Patent Application
20080091479
In the following detailed description of embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings in which like references indicate similar elements, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it is to be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that logical, mechanical, electrical, functional, and other changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims.
If, in step 203, the buyer is not able to select a flight on his preferred airline (no), the process moves to step 207, where the system sends a counter-offer request to the buyer's preferred airline, typically via Internet 101. In step 208, the system receives a response, also typically via the Internet. Such a counter-offer may be that the airline is willing to match the price of the airline that would be chosen by default, or at least the airline can make a counter-offer that adds only a small amount to the price. Based on preprogrammed rules, such as company policies, in step 209 the process branches again as the system determines whether or not it can change the airline selection. If the system cannot change the airline (no), the process moves to step 204 and the original booking proceeds. If, however, the system can accept the change (yes), then in step 210 it changes the airline selection and the process moves to step 204, where the booking proceeds on the new airline. If steps 203 and 204 were previously reversed, so that a first flight was already booked, the booking must also be changed, and then the process moves to step 205, to finalize the ticket purchase.
It is clear that many modifications and variations of this embodiment may be made by one skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the novel art of this disclosure. This method and system may apply to any of a great variety of goods and services, such as restaurant reservations, hotel rooms, etc. It may also apply not only to a preferred vendor vs. a different vendor, but to various classes of service and quality offered by the same vendor, such as an upgrade from coach to business class for a flight, or a better hotel room with more square footage, a better view, additional amenities, etc.
The processes described above can be stored in a memory of a computer system as a set of instructions to be executed. In addition, the instructions to perform the processes described above could alternatively be stored on other forms of machine-readable media, including magnetic and optical disks. For example, the processes described could be stored on machine-readable media, such as magnetic disks or optical disks, which are accessible via a disk drive (or computer-readable medium drive). Further, the instructions can be downloaded into a computing device over a data network in a form of compiled and linked version.
Alternatively, the logic to perform the processes as discussed above could be implemented in additional computer and/or machine readable media, such as discrete hardware components as large-scale integrated circuits (LSI's), application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC's), firmware such as electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM's); and electrical, optical, acoustical and other forms of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.); etc.
