Technique for Producing Constructed Fares

Abstract

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.

1 . A method of producing constructed fares that includes an arbitrary added to a published fare, said method executed in a computer system, the method comprising:
 determining interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline;   searching for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries; and   applying an arbitrary corresponding to one of the interior cities to a published fare involving one of the gateway cities to produce the constructed fare.   
   
   
       2 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining interior cities comprises:
 accessing a hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city.   
   
   
       3 . The method of  claim 2  wherein accessing a hash table returns the list in constant time. 
   
   
       4 . The method of  claim 1  wherein searching for gateway cities comprises:
 accessing a hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city.   
   
   
       5 . The method of  claim 1  wherein determining interior cities comprises:
 accessing a first hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city; and wherein searching for gateway cities comprises:   accessing a second hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a second list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city.   
   
   
       6 . The method of  claim 5  wherein accessing the first and second hash table returns the lists in constant time. 
   
   
       7 . The method of  claim 1  wherein applying arbitraries further comprises:
 evaluating records from fare construction tables to determine whether the constructed fare is a valid constructed fare.   
   
   
       8 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the method is conditioned to allow any one or more of an airline code, interior city a first gateway city a second gateway city, or fare-basis to vary. 
   
   
       9 . The method of  claim 7  wherein testing entries further comprises:
 determining if an entry in a construction table was memorized before accessing the construction table; and   if the entry was memorized, retrieving an answer from a store of memorized entries to apply to the constructed fare.   
   
   
       10 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the constructed fare is a two component constructed fare. 
   
   
       11 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 determining a second set of interior cities that appear with a second gateway city in the published fare for the airline;   applying a second interior city from the second set of interior cites to the constructed fare to produce a three component constructed fare.   
   
   
       12 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the method is performed over all determined interior cities and all gateways. 
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 1  wherein the method is performed over all airlines. 
   
   
       14 . A method of producing a set of constructed international fares for an airline, the method executed in a computer system and the method comprising:
 determining interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline;   searching for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries; and   applying each arbitrary corresponding to each of the determined interior cities to published fares involving the gateway cities to produce the set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the set of constructed fares are two component constructed fares. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising:
 determining a second set of interior cities that appear with second gateway cities in the published fares.   
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 15  wherein the set of constructed fares is a first set of constructed fares and the method further comprises:
 applying each arbitrary corresponding to each of the determined second set of interior cities to the first set of constructed fares to produce a second set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 14  wherein the first set of constructed fares are two component constructed fares and the second set of constructed fares are three component constructed fares. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 14  further comprising:
 evaluating entries in fare construction tables to determine whether constructed fares in the set of constructed fares are valid constructed fares; and   returning the valid constructed fares as the set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       20 . The method of  claim 19  wherein evaluating entries further comprises:
 determining if an entry in a fare construction table was memorized before accessing the fare construction table; and   if the entry was memorized, retrieving an answer from a store of memorized entries to apply to the constructed fare.   
   
   
       21 . The method of  claim 14  wherein determining interior cities comprises:
 accessing a first hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city; and   
     wherein searching for gateway cities comprises:
 accessing a second hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a second list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city. 
 
   
   
       22 . A computer program product residing on a computer readable medium, for producing constructed fares that includes an arbitrary added to a published fare, comprising instructions for causing a computer system to:
 determine interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline;   search for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries; and   apply an arbitrary corresponding to one of the interior cities to a published fare involving one of the gateway cities to produce the constructed fare.   
   
   
       23 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein instructions that cause a computer to determine interior cities comprises:
 accessing a hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city.   
   
   
       24 . The computer program product of  claim 23  wherein instructions that cause a computer to access a hash table returns the list in constant time. 
   
   
       25 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein instructions that cause a computer to search for gateway cities comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 access a hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city.   
   
   
       26 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein instructions that cause a computer to determine interior cities comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 access a first hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city; and
 wherein instructions that cause a computer to search for gateway cities comprises instructions that cause a computer to: 
 access a second hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a second list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city. 
   
   
   
       27 . The computer program product of  claim 26  wherein instructions that cause a computer to access the first and second hash table returns the lists in constant time. 
   
   
       28 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein instructions that cause a computer to apply arbitraries further comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 test entries in construction tables to determine whether the constructed fare is a valid constructed fare.   
   
