Patent ID: 7487103

Claim:
A computer-based method, comprising: receiving a reservation request for transportation; determining if space is available; upon the occurrence that there is space available, accepting the reservation request; upon the occurrence that no space is available, determining probability of future space available, P(SpaceAvailable); and determining if overbooking is statistically profitable based on the determined probability; upon the occurrence that there is no space available and overbooking is statistically profitable, accepting the reservation request; wherein determining if space is available and determining if the reservation is statistically profitable is accomplished with a processor, and wherein determining if the reservation is statistically profitable is based on − P (NoSpace)* Q+P (SpaceAvailable)* R ≧0 wherein P(NoSpace) is the probability that space will not be available; P(SpaceAvailable) is the probability that space will be available; R is operational profit from the requested reservation; and Q is displacement cost for the requested reservation.