Patent ID: 8200503

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving, by a computer-based reservation service, pre-scheduled flight data for private aircraft, the pre-scheduled flight data defining at least one of empty leg flights and shared flights scheduled by the owners prior to transmitting the pre-scheduled flight data to the reservation service; receiving from the owners availability information including predetermined reservation criteria for each empty leg or shared flight, said reservation criteria including a departure location, a departure time constraint, a minimum number of passengers, and an agreed upon a predetermined payment schedule required to reserve the private aircraft, the departure location being defined by the pre-scheduled flight data; posting, by the computer-based reservation service, at least a portion of the availability information relating to departure location and destination; said payment schedule being agreed upon prior to said posting, and said payment schedule including a cost per seat determined by the number of passengers accepted; receiving, by the computer-based reservation service, reservation offers from a plurality of independent passengers, each of the reservation offers including an agreement to a specific destination request and a predetermined payment schedule; selecting a number of the received reservation offers, wherein the selected offers collectively are consistent with said reservation criteria for an identified private aircraft; communicating received reservation offers from one or more independent passengers to owners of private aircraft; receiving any changes in said predetermined reservation criteria from owners of the private aircraft and communicating said changes to each of said independent passengers associated with the offers; accepting the selected reservation offers consistent with any said changes from said owners; communicating to each of the independent passengers associated with the selected reservation offers a first notification of the acceptance; communicating to an owner of the identified private aircraft a second notification of the acceptance; transmitting to the owner of the identified private aircraft a passenger list corresponding to the selected reservation offers and a flight schedule that is substantially consistent with the departure time constraint, the departure location, and the specific destination request; and amending the availability information posted by the computer-based reservation service to reflect the number of seats remaining available and the status of the prescheduled flight data for the owner's aircraft.