During the last half of the twentieth century, and particularly the last twenty five years, many changes in the travel industry have occurred. For example, while options for transportation by train, automobile and boat have changed to a relatively minor extent, travel via aircraft has increased dramatically. Similarly, the number and variety of destinations and the venue and entertainment choices available at those locations have increased dramatically. These changes now provide consumers with a vast array of choices including their mode of transportation, the transporting carrier, their destinations, their accommodations, their meals, their local transportation, and their entertainment.
As the volume of such choices has increased, the need for collection and assimilation of data regarding the many variables involved has also shown significant growth. Simultaneously, as fast as the capabilities of computers and modern methods of communicating have been adapted and developed to satisfy that need, those capabilities have been consumed to accommodate an ever-increasing amount of available, useful information. As a result, as consumers and their agents engage in travel-related transactions, they may now consider many factors beyond the mere availability of travel products and services. Consumers may now make informed decisions based on any number of factors, and consumers have accordingly demanded increasing access to information.
For example, in selecting air travel, a consumer may now easily consider a large number of factors such as departure and/or arrival times, air carrier, aircraft model, seat location, whether a meal will be served, number of stops and/or layovers, elapsed flight time, safety record, whether a ticket is refundable or may be modified or transferred, advance-purchase requirements, incentives that may be included, on time performance, price, and/or other terms or conditions.
Similarly, in selecting accommodations at the destination, a consumer may consider specific room selection, room configuration, hotel location, rates, whether pets are allowed, and amenities such as views, pools, exercise facilities, fireplaces, stoves, microwave ovens, continental breakfast, happy hour, balconies, restaurants, shopping, in-room refrigerators, laundry services, and the like. In selecting local transportation and/or entertainment, a similar array of factors may also be considered. In fact, the factors that may be considered are limited by only the extent to which it is profitable and/or cost effective for a provider to collect and make available such information.
One significant result of the increase in both the supply of travel-related options and the demand for travel-related services has been the widespread proliferation of travel agencies and other travel information groups. As these agencies and groups have competed with each other for market share, they have sought access to large volumes of data as describe above, and they have also sought to maintain such data so that it is continuously complete and up-to-date (i.e., “real time” data). To accommodate this need, various technological advancements have been made with respect to integrated computer reservation systems and networks (i.e., CRSs) and the centralized database services (i.e., Global Distribution Systems or “GDSs”), with which they interface. For example, various computerized, network-based systems (e.g., Travelocity, the SABRE system, Amadeus, Galileo/Apollo, System One, and Worldspan) are currently available to enable travel agents, through a local computer, to interface with a GDS. Accordingly, these integrated systems facilitate access to information regarding available services, transactions involving such services, updating the inventory of available services, and distribution of commissions relating to such transactions.
While these trends may have increased consumer choice and produced market forces that have incented service providers to better meet consumer needs, they have also produced market advantages for GDS providers with superior access to information. Not all GDS providers that have superior access to such information, however, are disinterested. For example, it is often the case the basis for the superior access to information that a GDS provider enjoys is the result of its affiliation with (e.g., ownership by, control by, operation by, marketed by, under common control with) an air carrier or other travel-related service provider. As a result of such affiliations, decisions regarding which information or services to provide are often influenced by ethical and/or legal considerations as well as by considerations of practicality, efficiency, and/or consumer needs and desires. Moreover, while increased information and opportunity for consumer choice is usually to be desired, an optimum system requires the ability to consider in the final analysis the costs associated with providing that information and making those choices available.
By way of illustration, FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior art integrated computer reservation system 100 comprising a host 110 interfacing with a centralized database service 120, and a travel agent 130 in communication with a consumer 140. Database service 120 is affiliated with (e.g., owned by, controlled by, operated by, marketed by, under contract with, and/or under common control with) an air carrier 150 or other travel-related service provider. In accordance with this system, travel agent 130 may be the end user of the travel services, or may be working on behalf of consumer 140 to accomplish a transaction involving services 122 such as travel-related services. Such a transaction may involve a reservation, purchase, return, refund, transfer, modification or other agreement relating to transportation, lodging accommodations, food, entertainment or other time-sensitive products or services. Agent 130 is typically a neutral source of information about, or tickets for, travel-related services such as air transportation.
