Method and system for reserving future purchases of goods or services

• US 8,650,114 B2
• Filed: 10/29/2012
• Issued: 02/11/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 05/08/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Holdit, LLC
• Original Assignee: Smart Options LLC
• Inventors: Pappas, Christian S., Brown, Charles P.
• Primary Examiner(s): Chang, Edward
• Application Number:
  US13/662,815
• Publication Number:
  US 20130096965A1
• Time in Patent Office: 470 Days
• Field of Search: 705/37, 705/35
• US Class Current: 705/37
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/08 Auctions

Abstract

A method and system for reserving future purchases of airline services using electronic options. The electronic options are used to reserve plural different types of airline services including selection of: a desired seat row location, a desired seat location in a desired row location, a plural adjacent seats in a desired row, a plural adjacent seats in a plural desired rows, a desired location in an overhead bin to store carry-on luggage, a priority boarding sequence, a priority exiting sequence, priority pre-flight baggage handling, priority post-flight baggage handling, cancellation and change privileges for a purchased airline ticket, a priority list position in a stand-by list and/or a priority list position for an automatic upgrade to a first class seat, business class seat or other non-economy seat and/or other airline services.

Claims

1. A method for providing automatic execution of electronic options, comprising:

providing a plurality of electronic options for a plurality of different airline services to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network,

wherein the plurality of airline services include services for a selection of;

a desired seat row location, a desired seat location in a desired row location, a plurality of adjacent seats in a desired row, a plurality of adjacent seats in a plurality of desired rows, a desired location in an overhead bin to store carry-on luggage, a priority boarding sequence, a priority exiting sequence, priority pre-flight baggage handling, priority post-flight baggage handling, cancellation and change privileges for a purchased airline ticket, a priority list position in a stand-by list and a priority list position in an up-grade list for an automatic upgrade to a first class seat, business class seat or other non-economy seat,

wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow reservation of the plurality of airline services for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and

wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

receiving securely on the first server network device one or more pre-determined option fees from a first client network device to purchase one or more electronic options with the specialized airline option terms for one or more desired airline services via the computer network;

recording on the first server network device the purchase of the one or more electronic options for the one or more pre-determined option fees in a database associated with the first server network device;

receiving on the first server network device one or more final selection messages to exercise the one or more purchased electronic options from the first client network device via the computer network;

determining whether the one or more desired airline services are actually available for purchase with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline, from the first service network device via the computer network, and if so,

exercising automatically the one or more purchased electronic options, each at a final option exercise price and reserving the one or more desired airline services at the desired airline from the first client network device via the computer network; and

sending a confirmation from the first server network device to the first client network device via the computer network indicating the one or more desired airline services have been purchased with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more pre-determined option fees include a purchase price, a number of game, reward or loyalty points, a number of miles, an electronic coupon from a couponing site or electronic advertising information from a social networking site.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein selected ones of the one or more pre-determined option fees are zero.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein the selected ones of the zero pre-determined option fees are provided by a vendor in exchange for an electronic mail address, a telephone number or a social networking identifier of a purchaser.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein other selected ones of the zero pre-determined option fees are provided by a vendor in exchange for a purchaser participating in an advertising or promotional activity determined by a vendor.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of providing a plurality of electronic options further includes:

determining a loyalty factor for each of the plurality of client network devices;

automatically adjusting the plurality of different pre-determined option fees for the plurality of airline services based on the determined loyalty factor to create a unique set of pre-determined option fees for each of the plurality client network devices; and

providing the created unique set of pre-determined option fees to each of the plurality of client network devices based on the determined loyalty factors.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein selected ones of the electronic options for the plurality of airline services can be purchased and exercised only before a selected airline flight departs and other selected ones of the electronic options for the plurality of airline services can be purchased and exercised in-flight and yet other selected ones of the electronic options can be purchased and exercised only after the selected airline flight arrives.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the first server network device is an interactive electronic kiosk with an graphical user interface.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein a plurality of the interactive electronic kiosks are included in an airport.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of receiving on the first server network device one or more pre-determined option fees includes receiving the one or more pre-determined option fees from a smart application on the first client network device, wherein the first client network device comprises a smart phone or tablet computer.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein a set of the plurality of electronic options for one or more desired airline services is provided by a server network device with one or more processors associated with a social networking site, a couponing site, an airline site, an e-retailer site or an e-commerce site.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein selected ones of the one or more pre-determined option fees are divided into a plurality of payments and paid for by a purchaser with a plurality of payments.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the final option exercise price remains fixed, fluctuates freely, increases or decreases progressively, or becomes zero.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining automatically an expiration time and date for each of the one or more purchased electronic options; and

exercising automatically at the determined expiration time and date the one or more purchased electronic options, each at a final option exercise price and reserving the one or more desired airline services at the desired airline from the first client network device via the computer network.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending from the first client network device to one or more other client network devices via the computer network a message including one or more electronic links to the one or more purchased electronic options for one or more desired airline services,

thereby allowing any of the one or more other client network devices to exercise any of the one or more purchased electronic options for the one or more desired airlines services and be coordinated with the first client network device for dates and times of the one or more of the desired airline services.

17. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

posting from the first client network device via the computer network a message on a social networking site or a couponing site including one or more electronic links to the one or more purchased electronic options for one or more desired airline services,

thereby allowing any of the one or more other client network devices to exercise any of the one or more purchased electronic options for the one or more desired airlines services and be coordinated with the first client network device for dates and times of the one or more of the desired airline services.

18. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

providing the plurality of electronic options for the plurality of different airline services to a plurality of other server network devices each with one or more processors from the first server network device via the computer network, wherein the plurality of other server network devices are associated with social networking sites, electronic couponing sites, airline sites, e-commerce sites and e-retailer sites.

19. The method of claim 1 wherein the first server network device includes a wireless networking interface comprising a Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) wireless networking interface with 4^th generation (4G) wireless speeds for communicating with the computer network and the plurality of client network devices.

2. A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored therein a plurality of instructions for causing one or more processors on a network device to execute the steps of:

providing a plurality of electronic options for a plurality of different airline services to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network,

wherein the plurality of airline services include services for a selection of;

a desired seat row location, a desired seat location in a desired row location, a plurality of adjacent seats in a desired row, a plurality of adjacent seats in a plurality of desired rows, a desired location in an overhead bin to store carry-on luggage, a priority boarding sequence, a priority exiting sequence, priority pre-flight baggage handling, priority post-flight baggage handling, cancellation and change privileges for a purchased airline ticket, a priority list position in a stand-by list and a priority list position in an up-grade list for an automatic upgrade to a first class seat, business class seat or other non-economy seat,

wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow reservation of the plurality of airline services for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and

wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

receiving securely on the first server network device one or more pre-determined option fees from a first client network device to purchase one or more electronic options with the specialized airline option terms for one or more desired airline services via the computer network;

recording on the first server network device the purchase of the one or more electronic options for the one or more pre-determined option fees in a database associated with the first server network device;

receiving on the first server network device one or more final selection messages to exercise the one or more purchased electronic options from the first client network device via the computer network;

determining whether the one or more desired airline services are actually available for purchase with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline, from the first service network device via the computer network, and if so,

exercising automatically the one or more purchased electronic options, each at a final option exercise price and reserving the one or more desired airline services at the desired airline from the first client network device via the computer network; and

sending a confirmation from the first server network device to the first client network device via the computer network indicating the one or more desired airline services have been purchased with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline.

20. A system for providing automatic execution of electronic options for airline services, comprising in combination:

means for providing a plurality of electronic options for a plurality of different airline services to a plurality of client network devices each with one or more processors from a first server network device with one or more processors via a computer network,

means for providing the plurality of electronic options for the plurality of different airline services from an electronic kiosk server network device with one or more processors via a computer network located in an airport,

wherein the plurality of airline services include services for a selection of;

a desired seat row location, a desired seat location in a desired row location, a plurality of adjacent seats in a desired row, a plurality of adjacent seats in a plurality of desired rows, a desired location in an overhead bin to store carry-on luggage, a priority boarding sequence, a priority exiting sequence, priority pre-flight baggage handling, priority post-flight baggage handling, cancellation and change privileges for a purchased airline ticket, a priority list position in a stand-by list and a priority list position in an up-grade list for an automatic upgrade to a first class seat, business class seat or other non-economy seat,

wherein the plurality of electronic options include specialized airline option terms that allow reservation of the plurality of airline services for a pre-determined period, wherein the plurality of electronic options are not supplied or governed via a central government agency and are not supplied or governed via security laws and

wherein the plurality of electronic options are available for purchase via a plurality of different pre-determined option fees;

means for receiving securely on the first server network device one or more pre-determined option fees from a first client network device to purchase one or more electronic options with the specialized airline option terms for one or more desired airline services via the computer network;

means for recording on the first server network device the purchase of the one or more electronic options for the one or more pre-determined option fees in a database associated with the first server network device;

means for receiving on the first server network device one or more final selection messages to exercise the one or more purchased electronic options from the first client network device via the computer network;

means for determining whether the one or more desired airline services are actually available for purchase with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline, from the first service network device via the computer network, and if so,

means for exercising automatically the one or more purchased electronic options, each at a final option exercise price and reserving the one or more desired airline services at the desired airline from the first client network device via the computer network;

means for sending a confirmation from the first server network device to the first client network device via the computer network indicating the one or more desired airline services have been purchased with the one or more purchased electronic options at the desired airline; and

means for posting from the first client network device via the computer network a message on a social networking site, an electronic couponing site or an e-commerce site including one or more electronic links to the one or more purchased electronic options for one or more desired airline services,

thereby allowing any of the one or more other client network devices to exercise any of the one or more purchased electronic options for the one or more desired airlines services and be coordinated with the first client network device for dates and times of the one or more of the desired airline services.