JP4551426B2 - Flight plan creation device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus for creating a flight plan, and more particularly, to an apparatus capable of creating a flight plan that travels around a plurality of visited locations with a round-trip air ticket.

  Overseas travel is roughly divided into three forms: group travel, organized travel (package travel), and organized travel. The arranged trip is typically an overseas individual trip (FIT). In the past, many overseas trips were group trips and host trips. However, recently, the demand for FIT has increased with the diversification of travel purposes. And, among FITs, demand for multi-city excursions (travel around multiple cities) is increasing. In addition, FIT is desired to be relatively inexpensive. For that purpose, it is desirable to use air tickets with relatively low ranks and travel around multiple cities with round-trip air tickets.

  Here, normal tickets, IATA-PEX tickets (official fare), Zone-PEX tickets (airline regular discount fares) / A-PEX tickets, cheap air tickets (IT (Inclusive Tour) fares, comprehensive fares) )It has been known. In this order, fares become cheaper, but on the other hand, restrictions such as reservation rules become stricter. In FIT, it is desirable to use Zone-PEX, cheap airline tickets, etc. to keep fares low.

  In addition, a system called a fare product functions for air ticket sales. A fare product is like an airline ticket catalog. Various fare products are provided, and for each fare product, the destination direction, the city that can be visited, the fare, and various reservation rules are set. Each fare product is given a unique symbol and a name such as a double-decker xxx fare. A flight plan is created by selecting a specific flight corresponding to a desired date and time from the fare product. Then, a flight of the flight plan is reserved, an air ticket for the reserved flight is issued, and this air ticket is provided to the user.

  In the distribution route of airline tickets, an intermediary and a travel agent are usually interposed between the airline and the user. The broker is called a wholesaler. Airline tickets are wholesaled from airlines to wholesalers, and from wholesalers to users via travel agents.

  Of the above-described three travel modes, flight plans are determined in advance for conventional group trips and host trips. Therefore, it is not necessary to create a flight plan for each traveler. Travel agents do not have to do work such as looking up fare products to create a flight plan for individual travelers.

  On the other hand, in the case of travel arrangements such as FIT, it is necessary for the travel agency to check the fare products and create a flight plan that matches the travel schedule of each individual traveler. However, fare products are diverse and individual fare products have different rules. Understanding these and creating an appropriate flight plan can be a daunting task. In particular, it is difficult to create a plan if a round-trip air ticket is used to realize a multi-city tour plan in accordance with the needs of FIT as described above. Furthermore, regardless of a normal ticket or the like, if an inexpensive ticket such as Zone-PEX is to be used, reservation restrictions increase, making it more difficult to create a plan.

  Due to the difficulty of the work described above, conventionally, a general travel agency has not been able to create a multi-city tour type flight plan for individual users. A wholesaler may make this type of plan for a travel agency, but it is not easy to meet the growing demand for FIT. Because of this background, except for travel agencies that specialize in international flights, conventional regular travel companies offer services that provide cheap multi-city airline tickets for FIT. There wasn't.

  By the way, conventionally, a plurality of airlines have put a computer reservation system (CRS, airline seat reservation system) into practical use for flight reservation. CRSs such as SABRE and APOLLO are known. The CRS has a function of automatically creating a multi-city tour type flight plan. However, the number of overseas cities that can travel around Japan is limited to 2 or 3. There is no system that can handle more cities.

  In the background as described above, it is desired to provide a database system capable of creating a multi-city tour type flight plan. It is desirable to provide a system that can handle a greater number of cities. However, when trying to provide such a system, the variety of fare products becomes a problem. This diversity leads to a complicated system and an enormous amount of information processing. As a matter of fact, even if a fare product is converted into a database as it is, the amount of information processing becomes so large that it is not easy to automatically create a multi-city tour plan in a reasonable time. In order to solve this type of problem, it is effective to efficiently extract necessary fare products from various fare products, thereby reducing the amount of information processing.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus and a method capable of appropriately creating a flight plan for turning around a plurality of visited places with a round-trip air ticket.

One aspect of the present invention is a flight plan creation device capable of creating a flight plan that travels around a plurality of visited locations with a round-trip air ticket. The apparatus of the present invention includes a condition acquisition unit that acquires a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule, and a temporary fair break point setting unit that selects a temporary fair break point from the plurality of visit points. Information on the distance from the departure point to each visited point, and based on the acquired distance information, select a visited point having the maximum distance from the starting point as the temporary fair break point. It is a fare product database having point setting means and information on fare products , which has information on a plurality of accessible locations set for each fare product, and is information set as a reservation rule for each fare product. Fares quotient having a settable whether information each of the plurality of visitable places in fair breakpoint Te And the database, based on the plan generation condition and the tentative Fair breakpoints, wherein the plurality of visited locations plan generation conditions using provisional fair breakpoint as a retrieval key, from the fare product database, the plan generation condition The fare product which is a fare product that includes a plurality of visit locations in the plurality of visitable locations, and the visit location of the temporary fair break point is stored as a visit location that can be set as a fair break point. Based on the fare product selection means to be selected, and the plan creation conditions and the fare products selected by the fare product selection means, the operation flights of a plurality of sections created by the departure location and the plurality of visit locations in the plan creation conditions In the fare product database to the fare product By acquiring the operating flight constant by airline from the computer reservation system, including a flight plan generating means for generating a flight plan comprising a navigation flight of the obtained plurality of sections, the.

  As described above, the apparatus of the present invention includes provisional fair breakpoint setting means, and the provisional fair breakpoint setting means treats a visit place far from the departure place among the plurality of visit places as a provisional fair breakpoint. Set to point. Preferably, the provisional fair breakpoint setting means uses the information on the charge mileage increase rate of a plurality of visit locations, and the visit mileage where the charge mileage increase rate is within an allowable value and is far from the departure location, Set a temporary fair breakpoint.

  A fair break point is a turning point of a round-trip air ticket. A round-trip air ticket is originally intended to make a round trip between a departure place and a destination, and is therefore set at a low cost. Therefore, the round trip ticket must have a fair breakpoint. When traveling around multiple locations, one of those visits becomes a fair breakpoint. However, a fair break point may be determined relatively easily in the case of a single visit, but a fair break point is not easily determined in the case of a round trip. This is because the fair breakpoint is not determined only by the place visited. When the fare product is decided and all flights are decided, the fair break point is definitely decided.

  In consideration of this point, the present invention dares to set a provisional fair break point when a visit location is determined. The present invention obtains a visit location that is likely to be an actual fair breakpoint, and sets the visit location as a temporary fair breakpoint.

  And this invention searches the database of fare goods using a temporary fair breakpoint. A plurality of places that can be visited by each fare product include a place that can be set as a fair break point and a place that cannot be set. In view of this point, the present invention selects a fare product that fits when the provisional fair breakpoint is an actual fair breakpoint. This greatly narrows the candidate fare products. A flight plan is created from the narrowed fare product.

  As described above, the present invention temporarily sets a fair break point that cannot be determined until the completion of the flight plan. And this invention extracts the fare goods which match a temporary fair break point. As a result, fares are greatly narrowed down, and the amount of information processing for creating a flight plan can be greatly reduced.

  Thus, if the present invention is applied, even if there are a plurality of places to be visited and even in the case of a relatively inexpensive ticket with complicated reservation rules, the effect of narrowing down the fare products is the amount of information processed for creating the flight plan. Will reduce it. As a result, it is possible to appropriately respond to the needs of travel arrangements such as FIT, such as making an inexpensive flight plan for traveling around multiple cities. This also has the advantage that travel agents can provide, deploy and promote new services to meet customer needs.

Preferably, the fare product database, each of the plurality of visitable points set for each fare products has whether information or can be configured as a stopover, the fare product selecting means, said A fare product that is stored in the fare product database as being able to be set as a stopover location in the fare product database with reference to information on whether or not a stopover is possible in each fare product database Select. A stopover is when you get off a plane and stay at a certain point of visit. For example, a fare product has a rule that a stay of 24 hours or more corresponds to a stopover. And in the some visitable location which each fare product has, there are a location that can be set as a stopover place and a location that cannot be set. The present invention refers to a database of fare products, and narrows down the fare products according to whether or not a visit location can be set as a stopover. As a result, the fare products are further narrowed down and the information processing amount is reduced.

Preferably, the fare product database stores, as ½ sum information for each fare product, information on whether or not ½ sum can be applied to each fare product and fare products that can be combined with each fare product. The fare product selection means is a process of selecting two different fare products with the temporary fair breakpoint as a boundary based on the information of the 1/2 addition, and the two different fare products are as follows: In the information of 1/2 addition, a combination of 1/2 addition to each other is possible, and a plurality of visitable locations of one fare product include a visit location from the departure location to the temporary fair break point, A process of selecting two fare products including a visit location from the temporary fair break point to the departure location as a plurality of visitable locations of the fare product is performed.