Once agent 130 has determined the travel needs of consumer 140, agent 130 may submit to host 110 a request 132 configured to solicit a relevant set of information 112 (i.e., a display), enabling agent 130 to select one or more suitable services 122. Database 120 may provide access to a large volume of information regarding schedules, availability (i.e., seats participating carriers hold out as available for sale on particular flights), fares, rules, on-time performance, or other service enhancements. Where database 120 is affiliated with a first carrier 150, carrier 150 may require that alternate carrier 160 pay a fee 162 to carrier 150 for incorporating data 161 into database 120. Ethical and legal considerations, however, often preclude database 120 from charging such “user fees” in a discriminatory manner and may also preclude a limit database 120 from receiving value from an alternate carrier 162 in exchange for hosting that carrier's data.
Where database 120 is affiliated with first carrier 150 and includes information regarding available services of first carrier 150 and alternate carrier 160, ethical and legal considerations often require that any display 112 provided by host 110 include the schedules, fares, rules and availability of all carriers whose data is hosted by database 120, including carrier 150 and any other one or more alternate carriers 160. Those same ethical and legal considerations may also require that all displays 112 provided by host 110 offer the same functions or enhancements offered for all agents 130, without regard for the particular information requirements of a specific agent 130. For example, where database 120 is affiliated with carrier 150 and hosts data for alternate carrier 160, it may be necessary for database 120 to ensure that the displays 112 provided by database 120 and host 110 include the same editing and ranking criteria without regard for the type of connection (e.g., on-line or interline) between host 110, database 120 and agent 130. It may also be necessary for database 120 to ensure that each display 112 that database 120 enables host 110 to offer either use elapsed time as a significant factor in selecting service options from the database or give single-plane flights a preference over connecting services in ranking services. In addition, it may be necessary for database 120 to ensure that any service enhancements it offers to carrier 150 are also available to alternate carriers 160 on nondiscriminatory terms. Further, database 120 may be precluded from including certain types of default displays that might automatically prefer one or more carrier 150 over an alternate carrier 160.
After requesting and viewing one or more displays, agent 130 may select a suitable service and may communicate to host 110 a request or order 134 configured to reserve that suitable service in the name of consumer 140. Host 110 may then facilitate the updating of database 120 to reflect the reservation, sending to consumer 140 or agent 130 indicia of the service (or the service itself) 122 (e.g., an e-mail, a confirmation number, an itinerary, a paper ticket, a boarding pass, physical admission), payment for service 122 by or on behalf of consumer 140 or agent 130, and distribution of commissions among agent 130 and database 120. Typically, this distribution of commissions includes a commission 162 transferred from carrier 150 or alternate carrier 160 to database 120, an incentive 151 transferred from database 120 either directly to agent 130 or, alternatively, through host 110 as incentive 111, and a booking fee 131 transferred from agent 130 to booking engine 170. Accordingly, system 100 facilitates the provision of a display 112 that includes information regarding available services, the performance of transactions involving such available services, the updating of the inventory of available services, and the distribution of commissions relating to such transactions.
Presently known systems do not adequately address the situation in which a particular method of accessing or presenting information is desirable to one carrier, yet detrimental or otherwise contrary to the interests or desires of another. Similarly, where a first agent or a first consumer may desire to utilize a first set of capabilities, a second agent or consumer may desire a different set of capabilities. One consumer might wish to search information regarding a large number of carriers or even all carrier data (or other parameter(s)), while another consumer desires to view only a subset of available data. Consumers or agents accessing only a small fraction of available data and requiring very simple or basic functionality may find it undesirable to pay fees which are a function of many different consumers and agents having more complex needs. It follows, then, that the needs and desires of such “low-end” users may tend to discourage the development and incorporation of improvements and enhancements more useful to “high-end” users because those improvements and enhancements may increase the costs of the system. With Global Data Systems, as with many things, one size (e.g., one set of data, one fixed fee) may not fit (i.e., be suitable for) all users.