Patent Application
20120096034
The present invention relates in general to the field of data processing. One particular application is for transportation services and ticket reservations for same. More specifically, the invention relates to a ticket reservation system based on rules to process a traveler's request and a method thereof.
Actual reservation system for booking airline tickets are currently based on a big number of rules stored in several databases of airlines companies. This way, when a user enters his personal information along with his departure and destination preferences to request a travel, he automatically triggers a search for potential travel products defined by various definition data such as origin, destination, dates, flight number . . . and fare data. A set of rules is also involved. It describes under which conditions a fare can be applied to a product for a customer (in that case a passenger) for a given itinerary. In general, it is known that every rule includes categories and every category further comprises records. These records hold specific information that may concern the passenger. After applying fare data and these rules based on the request of the passenger, a search for a suitable travel is initiated and the result is thereafter displayed to the requester in the form of at least one product option.
The prior art is basically a search function based on rules. The rules are different from one Airline Company to another, which creates a huge amount of data to search on every request made by a user. So, one problem with reservation systems using the above-described method is that the search procedure is both complicated and time-consuming. Hence, there is a need to provide a system and a method for making the search process simpler and more efficient still taking all the rules for the transportation companies into account.
One technical problem the invention proposes to solve is the complexity of the rules current systems are processing and which leads to huge computer resources requirement.
It is therefore one object of the present invention to provide a system and a method that allows a user to enter credentials and product preferences and perform a complete search that is less complex and faster. This is done while taking the rules of the transportation companies into account when products are travel items.
Another aspect of the invention is the use of previously created data to optimize other technical processes such as the generation of customized text portions. It can be used at a server side.
In one embodiment the invention couples products search means—such as a fare search engine known in the travel industry—and text generation means so as to take benefits within the second application of the data processed for the first application. In particular the invention uses reduced rules and relevant rules created during the search process and it re-uses this data for the text generation process. This deeply simplifies the text generation stage given the limited set of data to be processed. The reduced rules and the relevant rules can also be used by another application with the same advantage: these rules are of much smaller size than the typical rules so that computer efficiency is improved.
In a more specific manner, the present invention relates to a method for processing data applicable to a customer for at least one product, comprising the steps of:
This method can be used as a method for automatically generating text portions applicable to a customer for one product.
In one embodiment, the at least one rule comprises a plurality of categories each comprising at least one record, the filtering step comprising filtering categories irrelevant to said customer data and definition data within said at least one rule and keeping only categories relevant to said customer data and definition data within said at least one rule and wherein the filtering step comprises for each relevant category filtering records irrelevant to said customer data and definition data within said at least one rule.
In one aspect of the invention, the method comprises the step of aggregating the definition data, the customer data and the reduced rule into a relevant rule.
In that case, the relevant rule represents a complex set of data aggregating all the information required for further processing such as text generation but, in the same time, it does not include useless rule information. The relevant rule is then an optimal base for the rest of the process.
The customer data may be entered by a user or saved in a database from a previous request. Likewise, the travel data may also be entered by a user or saved in a database from a previous request.
In one embodiment, the relevant rule is dynamically created upon every request from a traveler. Every time a user enters new information and starts a new search for products, a new request is initiated.
In another embodiment, the relevant rule is retrieved for subsequent actions within the same request. By actions, we refer to events performed by the same application. One application could for example store the rule as one action and displaying it to the user as another action.
In another embodiment, at least one application retrieves the relevant rule and uses it. Several applications could have access to this relevant rule. These applications could have subsequent or simultaneous access. Every application can perform multiple actions using the same relevant rule.
In a preferred embodiment, only the relevant text is displayed to the user such as on the passenger's ticket or on display means like a screen. So when a customer receives his ticket, he won't be bothered with a lot of information that is irrelevant to him, printed on the ticket or displayed. Examples will be described in further details later in this document.
It is also possible to retrieve said relevant rule for subsequent requests for a same customer.
Further options which can be use cumulatively or alternatively are introduced hereafter:
The present invention further relates to a method for processing a user purchase request about at least one product dedicated to one customer, comprising:
This method may comprise at least one of the following options:
The invention also relates to a system for automatically generating a text portion applicable to a customer for at least one product, comprising means for executing the above method.
The present invention further relates to a system for processing data applicable to a customer for at least one product, comprising:
The invention also relates to a system for processing a user purchase request about at least one product dedicated to one customer, comprising:
These systems may comprise computer software stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium that is executed by at least one data processor that comprises part of the system.
The present invention also relates to a computer program product storing a computer program comprising instructions adapted to perform the method of the invention.
The present invention will now be described in details with reference to the drawings for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiment.
The invention can be implemented with computer hardware and software means. It can include a server side where the processing of data applicable to a customer takes place. This server side—which may be comprised of a single or plural computer devices—preferably communicates via network resources with at least one remote user device such as but not exclusively a desktop computer, a smart phone or the like.
A few definitions are given hereafter:
The detailed description of a preferred embodiment is given hereafter in the case of travel products such as flights operated by Airlines. We hereby show how a typical rule is structured in this field.
Within each rule, there are categories that are designed by a number. A category describes the conditions in a given area. For example, we have:
Inside a category, there are items called Records 2 hereafter also simply called records. Each of them is composed of a set of elements called matching elements (loc 1, loc2, effective and discontinued dates, . . . ) that define which record 2 is applicable for a given trip.
A record 2 contains a string of records 3. Each record 3 defines a given set of restrictions for the category.
