Google Inc.

Ita Software, Inc.

David M Baggett

Rodney S Daughtrey

Gregory R Galperin

Daniel J Thumim

Thomas C Vogel

Carl G DeMarcken

Techniques, for automatically determining frequent traveler award redemptions by rule are disclosed. The frequent travel award redemption program is encoded in rules using predefined data structures based on fare by rule data structures. The techniques automatically determine a travel itinerary based on a query and the rules. Also included is a graphical user interface that displays a plurality of possible travel options for redemption using a frequent travel award. The rules include fields to determine co-pay options and for calculating mileage purchase options.

Mileage purchase options for frequent traveler award redemption by rule

Methods and systems to store event information and corresponding event availability information. An event record and a corresponding availability count record may be stored together in a hash table, at an index computed from event information. Alternatively, event records may be stored in a first hash table at indexes computed from corresponding event information, and availability count records may be stored in a second hash table, at indexes computed from contents of the availability count records. Event records in the first hash table may include pointers to availability count records in the second hash table. To retrieve an availability count record for an event, the event information may be hashed with the first hash function to determine an index of the first hash table at which the event record and associated pointer are stored. From the pointer, the associated availability count record may be retrieved from the second hash table.

Method, system, and computer program product to store event information and corresponding event availability information

Frequent traveler award redemption by rule

Display of travel options with frequent travel award credit

Co-pay options for frequent traveler award redemption by rule

A technique for producing constructed fares that include an arbitrary added to a published fare is described. The techniques determine interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline and searches for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries. The technique applies an arbitrary corresponding to one of the interior cities to a published fare involving one of the gateway cities to produce the constructed fare.

Technique for producing constructed fares

A method, system and computer program product for interfacing between information requesters and information sources. In an embodiment, information is obtained from one or more information sources in response to client requests. In an embodiment, information received from information sources is cached for future use, such as for future client requests. In a caching embodiment, information can also be received by monitoring traffic between an information source and a third party, and/or by proactively querying the information sources. Proactive queries can be generated to populate a cache and/or to update presently cached information. In a caching embodiment, the invention includes methods for determining whether to respond to a request for information out-of-cache and/or with real-time information from an information source. In an embodiment, the invention interfaces with airline availability information sources. The invention also includes, without limitation, methods for interfacing with information sources through proxies, methods for ordering and prioritizing queries, methods for processing queries in a distributed architecture, and time-out features.

Method, system, and computer program product for interfacing with information sources

A travel planning system that implements seat availability determinations is described. The planning system includes a scheduling process for determining a set of instances of transportation that satisfy a user query and a faring process that determines fares valid for at least some of the instances in the set of instances of transportation. The travel planning system also includes an availability process that uses results from a single source of seat availability for a mode of transportation to determine a set of available instances of transportation and determines whether the results from the single source are reliable.

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Hermosa Beach, CA, United States of America

David M Baggett