Pre-paid airline tickets
US7565303B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 30, 1999 |
| Grant date | Jul 21, 2009 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 15, 2021 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06Q40/04
- WIPO fieldIT methods for management
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
The invention is a pre-paid airline ticket comprising a record of an advance-purchase of an airline ticket for a fixed price that may be used by a customer to reserve and book a flight. The pre-paid airline ticket includes a unique identifier and, associated with the identifier, a plurality of geographic flight parameters and a plurality of non-geographic flight parameters. At least one of the plurality of geographic flight parameters is unspecified, as are possibly any of the non-geographic flight parameters, so that the customer may later convert the pre-paid airline ticket into a conventional airline ticket by specifying any unspecified parameters. The customers ability to do so is subject to any restrictions placed upon the pre-paid airline ticket by the unspecified parameters, and also to the availability of seats meeting the unspecified parameters. In other aspects the invention is a network server configured to sell pre-paid airline tickets, and a method of selling pre-paid airline tickets.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.