Patent ID: 8595039

Claim:
A method for determining travel solutions that involve multiple routes for multiple passenger groups for a trip, the method comprising: receiving, by a computer system including one or more computers, separate travel constraints for each of a plurality of different passenger groups and a set of joint travel requirements applicable to all of the passenger groups; sending, by the computer system, a first individual query for each of the plurality of different passenger groups, each of the first individual queries including travel parameters of an origin, a destination and travel date information, receiving, by the computer system, for each of the plurality of different passenger groups, first sets of individual solutions that meet the travel parameters of the first individual query; merging individual solutions from the first sets of individual solutions and determining that an insufficient number of joint solutions for the passenger groups satisfy the joint travel requirements; selecting, by the computer system, an evaluation aspect of a trip other than an origin, a destination, or travel date information, upon which to evaluate the individual solutions, and selecting a value for the evaluation aspect; evaluating, by the computer system, a combined value of each of the first sets of individual solutions, with regard to the evaluation aspect, obtained for each of a plurality of combinations of the first sets of individual solutions, to identify a combination of individual solutions having a combined value closest to the selected value for the evaluation aspect; for each of a plurality of the passenger groups, creating a second individual query comprising the travel parameters of the first individual query and a parameter having a value for the evaluation aspect consistent with the value for the evaluation aspect of the individual solution for the passenger group in the identified combination of individual solutions; and sending, by the computer system, the second individual query for each of the plurality of different passenger groups; and receiving, for each of the plurality of different passenger groups, second sets of individual solutions that meet the travel parameters of the second individual query.