   
       29 . The computer program product of  claim 28  wherein instructions that cause a computer to test entries further comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 determine if an entry in a construction table was memorized before accessing the construction table; and   if the entry was memorized, retrieve an answer from a store of memorized entries to apply to the constructed fare.   
   
   
       30 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein the constructed fare is a two component constructed fare. 
   
   
       31 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein the computer program product is conditioned to allow any one or more of an airline code, interior city, a first gateway city, a second gateway city, or fare-basis to vary. 
   
   
       32 . The computer program product of  claim 22 , further comprising instructions that cause a computer to:
 determine a second set of interior cities that appear with a second gateway city in the published fare for the airline; and   apply a second interior city from the second set of interior cites to the constructed fare to produce a three component constructed fare.   
   
   
       33 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein the computer program product is executed over all determined interior cities and all gateways. 
   
   
       34 . The computer program product of  claim 22  wherein the computer program product is executed over all airlines. 
   
   
       35 . A computer program product for producing a set of constructed international fares for an airline, the computer program product residing on a computer readable medium and comprising instructions that cause a computer to:
 determine interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline;   search for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries; and   apply each arbitrary corresponding to each of the determined interior cities to published fares involving the gateway cities to produce the set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       36 . The computer program product of  claim 35  wherein the set of constructed fares are two component constructed fares. 
   
   
       37 . The computer program product of  claim 35  further comprising instructions that cause a computer to:
 determine a second set of interior cities that appear with second gateway cities in the published fares.   
   
   
       38 . The computer program product of  claim 36  wherein the set of constructed fares is a first set of constructed fares, and the computer program product further comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 apply each arbitrary corresponding to each of the determined second set of interior cities to the first set of constructed fares to produce a second set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       39 . The computer program product of  claim 35  wherein the first set of constructed fares are two component constructed fares and the second set of constructed fares are three component constructed fares. 
   
   
       40 . The computer program product of  claim 35  further comprising instructions that cause a computer to:
 evaluate entries in fare construction tables to determine whether constructed fares in the set of constructed fares are valid constructed fares; and   return the valid constructed fares as the set of constructed fares.   
   
   
       41 . The computer program product of  claim 40  wherein instructions that cause a computer to evaluate entries further comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 determine if an entry in a fare construction table was memorized before accessing the fare construction table; and   if the entry was memorized, retrieve an answer from a store of memorized entries to apply to the constructed fare.   
   
   
       42 . The computer program product of  claim 35  wherein instructions that cause a computer to determine interior cities comprises instructions that cause a computer to:
 access a first hash table by an airline, interior-city pair to return a list of gateway cities for which an airline has arbitraries that specify the interior city; and
 wherein instructions that cause a computer to search for gateway cities comprises instructions that cause a computer to: 
 access a second hash table by an airline, gateway pair to return a second list of gateway cities that an airline publishes fares from the determined gateway to another gateway city. 
   
   
   
       43 . A computer system comprising:
 a processor;   a memory for storing instructions executed by the processor; and   a storage medium storing a computer program product for producing a set of constructed international fares for an airline, the computer program product comprising instructions that cause the processor to:
 determine interior cities that appear with gateway cities in arbitraries for the airline; 
 search for gateway cities corresponding to the determined interior cities appearing in the arbitraries; and 
 apply each arbitrary corresponding to each of the determined interior cities to published fares involving the gateway cities to produce the set of constructed fares. 
   
   
   
       44 . The computer system of  claim 43  wherein the system is a stand-alone computer. 
   
   
       45 . The computer system of  claim 43  wherein the system is a server computer in a networked, client-server computer system. 
   
   
       46 . The computer system of  claim 43  wherein the system is a client computer in a networked, client-server computer system. 
   
   
       47 . A method of evaluating constructed fares against construction tables comprises:
 forming a query to obtain a record from a construction table to evaluate the validity of a constructed fare;   determining whether the query has been stored in a store of past queries and associated answers;   if the query has been stored, retrieving the answer from the store to evaluate the constructed fare, otherwise retrieving the record from a remote database;   evaluating the constructed fare against the record; and   storing an answer from evaluating the constructed fare for future references.   
   
   
       48 . The method of  claim 47  wherein the store is a memorization store. 
   
   
       49 . The method of  claim 47  wherein once the answer for a certain query has been stored, the procedure does not need to be run again on that query unless the record changes. 
   
   
       50 . The method of  claim 47  wherein the construction table is a so called ATPCO PO2 table. 
   
   
       51 . The method of  claim 47  wherein the construction table is a so called ATPCO PO4 table.