Abstract:
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and a website for making travel plans between an originating location and a destination that may be at least partially determined by weather criteria, travel time and cost, and preselected activities that may exist at the destination during the time period in which a trip is to be made.

Description:
[0001]     This is a continuation-in-part of patent application having Ser. No. 10/987,673 filed Nov. 12, 2004. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     The present invention generally relates to a method and website for making travel plans.  
         [0003]     The travel industry has utilized computerized reservations systems (CRS) to access airline and rail schedules as well as book flights and other reservations that are travel related. These systems usually have certain databases and functionality that can only be used by subscribing travel agencies, but also provide similar but less extensive capabilities that can be used by individuals to plan as well as book travel arrangements for business and pleasure. There are many computerized reservation systems that are used worldwide and include systems that operate under the brands of Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre and Worldspan. These systems are predominantly used by travel agents and the industry and are used to book airline travel as well as other types of travel to a lesser extent, throughout the world. When travel arrangements are to be made, the traveler can directly access a website such as Orbitz, Travelocity, and others for the purpose of determining what flights are available at what time and date, and at what price. Alternatively, such information can be obtained from a travel agent who generally performs the same tasks. However, travel agents as well as others in the industry have databases and powerful search tools available to them that are not available to an individual traveler who attempts to make arrangements through the websites that are available to them.  
         [0004]     Regardless of the databases that are typically accessed, all known systems uniformly operate on the basis that a traveler or operator inputs the originating location as well as the destination, the departure date as well as the return date and searches for available flights. The results of the search usually reveal the available flights (including nonstop or multiple stop flights) and their cost. If a selection is made, other important data such as the number of travelers, the class of ticket they wish to purchase, seat and meal options and like can often be specified. The many computerized reservation systems generally universally operate in this manner. It is desirable that other considerations be included in the travel planning and scheduling process.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0005]     Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a method and a website for making travel plans between an originating location and a destination that may be at least partially determined by one or more of many criteria that may exist during the time period in which a trip is to be made, including weather at a destination, activities that may be available, the types of travel that is desired, the cost of travel, and availability of travel packages that can include various combinations of air, ship, train, or vehicular travel together with accommodations at one or more destinations. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0006]      FIG. 1  is a block diagram of the major components of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0007]      FIG. 2  is a flow chart illustrating the steps of the method of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0008]      FIG. 3  is a more detailed flow chart of a portion of the weather search process shown in  FIG. 2 ;  
         [0009]      FIG. 4  is a window or page of a website illustrating aspects of the selection process of the preferred embodiment;  
         [0010]      FIG. 5  is another window illustrating other aspects of the selection process of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0011]      FIG. 6  is another window illustrating other aspects of the selection process of the preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0012]      FIG. 7  is a more detailed flow chart of a CRS search process;  
         [0013]      FIG. 8  is another window illustrating the results of a search process utilizing the choices that were made in the windows of  FIGS. 2 and 3 ; and  
         [0014]      FIG. 9  is a window illustrating the booking process.  
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0015]     Broadly stated, the preferred embodiment of the method of the present invention and the website that is used to implement the method utilizes one or more computerized reservations systems (CRS) including private reservation systems in combination with data sources or databases that provide weather related information. Such weather related information can include weather forecasts at various destinations, as well as averages of weather information for the particular time period of interest from one or several years.  
         [0016]     If a traveler is uncertain as to a destination, but knows what activities he or she would like to participate in at the destination, such weather related information can be instrumental in the choice of a destination at the time in which the traveler wishes to travel. For example, if an individual wishes to escape to sunshine and warmth, that choice would result in a destination that would be quite different from one who wished to go skiing. The preferred embodiment of the present invention uses weather criteria as a significant factor, if not a major factor in determining destinations of a trip. The preferred embodiment of the method is preferably carried out over the Internet, but large area networks may also be used if appropriate. A website that can be accessed by potential travelers is a desired implementation of the method of the preferred embodiment.  
         [0017]     The basic components of the present invention are shown in  FIG. 1 , and includes a website server, indicated generally at  10 , with the server being connected to one or more users  12 , as well as to a weather data source  14  and a reservation system  16  (i.e., a CRS computerized reservation system or a private reservation system), with the connections between these components being made preferably through the Internet  18 , although other large area networks could be used. As is known to those who professionally use CRS&#39;s, access to multiple CRS&#39;s is often made through the use of an application program interface (API) which enables queries to be simultaneously made to several CRS&#39;s. An API is an external web service that performs such simultaneous querying of multiple CRS&#39;s. The Internet is the preferred interconnection among most of these components because it is a worldwide communication network. Alternatively, private reservations systems can be used in conjunction with or in place of CRS&#39;s.  
