Virtual fare methods for a computerized airline seat inventory control system

US5270921A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Andersen Corporation · US

Inventor

• Scot W. Hornick · Naperville, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 11, 1991
• Grant date: Dec 14, 1993
• Expiry date: Jan 11, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06Q10/087
• WIPO field: IT methods for management
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

An airline seat reservation system wherein seat reservations are controlled using, in part, a computerized seat inventory control system. The seat inventory control system, based on a concept termed Network-Based Expected Marginal Seat Revenue (EMSR), does not require the large number of variables required by the other network-based approaches, and it incorporates a probabilistic demand model without resorting to computationally intractable integer programming. The seat inventory control system uses iterative leg-based methods to control bookings in a flight network comprised of a plurality of itinerary/fare class combinations using a plurality of flight legs. When considering a particular flight leg, the total fare paid by a passenger using the leg is adjusted by taking into account an estimate of the displacement cost of the travel on the other legs of the itinerary to create a virtual fare. Expected marginal seat revenues (or more precisely, their current approximations) provide the displacement costs on the legs when computing virtual fares. Using these virtual fares, a leg-based optimization method is applied to the individual legs one-by-one to compute new approximations of t…