  The 1/2 summation means that the forward and return flight plans are composed of different fare products at the fair break point. The fare is the sum of half of both round trip fares. This is the reason why it is called 1/2 addition. In some cases, an inexpensive flight plan can be created by 1/2 summation, and a flight plan that meets the user's wishes can be created. Therefore, application of 1/2 summation is desirable.

  However, as mentioned above, the fair break point is not decided until the flight plan is completed. This means that the boundary of 1/2 addition is not determined. Therefore, if half summation is simply applied to the creation of a multi-site tour plan by database search, it is necessary to have a process of trying to create a flight plan assuming that each of a plurality of visited locations becomes a fair breakpoint. It is. However, the amount of information processing is enormous, and as a practical matter, it is not easy to incorporate such a function into the system.

  Therefore, in the present invention, fair break points that cannot be determined until the completion of the flight plan are set temporarily as described above. And this invention calculates | requires the 1/2 total plan which makes a temporary fair break point a boundary. As a result, the ½ sum plan can be obtained with a relatively small amount of information processing.

Preferably, the fare product database stores, as fare information of each fare product, a fair break point and a fare associated with each other, the fare product selection means includes an approximate fare calculation means, and the approximate fare calculation means includes By reading the fare corresponding to the temporary fair breakpoint from the fare product database using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, the fare when the temporary fair breakpoint is a fair breakpoint is obtained as an approximate fare Ru determined as.

  The actual airfare varies depending on the fair breakpoint. And as already mentioned, the fair breakpoint is determined after the flight plan is completed. Therefore, usually the actual airfare is not required until the flight plan is completed.

  Therefore, the present invention obtains an approximate fare before making a flight plan. Temporary fair breakpoints are used to determine this approximate fare. That is, according to the present invention, a fair break point that cannot be determined until completion of the flight plan is set temporarily as described above, and the temporary fair break point is used, although the flight plan is incomplete. Estimate the fare. By using this estimated fare, an inexpensive flight plan can be obtained efficiently.

For example, the number of plans created is included in the plan creation conditions, the device of the present invention creates a flight plan by processing the fare products selected by the fare product selection means in the order according to the approximate fare, A predetermined number of flight plans corresponding to the number of created plans is obtained. As a result, among the fare product candidates, the fare product that has a high possibility of being able to make a cheap plan is preferentially processed, and a cheap plan can be quickly made.

For example, the apparatus of the present invention extracts a predetermined number of fare products from the one with the lower estimated fare when the fare products are arranged according to the estimated fare based on the estimated fare calculated by the estimated fare calculating means. narrow the fare product by. This further narrows fare products to candidates that are more likely to make cheap plans. The amount of information processing can be reduced while trying not to overlook the cheap plan.

  Preferably, the apparatus of the present invention includes distance calculation information acquisition means for acquiring distance calculation information of the departure place and a plurality of visit places through access to a computer reservation system, and the provisional fair breakpoint setting means includes the Set temporary fair breakpoints using distance calculation information. By utilizing the distance information providing function of the computer reservation system (CRS), typically the mile calculation function, the apparatus of the present invention can be configured more easily.

  Preferably, the apparatus of the present invention includes a vacancy status acquisition unit that acquires a vacancy status of a flight through access to a computer reservation system, and the flight plan generation unit uses the information acquired by the vacancy status acquisition unit. Generate a flight plan consisting of flights with seats available.

  Preferably, the apparatus of the present invention includes fare calculation means for obtaining a fare corresponding to the fair breakpoint of a flight plan composed of a plurality of flights generated by the flight generation means.

  Preferably, the apparatus of the present invention includes a fair break point acquiring unit that acquires the fair break point corresponding to the flight plan through access to a computer reservation system, and the fare calculating unit acquires the fair break point. The fare corresponding to the flight plan is obtained by referring to the fare information held in the fare product database using the fair break point acquired by the means.

Another aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for selecting a fare product for creating a flight plan that travels around a plurality of visit locations with a round-trip air ticket, including a departure location, a plurality of visit locations, and a visit schedule. Condition acquisition means for acquiring creation conditions and provisional fair breakpoint setting means for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visit locations, acquiring and acquiring information on the distance from the departure location to each visit location A temporary fair breakpoint setting means for selecting a visit location having the maximum distance from the departure location based on the information on the distance as the temporary fair breakpoint, and a fare product database having fare product information, It has information on multiple places that can be visited for a fare product, and is defined as a reservation rule for each fare product. Based on the fare product database having information on whether or not each of the plurality of visitable places can be set as a fair breakpoint, and the plan creation condition and the provisional fair breakpoint, the plan creation condition Using the plurality of visited locations and the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, from the fare product database, the fare product including a plurality of visited locations of the plan creation conditions in the plurality of visitable locations, and And a fare product selection means for selecting the fare product stored as a visit location that can be set as a fair breakpoint.
The present invention is not limited to the aspect of the above flight plan creation device. Another aspect of the present invention is, for example, a flight plan creation method based on information processing using a computer. For example, a program for causing a computer to implement such a method, and for example, recording such a program. A computer readable medium.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments (hereinafter, embodiments) of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 shows a flight plan creation apparatus of the present embodiment. The flight plan creation device is typically provided by a wholesaler. The flight plan creation device 1 includes a WWW server 12 and a WEB DB server 14. The WWW server 12 includes a CRS connection module and a WEB script. The WWW server 12 is connected to the CRS 18 and the travel agency terminal 16. The WEB DB server 14 includes a DB program and a fare product database 20.

  CRS (Computer Reservation System) is an airline seat reservation system for each airline. As already mentioned, CRSs such as SABRE and APOLLO are known.

  The travel agency terminal 16 is a computer installed in a travel agency. A general purpose computer may be used. The operator of the travel agency receives a flight plan creation service using the browser function of the terminal 16. Although not shown, the apparatus 10 is connected to a number of travel agency terminals 16. The travel agency terminal 16 may be a mobile terminal (including a mobile phone). Moreover, this apparatus 10 may provide the same flight plan preparation service with respect to not only a travel agency but a user's (customer, traveler) terminal.

  As the overall operation, the flight plan creation device 10 accepts flight plan creation conditions from the travel agency terminal 16 and creates a flight plan by referring to the fare product database 20. At this time, useful information is appropriately obtained from the CRS 18. The CRS 18 provides various functions. Among these functions, the distance calculation function, the vacant seat inquiry function, the reservation record creation function, and the automatic fare calculation function are used by the flight plan creation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment. Then, the flight plan creation device 10 presents the created flight plan to the travel agency terminal 16.

  FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the flight plan creation apparatus 10. The condition acquisition unit 22 acquires plan creation conditions from the travel agency terminal 16. The plan creation conditions include a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule.

  The temporary BP setting unit 24 sets a temporary fair breakpoint (hereinafter referred to as a temporary BP) characteristic of the present invention based on the information on the visited location in the plan creation conditions. The temporary BP setting unit 24 includes a distance calculation information acquisition unit 26, accesses the CRS 18, and uses the distance calculation function of the CRS 18 to obtain information used for setting the temporary BP. The distance calculation function provided by the CRS 18 is typically a mile calculation. The temporary BP will be described in detail later.

  The fare product selection unit 28 searches the fare product database 20 based on the plan creation conditions and the temporary BP, and selects an appropriate fare product. The fare product selection unit 28 includes an approximate fare calculation unit 30. The approximate fare calculation unit 30 roughly obtains the flight fare using the temporary BP. According to this rough fare, in this embodiment, candidate fare products are rearranged.

  The flight plan generation unit 32 generates a specific flight plan corresponding to the plan creation condition from the fare product selected by the fare product selection unit 28. Here, a flight is specifically selected according to a visit schedule etc. The flight plan generation unit 32 includes a vacant seat status acquisition unit 34, and acquires the vacant seat status using the vacant seat inquiry function of the CRS 18. As a result, a plan is generated on a flight that actually has vacant seats.

  The fare calculator 36 calculates the fare of the flight plan generated by the flight plan generator 32. For accurate fare calculation, an actual fair break point (hereinafter referred to as this BP) is required. The real BP often coincides with the temporary BP, but the real BP may be different from the temporary BP. In the present embodiment, as described later, the provisional BP is roughly determined without considering detailed rules of the flight relay and each fare product, and this may be a factor that makes the provisional BP different from the main BP. The fare calculation unit 36 obtains the fare accurately using this BP.

