality of desired airline routes to a plurality of desired destinations and a plurality of desired fare classes associated with the purchased electronic option from the first client network device via the computer network;

receiving on the first server network device a final selection message to exercise the purchased electronic option including selection of a final desired airline fare on a final desired airline route to a final desired destination for a final desired fare class from the first client network device via the computer network;

exercising the purchased electronic option at a final option exercise price and booking a final desired airline ticket for the final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to a final desired destination for the final desired fare class, wherein the final desired airline fare is determined by final option exercise price and a set of other pre-determined factors; and

canceling automatically on the first server network device all other selections of the plurality of desired airline fares on the plurality of desired airline routes to the plurality of desired destinations and the plurality of desired fare classes not including the final airline ticket with final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to the final desired destination for the final desired fare class.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the set of other pre-determined factors include a number of accumulated game, reward or loyalty points, a number of accumulated miles, electronic coupon information from a couponing site, or electronic information from a social networking site.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the final option exercise price is determined as a lowest price for the desired good or service during a specified time period as a pre-determined external price factor calculated based on a low, high, or average level during a specified time period for the pre-determined external price factor, based on a number of electronic options actually purchased, is determined based on an occurrence of an external event or based on actual availability of the airline tickets.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the server network devices include a wireless networking interface comprising a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) wireless networking interface with 4^th generation (4G) wireless speeds for communicating with the computer network and the plurality of client network devices.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the sending securely step includes sending securely using a Wireless Encryption Protocol (WEP), Wireless-Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), Robust Security Network (RSN), Advanced Encryption Standard (AES), Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES), Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA), Message Digest-5 (MD-5), Electronic Code Book (ECB), Diffie and Hellman (DH), HyperText Transport Protocol Secure, (HTTPs), Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), or a Transport Layer Security (TLS) security method.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving on the first server network device a pre-determined option fee includes receiving the pre-determined option fee from a smart application on the client network device, wherein the client network device comprises a smart phone or tablet computer.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending the received one or more selection messages from the first server network device to other selected client network devices via the computer network to allow a trip to be coordinated among the first client network device and the other selected client network devices, wherein the received one or more selection messages include a list of the other selected client network devices to send the one or more selection messages to.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein a set of the plurality of electronic options for airline tickets is provided by a server network device associated with a social networking site, a couponing site or an e-commerce site.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing second set of electronic options for desired travel related goods and services to the plurality of client network devices from the first server network device via the computer network;

receiving securely on the first server network device two or more pre-determined option fees from the first client network device to purchase two or more second electronic options for two or more desired travel related goods and services via the computer network;

associating automatically on the first server network device the purchased two or more second electronic options for the desired travel goods and services with the electronic option purchased for the desired airline ticket; and

exercising automatically on the first server network device the two or more purchased second electronic options at second final option exercise prices to the connect the final desired airline ticket with the one or more desired travel related goods and services.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein the desired travel related goods and services include rental car reservations, hotel room reservations, hotel amenities, local attraction tickets, event tickets, or theme park tickets.

12. The method of claim 10 wherein the associating step includes:

combining the two or more purchased second electronic options for the desired travel goods and services with the electronic option purchased for the desired airline ticket to create a combined electronic option.

13. The method of claim 12 further comprising:

exercising automatically on the first server network device the combined electronic option to provide the final desired airline ticket and the one or more desired travel related goods and services.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein the step exercising automatically on the first server network device the two or more purchased second electronic options includes exercising automatically the one or more purchased second electronic options as fully aligned electronic options wherein exercise dates and expiration dates identical for the purchased second electronic options, exercising automatically the two or more purchased second electronic options as partially aligned electronic wherein expiration dates for selected ones of the two or more purchased second electronic options are identical and other selected ones of the two or more purchase second electronic options are not identical or exercising the two or more purchased second electronic options as unaligned electronic options wherein exercise and expiration dates are all different for all of the two or more purchased second electronic options.

15. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of providing a plurality of second electronic options for desired travel related goods and services includes:

providing a plurality of different dates, times and prices for the desired travel related goods and services; and

providing a third set of electronic options for desired travel related goods and services to the plurality of client network devices from the first server network device via the computer network.

2. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions for causing one or more processors on a network device to execute the steps of:

providing a plurality of electronic options for airline tickets to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network, wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow the reservation of a plurality of airline fares on a plurality of airline routes to a plurality destinations and a plurality of fare classes for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

receiving securely on the first server network device a pre-determined option fee from a first client network device to purchase an electronic option with the specialized airline option terms for a desired airline ticket via the computer network;

recording on the first server network device the purchase of the electronic option for in a database associated with the server network device;

receiving on the first server network device one or more selection messages for selection of a plurality of desired airline fares on a plurality of desired airline routes to a plurality of desired destinations and a plurality of desired fare classes associated with the purchased electronic option from the first client network device via the computer network;

receiving on the first server network device a final selection message to exercise the purchased electronic option including selection of a final desired airline fare on a final desired airline route to a final desired destination for a final desired fare class from the first client network device via the computer network;

exercising the purchased electronic option at a final option exercise price and booking a final desired airline ticket for the final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to a final desired destination for the final desired fare class, wherein the final desired airline fare is determined by final option exercise price and a set of other pre-determined factors; and

canceling automatically on the first server network device all other selections of the plurality of desired airline fares on the plurality of desired airline routes to the plurality of desired destinations and the plurality of desired fare classes not including the final airline ticket with final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to the final desired destination for the final desired fare class.

16. A system for providing automatic execution of electronic options during a purchase transaction, comprising in combination:

means for providing a plurality of electronic options for airline tickets to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network, wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow the reservation of a plurality of airline fares on a plurality of airline routes to a plurality destinations and a plurality of fare classes for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

means for receiving securely on the first server network device a pre-determined option fee from a first client network device to purchase an electronic option with the specialized airline option terms for a desired airline ticket via the computer network;

means for recording on the first server network device the purchase of the electronic option for in a database associated with the server network device;

means for receiving on the first server network device one or more selection messages for selection of a plurality of desired airline fares on a plurality of desired airline routes to a plurality of desired destinations and a plurality of desired fare classes associated with the purchased electronic option from the first client network device via the computer network;

means for receiving on the first server network device a final selection message to exercise the purchased electronic option including selection of a final desired airline fare on a final desired airline route to a final desired destination for a final desired fare class from the first client network device via the computer network;

means for exercising the purchased electronic option at a final option exercise price and booking a final desired airline ticket for the final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to a final desired destination for the final desired fare class, wherein the final desired airline fare is determined by final option exercise price and a set of other pre-determined factors;

means for canceling automatically on the first server network device all other selections of the plurality of desired airline fares on the plurality of desired airline routes to the plurality of desired destinations and the plurality of desired fare classes not including the final airline ticket with final desired airline fare on the final desired airline route to the final desired destination for the final desired fare class;

means for providing a plurality of second electronic options for desired travel related goods and services to the plurality of client network from the first server network device via the computer network;

means for receiving securely on the first server network device one or more pre-determined option fees from the first client network device to purchase one or more second electronic options for one or more desired travel related goods and services via the computer network;

means for associating automatically on the first server network device the purchased second electronic options for the desired travel goods and services with the electronic option purchased for the desired airline ticket; and

means for exercising automatically on the first server network device the one or more purchased second electronic options at second final option exercise prices to the connect the final desired airline ticket with the one or more desired travel related goods and services.