System and method for use in connection with human travel

• US 20040039616A1
• Filed: 12/31/2002
• Published: 02/26/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 08/26/2002
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Flightlock, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Flightlock, Inc.
• Inventors: Scott, Michael J., Stanislaus, James L., Maycotte, Higinio O., Vazquez, Ernesto
• Application Number:
  US10/334,693
• Publication Number:
  US 20040039616A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising

Abstract

In a particular embodiment, a computer system for use in connection with human travel is disclosed. The computer system comprises a first data parsing element responsive to a first travel related data input feed; a second data parsing element responsive to a second travel related data input feed; a data server responsive to the first data parsing element and the second data parsing element; and a client facing module responsive to the data server. The client facing module provides a modular interface to communicate with an external computing client device. In another embodiment, a method of using a modular computer system is disclosed. The method comprises parsing a first travel related data input feed at a first modular data parsing element to produce a first parsed travel data input; processing the first parsed travel data input at a data server coupled to the first modular data parsing element to produce processed travel data; receiving the processed travel data at a first modular client pool element; and communicating the processed travel data to an external client device using the first modular client pool element.

Claims

1. A computer system for use in connection with human travel, the computer system comprising:

a first data parsing element responsive to a first travel related data input feed;

a second data parsing element responsive to a second travel related data input feed;

a data server responsive to the first data parsing element and the second data parsing element; and

a client facing module responsive to the data server, the client facing module providing a modular interface to communicate with an external computing client device.

2. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the first travel related data input feed comprises trip data and the second travel related data input feed comprises flight reservation information.

3. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the flight reservation information is associated with reservations of a set of airline passengers.

4. The computer system of claim 3, wherein the data server includes logic to determine flight reservation data associated with reservations of a set of airline passengers.

5. The computer system of claim 4, wherein the logic within the data server further determines flight status data for at least one airplane associated with the reservations of the set of airline passengers and determines a passenger status for each passenger in the set of airline passengers based on the flight reservation data and based on the flight status data.

6. The computer system of claim 5, wherein the passenger status is based on a detected disruption condition associated with the flight of the airplane and wherein the client facing module is used to communicate the disruption condition and an alternate travel plan to at least one of a passenger and a travel agent.

7. The computer system of claim 6, wherein the external computing device is operated on behalf of a travel agency.

8. The computer system of claim 7, wherein the external travel agency computing device is used to rebook an alternate flight after detection of the disruption condition.

9. The computer system of claim 1, further comprising a third data input feed, the third data input feed comprising historical flight related data, and wherein the disruption condition is determined based on real-time flight data from at least one of the first and second input data feeds, and based on the historical data.

10. The computer system of claim 1, wherein a disruption condition is determined by the data server comparing real-time airline data at various disruption points against scheduled times for the associated disruption points.

11. The computer system of claim 2, wherein the first input travel related data is selected from the group of Federal Aviation Association data, weather data, airport status data, and airline schedule data.

12. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the second input travel related data includes flight information received from an airline customer reservation system.

13. The computer system of claim 1, wherein the client facing module includes a first client pool server and a second client pool server.

14. The computer system of claim 13, wherein the first client pool server provides a first type of client interface to a first set of external client devices and the second client pool server provides a second type of client interface to a second set of external client devices.

15. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the first type of client interface supports at least one public interface and wherein the second type of client interface supports a proprietary interface.

16. The computer system of claim 15, wherein the public interface is at least one of an HTML interface, a WAP interface, an Active-X Windows computer interface, a JAVA interface, and an XML interface.

17. The computer system of claim 14, wherein the first client pool server is modular and separable from the second client pool server.

18. A method of using a modular computer system, the method comprising:

parsing a first travel related data input feed at a first modular data parsing element to produce a first parsed travel data input;

processing the first parsed travel data input at a data server coupled to the first modular data parsing element to produce processed travel data;

receiving the processed travel data at a first modular client pool element; and

communicating the processed travel data to an external client device using the first modular client pool element.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising providing a second modular data parsing element, wherein the data server is responsive to the first modular data parsing element and is responsive to the second modular data parsing element.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising providing a second modular client pool element that is responsive to the data server.

21. The method of claim 20, further comprising providing a third modular data parsing element and providing a third modular client pool element.

22. The method of claim 20, wherein the first modular data parsing element receives flight trip data and the second modular data parsing element receives flight reservation data.

23. The method of claim 22, wherein the flight reservation information is associated with reservations of a set of airline passengers.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising determining flight reservation data associated with reservations of the set of airline passengers.

25. The method of claim 24, further comprising determining flight status data for at least one airplane associated with the reservations of the set of airline passengers and determining a passenger status for each passenger in the set of airline passengers based-on the flight reservation data and based on the flight status data.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein the passenger status is based on a detected disruption condition associated with the flight of the airplane and wherein at least one of the first modular client pool element, the second modular client pool element, and the third modular client pool element, communicate the disruption condition and an alternate travel plan to at least one of a passenger and a travel agent.