         [0018]     With regard to the operation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention, and referring to the flowchart shown in  FIG. 2 , the website server has software which produces the various windows shown in  FIGS. 4-8  and also provides the engine for the operation and functionality of the website.  
         [0019]     Turning now to  FIG. 2 , the server generates the search pages or windows  20 ,  21  and  22  which enables the user to make the various choices, select destinations and flights as well as book flights that are shown on these pages. Thus, the user will select weather criteria (block  24 ) as well as a region (block  26 ) and also select the time span for the proposed trip (block  28 ) which can encompass either the selection of the “last minute” choice (block  30 ) or a period (block  32 ) of time that can be general as in the spring, summer, autumn and winter, or specific departure and return dates.  
         [0020]     The initial action that is taken is for the server to contact weather data sources (block  34 ) to yield weather results (block  36 ). With regard to the contacting weather data sources action, the internal preferred process of the website server is shown in  FIG. 3  where the server initially constructs queries based upon the traveler&#39;s indicated choices for weather criteria, region and period. More particularly, queries are constructed to obtain weather forecasts for all cities in a selected region within the selected period. The server then sets up connections to one or more weather data sources and sends the queries to the data source(s) to obtain a list of all cities in the geographical region that satisfy the selected weather criteria. The results in the form of forecasts of the cities are then received by the server (block  40 ) and provided to the server which then contacts destination datasources (block  38 ) to determine possible destination cities based upon other criteria that are supplied by the user.  
         [0021]     In this regard, a user can visit the website and can make other selections with regard to criteria that are important in determining possible destinations, as is shown in the window or web page shown in  FIGS. 4, 5  and  6 . As shown in the upper left portion  50  of the window, a user must supply an originating location or field which is shown to indicate Amsterdam. A departure date is selected by the user, indicated as May 14, 2006 and a return date of May 18, 2006 is also indicated. Fields indicating the number of adults, children and infants are also illustrated. This information will be used to find flights or other means of travel from the originating city to a destination city, if and when the user has a final destination and wishes to search for, choose and book flights or other means of travel.  
         [0022]     It should be understood from the above that the website is not limited to booking airline flights to destination cities, but may be provided by a travel agency or other entity which can book cruise ships, rail travel, bus travel or rental cars for a trip. The information being provided in these described fields is important for planning a trip using any type of travel.  
         [0023]     In addition to this information, the user can choose the weather that is desired and/or expected at the destination city as is shown at  52  of the window  20 . In this regard, there are two possible weather related tools that may be used to choose a possible destination, those being temperature and weather type. Each of the these choices has a selection box, which if selected (preferably by moving a cursor to the box and clicking a mouse switch), then shows a checkmark in the box. When either or both of these tools are activated, a slider icon  54  can be manipulated to change their operational characteristics. Each of these weather related tools also has an associated display window, with the temperature display window  56  indicating the specific temperature being selected by moving the slider icon  54  to the left or the right. As expected, moving the temperature slider icon  54  to the left will display a lower temperature and moving it to the right will show a higher temperature. The range of temperature may extend from minus 10° to plus 40° C., for example. Also as is common, the slider icons  54  can be moved by placing the cursor on the slider icon, while depressing a mouse switch and then moving the cursor either left or right as desired.  
         [0024]     In the center of the window  20  are a list of destinations  44 , the number of which may vary dramatically depending upon the temperature that has been selected by the user. As shown in  FIG. 4 , there are  126  destinations including Bangkok and Manila. It should be apparent if the temperature slider icon  54  was moved to a cold temperature, these destinations would not be listed.  
         [0025]     The other weather type tool, when its associated box is checked, activates its associated slider icon  54 , which can be moved from a far rightward position indicating a sunny condition, where the sun would be shown in the adjacent display window  56 , to partly cloudy condition as shown in  FIG. 4 , as well as a rainy condition as shown in  FIG. 6 . If the user wishes to have sunshine for spending time on a beach, a forecast of rain for some destinations would result in those destinations being removed from the list of possible destinations  44 .  
         [0026]     The webpage  20  also includes a section  60  that enables the user to specify possible interests or activities that they would like to participate in at the destination, and a total of eight different icons with associated boxes being illustrated, including a beach icon  62 , a city trip icon  64 , a horse racing icon  66 , a hiking icon  68 , a snowman or skiing icon  70 , a golf icon  72 , a shopping icon  74  and a diving icon  76 . Additional or different icons can of course be used to signify other interests, such as dining, entertainment and/or gambling, for example.  
