Patent ID: 7693894

Claim:
A method for caching and utilizing airline flight availability data for specific subscribers by an electronic distribution computer comprising the steps of: configuring a cache database by the electronic distribution computer for each of a plurality of airlines using an airline cache control and for each of a plurality of subscribers using a subscriber cache control; receiving an availability request from a subscriber by the electronic distribution computer over a communications network; accessing a control list by the electronic distribution computer to verify that the subscriber can utilize the configured cache database for a particular airline corresponding to the received availability request for flight availability information; querying the configured cache database for flight availability data of the particular airline stored for use by the verified subscriber and corresponding to the received availability request, wherein the flight availability data corresponding to the received availability request is includes OR associated with a minimum seat count; retrieving the flight availability data corresponding to the received availability request for the verified subscriber if found in the configured cache database and if an available seat count of the found flight availability data corresponding to the received availability request is not less than the associated minimum seat count; sending a real-time request for flight availability data from the electronic distribution computer over the communications network to an airline server database, if flight availability data corresponding to the received availability request is not found in the configured cache database or if available seat count of the found flight availability data in the configured cache database is less than the associated minimum seat count; and sending the flight availability data in response to the sent real-time request from the airline server database to the verified subscriber.