Fee allocator system and method

• US 7,672,881 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Issued: 03/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2000
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Liberty Peak Ventures, LLC (Dominion Harbor Enterprises, LLC)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Berkley, John, Steury, Lisa, Bloom, Corbett, Cooke, Corinna, Rozenwaser, Bill, Scarpaci, Frank
• Primary Examiner(s): Zeender, F. Ryan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Sheikh, Asfand M
• Application Number:
  US11/767,881
• Publication Number:
  US 20070250357A1
• Time in Patent Office: 981 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/34
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/10 specially adapted for electronic funds transfer [EFT] systems; specially adapted for home banking systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/20 Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/04 Billing or invoicing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03

Abstract

A system is provided for automatically billing a designated account for fees associated with the costs of tickets and other similar services. Passenger Record Number data and similar data is provided through a Computerized Reservation System and an accounting system to a Fee Allocator program which automatically interprets the data, determines appropriate fees based on the data and a user profile, and bills the fees to an appropriate account based on the user profile. Billing data provided to the account also facilitates the process of reconciling the fees to the travel ticket costs. Enhanced descriptive billing statements can be created simplifying the process of reconciling fees to the travel ticket costs.

Claims

1. A system for facilitating an automatic allocation of fees and costs associated with a travel-related transaction, said system having a network interface communicating with a memory, said memory communicating with a processor, said processor, when executing a computer program, is configured to:

compare, by said processor, at least a portion of a Passenger Name Record to information in a user profile;

identify, by said processor, an agency fee to be charged for assistance by a travel agency based on said comparison, wherein said user profile comprises allocation information, and wherein said allocation information defines said agency fee with a corresponding first billing account and a travel cost with a corresponding second billing account; and

,

charge, by said processor, said agency fee to said first billing account and said travel cost to said second billing account, according to said user profile.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said Passenger Name Record is received from an accounting system.

3. The system of claim 1, further configured to provide an enhanced descriptive billing statement which recites said travel cost related to said travel-related transaction and separately recites said agency fee.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein said enhanced descriptive billing statement further recites indicia indicating that said agency fee and said travel cost are related to each other.

5. The system of claim 1, further configured to format said Passenger Name Record in a Passenger Name Record format.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein said first billing account comprises fee reconciling information.

7. The system of claim 1, further configured to provide a credit entity with fee reconciling information.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein said first billing account and said second billing account are associated with the same entity.

9. The system of claim 1, further configured to receive a subset of said Passenger Name Record from a management information system.

10. The system of claim 1, further configured to receive said Passenger Name Record from at least one of a travel system or a Computer Reservation System.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein said agency fee represents an extra charge related to said travel-related transaction in addition to said travel cost.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein said travel cost represents charges associated with said travel-related transaction.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of said agency fee includes loyalty points.

14. The system of claim 1, wherein at least a portion of said travel cost includes loyalty points.

15. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of said first billing account or said second billing account comprises a plurality of billing accounts.

16. The system of claim 1, further configured to reducing at least one of said agency fee or said travel cost in response to said travel-related transaction being in accordance with predefined rules.

17. A computer-readable medium tangibly embodying a plurality of computer-executable instructions, that, if executed by a computer processor, cause said computer processor to perform a method comprising:

comparing at least a portion of a Passenger Name Record to information in a user profile;

identifying an agency fee to be charged for assistance by a travel agency based on said comparison, wherein said user profile comprises allocation information, and wherein said allocation information defines said agency fee with a corresponding first billing account and a travel cost with a corresponding second billing account; and

,

charging said agency fee to said first billing account and said travel cost to said second billing account, according to said user profile.