Managing a travel itinerary

• US 8,355,936 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2008
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/10/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Altaf, Faheem, Ravi, Kumar, Rybczynski, Eric Siegfried, Silveyra, Manuel
• Primary Examiner(s): Erb, Nathan
• Application Number:
  US12/054,571
• Publication Number:
  US 20080177584A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,757 Days
• Field of Search: 705/5
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/047 Optimisation of routes or paths, e.g. travelling salesman problem
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/109 Time management, e.g. calendars, reminders, meetings or time accounting

Abstract

Mechanisms for managing a travel itinerary of a user are disclosed. More particularly, hardware and/or software for managing the user'"'"'s travel itinerary based on the location of the user are disclosed. Embodiments may include receiving user location information and estimating the arrival time of the user at the departure point for a scheduled first trip of the user based on the user location information. Embodiments may also include comparing the estimated arrival time of the user at the destination with a departure time for the scheduled first trip and, if the arrival time is substantially earlier than the departure time or equal to or later than the departure time, rescheduling by the travel itinerary computer the user for a different second trip. Further embodiments may include transmitting notification to the user that he has been rescheduled to a second trip.

Claims

1. A method for managing a travel itinerary for a user on a wireless device connected to a wireless network, the method comprising:

receiving, by a travel itinerary computer, user location information from the user on the wireless device, the user location information providing an indication of the location of the user;

estimating, by the travel itinerary computer, the arrival time of the user at a destination based on the user location information, wherein the destination is a departure point for a first scheduled trip of the user on a first vehicle departing the departure point at approximately the departure time;

comparing, by the travel itinerary computer, the estimated arrival time of the user with a departure time for the first scheduled trip;

determining, by the travel itinerary computer, that the arrival time is substantially earlier than the departure time; and

rescheduling, by the travel itinerary computer in response to determining that the arrival time is substantially earlier than the departure time, the user for a second scheduled trip that is scheduled to depart prior to the first scheduled trip on a second vehicle departing the same or a different departure point at a second departure time prior to the first departure time, wherein rescheduling comprises;

automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle through a reservation system;

releasing the user'"'"'s reservation on the first vehicle in response to rescheduling the user for the second scheduled trip;

generating an estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point; and

determining that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time, wherein automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle and releasing the user reservation on the first vehicle are performed in response to the determination that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the travel itinerary computer, supplementary information from a supplementary information computer; and

wherein the estimating step comprises estimating, by the travel itinerary computer, the arrival time of the user at the destination based on the user location information and the supplementary information.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the supplementary information comprises information identifying at least one of security line delays at the departure point, check-in time delay at the departure point, or luggage check-in delays at the departure point.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, by the travel itinerary computer, a notification that the user has been rescheduled to the second scheduled trip to a third party device;

receiving an acknowledgment, from a third party using the third party device, acknowledging receipt of the notification that the user has been rescheduled to the second scheduled trip; and

outputting a notification to the user indicating that the third party has acknowledged receipt of the notification.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

accessing, by the travel itinerary computer, an electronic calendar associated with the user to identify one or more entries corresponding to the first scheduled trip; and

identifying the third party based on information stored in the one or more entries of the electronic calendar, wherein the transmitting of the notification to the third party device is performed in response to the identification of the third party from the one or more entries of the electronic calendar.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising rescheduling services, by one of the travel itinerary computer or a services computer, based on the second trip.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising automatically checking-in the user for the second scheduled trip.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the comparing step comprises comparing the estimated arrival time at the destination with the departure time for the first scheduled trip to determine if the user will be ahead of schedule, behind schedule, or on schedule for the scheduled trip.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating, by the travel itinerary computer, the arrival time of the user at a destination based on the user location information comprises estimating the arrival time based on historical travel time information collected for a plurality of users for traveling from the user'"'"'s location to the destination.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein estimating, by the travel itinerary computer, the arrival time of the user at a destination based on the user location information comprises estimating the arrival time based on historical travel time information collected for only the user.

11. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions of a computer readable program effective, when executing in a data processing system, to cause said data processing system to perform operations comprising:

receiving, from the computer readable program by a travel itinerary computer, user location information from a user on a wireless device, the user location information providing an indication of the location of the user;

estimating, by the travel itinerary computer, the arrival time of the user at a destination based on the user location information, wherein the destination is a departure point for a first scheduled trip of the user on a first vehicle departing the departure point at approximately the departure time;

comparing, by the travel itinerary computer, the estimated arrival time of the user with a departure time for the first scheduled trip;

determining, by the travel itinerary computer, that the arrival time is substantially earlier than the departure time; and

rescheduling, by the travel itinerary computer in response to determining that the arrival time is substantially earlier than the departure time, the user for a second scheduled trip that is scheduled to depart prior to the first scheduled trip on a second vehicle departing the same or a different departure point at a second departure time prior to the first departure time, wherein rescheduling comprises;

automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle through a reservation system;

releasing the user'"'"'s reservation on the first vehicle in response to rescheduling the user for the second scheduled trip;

generating an estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point; and

determining that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time, wherein automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle and releasing the user reservation on the first vehicle are performed in response to the determination that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to:

transmit, by the travel itinerary computer, a notification that the user has been rescheduled to the second scheduled trip to a third party device;

receive an acknowledgment, from a third party using the third party device, acknowledging receipt of the notification that the user has been rescheduled to the second scheduled trip; and

output a notification to the user indicating that the third party has acknowledged receipt of the notification.

13. The non-transitory machine-accessible medium of claim 12, wherein the computer readable program further causes the data processing system to:

access an electronic calendar associated with the user to identify one or more entries corresponding to the first scheduled trip; and

identify the third party based on information stored in the one or more entries of the electronic calendar, wherein the transmitting of the notification to the third party device is performed in response to the identification of the third party from the one or more entries of the electronic calendar.

14. A data processing system for managing a travel itinerary for a user on a wireless device connected to a wireless network, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, communicatively coupled to the one or more processors;

wherein the data processing system, which includes the memory, further comprises;

a user interaction module, the user interaction module being adapted to receive user location information from the user on the wireless device, wherein the user has a first scheduled trip as part of the travel itinerary;

a travel time determiner, the travel time determiner being adapted to estimate the time for the user to travel to a departure point associated with the first scheduled trip based on the user location information, wherein the departure point is a departure point for a first vehicle at approximately a first departure time; and

an itinerary manager, the itinerary manager being adapted to determine whether the travel itinerary of the user should be changed based on the estimated time for the user to travel to the departure point, the itinerary manager being further adapted to change the travel itinerary of the user by scheduling a second scheduled trip to replace the first scheduled trip of the user, wherein the second scheduled trip comprises a second vehicle that departs at a second departure time that is earlier than the first departure time from a same or different departure point, wherein the itinerary manager changes the travel itinerary by;

automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle through a reservation system;

releasing the user'"'"'s reservation on the first vehicle in response to rescheduling the user for the second scheduled trip;

generating an estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point; and

determining that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time, wherein automatically obtaining a reservation for occupying a portion of the second vehicle and releasing the user reservation on the first vehicle are performed in response to the determination that the estimated time of arrival of the user at the second departure point is sufficiently prior to the second departure time.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising a supplementary information interface, the supplementary information interface being adapted to receive supplementary information from a supplementary information computer.

16. The system of claim 14, further comprising a services interface, the services interface being adapted to request changes in scheduled service from a services computer based on the changes in the travel itinerary of the user.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the user interaction module is further adapted to:

transmit a notification of the second scheduled trip to a third party device associated with a third party;

receive an acknowledgment, from the third party using the third party device, acknowledging receipt of the notification that the user has been rescheduled to the second scheduled trip; and

output a notification to the user indicating that the third party has acknowledged receipt of the notification.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the travel time determiner estimates the time for the user to travel from the current location to the departure point associated with the first scheduled trip based on supplementary information received from a supplementary information computer.