So we have to summarize:
Let's take a simple example:
When a client wants to buy a ticket, the reservation system proposes only solutions for which the rule has been verified against the passenger data and the requested travel.
For example, given a fare from Paris to London with the rule AF01 attached to it:
Through this example we have seen that some records 3 of the rule must be matched by the passenger and its itinerary so that the solution can be selected: it is the case for eligibility. For other categories, the matching is not mandatory; it will only modify the solution but not prevent to sell it: it is the case for surcharges.
With reference with
In
The user might now enter a subsequent request, illustrated by the arrow called “2: subsequent request”. This request is forwarded to a subsequent request handler. This handler can be any kind of application having to use data of rules. The other application using the data created by the invention can also be a text generation means such as the text engine depicted in
One important aspect of the invention is the creation of a reduced rule which can serve as component of a relevant rule also comprising product definition data and customer data. The Relevant Rule Data is preferably composed of:
A concrete example is given hereafter for the case of travel industry rules:
Reduced rule: It respects the format of a rule, with categories, records 2 and records 3 as described above, however we call it reduced because its content is minimized thanks to the invention's process.
Sufficient: It means that the reduced rule contains:
Minimal: The reduced rule that we build is the smallest possible.
Customer data and travel product definition data applied by the pricing process on the reduced rule: It means that we store, along with the reduced rule, the passenger and travel data that match any of the conditions kept in the reduced rule. Product data such as travel data may include in dates, stop over data, origin, destination, flight number . . . .
For example, if a passenger has a discount of 20% allowed by the category 19 (children discount) of the rule because he is 13 years old, this information will be kept in the ‘Relevant Rule Data’.
So we use the knowledge of the pricing process to reduce the records in the categories to the minimum and thereby creating a traveler reduced ruled.
The rule used for applying a fare to the product and for calculating a price is also retrieved from the rules database by a “get” instruction of the relevant rule builder. Then for each category of the rule, the relevant rule builder calls the relevant category creator. It works as follows:
For a given category:
This process is looped for all the categories and the relevant rule builder then selects the minimal rule data for producing the reduced rule which is then aggregated with product definition data as well as customer data to form the relevant rule. It is also executed for all products requiring a relevant rule creation.
The relevant rule(s) are advantageously stored for a duration corresponding to the duration of the product. In the airline industry, the relevant rule is kept until the end of the journey or the expiration date of the passenger name record. Subsequent retrievals of the relevant rules can be made thanks to unique identifiers assigned to the relevant rules.
We will now describe an embodiment where an application is using the relevant rule. In this example, the relevant rules are taken as basis for generating text portions in an efficient fashion.
When a passenger buys a ticket for an itinerary, two main components define this ticket:
It is useful to have a text to describe the conditions contained in the rule. Today this text is generally generated in advance from the rules data.
When a customer buys a ticket, it is only possible to show him the pre-generated text.
The problem with this functioning is that the text contains, in addition to the specific conditions applying to the customer, many other conditions that do not apply to him. This makes the text difficult to read and partially irrelevant for the customer.
For example, if a passenger travels with his child, who is less than two years old, he will see in the text that the price of the child's ticket is 10% of the normal price, which is interesting for him. But, he will see also other conditions that do not apply to him.
This text output is not satisfactory because the text is too general. A travel agent or the customer would have to read it entirely to determine which conditions apply to the passenger. Furthermore, this text cannot be used on web sites, where only relevant information must be presented to the user.
By using the relevant rule applied to the client, only the highlighted area of
Therefore, a ticket with this passenger-customized rule printed on it is one embodiment of the present invention. An alternative is a display of this limited and customized information on a screen of an electronic device such as a personal computer but also a mobile device which typically embeds only a small-sized screen. Although the following example is for text generation process at the time the booking is made, further texts may be generated thanks to the invention such as warning customized texts triggered when a flight is disrupted and to be sent as reduced data set via SMS (short message service) communication. Storing the relevant rule for further processing prevents from attempting to re-build the rule after the pricing process is over. It is often complicated to operate this kind of data treatment for past transactions since the context may have changed, rules and fares may have evolved . . . . The relevant rules are thereby a set of data which keeps a track of the past transaction and which prevent deep further processing such as re-pricing a past ticket.
In
Inclusion of passenger's travel concrete details, such as dates or city names is achieved thanks to the knowledge of the passenger's data, and suppression of parts of the text that appear in the generic text and that do not apply to the customer is achieved thanks to a close integration of the system into the pricing engine, in order to know which parts of the rules are relevant for the customer.
Describing
Based on the customer information and data received from providers, the pricing engine computes a proposition for the customer (4).
Now, instead of returning the answer along with the generic text to the customer, the instant invention uses the previously described relevant rule as basis for the text generation by a dedicated engine. (5)
The ticket information with the customized text is returned to the user. (6)
The technical interest of this method will be made clearer in view of the concrete example given below:
For a travel to London on 10 Oct. 2010, using the relevant rule data containing passenger's travel details we can simplify the generic text of the category maximum stay
Current Generic Text:
Customized Text:
Suppression of generic text that does not apply to the customer. In this example a discount is applied to a child aged between 2 and 11.
Current Generic Text:
By using the relevant rule data we could obtain a text narrowed down to what applied to the passenger:
Customized Text:
Although illustrative embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments and that changes and modifications may be effected therein by those in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10306115.6 | Oct 2010 | EP | regional |
