Processing Data Using Rules Based Engine

• US 20130060585A1
• Filed: 09/02/2011
• Published: 03/07/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/02/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Navitaire LLC (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Hornbaker, Terry Wayne, Sink, Raelynn A., Montero, Richard Joseph Lamprea
• Application Number:
  US13/224,587
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060585A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events

Abstract

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on a computer storage medium, for performing actions including receiving booking data for one or more customers, receiving profile data for each of the one or more customers, receiving operational data, processing the booking data, the profile data and the operational data based on one or more unit eligibility rules, each unit eligibility rule of the one or more unit eligibility rules including one or more conditions and one or more actions associated with the one or more conditions, generating an eligible unit group index based in the processing, and providing the eligible unit group index as input to a unit selection engine.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for selecting a unit for a customer, comprising:

receiving booking data for one or more customers, the booking data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving profile data for each of the one or more customers, the profile data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving operational data, the operational data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

processing the booking data, the profile data and the operational data based on one or more unit eligibility rules, each unit eligibility rule of the one or more unit eligibility rules comprising one or more conditions and one or more actions associated with the one or more conditions;

generating an eligible unit group index based in the processing; and

providing the eligible unit group index as input to a unit selection engine.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the eligible unit group index comprises the one or more customers and, for each customer of the one or more customers, a list of one or more unit groups that each customer of the one or more customers is eligible for.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein:

the eligible unit group index is generated at a first time and comprises the one or more customers and, for at least one customer of the one or more customers, an empty list of unit groups that the at least one customer is eligible for, the empty list indicating that the at least one customer is ineligible for assignment of a unit at the first time; and

the eligible unit group index is re-generated at a second time and, for the at least one customer, comprises a list of one or more unit groups that the at least one customer is eligible for at the second time.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the unit comprises one of a seat and a room in a travel conveyance, and the customer comprises a passenger on the travel conveyance.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the travel conveyance corresponds to a segment of a journey and the operational data corresponds to the segment.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the operational data comprises an equipment type associated with the travel conveyance and a load factor associated with the segment.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein the booking data comprises one or more of a fare basis, a booking class, a product class, an organization code, a promotional code, a booking channel, a list of special service requests (SSRs) in a passenger name record (PNR), an SSR associated with a booking of a particular passenger, a day of week of travel, a segment departure station, a segment arrival station, a journey departure station, a journey arrival station, a number of days before departure, a number of hours before departure, a number of minutes before departure, a travel date, a travel time of day, and a passenger age at travel.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the booking data comprises a role corresponding to an agent that is assigning the unit to a customer.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the role overrides one or more unit eligibility rules in assigning the unit to a customer.

10. The method of claim 4, wherein the profile data comprises at least one of passenger date of birth data, a program code of at least one passenger, a program level of at least passenger, a list of special service requests (SSRs) in a passenger name record (PNR), and an SSR associated with a particular passenger.

11. The method of claim 4, wherein the travel conveyance comprises one or an airplane, a train, a bus and a ship.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating the eligible unit group index is based on a current date relative to a departure date.

13. The method of claim 4, wherein the generating the eligible unit group index is based on a current time relative to a departure time.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user input, the user input defining the one or more unit eligibility rules.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the user input is provided by an agent of an entity that provides the one or more units.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving user input, the user input modifying a unit eligibility rule of the one or more unit eligibility rules.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the user input is provided by an agent of an entity that provides the one or more units.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the eligible unit group index comprises the one or more customers and, for each customer of the one or more customers, a list of one or more unit groups that each customer of the one or more customers is eligible for and one or more requirement identifiers, each requirement identifier being associated with each unit group of the one or more unit groups.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein each requirement identifier comprises at least one of a must be identifier, a may be identifier and a may not be identifier.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the must be identifier indicates a unit group from which a unit must be assigned to a particular customer.

21. The method of claim 19, wherein the may be identifier indicates a unit group from which a unit is able to be assigned to a particular customer.

22. The method of claim 19, wherein the must not be identifier indicates a unit group from which a unit cannot be assigned to a particular customer.

23. A system comprising:

one or more computers; and

a computer-readable medium coupled to the one or more computers having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising;

receiving booking data for one or more customers, the booking data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving profile data for each of the one or more customers, the profile data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving operational data, the operational data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

processing the booking data, the profile data and the operational data based on one or more unit eligibility rules, each unit eligibility rule of the one or more unit eligibility rules comprising one or more conditions and one or more actions associated with the one or more conditions;

generating an eligible unit group index based in the processing; and

providing the eligible unit group index as input to a unit selection engine.

24. A computer storage medium encoded with a computer program, the program comprising instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

receiving booking data for one or more customers, the booking data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving profile data for each of the one or more customers, the profile data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

receiving operational data, the operational data being stored in one or more computer-readable storage media;

processing the booking data, the profile data and the operational data based on one or more unit eligibility rules, each unit eligibility rule of the one or more unit eligibility rules comprising one or more conditions and one or more actions associated with the one or more conditions;

generating an eligible unit group index based in the processing; and

providing the eligible unit group index as input to a unit selection engine.