  The fare calculation unit 36 has a main BP acquisition unit 38, accesses the CRS 18, and acquires the main BP from the CRS 18 using the automatic fare calculation function of the CRS 18. The fare calculation unit 36 uses this book BP and refers to the fare information stored in the fare product database 20 to obtain an accurate fare.

  Here, the automatic fare calculation function of the CRS 18 also provides a fare calculation result. However, this calculation function may be general. Therefore, this embodiment uses the automatic fare calculation function of the CRS 18 for a limited purpose of obtaining the BP. The fare is calculated based on the fare rules stored in the fare product database 20. Thereby, a fare is calculated | required correctly.

  The flight plan presentation unit 40 presents the flight plan generated by the flight plan generation unit 32 to the travel agency terminal 16 together with the fare calculated by the fare calculation unit 36. The travel agency terminal 16 receives a plan presentation on the Web screen using the browser function.

  FIG. 3 shows the overall operation of the flight plan creation apparatus 10 of the present embodiment. When the condition acquisition unit 22 acquires plan creation conditions from the travel agency terminal 16 (S10), the temporary BP setting unit 24 sets a temporary BP (S12). Then, the fare product selection unit 28 selects an applicable fare product from the fare product database 20 using the temporary BP (S14). Further, the flight plan generation unit 32 generates a flight plan using the selected fare product (S16). The flights used in each section of the itinerary are specifically set according to the rules for fare products. Then, the fare calculation unit 36 calculates the fare for each flight plan (S18). The flight plan presentation unit 40 presents the flight plan together with the fare to the travel agency terminal 16 (S20).

  FIG. 4 shows the plan creation conditions acquired by the condition acquisition unit 22. A Web screen for inputting conditions is presented to the travel agency terminal 16, and the conditions are written on this screen. The written condition is sent to the flight plan creation device 10 and acquired by the condition acquisition unit 22. FIG. 4 shows item names of conditions together with data to be input and input examples.

  In the plan creation conditions, the number of adults is the number of adults who need a seat. The number of children is the number of children who need a seat. The number of infants is the number of infants who do not need a seat.

  The fare type is the fare type of the fare product. There are four types of fares: normal fares, IATAPEX fares, ZONE-PEX fares, and IT fares. In this order, the fare will be cheaper, but on the other hand, the reservation restrictions will be stricter. In the present embodiment, the flight plan creation process will be described mainly assuming a ZONE-PEX fare. Of course, the same technology may be applied to other fares, for example, cheaper IT fares, after making changes to adapt to differences in fares.

  The seat class is a class of a fare product seat. Some classes are not available depending on the fare type. For example, ZONE-PEX / IATA-PEX can be used only in the economy class.

  The return flight date change is a condition whether or not to search only the fare products that can change the date of the return flight after leaving Japan. Mileage card airline is a condition for searching airline participating airlines of airlines that can use mileage cards. The desired airline is the desired airline. This condition makes it possible to instruct, for example, “Make a plan so that international flights departing from Japan always use the airline XX”.

  The number of created plans is a condition for how many flight plans are created at the maximum. The plan creation type is a priority rule regarding the arrangement of plan creation and plan display. In this embodiment, “in order of cheapness” and “in order of few transfers” can be selected. In the following description, it is mainly assumed that “cheap order” is selected.

  The visited city list includes a departure place, a visited place (a plurality of places can be set), and a visit schedule. A list of departure date, visited city, desired departure time, and ARNK designation is created on the screen. ARNK is a section that does not use air mail.

“Setting temporary BP”
Next, the setting process of the temporary BP (temporary fair breakpoint) by the temporary BP setting unit 24 will be described. The temporary BP is selected from a plurality of visited locations in the plan creation conditions. In the present embodiment, as will be described below, the temporary BP is (1) a visited place where the distance from the departure place is far and (2) the toll mileage rate is within an allowable value.

  FIG. 5 shows the provisional BP setting process, taking as an example the case of going around four cities A, B, C, and D from the departure point O. As shown in the upper part of the figure, among cities A to D, city C is the farthest from the departure place. Therefore, city C is set as a temporary BP. As will be described later, in this embodiment, the MPM distance is used for setting the temporary BP.

  A fair break point is a turning point of a round-trip air ticket. A round-trip air ticket is originally intended to make a round trip between a departure place and a destination, and is therefore set at a low cost. Therefore, the round trip ticket must have a fair breakpoint. When traveling around multiple locations, one of those visits becomes a fair breakpoint. However, the fair break point may be determined relatively easily in the case of a single visit, but in the case of a round trip, it is not so easily determined as described below.

  The fair breakpoint is usually the farthest visit from the departure location, but may not be the case. Referring to the lower part of FIG. 5, when using a certain airline X, the airline X does not have a direct flight from the departure point O to the city A and does not have a direct flight from the city A to the city B. At this time, OA is connected by two flights (relay point P), and AB is also connected by two flights (relay point Q). In this way, the actually created flight plan does not simply connect cities as shown in the upper part of FIG. In addition, individual fare products may have specific rules that determine fair breakpoints.

  For these reasons, the farthest away from the starting point is not simply a fair breakpoint. The actual fair break point (this BP) is determined only when all flights are determined and the flight plan is completed. As a matter of fact, it is possible to know which city is this BP only when a flight ticket is booked using CRS based on the flight plan. In the example of FIG. 5, the city B is not the city C set as the temporary BP but the city BP.

  As mentioned above, this BP is not determined by the location of the visit. In consideration of this point, the present embodiment dares to set the farthest visited location as a temporary BP when the visited location is determined. This visit is most likely to be the final book BP. Here, after all, the temporary BP is determined from the positional relationship between the departure place and a plurality of visited cities. Unknown transit points are not taken into account at this stage, and other detailed rules are not taken into account (unknown fare products have not been decided). And this embodiment narrows down fare goods using temporary BP so that it may mention later. By this appropriate narrowing down, the amount of information processing for the subsequent search is greatly reduced.

  In addition, when a flight plan is made using the temporary BP and the main BP is obtained from the flight plan, the main BP and the temporary BP may be different. Even in this case, the flight plan can be used as it is.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, when setting a temporary BP, in addition to the above requirement that “the distance from the departure point is far”, in addition to the requirement that “the fare mileage rate is within an allowable value”, Select.

  Whether or not the latter requirement is met is determined by the positional relationship between the departure point and a plurality of visit points. As already described, whether or not the former requirement is met also depends on the positional relationship between the departure point and the plurality of visit points. Therefore, in this embodiment, it can be said that the provisional BP is determined from the positional relationship between the departure place and the plurality of visited places according to both requirements.

  With reference to FIG. 6, the charge mileage increase rate (hereinafter referred to as mileage increase rate) will be described. In FIG. 6, MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage) is the maximum allowable distance between the departure point and the visited point. The maximum allowable distance is the maximum distance that is not charged. The MPM is set longer than the actual distance. On the other hand, TPM is the distance between two points adjacent on the travel route. That is, the TPM is a section distance in each of a plurality of sections formed by a departure point and a plurality of visited places.

  The mileage increase rate (SUR) of the visited location C is represented by (total TPM / MPM) −1 as shown in the figure. As shown in the lower part of the figure, the air ticket fee increases in a staircase pattern as the mileage increase rate increases.

  In addition, the round-trip ticket rule sets a round-trip ticket with city C as a fair break point when the mile-up rate exceeds the allowable value (25% in the figure, usually 25% in many cases). It is impossible. Therefore, based on this rule, when the temporary BP is selected, the visited points where the mileage rate exceeds the allowable value are excluded. Thereby, useless processing can be avoided and a flight plan can be obtained more efficiently.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the temporary BP is (1) a visited location where the distance from the departure location is far and (2) the toll mileage rate is within an allowable value. In the processing according to the present embodiment, a visit location that satisfies the above two requirements can be efficiently obtained by using the mileage increase rate.

  Referring to FIG. 7, in this embodiment, “outward mileage increase rate” and “return mileage increase rate” for city C are obtained. Similar information is required for other cities. Such information can be easily obtained by using the CRS distance calculation function. Information obtained by this distance calculation is referred to as distance calculation information in this embodiment. As described above, a general distance calculation function is called mile calculation. This mileage calculation function is also preferably used here.

  In this embodiment, first, when at least one of the “outward mileage rate” and “return mileage rate” exceeds the allowable value, the corresponding city is excluded from the candidates and is not selected as a temporary BP.

  Furthermore, in the present embodiment, a city having a minimum sum of “outward mileage increase rate” and “returnward mileage increase rate” is obtained. The fact that the sum of the mileage rates is the minimum means that it is farthest from the departure place (the distance of the MPM is the longest). Therefore, the city thus determined is set as a temporary BP. In this way, in the present embodiment, it is easy to use the distance calculation information, and (1) a visit location where the distance from the departure location is long and (2) the mileage increase rate is within an allowable value is obtained. .

