Conditional purchase offer management system
View Patent ↗A conditional purchase offer (CPO) management system is disclosed for receiving CPOs from one or more customers, such as airline passengers, and for evaluating the received CPOs against a number of CPO rules defined by a plurality of sellers, such as airlines, to determine whether any seller is willing to accept a given CPO. A CPO is a binding offer containing one or more conditions submitted by a customer for purchase of an item, such as airline travel, at a customer-defined price. A CPO rule is a set of restrictions defined by a given seller, such as an airline, to define a combination of restrictions for which the seller is willing to accept a predefined price. The CPO rules may be securely stored by one or more servers. The CPO management system permits a seller to correct for forecasting errors, if necessary, or other competitive forces which have produced excess capacity, by providing inventory for sale to CPO customers.
1. A method of processing airline tickets, comprising the steps of:
obtaining a purchase offer for travel from a customer, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including a price;
identifying one or more rules from a plurality of sellers of airline tickets, each of said rules containing one or more airline-defined restrictions; and
comparing said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers of airline tickets is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said airline-defined restrictions.
2. An apparatus for processing airline tickets, comprising:
a memory;
a memory processor disposed in communication with the memory and configured to issue a plurality of processing instructions stored in the memory, wherein the processor issues instructions to:
obtain a purchase offer for travel from a customer, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including a price;
identify one or more rules from a plurality of sellers of airline tickets, each of said rules containing one or more airline-defined restrictions; and
compare said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers of airline tickets is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said airline-defined restrictions.
3. A non-transitory medium for processing airline tickets, comprising:
a plurality of processing instructions stored in the medium and issuable by a processor to:
obtain a purchase offer for travel from a customer, said purchase offer containing at least one customer-defined condition including a price;
identify one or more rules from a plurality of sellers of airline tickets, each of said rules containing one or more airline-defined restrictions; and
compare said purchase offer to said rules to determine whether any of said sellers of airline tickets is willing to accept said purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said airline-defined restrictions.
4. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving a payment identifier specifying at least one financial account for providing guaranteed payment if said purchase offer is acceptable.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein said purchase offer further includes an expiration date.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein said rules include airline inventory and pricing information.
7. The method of claim 1 , wherein said rules are stored in an airline reservation system.
8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
pre-authorizing said price with a financial clearinghouse.
9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
authenticating said purchase offer prior; and
wherein comparing said purchase offer to said rules only occurs if said purchase offer is successfully authenticated.
10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting a rejection of said purchase offer to the customer if said customer-defined conditions fail to satisfy said airline-defined restrictions.
11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
binding said customer to fulfill the purchase offer if said customer-defined conditions satisfy said airline-defined restrictions.
12. The method of claim 4 , wherein said financial account is a debit account.
13. The method of claim 4 , wherein said financial account is a credit account.
14. The method of claim 4 , further comprising:
charging said financial account at said price if at least one of said sellers of airline tickets is willing to accept said purchase offer.
15. The method of claim 9 , wherein the authenticating comprises acceptance of a customer credit card number.
16. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
performing a deterrence action to deter the customer from submitting additional purchase offers related to the purchase offer.
17. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
generating a counteroffer; and
transmitting said counteroffer to said customer.
18. The method of claim 16 , wherein the deterrence action comprises limiting additional purchase offers containing a progressively increasing price.
19. The method of claim 16 , wherein the deterrence action comprises limiting additional purchase offers that the customer is able to submit within a predefined period of time.
20. The method of claim 17 , wherein generating and transmitting only occur if said price is within a predefined tolerance of at least one of said rules.