Patent ID: 7686218

Claim:
A loyalty system for facilitating purchase of an event ticket from a merchant, wherein the merchant offers a selection of tickets for purchase using at least one transaction card account, and wherein the merchant offers an option of paying for the event ticket at least partially using loyalty points from at least one loyalty account, the system comprising: an exchange system configured to receive loyalty data from the merchant, wherein the loyalty data comprises a purchase price of the event ticket, an identifier of each loyalty account being used, and an identifier each transaction card account being used, wherein the exchange system is configured to convert the purchase price of the event ticket to equivalent loyalty points, and wherein the identifier of each loyalty account is provided by a user to the merchant; a transaction account system comprising at least a first computerized database system for managing the at least one transaction card account, wherein the transaction account system is configured to charge the at least one transaction card account for the purchase price of the event ticket; and a loyalty accounts system comprising at least a second computerized database system for managing the at least one loyalty account, wherein the loyalty accounts system is configured to: receive the loyalty data from the exchange system for the purchase of the event ticket; facilitate exchange of account data between the at least one loyalty account and the at least one transaction card account for the purchase of the event ticket; debit the at least one loyalty account for the purchase of the event ticket, based on the loyalty data corresponding to the event ticket, by an amount of loyalty points equivalent to a currency value of a reimbursement amount that is at least a portion of the purchase price of the event ticket; and credit the at least one transaction card account by the reimbursement amount for the purchase of the event ticket.