Patent ID: 8428980

Claim:
A reservation device configured to respond to receipt of input criteria including a travel itinerary, the reservation device comprising: a travel segment database; a fare database; and a computer system configured to be accessible from a user terminal, the computer system comprising: a travel solutions search engine configured to access the travel segment database and determine a plurality of outbound travel segments and a plurality of inbound travel segments complying with the travel itinerary of the input criteria, the travel solutions search engine configured to determine a plurality of travel solutions by combining the outbound travel segments and the inbound travel segments in pairs through application of a plurality of combining rules; a fare search engine configured to access the fare data base and determine a fare for association with each travel solution to define one of a plurality of travel products each having a sales price; and a grouping engine configured to apply grouping criteria including at least one fare equivalence criterion to define a group of the travel products, to determine a plurality of combinations of the outbound travel segments and the inbound travel segments of the travel products in the group to define additional travel products, and to add the additional travel products as members of the group.