Automated method and system for recognizing unfulfilled obligations and initiating steps to convert said obligations to a fulfilled status or to a null status for resale

• US 7,194,417 B1
• Filed: 09/22/2000
• Issued: 03/20/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/22/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Amadeus Revenue Integrity Incorporated (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Original Assignee: Amadeus Revenue Integrity Incorporated (Amadeus Global Travel Distribution S.A.)
• Inventors: Jones, Robert E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dixon; Thomas A.
• Application Number:
  US09/668,494
• Time in Patent Office: 2,370 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5, 705/6, 705/1
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events

Abstract

An automated method and system for identifying date-sensitive entries in a database wherein an obligation must be satisfied relative to the entry according to instructions provided by the beneficiary of the obligation. The method and system of the invention can be practiced from a location remote from the database and are particularly useful in a number of situations and particularly those wherein unticketed reservations are maintained in a storage medium for a time prior to issuance of a ticket to “firm up” the reservation to a ticketed status. The present system and methodology finds particular utility enforcing ticketing time limit rules on travel agency or other reservation and ticket issuers involved in the reserving and ticketing of airline bookings and the like and results in the reduction of no-shows and overbooking while increasing onboard load factors on sold-out flights in particular. The automated system of the invention is capable of operating essentially continually throughout seven days a week and twenty-four hours each day to constantly “firm” all or selected flights of a given carrier. Enforcement of ticket time limit rules can extend at the option of a user to booking class, market, point of sale and the like or any combination thereof.

Claims

1. In a flight firming process for automated firming of flight reservations made by a reserving entity for services which are to be confirmed by payment for said services prior to delivery of the services, which reservations are listed in a central database of reservations, the database being accessed with a computer operated by a computer program having a set of limiting standards to be applied to each reservation determined to be unconfirmed, the reserving entity being informed in an automated manner in accordance with the set of limiting standards of the need to confirm the reservation before expiration of time limitations established by the set of limiting standards, the improvement comprising:

coordinating access to the database to acquire data for operations therewith and scheduling said operations;

returning the data to the database after operations are performed thereto to a predetermined location within the database, to thereby update the database, all steps being accomplished by the computer program; and

,

assigning a new reservation to a robot, the robot assigning all or any portion of the limiting standards to the new reservation according to limitations imposed by the standards and issuing a warning message to the reserving entity in the event the reservation is not confirmed.

2. In the process of claim 1 wherein the predetermined location is a queue and the data is present in the form of a multiplicity of batches.

3. In the process of claim 2 wherein the improvement further comprises the step of increasing sizes of the batches in response to increasing levels of process activity.

4. In the process of claim 1 wherein confirming of a reservation comprises the step of issuing a ticket for the services.

5. In the process of claim 1 wherein the improvement comprises checking of reservations by the computer program for expired limiting standards and assigning of the reservation to a second robot which checks the reservation to determine confirmation status of the reservation and, depending on confirmation status, either cancels, queues, updates the reservation or adds another warning message to the reservation for informing the reserving entity depending upon a second set of limiting standards.

6. In the process of claim 1 wherein the process steps are effected remotely of the database of reservations.

7. In a system for firming flights in a central reservations system wherein the system includes a computer and at least one computer program for providing instructions to the computer, the central reservations system listing flight reservations issued by at least one reserving entity, the reservations being subject to ticketing according to a set of ticketing time limit rules, reservations and time limit rules to be applied to the reservations being obtained from the central reservations system, new reservations not previously subjected to flight firming being identified and assigned for flight firming, the new reservation being assigned one or more rules of the ticketing time limit rules and having a warning message added to the reservation in the event the reservation is not ticketed, the reserving entity being informed of the need to ticket the reservation subject to a set of conditions, the reservation being contained in a central database, the improvement comprising:

means for coordinating access to the database to acquire each reservation for operations thereon and for scheduling operations on each reservation;

means for returning each reservation to the database after the performance of operations thereon to a predetermined location within the database to thereby update the database, functions accomplished by the coordinating means and the reservation returning means being accomplished by the computer; and

,

means for checking reservations to determine issuance status of a ticket and, depending on issuance status, either cancels, queues, updates the reservation or adds another warning message to the reservation for transmittal to the reserving entity.

8. In the system of claim 7 wherein the computer program contains a set of standards indicative of suspicious names established according to certain criteria, the improvement further comprising means for checking the reservations for suspicious names.

9. In the system of claim 8 wherein data relating to the reservations and in a predetermined location is in a queue and the data is in the form of a multiplicity of batches, the improvement further comprising means for increasing size of at least certain of the batches in response to increasing levels of flight firming activity by the computer.

