Patent ID: 7562027

Claim:
A travel planning system comprises: a computer system, comprising: a processor; and a memory storing processes for executing on the processor, the processes, comprising: a scheduling process to provide a set of instances of transportation that satisfy a user query; and an availability process that accesses seat availability information from multiple sources of seat availability information, receives the instances of transportation and uses results from a first source of the multiple sources of seat availability information for a mode of transportation to determine a set of instances of transportation for which a seat is available from the received instances of transportation; determines quality properties of the availability information from the first source of seat availability information, with the quality properties including at least one of confidence, precision and validity; and determines, based on the quality properties, whether the first source of seat availability information is reliable, and if the results are not reliable, the availability process executes a second set of seat availability queries to the first source or a different one of the multiple sources of seat availability information based on the outcome of determining quality properties, to provide a second set of instances of transportation for which a seat is available.