  Here, in the present embodiment, a location where the MPM distance is long is set as the temporary BP. The MPM is a standard for fares in the current general airline ticket sales, and is larger than the actual distance. Then, by using the MPM, as shown in FIG. 7, the temporary BP is identified by a series of efficient processes using the mileage increase rate (that is, the farthest mileage increase rate is allowed). Identifies visits within the value).

  However, within the scope of the present invention, a distance that appropriately corresponds to the BP may be used for setting the temporary BP. In this respect, distances other than MPM may be used. For example, when the magnitude of the MPM distance corresponds to the magnitude of the actual distance, the temporary BP may be set using the actual distance.

  Of course, a change may be made so that an appropriate distance is used for the provisional BP setting in accordance with a change in the air fare rule or the like. Furthermore, even if there is such a regulation change, it is a matter of course that the MPM may continue to be used if the size of the MPM corresponds to the provisional BP setting. In short, as described above, in the present invention, an appropriate distance corresponding to BP may be used.

  8, FIG. 9, and FIG. 10 show specific processing for provisional BP setting in the present embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart, and FIGS. 9 and 10 are specific examples. 9 and FIG. 10, the correspondence with FIG. 8 is shown using the reference numerals (S30, S32, etc.) of each step.

  As shown in FIG. 8, first, a list of airport cities for the itinerary is prepared (S30). This list is acquired by the condition acquisition unit 22 as part of the plan creation conditions. Any one of the visiting airport cities is set as a temporary BP by the following processing.

  In S32, the airport code is converted into a city code. The airport and the corresponding place (usually a city) are also included in the visited places of the present invention. In S34, the route (1) in the input order and the route (2) in the reverse order are prepared. In S36, when the last city of each route (1) (2) is already included in the previous route, the last city is excluded.

  Here, the reason why the two routes (1) and (2) are prepared in S34 is to obtain the mileage up rate of the forward route and the mileage up rate of the return route. The calculation result using the route (1) can be used as the mileage increase rate for the forward route, and the calculation result using the route (2) can be used as the mileage increase rate for the return route. The reason why the last city is deleted in S36 is that it is not possible to set a duplicate city as a fair break point according to the rules of IATA (International Air Transport Association).

  Next, in S38, a distance calculation command (mile calculation command) is executed for the CRS 18. That is, the flight plan creation device 10 (distance calculation information acquisition unit 26) communicates with and accesses the CRS 18. The distance calculation command is sent to the CRS 18 together with the city names of the routes (1) and (2). Then, the calculation result is acquired from the CRS 18. The calculation result includes the distance (mile) from the first departure point and the mileage up rate for each city.

  The upper part of FIG. 10 shows a specific example of the distance calculation result. Here, CTY is a city code (usually three-digit alphabet), DC is a travel route display symbol (generally GI (Global Indicator, PA is a Pacific route, US is a movement in the United States) (With in US) ), TPM is the section distance from the previous point (Ticketed Point Mileage), CUM is the total TPM from the start point to the point, MPM is the maximum permissible distance between the start point and the point (Maximum Permitted Mileage), and SUR is the point from the start point Mileage up to (up rate), HGL is (MPM-CUM), LWL is (CUM-25M), 25M is CUM (MPM * 1.25) when SUR reaches 25%. As shown in FIG. 10, MPM and SUR of the distance calculation results are acquired.

  Here, as a modification of the present embodiment, the flight plan creation device 10 may store information representing MPM and TPM, use them to obtain SUR, and obtain temporary BP. However, as compared with this modification, the above embodiment uses the distance calculation function of the CRS 18, and therefore does not need to have distance information by itself. Therefore, the advantage that the apparatus of the present invention can be provided more easily is obtained.

  Returning to FIG. 8, in S40, the city calculated as EXC (mile-up rate exceeds 25%) on route (1) or route (2) is excluded from the list of temporary BP candidates. In FIG. 10, in S40, only cities having a mile-up rate in both the forward and reverse directions are selected. EXC is not considered a mile-up rate. Therefore, this process excludes EXC cities.

  Next, in S42, for each remaining city, a value obtained by adding the mileage increase rates of the route (1) and the route (2) is obtained. In S44, the city with the lowest added mileage rate is left and other cities are excluded. Here, as described above, the fact that the sum of the mileage-up rates of both routes (respectively forward and backward) is small indicates that the distance from the departure point is large. Accordingly, the farthest place from the departure place is obtained as a temporary BP by the process of S42.

  However, the added value of the mileage up rate may be the same in a plurality of cities. In this case, in S46, only the city with the farthest MPM in the outbound route is left, and the others are excluded. In the example of FIG. 10, the mile-up rate addition values of NYC (New York) and ORL (Orlando) are the same. Therefore, in order to compare the distance, the MPM of the route (1) is referred to. Then, an ORL having a large MPM is finally left. Thus, the finally remaining city is set as a temporary BP (S48).

  In S46, the forward MPM is used as described above. It is possible that the MPM of the forward path (path (1)) and the MPM of the return path (path (2)) are different. Typically, when the departure place and the arrival place in Japan are different, for example, when the departure place is Narita and the arrival place is Hokkaido. In the present embodiment, the forward MPM is used as an appropriate MPM.

  FIG. 11 schematically shows the above processing. Mileage rate of each city can be obtained on route (1) (forward direction). The mileage increase rate of each city can be obtained for the route (2) (reverse direction). A city with a mile-up rate on both routes is required (exc excludes EXC). The added value of the mile-up rate is 25 in Chicago (CHI), 10 in New York (NYC), and 10 in Orlando (ORL). Therefore, Chicago is excluded, and the distance to New York and the distance to Orlando are compared (MPM comparison). Although not shown, since the distance to Orlando is long, Orlando is set as a temporary BP.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, fair break points are provisionally set from information on a plurality of visited locations. This provisional BP is used in the following fare product selection process, and is used to apply the 1/2 addition rule. Further, it calculates the approximate fare and creates an efficient flight plan using it. Used.

"Selecting fare products"
Next, the fare product database 20 and the fare product selection process using the fare product database 20 will be described.

  FIG. 12 shows the fare product database 20. The fare product database 20 is generally a database having information on fare and reservation rules for fare products. In particular, in the present embodiment, information on the visitable locations set for each fare product and each visitable location. Is set as a fair breakpoint. In addition, the fare product database 20 also has information on the stopover location and 1/2 summation.

  As shown in FIG. 12, the fare product database 20 stores the following information for each fare product. A visitable city is a city that can be visited with the fare product. The list of visitable cities includes (1) information on whether each visitable city can be set as a fair breakpoint, and (2) information on whether each visitable city can be set as a stopover. Have.

  A stopover is to get off a plane and stay at a certain point in the middle of a tour. For example, a fare product has a rule that a stay of 24 hours or more corresponds to a stopover. This is called a 24-hour rule. There are other known one-day rules. Each fare product has a plurality of places that can be visited, and there are places that can be set as a stopover place and places that cannot be set in these places that can be visited. The list of cities that can be visited has information indicating whether or not it can be set as a stopover. The list of accessible cities and their fair breakpoints and stopovers are one of the booking rules in a broad sense.

  The fare product database 20 includes fare information for each fare product. The fare information includes a correspondence table between BP cities and fare. Fares vary by BP city. Further, the fare information includes a stopover fee, a mileage up fee, and other information. The other information is information on various conditions that make various fares different, for example, information on a departure point, a day of the week, a date and time, and a charge on arrival and departure on a weekend.

  The fare product database 20 further includes information on reservation rules (reservation rules). Reservation rule information includes: available departure date, minimum number of people, reservation limit (for example, reservation up to 14 days in advance), minimum travel days, ticketing limit (for example, ticketing required 72 hours in advance), validity period limit, on-to-limit (maximum Information on how many flights can be set overseas), and the mileage up limit. The upper limit of the mileage rate is the upper limit of the mileage rate that can set a round-trip air ticket (usually 25%). This information may be used by the temporary BP setting unit 24 in the preliminary BP setting process in the previous stage. Good. Of course, further information may be provided in addition to these.

  The fare product database 20 further includes 1/2 summation information. The 1/2 summation information includes information on whether or not 1/2 summation can be applied to each fare product. Further, the ½ sum information includes information that each fare product can constitute a ½ sum plan for both the outbound route and the inbound route, can only be in the outbound route, and can be configured only in the inbound route. Further, the 1/2 summation information includes a list of fare products that can be combined with each fare product. In a broad sense, 1/2 summation information is also one of the reservation rules. The 1/2 summation will be further described later.

  Next, a fare product selection process (fare product selection unit 28) using the fare product database 20 will be described.

