FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to systems and methods facilitating the order of items for later delivery at an identified location during a travel event, and more particularly, it relates to a system allowing a user to build their own customized order of specific items for delivery to a passenger during a travel event.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The travel industry, primarily the airline industry, provisions food for travelers by calculating usages by comparing food sales versus food purchased per market. They forecast food sales 90 days before flights, and at the 60 days before flights, they calculate bookings per flight and either increase or decrease food orders to contracted caters based on the number of travelers, and the markets they are departing from. At 30 days, they make a final adjustment based on booking and cancellations, and at 29 days before the flight, they are locked into the food orders despite any changes in demand.

This method of forecasting poses several difficulties. Each departing city has different buying habits. Also, many vacation travelers or non-frequent travelers are unaware of meal options when booking a flight, as opposed to business or frequent travelers. Limited menu changes imposed by the caters also results in a waste of food. Food items designed into the menu, regardless of whether there are no sales of that item, take six months to purge that food item from the menu.

Lastly, there is no inventory control of the food items loaded on flights, despite having a point of sale device in the hands of the flight attendant. Frequent fliers awarded meals, comp meals, or damaged meals do not get inputted into the POS because of the lack of user support or device malfunction. The lack of accurate tracking of the food items has also created a shrinkage problem with employees on any given flight by taking advantage of the lack of accurate inventory. All these issues make it virtually impossible to provision a flight with meals accurately because there are either too many or not enough meals on a flight. Any meals that are not sold are disposed of resulting in direct economic loss.

While it is known to allow a user to select limited prepackaged meals (e.g., a kosher meal or a vegetarian meal), there is no ability for the user to actually build their own meal, nor is there an ability to order items that may not normally be supplied on the flight because of the limited demand of such items. This leaves all of the decision-making power in the hands of the airline who has to guess at what items passengers may want. Not surprisingly, the airlines err on the side of caution to limit waste. This is even so in the case of non-perishable items because of lack of inventory controls and the frequency of which these items go missing.

This grossly imprecise method of provisioning a flight results in significant lost sales for the airlines as passengers, knowing there are few to no items available in-flight to purchase, frequent various shops and restaurants in the terminal in order to fulfill their needs for the flight. One problem with this approach is that quite often passengers run into time constraints that do not allow them to get what they need or they forget items until on the flight at which time it is too late and the item(s) are not available for purchase.

It would be advantageous to have a system that would allow an airline to more accurately predict the needs of passengers on a flight so as not to over-provision or under-provision a flight. This increased accuracy to provisioning would function to reduce or even eliminate monetary losses on the part of the airline due to imprecise provisioning.

It would also be advantageous to allow passengers to actually be empowered to order the items they want/need during a flight even if that item is not a widely-ordered item.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present application describes in one configuration a system and method for more accurately provisioning a flight based on input received from passengers.

It is desired therefore, to provide a system and method for provisioning a flight that reduces waste and more accurately reflects the needs of passengers.

It is also desired to provide a system and method that shifts the decision-making ability of flight provisioning to the passengers to better reflect the individual needs of passengers on a flight.

While the invention is discussed in connection with the airline industry and with the provision of meals provided during a flight, one of skill in the art will understand that the system and method applicable to the ordering of non-food items during a travel event including, for example, blankets, pillows, or other comfort aids that are also in limited supply on airline flights and that the provisioning is applicable to other common carriers including, for example, buses, trains, ferries, cruise ships, and other travel providers.

The system solves this above-listed problems by giving the travel industry the ability to accurately forecast food sales by giving a user (i.e., a future passenger/customer) the ability of pre-ordering their meals. The system may, in one configuration, be provided as a software app that is loadable on a mobile device for ease of use. Specifically, the system supports white page app integration within an airline's app ecosystem or travel industry app such as Expedia, Trviago, Priceline, etc. avoiding the need for the user having to open a separate app to pre-order their meals.

The system is provided to empower the user by providing them a diverse menu of options to choose from based on accurate data received from the airline and cater. Instead of forcing the airline to guess what items (perishable and non-perishable), the system provides the airlines user selection data well in advance of the flight departure dates. Additionally, the system connects and syncs with the airline POS system and devices identifying the users on the manifest who have pre-ordered their meals—thus reducing waste, shrinkage, and back-end processes of forecasting for the airlines. Finally, improved customer experience of meal choices for the user and reduced workload of the flight attendants by avoiding collecting payment for meals during a flight.

The present invention overcomes many of the above limitations by enabling passengers or travelers termed “users” to order items including perishable food items for a future travel event such as an airline flight. In an embodiment, users may also be able to order non-food items for delivery during a travel event, for example blankets, pillows, or other comfort aids that are also in limited supply on airline flights or other common carriers (buses, trains, ferries, cruise ships, and other travel providers).

