On-demand flight accident insurance

• US 8,224,676 B2
• Filed: 08/14/2009
• Issued: 07/17/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2008
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Flightsurance GmbH (2e Systems GmbH)
• Original Assignee: Flightsurance GmbH (2e Systems GmbH)
• Inventors: Ortgiese, Jens, Kastner, Zoltan, Douglas, Philip M., Forbes, Alistair J., Bauer, Daniel
• Primary Examiner(s): Sereboff, Neal
• Application Number:
  US12/541,361
• Publication Number:
  US 20100049553A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,068 Days
• Field of Search: 705/4
• US Class Current: 705/4
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance

Abstract

A system for providing flight accident insurance at low price and fixed coverage comprises means for limiting the number of policies that can be sold on any given flight to not more than a predetermined number. The predetermined number may be 20. The premium for the insurance is a function of the GDP of the country in which the airline operating said flight is domiciled such that said premium is a decreasing function of said GDP.

Claims

1. A system for providing flight accident insurance to a traveler, said system comprising:

a. a computer configured to accept an application for said flight accident insurance from said traveler, said application comprising a listing of a flight on said traveler'"'"'s itinerary, said flight being operated by an operating carrier;

b. a computer configured to query a flight database to determine if flight accident insurance is available for said flight, said availability being confirmed if there is less than a first number of said flight accident insurance policies already sold to other travelers for said flight;

c. a computer configured to receive confirmation of the availability of said flight accident insurance for said traveler;

d. a computer configured to calculate a premium for said flight accident insurance, said calculation being based on the GDP of the country in which said operating carrier is domiciled such that said premium is a decreasing function of said GDP; and

e. a computer configured to provide said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said first number is 20.

3. The system of claim 1 wherein one or more of said computers is a database server.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein said computer configured to calculate said premium is further configured to calculate a minimum Risk Premium according to the equation:

5. The system of claim 4 wherein (1−

α

) is 90% and wherein Z<sub>(1−

α

)</sub> is the Z parameter for a multinomial distribution.

6. The system of claim 1 which further comprises a Web Server and a Web Server Cluster wherein said Web Server is configured to serve as an extranet application portal and said Web Server cluster is configured to serve as an insurance booking engine such that said premium and said offer of coverage can be provided in real time to said traveler.

7. The system of claim 1 wherein said flight database comprises a listing of all airlines offering said flight such that said number of policies already sold is the sum of all policies sold to travelers booking under each of said airlines.

8. The system of claim 7 wherein different airlines and different flight numbers are considered to refer to the same flight if:

a. the different airlines belong to the same airline alliance;

b. the departure airports and arrival airports are the same for each of the different airlines and different flight numbers; and

c. the departure times are within 5 minutes of each other.

9. The system of claim 1 which further comprises a computer configured to update said number of policies sold for a given flight after an insurance policy is issued such that conflicts due to simultaneous bookings by more than one traveler are prevented.

10. The system of claim 1 which further comprises a computer configured to cede a portion of the risk of said insurance policies to a reinsurer and wherein said portion is 90% or greater.

11. The system of claim 1 wherein said computer configured to provide said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler comprises one or more of a workstation in communication with the Internet, or a mobile device.

12. A method for offering flight accident insurance to a traveler, said method comprising the steps of:

a. accepting in a computer an application for said flight accident insurance from said traveler, said application comprising a listing of a flight on said traveler'"'"'s itinerary, said flight being operated by an operating carrier;

b. querying by a computer a flight database to determine if flight accident insurance is available for said flight, said availability being confirmed if there is less than a first number of said flight accident insurance policies already sold to other travelers for said flight;

c. receiving in a computer confirmation of the availability of said flight accident insurance for said traveler;

d. calculating by a computer a premium for said flight accident insurance, said calculation being based on the GDP of the country in which said operating carrier is domiciled such that said premium is a decreasing function of said GDP; and

e. providing by a computer said premium and an offer of coverage to said traveler.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said premium is a fixed premium.

14. The method of claim 12 which further comprises the steps of:

a. calculating a minimum Risk Premium based on the multinomial distribution of the number of insured deaths per year;

b. calculating a final premium based on said minimum Risk Premium and the fixed costs of providing said insurance; and

c. setting said premium equal to said final premium if said final premium is greater than a fixed premium.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein said flight comprises two connecting flights and wherein said final premium is calculated based on the sum of the calculated final premiums of each of said connecting flights.