  FIG. 13 is a flowchart of the fare product selection process. In S60, the visited city of the plan creation condition and the temporary BP are used as search keys. The fare product selection unit 28 can fare from the fare product database 20 (1) be able to visit all the visited cities in the plan creation conditions, and (2) be able to set the temporary BP visited city as a fair breakpoint. Choose a product. For (1), the fare product selection unit 28 obtains fare products whose list of visitable cities includes all the visited cities in the plan creation conditions. For (2), information on whether or not fair breakpoints can be set in the visitable city list is referred to.

  In the actual processing, the search for the visited city in (1) may be performed, and further the narrowing down using the temporary BP in (2) may be performed. Although the effect of narrowing down (2) varies depending on the plan creation conditions and cannot be generally specified, in one typical example, the number of fare product candidates in the search result of (1) is 10 minutes by narrowing down of (2). Reduced to 1.

  Next, in S62, the fare product selection unit 28 selects a fare product that allows a stopover in each visited city. Here, the fare product selection unit 28 refers to the information on whether or not to drop off in the list of visitable cities in the fare product database 20, and further narrows down the fare product candidates selected in S60. Then, the fare product selection unit 28 selects a fare product that can be set as a stopover point for all the visited locations (temporary BP may be excluded) in the plan creation conditions. Here too, the effect of narrowing down varies depending on the plan creation conditions, and although it cannot be generally stated, in a typical example, the number of fare product candidates is reduced to about 40%.

  In S64, the fare product selection unit 28 further narrows down the fare products based on other reservation rules. As shown in FIG. 12, the fare product database 20 stores various rules such as a possible departure date and the minimum number of people. These rules and plan creation conditions are collated, and a fare product that meets the plan creation conditions is selected.

  Air ticket fares have various unique detailed rules. Usually, if a plan is created in consideration of these rules using a database, the amount of information processing becomes enormous and the burden on the system is excessive. However, in the present embodiment, the number of fare product candidates has been greatly reduced by using the temporary BP and further using the information of the stopover. Therefore, it is possible to narrow down based on other reservation rules with a relatively small amount of information processing.

  In S66, the approximate fare calculation unit 30 of the fare product selection unit 28 further calculates an approximate fare based on the provisional BP for each fare product candidate. Here, a rough fare is calculated when it is assumed that the temporary BP is an actual fair break point (this BP).

  In the estimation of the fare, the fare corresponding to the BP city (fair breakpoint) is obtained using the fare information in the fare product database 20. Here, the fare of the corresponding city is read from the fare list using the temporary BP as a search key. Furthermore, a stopover fee is added according to the fare information, and a fee according to other rules and conditions (departure point, day of the week, etc.) is calculated.

  In this embodiment, in the fare estimation, the mileage up charge is not calculated for the following reason. The mile-up fee is a fee charged according to the mile-up rate. On the other hand, the purpose of the fare estimation is to determine the processing order of the fare product candidates by a rough price comparison between the fare product candidates, as will be described later. Even if the mile-up fee is added to the estimated fare, the fare comparison results between the candidates remain almost unchanged. For this reason, the mileage charge is not included in the fare estimation in this embodiment. However, since the comparison results are almost the same, it is a matter of course that the mileage charge may be included in the fare estimate.

  Next, in S68, according to the approximate fare, the fare product candidates selected in S60 to S64 are arranged. The sorting is done so that cheaper fare products are processed first. In the subsequent flight plan creation, the fare products are processed in this order, and a predetermined number of flight plans are created. Therefore, as a result of rearranging at this stage, fare products that are likely to be able to make a cheap flight plan are preferentially processed, so that a cheap flight plan can be found efficiently.

  Here, the fare calculation originally requires a fair breakpoint. However, the fair breakpoint is not required until the flight plan is completed as described above. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the temporary BP is obtained at the stage before the flight plan is created. This makes it possible to calculate the fare roughly. Then, by using this estimated fare, that is, thanks to the use of the temporary BP, a cheap flight plan can be found efficiently as described above.

  In the above embodiment, the fare products are rearranged based on the approximate fare. The approximate fare may be used to narrow down fare product candidates. Typically, a predetermined number of fare products with a low estimated fare are extracted and other products are excluded. This also reduces the amount of information processing and makes it possible to efficiently find a cheap flight plan. Furthermore, both this narrowing down and the above-mentioned rearrangement may be performed.

"1/2 total"
By the way, as FIG. 13 shows, in S60, the fare goods selection part 28 also selects the fare goods which can apply 1/2 addition. This point will be described below. First, 1/2 summation in air ticket sales will be described, and then the processing in this embodiment will be described.

  Referring to FIG. 14, in airline ticket sales, 1/2 addition means that a flight plan is composed of different fare products at a fair break point. In the example of the figure, the outbound route plan is composed of the fare product X, and the inbound route plan is composed of the fare product Y. As shown on the right side of the figure, the ½ total fare is the sum of two “half prices of the round-trip fare”.

  In addition, there are the following rules for 1/2 addition. First, fare products are classified into the following four categories. (1) Either the forward path or the return path may be configured. (2) Only the forward path can be configured. (3) Only the return path can be configured. (4) Neither forward path nor return path can be configured (1/2 summation is not applicable). For each fare product, a fare product that can be combined is determined. In the example of FIG. 14, the fare products X and Y can be combined with each other.

  The above rules are stored in the fare product database 20. With reference to this rule, when selecting a fare product from the fare product database 20, the fare product selection unit 28 also selects a fare product to which 1/2 addition is applicable.

  FIG. 15 shows a fare product selection process related to 1/2 addition. A combination of the fare products X and Y as shown is selected. Here, the departure place is O and the visited cities are A to E. In the preceding process, city C is set as a temporary BP. The fare product X includes cities A, B, and C as visitable cities. In addition, the fare product X can set the city C as a fair breakpoint. Furthermore, the fare product X can be combined with the fare product Y (1/2 combination). Similarly, the fare product Y includes cities C, D, and E as visitable cities. In addition, the fare product Y can set the city C as a fair breakpoint. Furthermore, the fare product Y can be combined with the fare product X. Such a combination of fare products X and Y is selected by the fare product selection unit 28.

  A fare product combination by 1/2 addition is processed in the same manner as a single fare product. Whether or not each visit location can be a stopover is determined based on the information of the corresponding fare product, and narrowing is performed according to the determination result (S62). Further narrowing is performed based on other rules (S64). Further, an approximate fare is calculated (S66). Here, the fare before the provisional BP and the fare after the provisional BP are approximated, and the half of them is totaled. In S68, rearrangement according to the approximate fare is performed. “Single fare product” and “1/2 total product combination” are rearranged according to the approximate fare.

  In the above, the fare product selection process of this embodiment regarding 1/2 addition was demonstrated. By using 1/2 summation, a cheap flight plan may be provided, and a flight plan that matches the plan creation conditions may be provided. In this respect, 1/2 addition is desirable. However, in the case of an arrangement trip, it may be necessary to make a flight plan that applies 1/2 summation in accordance with the free itinerary of each individual traveler. In order to do so, you must understand and master the rules for adding ½ of various fare products. It is quite difficult for a travel agency to perform such work manually. Even if 1/2 summation is not applied, it is difficult to create a flight plan, which is more difficult if half summation is applied.

  Furthermore, when trying to introduce a database search to create a flight plan, it is difficult to simply apply 1/2 addition as follows. In the 1/2 total, two fare products are combined at the fair break point. However, the fair break point is not decided until the flight plan is completed. This means that the boundary of 1/2 addition is not determined. Therefore, in order to simply apply the 1/2 summation, it is necessary to try to create a flight plan on the assumption that each visit location becomes a fair breakpoint. For example, a combination of fare products is required when each visit location becomes a fair breakpoint. Furthermore, a flight plan is created from all the combinations. Then, a suitable flight plan is left. In this case, the number of ½ sum candidates is large, and the amount of information processing is enormous. Therefore, it is not easy to incorporate such a function into the database search.

  Therefore, in the present embodiment, a fair break point that cannot be determined until the completion of the flight plan is set temporarily from the information on the visited location as described above. Only a combination of fare products with the provisional BP as a boundary is selected. Therefore, it is possible to create a half sum plan with a relatively small amount of information processing. Thereby, 1/2 addition can be applied to the flight plan creation by database search.

  It should be noted that a certain fare product may be selected for ½ addition at the same time as being selected alone.

