Ground-based travel portal

• US 6,993,554 B2
• Filed: 03/21/2002
• Issued: 01/31/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: O'Donnell, Mary E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Coulter, Kenneth R.
• Application Number:
  US10/103,032
• Publication Number:
  US 20030046331A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,412 Days
• Field of Search: 709/217, 709/228, 709/227, 709220-222, 709204-207, 709/202, 705/5, 705/6, 705/26, 705/27, 707/201, 707/3, 715744-747, 715751-759
• US Class Current: 709/202
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/958 Organisation or management of web site content, e.g. publishing, maintaining pages or automatic linking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/025 Coordination of plural reservations, e.g. plural trip segments, transportation combined with accommodation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/06 Buying, selling or leasing transactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/14 Travel agencies
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching

Abstract

A ground-based travel planning portal is provided that is in communication with a counterpart in-transit portal so that the content presented through each portal is consistent to a traveler. The ground-based travel planning portal includes information for both business and leisure travel planning, in addition to other more general information. The traveler is able to identify and store a user-defined profile that includes personal traveling preferences such as airlines, hotels, rental cars, and personal content layout preferences which determines what content of the portal is presented to the traveler. Accordingly, the traveler has discretion to change and modify the content layout throughout the portal. Further, the user-defined profiles are shared across the ground-based portal and a counterpart in-transit portal so that the traveler accesses a common interface regardless of their travel status.

Claims

1. A ground-based wide-area network portal comprising:

travel planning content including a virtual office;

a plurality of user-defined profiles;

an agent bot that searches, identifies, and presents travel reservations to the traveler;

at least one link to an in-transit wide-area network portal,

wherein the user-defined profiles are shared between the ground-based wide-area network portal and the in-transit wide-area network portal to provide a consistent interface to a traveler while in flight; and

wherein the traveler can access a corporate network to send and receive electronic data.

2. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 1, wherein the user-defined profiles further comprise:

personal preferences of a traveler; and

content layout preferences of a traveler,

wherein the traveler can customize the ground-based portal.

3. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 1, wherein the travel planning content comprises:

navigation pages; and

content pages,

wherein the navigation pages provide administrative functions and the content pages provide travel related and general information to the traveler.

4. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 3, wherein the navigation pages and the content pages are accessible through a home page.

5. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 4, wherein the home page and the content pages comprise a tabbed navigation scheme, wherein the tabbed navigation scheme comprises buttons that are present throughout all of the content pages.

6. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 1 further comprising:

a button palette that allows the traveler to quickly link to the travel planning content,

wherein the button palette is shared between the ground-based wide-area network portal and the in-transit wide-area network portal thereby providing a common interface to the traveler.

7. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 6, wherein the button palette is customizable by the traveler.

8. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 1, wherein the traveler books the travel reservations presented by the agent bot.

9. A ground-based wide-area network portal comprising:

travel planning content including a virtual office;

user-defined profiles;

an agent bot that searches, identifies, and presents travel reservations to the traveler;

a button palette that links to the travel planning content;

at least one link to an in-transit wide-area network portal,

wherein the user-defined profiles are shared between the ground-based wide-area network portal and the in-transit wide-area network portal to provide a consistent interface to a traveler while in flight; and

wherein the traveler can access a corporate network to send and receive electronic data.

10. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 9, wherein the button palette is customizable by the traveler.

11. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 9, wherein the user-defined profiles further comprise:

personal preferences; and

content layout preferences,

wherein the traveler can customize the ground-based portal.

12. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 9, wherein the travel planning content further comprises:

navigation pages; and

content pages,

wherein the navigation pages provide administrative functions and the content pages provide travel related and general information to the traveler.

13. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 12, wherein the navigation pages and the content pages are accessible through a home page.

14. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 13, wherein the home pages and the content pages comprise a tabbed navigation scheme, wherein the tabbed navigation scheme comprises buttons that are present throughout all of the content pages.

15. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 9, wherein the traveler books the travel reservations presented by the agent bot.

16. The ground-based wide-area network portal of claim 9, wherein the virtual office further comprises a corporate intranet.