Booking engine for booking airline tickets on multiple host environments
View Patent ↗A system and method of booking an itinerary on at least one of a multiplicity of host environments include a plurality of host adaptor modules. Each host adaptor module is configured to interact with one of the plurality of host ticketing environments. A booking engine is provided for receiving commands related to booking the air travel itinerary and determining an appropriate host ticketing environment for processing the commands based on a number of predefined criteria. When the booking engine receives a command it forwards the command to a first host adaptor module which is associated with first host ticketing environment selected by the booking engine for processing the command. The host adaptor module receives the command and issues the command to said first host ticketing environment. The first host adaptor module in turn receives a response from the first host ticketing environment and determines whether the response comports with an expected response. If the response does not comport with the expected response, the booking engine identifies a second appropriate host environment for processing the command and forwards the command to a second host adaptor module associated with the second host ticketing environment. The second host adaptor module then issues the command to the second host ticketing environment.
1. A computerized method of booking an air travel itinerary comprising the steps of:
receiving customer travel requirements;
performing an initial search to gather itineraries meeting said requirements;
displaying results of said search to the customer;
receiving an indication of an itinerary of interest from said customer;
determining, through a booking engine, a host environment for re-pricing said itinerary of interest, including identifying an air carrier whose flights are described in the itinerary of interest and determining whether a direct link is available to said air carrier's host environment;
re-pricing, through the booking engine, the itinerary of interest on said host environment to obtain details of and confirm the availability of the itinerary of interest, including re-pricing the itinerary of interest on the air carrier's host environment if a direct link is available to said air carrier's host environment, receiving re-priced fare data for the itinerary of interest from the air carrier's host environment, determining whether the re-priced fare data match fare data gathered from the initial search within tolerances, and re-pricing the itinerary on a global distribution system if the re-priced fare data do not match the fare data gathered in the initial search;
receiving an instruction from said customer to book the itinerary of interest;
determining a host environment on which to book the itinerary of interest; and
booking the itinerary of interest on the appropriate host environment.
2. The method claim 1 , wherein the step of determining an a host environment for re-pricing said itinerary of interest includes determining whether the search was performed on a global distribution system.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of determining a host environment on which to book the itinerary of interest includes determining whether the step of re-pricing the itinerary was performed on a global distribution system, and if so, booking the itinerary of interest on the global distribution system.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the step of booking the itinerary of interest on the host environment further includes re-pricing the itinerary of interest a second time on the host environment.
5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of designating a default host environment, and if a direct link to said air carrier's host environment is not available, booking said itinerary of interest on said default host environment.