  Referring to the example of FIG. 16, the fare product X1 is a product that can be visited in a plurality of visited cities in the plan creation conditions. In addition, the fare product X1 can constitute a ½ sum plan on both the outbound route and the inbound route. In the upper part of FIG. 16, the fare product X1 is selected alone. In the second and third stages, the fare product X1 is selected together with the fare product Y1. The fare product X1 forms a half-sum route in the second stage, and a half-sum route in the third stage. In the fourth row, the fare product X1 is selected as a fare product that constitutes a half-way route together with the fare product Y2. When the fare product X1 is selected together with the fare product Y2, the fare product X1 does not constitute a half-way return route. This is because the fare product Y2 cannot constitute a forward route of 1/2 addition.

"Generate Flight Plan"
Next, the flight plan generation process by the flight plan generation unit 32 will be described. As a whole, the flight plan generation unit 32 generates a flight plan composed of a plurality of flights corresponding to the fare product selected by the fare product selection unit 28 and meeting the plan creation conditions. Here, the flight corresponding to the fare product is specified.

  In the plan generation, the flight plan generation unit 32 inquires about the vacant seat status and generates a flight plan composed of flights with vacant seats. The vacancy status inquiry is performed by the vacancy status acquisition unit 34 through access to the CRS 18. That is, the vacant seat status inquiry function of the CRS 18 is used. In the previous process, the fare product candidates are sorted according to the approximate fare. According to this order, a plurality of fare product candidates are sequentially processed. A plurality of flight plans may be created from one fare product (or one combination of fare products obtained by adding 1/2). Then, a predetermined number of flight plans are created.

  In the present embodiment, since the fare products are greatly narrowed down by the processing in the previous stage, the process according to the order of the approximate fare is performed, and the plan generation is completed when a predetermined number of flight plans are completed. The amount is small and flight plan generation is completed in a short time. This information processing includes a vacant seat status inquiry to the CRS 18. In the present embodiment, the time required for the vacant seat status inquiry to the CRS 18 can be shortened, which greatly reduces the time required for creating the flight plan.

  FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating a preferred example of flight plan generation processing by the flight plan generation unit 32. First, the flight plan generation unit 32 sets one of a plurality of fare products selected in the previous stage as a processing target (S80). The first fare product of the fare products arranged according to the approximate fare is selected.

  In S82, the section and route are decomposed. Here, based on the plan creation conditions, a section to be processed next is selected from a plurality of sections created by the departure place and the plurality of visited places. Depending on the fare product, a direct flight in a certain section may not be available, and a transit flight via a certain point may have to be used. In such a case, the section is decomposed in this step. The route decomposition of the section is performed with reference to the fare product database 20. For this processing, although not shown, the fare product database 20 is configured such that each fare product information includes information on route decomposition. In this step and other steps, arbitrary information necessary for creating the flight plan may be appropriately stored in the fare product database 20 and referred to.

  For example, the NRT / SFO section is disassembled and a route of NRT / LAX / SFO is set. LAX is inserted as a transit point. The via point (LAX in this example) to be inserted is called a gateway to the arrival point. In some cases, a plurality of waypoint (gateway) candidates are set. For example, NRT / LAS / SFO is set in addition to NRT / LAX / SFO. At this time, LAS is also a transit point, similar to LAX. NRT is Narita, SFO is San Francisco, LAX is Los Angeles, and LAS is Las Vegas.

  In S84, an available airline (CA: carrier) is selected. Necessary information for this processing is also stored in the fare product database 20.

  Here, first, the section type of each section is obtained. The section types are classified into Going (Japan / Overseas, Inter Line), Return (Overseas / Japan, Inter Line), AddOn (Japan / Japan), Forign (Overseas / Overseas), and Local (Local Domestic Local Line). Next, airline company (s) that can be used in the target section are determined according to the rules of the fare product. In the present embodiment, a ZONE-PEX ticket is mainly assumed. In the case of a ZONE-PEX ticket, available airlines are strictly determined for each section or section type. Furthermore, when the section type is Going, airlines that do not conform to the desired airline and the mileage card partner airline specified in the plan creation conditions are excluded. This processing is performed when the desired airline and the mileage card are designated when inputting the plan creation conditions.

  In S86, a service flight is acquired. Here, the flight plan creation device 10 (vacancy status acquisition unit 34) performs vacancy inquiry of each airline selected in S84 (vacancy inquiry in the corresponding section) through access to the CRS 18. As a result, information on flights that are actually in operation is acquired, and a list of flight candidates is created.

  Search criteria for CRS vacancy inquiry are airline (CA), section (if the route was disassembled in the previous stage, each section after disassembly), departure date and time (date and time (desired time specified by the user)) It is. Sections are entered in the form of departure and arrival locations. In response to the transmission of this search condition, the CRS returns information on whether there is a flight and whether there is a seat. More specifically, the airline name, flight number, departure place, arrival place, departure date and time, and number of remaining seats. The number of remaining seats for each class (A to Z) is provided. A to Z are seat ranks. The ranks of seats presented to general users are three classes: first, business class and economy. However, on the fare product, the seats are classified into the classes A to Z in more detail. CRS provides information on the number of remaining seats in each class (A to Z).

  In S88, a combination of operating flights is performed. Here, when route decomposition (via gateway) is performed in the preceding stage, the operation flight of “Departure / Gateway” and the operation flight of “Gateway / Arrival” are combined. In the above example, NRT / LAX flight and LAX / SFO flight are combined. This combination is set as one flight candidate.

  The airport has a minimum transit time (MCT) rule. When combining flights, the flights are combined based on the departure and arrival times to meet the MCT of the gateway airport.

  In S90, flight candidates are narrowed down. Here, flights that do not conform to the rules for fare products are excluded. The fare product information in the fare product database 20, mainly information on the reservation rules, is referred to. Plan creation conditions and rules are matched, and non-conforming flights are excluded. In ZONE-PEX and IT products, flight names and usage times may be limited. This restriction is also used for sorting. Here, flights with insufficient seats are excluded. The number of remaining seats is obtained by a vacant seat inquiry to the CRS 18 in the preceding stage. This number of remaining seats is compared with the number of people in the plan creation conditions.

  Note that an item “not checking the number of remaining seats” may be provided in the plan creation condition. When this instruction is input, narrowing down based on the number of remaining seats in S90 may not be performed.

  Next, in S92, a use flight is selected. When only one available flight candidate remains in S90, that flight candidate is set as a used flight in S92. If there is no flight candidate remaining in S90, abandonment of plan creation with the relevant fare product is abandoned (not shown, but the process proceeds to S100). If a plurality of flight candidates remain in S90, one of them is selected. Preferably, an optimum flight is selected from a plurality of flight candidates by appropriate processing.

  The optimal flight selection process is configured to select a flight that best fits the user's plan creation conditions. For example, the desired airline and mileage card airline in the plan creation conditions are referred to. The flight of your preferred airline that can use your mileage card is selected.

  Other plan creation conditions may also be used for the optimal flight selection process. For example, the visit schedule of the plan creation conditions may be referred to and a flight close to the user's wish may be selected.

  Furthermore, other conditions set by the system service provider may be added to the optimum flight selection process. For example, priority airlines by destination are determined. This airline's flights are preferentially selected.

  Further, preferably, the optimum flight selection process selects the most convenient flight based on the attributes of the candidate flight (section type, number of connections, departure time, whether or not joint operation is performed, time for connection, etc.) Configured as follows.

  In S94, it is determined whether there are still unprocessed sections. If the determination in S94 is YES, the process returns to S82. If the determination in S94 is NO, flights for all sections have been determined. Then, it progresses to S96 and the flight plan production | generation part 32 completes a flight plan. The flight plan is composed of a plurality of selected flights.

  Next, in S98, it is determined whether or not a predetermined number of flight plans have been completed. If the determination in S98 is YES, the process ends. The predetermined number is specified using the travel agency terminal 16 in the item “number of created plans” as one of the plan creation conditions. The predetermined number may be a preset default value.

  By providing S98, in this embodiment, a flight plan does not have to be created from all fare product candidates. When the number of plans reaches a predetermined number, the plan creation ends. As a result, the processing time is shortened as described above.

  Moreover, as already stated, in this embodiment, fare products are processed in the order corresponding to the approximate fare. Therefore, a flight plan is preferentially made from a fare product that is likely to make a cheap flight plan. Thus, even if the plan creation is finished when the number of plans reaches a predetermined number, it is possible to avoid overlooking a cheap plan.

  However, the approximate fare is not an accurate fare. The order of fares in the final flight plan may be different from the order of estimated fares. Therefore, flight plans are not always created in ascending order. However, the order of the approximate fare and the order of the final fare agree with relatively high accuracy. Therefore, if an appropriate number of flight plans are generated, a sufficiently appropriate number of cheap plans are included therein.

  Note that the “predetermined number” in S98 may be set to be larger than the number of creation plans in the plan creation conditions. Preferably, more plans than the specified number (for example, three more plans) are created, and the excess number of plans is later cut according to conditions such as fare, and the rest is presented.

