Airline transactions using mobile handsets

Abstract

This invention proposes a method for a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities over mobile networks connecting a subscriber's handset, online infrastructure of airline companies, a service delivery engine and online banking infrastructure. The invention allows a subscriber to view and choose among the menus and options on the subscriber's handset for airline related transactions. The subscriber's choice among the menus and options is communicated to the service delivery engine. A plurality of online infrastructures of airline companies is queried based on the subscriber's choice. The querying, which involves searching, collating and comparing is performed by the service delivery engine, from a plurality of online infrastructures of airline companies. The result of the query is transmitted to the subscriber's handset through the mobile network and the subscriber then chooses a transaction from the result of the query.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:

FIG. 1 illustrates a method that enables a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities over mobile networks.

FIG. 2A and 2B illustrates a system that enables a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities over mobile networks.

FIG. 3 illustrates the main components of a system that enables a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities over mobile networks.

Claims

1. A method for a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities over mobile networks connecting said subscriber's handset, online infrastructure of airline companies, a service delivery engine and online banking infrastructure, comprising the steps of: providing a subscriber to view and choose among the menus and options for airline related transactions presented on said subscriber's handset;communicating the subscriber's said choice among the menus and options to said service delivery engine via said mobile network;querying the plurality of online infrastructures of airline companies based on the subscriber's choice, wherein said step of querying is performed by the service delivery engine and further comprises the steps of searching, collating and comparing from a plurality of online infrastructures of airline companies;sending the results of said querying step to the subscriber's handset through the mobile network;making a commercial transaction choice by the subscriber to avail a product or service corresponding to one of said sent results;communicating the subscriber's chosen transaction choice to the service delivery engine via the mobile network; andperforming said chosen transaction at online infrastructure of the airline after conducting a successful verification operation by the service delivery engine in communication with the online banking infrastructure.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the service delivery engine communicates with the mobile network and prompts the subscriber to enter one or more passwords to gain access to the subscriber's account on the online banking infrastructure.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein information comprising of details on fares, time of day, seat availability and flight number on said chosen transactions is stored in the service delivery engine.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein monthly reports and user statistics are generated from said stored information for extracting data on average selling price of tickets, pricing patterns on specific travel segments and pricing comparison among different airlines.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the subscriber can regenerate lost tickets via input to said menu and options, update the online airline infrastructure with no show information, update the online airline infrastructure with late boarding information, or perform rebooking, cancellation and transfer operations using the menu and options.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the information on said chosen transaction is communicated by the service delivery engine to the subscribers company, if the subscribers company has a pre-agreed arrangements with the online airline infrastructure.

7. A system for a subscriber to exchange information and transact with a plurality of airline companies for real time search, comparison and transaction activities, comprising the steps of: a mobile network;a subscriber handset for accessing said mobile network;an online airline infrastructure in communication with the mobile network;a service delivery engine for interfacing with said mobile network and online banking infrastructure, further comprising: user information module for storing data prior to transaction;subscriber interaction module for communicating the subscriber's choice;search, collate and comparison module for interfacing with plurality of said online airline infrastructures;verification and secure transaction module for online banking infrastructure transaction;merchant information module for storing post transaction data;

8. The system of claim 8, wherein the service delivery engine distributed in a plurality of servers on the mobile network is collocated with a central server of the service provider of the mobile network.

9. The system claim of 8, wherein said search, collate and comparison module interacts with the airline companies online infrastructure to query the plurality of airline companies based on the subscriber's choice and collate the results from the plurality of airline companies.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein said verification and secure transaction module gains access to the subscriber's account and queries the subscriber's bank infrastructure to check for a minimum required money balance.