Patent ID: 8265967

Claim:
A computer-implemented travel planning method for multiple passenger groups traveling on multiple routes, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system including one or more computers, a travel search request including travel preferences for each of a plurality of passenger groups, each passenger group having different members, traveling on multiple, different routes and at least one joint travel preference or requirement shared by each member of the plurality of passenger groups; constructing, by operation of a computer, a first query for a first passenger group of the plurality of passenger groups, the first query comprising at least one attribute for one or more of an origin, a destination, a date of departure, a time of departure, a date of arrival, or a time of arrival, and at least one attribute for the joint travel preference or requirement; receiving a first plurality of travel solutions from a travel planning system, the solutions comprising sets of flights based on the first query; identifying, by operation of a computer, a selection of at least one solution from the first plurality of solutions received from the travel planning system in response to the first query; deriving, by operation of a computer, a constraint on the at least one attribute based on the identified selection of at least one solution; constructing, by operation of a computer, a second query for a second passenger group, the second query comprising attributes for one or more of the origin, the destination, the date of departure, the time of departure, the date of arrival, or the time of arrival, the second query comprising the constrained at least one attribute, and at least one attribute for the joint travel preference or requirement; and returning information regarding travel solutions for each of the plurality of passenger groups in response to the travel search request.