In one configuration, a system is provided that may utilize an Ordering App that is downloadable to a user's mobile device. This Ordering App, when opened and the user is registered and logged in, allows the user to enter flight (or travel) information connecting the user with a particular date and travel destination. The system will retrieve a menu of items that are available for purchase in connection with that travel event. The user is then able to build their own meal, or travel package including both perishable and non-perishable items. This would allow the user to receive items on the flight that would normally not be available due to, for example, how seldom that item is purchased by the wider travel population.

Once the user's travel package is completed, the system then confirms that the items are available for the identified travel leg and will continue to periodically update and check that the items remain available. In the event of an interruption in availability, the system can automatically notify the user and prompt the user to select alternate items or can refund or credit as necessary.

This system is further designed to track changes in the user's travel plans including, for example, changes in flight details, delays or other issues to ensure that the travel package actually reaches the user for the travel event even if the travel event changes from the time of ordering.

In another configuration, the system allows the user via the Ordering App to check the in-flight items available for purchase on the flight the traveler is currently on. For example, the system may provide a listing of items in inventory on that flight that are not designated for a particular traveler. In this way, a user can prior to even boarding the flight, purchase such items in inventory that may be in short supply (e.g., pillows/blankets on an over night flight).

For this application the following terms and definitions shall apply:

The term “data” as used herein means any indicia, signals, marks, symbols, domains, symbol sets, representations, and any other physical form or forms representing information, whether permanent or temporary, whether visible, audible, acoustic, electric, magnetic, electromagnetic or otherwise manifested. The term “data” as used to represent predetermined information in one physical form shall be deemed to encompass any and all representations of the same predetermined information in a different physical form or forms.

The term “network” as used herein includes both networks and internetworks of all kinds, including the Internet, and is not limited to any particular type of network or inter-network.

The terms “first” and “second” are used to distinguish one element, set, data, object or thing from another, and are not used to designate relative position or arrangement in time.

The terms “coupled”, “coupled to”, “coupled with”, “connected”, “connected to”, and “connected with” as used herein each mean a relationship between or among two or more devices, apparatus, files, programs, applications, media, components, networks, systems, subsystems, and/or means, constituting any one or more of (a) a connection, whether direct or through one or more other devices, apparatus, files, programs, applications, media, components, networks, systems, subsystems, or means, (b) a communications relationship, whether direct or through one or more other devices, apparatus, files, programs, applications, media, components, networks, systems, subsystems, or means, and/or (c) a functional relationship in which the operation of any one or more devices, apparatus, files, programs, applications, media, components, networks, systems, subsystems, or means depends, in whole or in part, on the operation of any one or more others thereof.

The term “automatic” and variations thereof, as used herein, refers to any process or operation done without material human input when the process or operation is performed. However, a process or operation can be automatic, even though performance of the process or operation uses material or immaterial human input, if the input is received before performance of the process or operation. Human input is deemed to be material if such input influences how the process or operation will be performed. Human input that consents to the performance of the process or operation is not deemed to be “material.”

The terms “process” and “processing” as used herein each mean an action or a series of actions including, for example, but not limited to, the continuous or non-continuous, synchronous or asynchronous, routing of data, modification of data, formatting and/or conversion of data, tagging or annotation of data, measurement, comparison and/or review of data, and may or may not comprise a program.

In one configuration a system is provided an order processing method for ordering items to be delivered to a user during a travel event is provided, the method including the steps of transmitting user data and travel event information relating to the user for a specified travel event from a user device to an order processing computer, presenting a list of items for available for purchase to be delivered to the user during the specified travel event on the user device and transmitting a selection of items of the list of items for purchase from the user device to the order processing computer. The method further comprises the steps of transmitting the user data, the travel event information and the selection of items from the order processing computer to an order fulfillment computer and transmitting a confirmation of the selected items to the user device for the specified travel event. The method still further comprises the steps of determining prior to a date of the specified travel event whether the selection of items is available for delivery to a carrier of the specified travel event, wherein, if a selected item is unavailable for delivery, notifying the user via the user device that the selected item is not available for delivery during the specified travel event and transmitting a list of delivered items to an attendant mobile device along with at least some of the user data and the travel event information.

In another configuration an order processing system for ordering items to be delivered to a user during a travel event is provided comprising: an order processing computer having a storage, software executing on a user data and transmitting user data and travel event information relating to the user for a specified travel event to the order processing computer, and software executing on the order processing computer transmitting a list of items for available for purchase associated with the specified travel event. The system further comprises software executing on the user data presenting the list of items for available for purchase to be delivered to the user during the specified travel event, software executing on the order processing computer receiving a selection of items of the list of items for purchase and software executing on the order processing computer transmitting the user data, the travel event information and the selection of items to an order fulfillment computer. Still further, the system comprises software executing on the order processing computer receiving a confirmation of the selected items from the order fulfillment computer and software executing on the order processing computer transmitting the confirmation of the selected items to the mobile device. The system is provided such that an attendant mobile device receives a list of delivered items to the carrier associated with the specified travel event and the attendant mobile device further receives at least some of the user data and the travel event information.

Other objects of the invention and its features and advantages will become more apparent from consideration of the following drawings and accompanying detailed description.