10. In the system of claim 7 wherein the improvement further comprises means for distributing data across the database to prevent data from becoming concentrated in any particular location within the database.

11. In the system of claim 7 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking a reservation for duplicate flight segments.

12. In the system of claim 7 wherein the system is remote from the central reservations system.

13. In the system of claim 7 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking reservations previously subjected to flight firming and assigning said reservations for further flight firming processing to determine whether the reservations have been confirmed.

14. In the system of claim 13 wherein the previously checked reservation is not confirmed, the improvement further comprising means for canceling, queuing or updating the reservation according to a further set of rules and transmitting such processing to the reserving entity.

15. In a flight firming process for automated firming of flight reservations made by a reserving entity for services which are to be confirmed by payment for said services prior to delivery of the services, which reservations are listed in a central database of reservations, the database being accessed with a computer operated by a computer program having a set of limiting standards to be applied to each reservation determined to be unconfirmed, the reserving entity being informed in an automated manner in accordance with the set of limiting standards of the need to confirm the reservation before expiration of time limitations established by the set of limiting standards, the improvement comprising:

coordinating access to the database to acquire data for operations therewith and scheduling said operations;

returning the data to the database after at least some of said operations are performed thereto to a predetermined location within the database, to thereby update the database, all steps being accomplished by the computer program;

checking said reservations for duplicate reservation numbers; and

,

assigning a new reservation to a robot, the robot assigning all or any portion of the limiting standards to the new reservation according to limitations imposed by the standards and issuing a warning message to the reserving entity in the event the reservation is not confirmed.

16. In the process of claim 15 wherein the predetermined location is a queue and the data is present in the form of a multiplicity of batches.

17. In the process of claim 16 wherein the improvement further comprises the step of increasing sizes of the batches in response to increasing levels of process activity.

18. In the process of claim 15 wherein confirming of a reservation comprises the step of issuing a ticket for the services.

19. In the process of claim 15 wherein the improvement comprises checking of reservations by the computer program for expired limiting standards and assigning of the reservation to a second robot which checks the reservation to determine confirmation status of the reservation and, depending on confirmation status, either cancels, queues, updates the reservation or adds another warning message to the reservation for informing the reserving entity depending upon a second set of limiting standards.

20. In the process of claim 15 wherein the process steps are effected remotely of the database of reservations.

21. In a system for firming flights in a central reservations system wherein the system includes a computer and at least one computer program for providing instructions to the computer, the central reservations system listing flight reservations issued by at least one reserving entity, the reservations being subject to ticketing according to a set of ticketing time limit rules, reservations and time limit rules to be applied to the reservations being obtained from the central reservations system, new reservations not previously subjected to flight firming being identified and assigned for flight firming, the new reservation being assigned one or more rules of the ticketing time limit rules and having a warning message added to the reservation in the event the reservation is not ticketed, the reserving entity being informed of the need to ticket the reservation subject to a set of conditions, the reservation being contained in a central database, the improvement comprising:

means for coordinating access to the database to acquire each reservation for operations thereon and for scheduling operations on each reservation;

means for returning each reservation to the database after the performance of operations thereon to a predetermined location within the database to thereby update the database;

means for checking a reservation for duplicate ticket numbers, functions accomplished by the coordinating means, the reservation returning means and the reservation checking means being accomplished by the computer; and

,

means for checking reservations to determine issuance status of a ticket and, depending on issuance status, either cancels, queues, updates the reservation or adds another warning message to the reservation for transmittal to the reserving entity.

22. In the system of claim 21, wherein the computer program contains a set of standards indicative of suspicious names established according to certain criteria, the improvement further comprising means for checking the reservations for suspicious names.

23. In the system of claim 22 wherein data relating to the reservations and in a predetermined location is in a queue and the data is in the form of a multiplicity of batches, the improvement further comprising means for increasing size of at least certain of the batches in response to increasing levels of flight firming activity by the computer.

24. In the system of claim 21 wherein the improvement further comprises means for distributing data across the database to prevent data from becoming concentrated in any particular location within the database.

25. In the system of claim 21 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking a reservation for duplicate flight segments.

26. In the system of claim 21 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking a reservation for existing ticket numbers.

27. In the system of claim 21 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking any reservation without a ticket number for existing ticketing time limit rules.

28. In the system of claim 21 wherein the system is remote from the central reservations system.

29. In the system of claim 21 wherein the improvement further comprises means for checking reservations previously subjected to flight firming and assigning said reservations for further flight firming processing to determine whether the reservations have been confirmed.

30. In the system of claim 29 wherein the previously checked reservation is not confirmed, the improvement further comprising means for canceling, queuing or updating the reservation according to a further set of rules and transmitting such processing to the reserving entity.