         [0027]     As shown in  FIG. 4 , the beach icon  62  is checked which affects the number of destinations that are available. The list  44  indicates  126  possible destinations, and it is apparent that those listed are cities that have beaches.  
         [0028]     Another feature may be helpful for the user to pick a destination is the right column shown in  FIG. 4 , which identifies five top beaches. These top beaches can be determined in various ways, depending upon what criteria are used in the selection and by the provider of the website. If it is a travel agency, those top beaches may be the ones where they sell the most travel trips to the customers, or the ones who are most highly recommended by their customers, or they may be lists that result from paid advertisers.  
         [0029]     Referring to  FIG. 5 , the golfing icon box as well as the shopping icon box have been selected in addition to the beach icon box and the top destinations column on the right include five top shopping areas and five top golf courses. Since there are three activities or interests that are being addressed, the number of destinations is proportionally reduced and only three destinations are illustrated in  FIG. 5 . In  FIG. 6 , the diving and shopping icons have been selected and only five destinations are indicated in the list  44 . The right column indicates five top dive sites, as well as five top shopping areas.  
         [0030]     Other selections can be made in the lower left section, indicated generally at  80 , which has two criteria tools that are available for selection, those being flight time and flight price. If the flight time box is checked, then its slider icon  82  can be moved to change the maximum length of a flight which can be from two to twenty-four hours, for example, but which can be varied as desired. The flight time duration is shown in the associated display window  84 . Similarly, the other choice is the flight price, which has an associated slider icon  82  and display window  84  which enables the user to set a maximum amount for the ticket that he will buy. While the range of price can obviously be varied, it may range from 200 to 2,000 Euros, for example.  
         [0031]     As a result of the selection process, the possible destinations are provided as a result of merging the weather related criteria with the activity criteria, which produces the destinations that are listed in the middle column  44  of the web page 20 (also block  44  in  FIG. 2 ). From those possible destinations, the user can then select a destination (block  46 ) and then proceed to do searches for flights to the desired destination city by pressing a search icon  90 . This will result in a list of possible flights from which one can be selected by pressing an appropriate icon  92  and then booking the desired flight by depressing an appropriate icon  94 . The results of a search is preferably shown in a webpage, such as that shown in  FIG. 8  and booking can be accomplished by a webpage, such as that shown in  FIG. 9 . The weather data sources can be any data source that supplies weather forecast data or historical information that may include weather criteria averages for a particular destination. In this regard, averages of high and low temperatures, amount of rain, wind speed, snowfall, snow accumulation and amount of sunshine and the like may be obtained over one or several years for the desired time span of the trip and depending upon the queries that were constructed, the results of them is returned by the weather data source preferably for each city. Additionally, more current weather conditions or criteria may also be returned. Particularly, the accumulated snow in a skiing area may be very desirable information. Based upon the results of the weather queries, one or several cities in the geographical area may satisfy the weather criteria.  
         [0032]     The website server then initiates the action to contact the computerized reservation system (block  38 ) to obtain destination information for all cities in the region that satisfied the weather criteria for the specified dates.  
         [0033]     While it may be done many different ways, it is preferred that destination results would be generated based upon some reasonable lead time from the time of the request, i.e., one or two weeks in the future, and have a duration that is commonly scheduled, such as one or two weeks. However, representative results may be returned in many different ways. It may be desirable to require the traveler to specify a narrower range of departure and return dates for a trip. The destination results are returned to the website server (block  40 ) which processes and merges the results (block  42 ).  
         [0034]     With regard to contacting a CRS, there are several systems including the Galileo, Amadeus, Sabre and Worldspan systems that provide airline scheduling information. There are other CRS&#39;s that can provide hotel availability and pricing, as well as holiday travel packages from a tour operator The preferred internal process is shown in  FIG. 7 , and begins with the server constructing the necessary queries based on the cities that were returned by the weather data sources and/or destination data sources. The server then connects to an API which is an external web service that can query multiple computer reservation systems simultaneously and the results of the queries are then received by the server (block  40 ).  
         [0035]     The results of the search are displayed in a search result window as shown in  FIG. 8 , which in the illustrated example lists a flight to Paris from Amsterdam as well as a return flight and the indication that the average temperature is 78° F. with about nine hours of sunshine per day. This is for the time period of September 1 through September 25. A similar flight to Prague is listed below the Paris flight, with the various flight choices being displayed.  
         [0036]     While various embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it should be understood that other modifications, substitutions and alternatives are apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Such modifications, substitutions and alternatives can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which should be determined from the appended claims.  
         [0037]     Various features of the invention are set forth in the following claims.