  If S98 is NO, it will progress to S100 and it will be determined whether there exists the next fare goods. If there is an unprocessed fare product, the determination in S100 is NO and the process returns to S80. When the above flight plan generation process has already been performed for each of all fare product candidates, the determination in S100 is NO and the process ends.

"Fare calculation"
Next, the fare calculation process by the fare calculator 36 will be described. The fare calculation unit 36 calculates the fare of the flight plan generated by the flight plan generation unit 32. The fare calculation unit 36 obtains the fair breakpoint (main BP) of the flight plan and calculates the fare using the main BP. The main BP is acquired by the main BP acquisition unit 38 through access to the CRS 18.

  FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing the fare calculation process and the subsequent plan presentation process. The fare calculation process is performed by the fare calculation unit 36, and the plan presentation process is performed by the flight plan presentation unit 40.

  In S110, one of the predetermined number of flight plans generated by the flight plan generation unit 32 is set as a processing target. In S112, the BP acquisition unit 38 of the fare calculation unit 36 creates a temporary reservation record of the flight plan in the CRS 18 and executes a fare calculation command. Here, the flight plan creation device 10 accesses the CRS 18, requests the CRS 18 to create a reservation record, and then sends a fare calculation command. As a result, a reservation record is created in the CRS 18. The CRS 18 performs the fare calculation in response to the request and returns the calculation result. The fare calculation result of the CRS 18 includes this BP and mileage information. These pieces of information are acquired by the BP acquisition unit 38 (S114).

  The fare calculation result of CRS18 includes information on overseas taxes and airport facility charges. Such information is also acquired from the fare calculation result. Therefore, the flight plan creation device 10 does not have to have information on overseas taxes and airport facility charges. This information is used for the fare calculation in the latter part.

  In S116, the reservation record temporarily created in the CRS 18 is discarded. This process is also performed through access to the CRS 18. In S118, the fare calculator 36 refers to the fare product database 20 and calculates the final fare. For the calculation, the BP acquired in S114, miles-up information, overseas taxes and airport facility charges are used. Further, the fare information in the fare product database 20 is referred to. For example, in the ZONE-PEX fare calculation, the fare calculation unit 36 calculates a fee according to the following conditions. Travel day limit, number of flights limit, basic charge by BP / departure date, additional charge by departure / destination, HIF / CTM check, additional mileage charge, availability of route fare, ZONE-PEX1 / 2 combined fare, children Fare special rules.

  As described above, the present embodiment does not use the fare calculation result of CRS 18 as the final fare as it is. This embodiment considers that the calculation result of CRS 18 may not partially reflect various latest fare rules. The reason why the fare calculation function of CRS 18 is still used is that CRS 18 is suitable for the purpose of obtaining this BP. Focusing on this point, the present embodiment uses the CRS 18 for acquiring this BP, and the fare is obtained based on the fare calculation information in the fare product database 20. In this way, the present embodiment calculates an accurate fare while appropriately utilizing the CRS 18.

  In addition, when the calculation result of CRS18 is sufficiently accurate, it is preferable to use the fare as it is. For example, in the case of a ZONE-PEX route fare product, the CRS 18 provides accurate information on the product default fair basis fare. Therefore, the flight ticket information is conveniently used by the flight plan creation device 10.

  Next, in S120, it is determined whether there is an unprocessed flight plan. If the determination in S120 is NO, the process returns to S110, another flight plan is set as a processing target, and the fare is calculated.

  If determination of S120 is YES, it will progress to S122 and a flight plan will be shown by the flight plan presentation part 40. FIG. In S122, the product plan is completed. The product plan consists of a flight plan and fares. In S124, the plans are rearranged according to the plan creation conditions. When “cheap order” is specified in the plan creation condition, the cheapest product plan is arranged at the top. Then, the plans are arranged according to the fare calculated by the fare calculator 36. When “order with few transfers” is designated, rearrangement according to the number of transfers is performed. In S126, the flight plan presenting unit 40 presents the rearranged product plan (flight plan and fare) to the travel agency terminal 16. The product plan information is provided to the travel agency terminal 16 on the Web page.

  19 and 20 show examples of screens displayed on the travel agency terminal 16. FIG. 19 is a plan creation condition input screen. FIG. 20 is a product plan presentation screen. FIG. 20 displays two plans. Here, plans are presented in ascending order. Other plans appear as the screen scrolls.

  The preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above. As described above, the present invention temporarily sets a fair break point that cannot be determined until the completion of the flight plan from the information of the departure point and the visited point. Then, a fare product that matches the provisional fair breakpoint is searched from the database, and a flight plan corresponding to the fare product is generated. By using tentative fair breakpoints, fares can be greatly narrowed down, and the amount of information processing for creating a flight plan can be greatly reduced.

  Thus, if the present invention is applied, even if there are a plurality of places to be visited and even in the case of a relatively inexpensive ticket with complicated reservation rules, the effect of narrowing down the fare products is the amount of information processed for creating the flight plan. Will reduce it. As a result, it is possible to appropriately respond to the needs of travel arrangements such as FIT, such as making an inexpensive flight plan for traveling around multiple cities. This also has the advantage that travel agents can provide, deploy and promote new services to meet customer needs.

  Of course, the apparatus of the present invention may be configured so that a flight plan can be created not only when there are a plurality of visited places but also when there is only one visited place. In addition, the apparatus of the present invention may be configured so that a one-way air ticket can be processed, that is, a one-way flight plan can be created.

  Further, according to the present invention, when searching for a fare product from the database, the fare product selection means selects a fare product that can be set with a plurality of visited locations in the plan creation conditions as a stopover. Thereby, fare products are narrowed down and the amount of information processing is further reduced.

  In addition, according to the present invention, when searching for a fare product from the database, different fare products are selected based on the ½ sum information, with the provisional fair breakpoint as a boundary. If temporary fair breakpoints are not set, all visited cities will be candidates for changes (boundaries) of fare products in the 1/2 total. Therefore, the number of fare product candidates is large and the amount of information processing is also large. In the present invention, a temporary fair breakpoint is set to search for a fare product of 1/2 addition. Therefore, it is possible to avoid an increase in the number of fare product candidates.

  Thus, according to the present invention, a fair break point that cannot be determined until completion of the flight plan is set temporarily, and ½ summation is applied using the temporary fair break point. You can make a combined flight plan. Thereby, it is possible to provide an inexpensive flight plan by applying 1/2 summation, and to provide a flight plan that meets the plan creation conditions.

  Further, according to the present invention, an approximate fare when the temporary fair breakpoint is a fair breakpoint is obtained based on the temporary fair breakpoint. Fares vary depending on the fair breakpoint, which is determined by the flight plan. Therefore, the fare cannot be calculated accurately until the flight plan is completed. In contrast, according to the present invention, a fair break point is temporarily obtained from the visited city in the plan creation conditions, and the fare is estimated from the temporary fair break point.

  As described above, the present invention temporarily sets a fair break point that cannot be determined until the flight plan is completed, and estimates the fare before the completion of the flight plan using the temporary fair break point. By using this estimated fare, a cheap flight plan can be made efficiently.

  As a method of using the estimated fare, in the above embodiment, when creating a flight plan from the fare products retrieved from the database, the fare products with the lower estimated fare are preferentially processed according to the rank of the estimated fare, and a predetermined number of flights A plan was made. Since fare products with a high possibility of making a cheap flight plan are preferentially processed, a cheap plan can be found efficiently and processing can be completed in a short time.

  As a method of using the approximate fare, fare products may be narrowed down based on the approximate fare. Preferably, a predetermined number of fare products with a low estimated fare are selected and a flight plan is created from these fare products. As a result, the fare products are narrowed down to candidates with a high possibility of making a cheap plan, so the amount of information processing can be reduced while trying not to overlook the cheap plan. Note that this aspect may be narrowed down and a plan may be created in accordance with the above approximate fare ranking.

  In addition, according to the present invention, a temporary fair breakpoint is obtained by using the distance information providing function of the computer reservation system (CRS). By utilizing the CRS function well, the device of the present invention does not have various distance information between airports, and therefore the device of the present invention can be configured more easily.

  In addition, according to the present invention, when a flight plan is created from fare product candidates, a flight plan composed of flights with vacant seats is generated using the CRS vacant seat status inquiry function. A suitable plan can be generated by making good use of the CRS function where necessary.

  Moreover, according to this invention, the fare | correspondence corresponding to this fair break point of the produced | generated flight plan is calculated | required. Preferably, the fare is presented along with the flight plan. Thereby, for example, a plurality of plans can be compared and convenient.

