Flight bidding system or the like especially for airline personnel
First Claim
1. The process of deriving a schedule of proposed bid lines for bid line balloting by airline personnel, which comprises(a) providing a first computer-accessible database for the entry of individual records of subscriber flight criteria preferences in predetermined categories of bid line data,(b) providing a second computer-accessible database for the entry of periodic bid line data published by a commercial airline,(c) performing a data analysis of the bid line data of said second database on a bid line by bid line basis to evaluate the individual data of each of said bid lines against the individually expressed preferences of the predetermined categories of said first database, for each subscriber,(d) on the basis of said analysis, calculating a selection value for each of the bid lines generally representative of the degree to which each such bid line tends to satisfy the individual flight criteria preferences previously entered by the subscriber, and(e) outputting an ordered list of bid lines, comprising all or part of said entire database of bid line data of said second database, arranged in a progressive order of selection value.
0 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A system and procedure is disclosed for evaluating published bid line data of commercial airlines and developing therefrom an ordered set of bid lines arranged according to the degree to which such bid lines tend to satisfy individually expressed preferences and priorities of an airline employee. A system subscriber enters his or her preferences and priorities, according to preestablished defined categories, into a computer database, preferably inputting the information through key entries on a touch tone telephone. Subsequently, when monthly bid lines are published by the employer airline, the various bid lines are computer analyzed, one by one, against the subscriber'"'"'s recorded preferences and priorities, evaluating such data as credit hours, layovers, arrivals and departures, trips, days off, etc. The output of the syste is an ordered list of flight numbers, specific to a given subscriber, arranged in order of tendency to satisfy the subscriber'"'"'s expressed preferences and priorities. This may be a printed record, an electronic transmission or the like. The procedures utilized are readily applicable to so-called open time bidding, as well as to bid swapping. Many of the techniques of the invention are applicable as well to other selection procedures in which selections are based upon pre-established preferences.
202 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. The process of deriving a schedule of proposed bid lines for bid line balloting by airline personnel, which comprises
(a) providing a first computer-accessible database for the entry of individual records of subscriber flight criteria preferences in predetermined categories of bid line data, (b) providing a second computer-accessible database for the entry of periodic bid line data published by a commercial airline, (c) performing a data analysis of the bid line data of said second database on a bid line by bid line basis to evaluate the individual data of each of said bid lines against the individually expressed preferences of the predetermined categories of said first database, for each subscriber, (d) on the basis of said analysis, calculating a selection value for each of the bid lines generally representative of the degree to which each such bid line tends to satisfy the individual flight criteria preferences previously entered by the subscriber, and (e) outputting an ordered list of bid lines, comprising all or part of said entire database of bid line data of said second database, arranged in a progressive order of selection value.
-
6. The process of deriving a schedule of proposed bid lines for bid line balloting by airline personnel, which comprises
(a) providing a first computer-accessible bid selection database for the entry of bid selection criteria, (b) providing a second computer-accessible database comprised of a schedule of bid lines published by an airline for a predetermined employee group, (c) entering into said bid selection database a plurality of bid selection preference and priority criteria for an airline crew member, (d) weighting each of said bid selection criteria according to the priority thereof determined by said crew member, (e) successively analyzing the bid lines of said second database according to the weighted selection criteria of said bid selection database, and (f) outputting an ordered schedule of bid lines according to their tendency to satisfy said weighted selection criteria.
-
9. The process of deriving a schedule of proposed bid lines for bid line balloting by airline crews, which comprises
(a) receiving from individual airline crew members, bid line selection criteria, in predetermined categories, in the form of coded signals from a remote terminal, (b) converting said signals to coded inputs of a form readable by a host computer, (c) providing a first computer-accessible database, (d) entering said coded inputs into individualized bid criteria records of said first database maintained for each said crew member, (e) entering into a second computer-accessible database the bid lines published by an airline for a predetermined scheduling period, (f) for each such crew member record, analyzing the published bid lines of said second database successively against the criteria of said individualized records and selecting from said second database an ordered schedule of a predetermined number of bid lines most closely meeting the bid line selection criteria of each such crew member record, and (g) providing an output comprising said ordered schedules.
-
13. The method of processing a series of proposed subscriber selections of airline bid lines which comprises
(a) receiving from individual subscribers selection criteria, in predetermined categories, in the form of coded signals from a remote terminal, (b) converting said signals to coded inputs of a form readable by a host computer, (c) providing a first computer-accessible database, (d) entering said coded inputs into individualized selection criteria records of said first database for each said subscriber, (e) entering into a second computer-accessible database the bid line selection data periodically published by an airline supplier, (f) for each such subscriber record, analyzing the published selection data of said second database successively against the criteria of said individualized selection criteria records and selecting from said second database an ordered schedule of selections most closely meeting the selection criteria of each such subscriber, and (g) utilizing the database of individualized selection criteria records of a plurality of subscribers for bid line swapping among subscribers.
-
16. The process of deriving a schedule of proposed subscriber selections which comprises
(a) receiving from individual subscribers selection criteria, in predetermined categories, in the form of coded signals from a remote terminal, (b) converting said signals to coded inputs of a form readable by a host computer, (c) providing a first computer-accessible database, (d) entering said coded inputs into individualized selection criteria records of said first database for each said subscriber, (e) entering into a second computer-accessible database the selection data periodically published by a supplier, (f) for each such subscriber record, analyzing the published selection data of said second database successively against the criteria of said individualized selection criteria records and selecting from said second database an ordered schedule of selections most closely meeting the selection criteria of each such subscriber, (g) providing an output comprising said ordered schedule, (h) said supplier being an airline company, and (i) said selection data comprising bid line data as periodically published by said airline company.
Specification