  Preferably, according to the present invention, the fair breakpoint is obtained using the function of the CRS, and the fare information stored in the fare product database is referred to using the fair breakpoint to correspond to the flight plan. Fares are required. By using the CRS functions where necessary, the fare can be calculated appropriately.

  The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, a travel agency terminal accesses a flight plan creation device and receives a flight plan creation service. On the other hand, a user (passenger) other than the travel agent may access the flight plan creation device using a computer terminal and receive a flight plan creation service. Of course, the flight plan creation device may be used by the operator himself. The operator is typically a wholesaler, but it goes without saying that other operators, such as travel agents, may operate the flight plan creation device. Further, the flight plan creation device may be operated directly rather than from a remote terminal.

  Further, the flight plan creation device may be configured by a plurality of computers arranged in a distributed manner. In addition, a program for realizing the processing of the present embodiment may be provided by communication. This type of program is within the scope of the present invention.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a technique capable of appropriately creating a flight plan for turning around a plurality of visited places with a round-trip air ticket.

It is a figure which shows the flight plan preparation apparatus of this embodiment. It is a functional block diagram which shows the structure of a flight plan preparation apparatus. It is a flowchart which shows the whole operation | movement of a flight plan preparation apparatus. It is a figure which shows the plan preparation conditions which the condition acquisition part of a flight plan preparation apparatus acquires. It is a figure which shows the setting process of a temporary fair break point, taking the case of going around four cities as an example. It is a figure explaining a charge mileage rate. It is a figure which shows the setting process of the temporary fair breakpoint using a mile-up rate. It is a flowchart which shows the setting process of a temporary fair breakpoint. It is a figure which shows the specific example corresponding to the flowchart of FIG. It is a figure which shows the specific example corresponding to the flowchart of FIG. It is a figure which shows typically the process of FIG. 9 and FIG. It is a figure which shows a fare goods database. It is a flowchart which shows the fare goods selection process by a fare goods selection part. It is a figure explaining 1/2 summation in air ticket sales. It is a figure which shows the fare goods selection process regarding 1/2 addition. It is a figure which shows the fare goods selection process regarding 1/2 addition. It is a flowchart which shows the flight plan production | generation process by a flight plan production | generation part. It is a flowchart which shows a fare calculation process and the plan presentation process following it. It is a figure which shows the input screen of the plan creation conditions shown on a travel agency terminal. It is a figure which shows the presentation screen of a flight plan and a fare shown by a travel agency terminal.

Explanation of symbols

10 Flight plan creation device 16 Travel agency terminal 18 CRS
20 fare product database 22 condition acquisition unit 24 provisional BP setting unit 26 distance calculation information acquisition unit 28 fare product selection unit 30 approximate fare calculation unit 32 flight plan generation unit 34 vacancy information acquisition unit 36 fare calculation unit 38 BP acquisition unit 40 flight Plan presentation section

Claims (22)

In a flight plan creation device that can create a flight plan that goes around multiple visits with a round-trip air ticket,
Condition acquisition means for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
Temporary fair breakpoint setting means for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations , acquiring distance information from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair break point setting means for selecting a visited point having a maximum distance from a point as the temporary fair break point;
A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits A fare product database with information on whether each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint ;
Based on the plan creation conditions and the temporary fair breakpoints, using the plurality of visit locations of the plan creation conditions and the temporary fair breakpoints as search keys, the plurality of visits of the plan creation conditions from the fare product database A fare that selects the fare product that is a fare product that includes a location in the plurality of visitable locations and that is stored as a visit location where the visit location of the temporary fair breakpoint can be set as a fair breakpoint Product selection means;
Based on the fare product selected by the plan creation condition and the fare product selection means, the flight is a flight of a plurality of sections created by the departure location and the plurality of visit locations in the plan creation condition, and in the fare product database Flight plan generation means for generating a flight plan composed of operating flights of a plurality of sections obtained by acquiring operating flights of an airline set for the fare product from a computer reservation system ;
A flight plan creation device comprising: In the flight plan creation apparatus according to claim 1,
The fare product database has information as to whether or not each of a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product can be set as a stopover ,
The fare product selection means refers to information on whether or not a stopover is possible for each visitable location in the fare product database, and sets the plurality of visited locations in the plan creation conditions as stopover locations in the fare product database. A flight plan creation device, wherein a fare product stored as possible is selected. In the flight plan creation apparatus according to claim 1,
The fare product database stores, as ½ sum information for each fare product, information on whether or not ½ sum can be applied to each fare product and fare products that can be combined with each fare product,
The fare product selection means is a process of selecting two different fare products with the provisional fair breakpoint as a boundary based on the information of the 1/2 summation, and the two different fare products include the 1 / It is possible to combine ½ sums in the information of two sums, and a plurality of visitable locations of one fare product include the visit locations from the departure location to the temporary fair break point, and the other fare product The flight plan creation device is characterized in that the plurality of visitable locations of the two performs processing for selecting two fare products including the visited locations from the temporary fair break point to the departure location . In the flight plan creation apparatus according to claim 1,
The fare product database stores, as fare information of each fare product, a fair break point and a fare associated with each other,
The fare product selection means includes an approximate fare calculation means, and the approximate fare calculation means reads the fare corresponding to the temporary fair breakpoint from the fare product database using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key. fares when temporary fair breakpoint has to be fair breakpoints, flight plan creation device comprising a Turkey determined as an approximation fare. In the flight plan creation apparatus according to claim 4,
The plan creation conditions include the number of created plans, and the fare products selected by the fare product selection means are processed in the order according to the approximate fare to create a flight plan, and a predetermined number corresponding to the number of created plans A flight plan creation device characterized by obtaining a number of flight plans. In the flight plan creation apparatus according to claim 4,
The fare product selection means extracts a predetermined number of fare products from the one with the lower estimated fare when the fare products are arranged according to the approximate fare based on the approximate fare calculated by the approximate fare calculation means. flight-plan generating apparatus, characterized in that narrow down the fare product by. A computerized flight plan creation method that can create a flight plan that goes around multiple visits with a round-trip ticket,
A condition acquisition step for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
Temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations , obtaining information on distances from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting a visited location having the maximum distance from the location as the temporary fair breakpoint;
A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits Refer to the fare product database having information as to whether or not each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint, and based on the plan creation condition and the provisional fair breakpoint, the plurality of visited locations of the plan creation condition and the Using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, from the fare product database, the fare product including a plurality of visitable locations of the plan creation conditions in the plurality of visitable locations, and the temporary fair breakpoint Are visited as places that can be set as fair breakpoints. And fare product selection step of selecting the fare product you are,
Based on the fare product selected in the plan creation conditions and the fare product selection step, the flight is a flight of a plurality of sections created by the departure location and a plurality of visit locations in the plan creation conditions, and in the fare product database A flight plan generation step of generating a flight plan composed of operating flights of a plurality of sections obtained by acquiring operating flights of an airline set in the fare product from a computer reservation system ;
The flight plan creation method characterized by including. In the flight plan creation method according to claim 7,
The fare product database has information as to whether or not each of a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product can be set as a stopover ,
The fare product selection step refers to information on whether or not a stopover is possible at each visitable location in the fare product database, and sets the plurality of visited locations in the plan creation conditions as stopover locations in the fare product database. A flight plan creation method comprising selecting a fare product stored as possible . In the flight plan creation method according to claim 7,
The fare product database stores, as ½ sum information for each fare product, information on whether or not ½ sum can be applied to each fare product and fare products that can be combined with each fare product,
The fare product selection step is a process of selecting two different fare products with the tentative fair breakpoint as a boundary based on the 1/2 summation information, and the two different fare products include the 1 / It is possible to combine ½ sums in the information of two sums, and a plurality of visitable locations of one fare product include the visit locations from the departure location to the temporary fair break point, and the other fare product A method for creating a flight plan , comprising: performing a process of selecting two fare products including a visit location from the temporary fair break point to the departure location in a plurality of visitable locations . In the flight plan creation method according to claim 7,
The fare product database stores, as fare information of each fare product, a fair break point and a fare associated with each other,
The fare product selection step includes an approximate fare calculation step, and the approximate fare calculation step reads the fare corresponding to the temporary fair breakpoint from the fare product database using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key. flight plan creating the temporary fair breakpoint fares when to be fair break point, wherein the benzalkonium determined as an approximation fare. The flight plan creation method according to claim 10,
The plan creation condition includes the number of created plans, and the flight products selected in the fare product selection step are processed in order according to the approximate fare to create a flight plan, and the predetermined number corresponding to the created plan number A method for creating a flight plan, characterized in that it requires a number of flight plans. The flight plan creation method according to claim 10,
The fare product selection step extracts a predetermined number of fare products from the one with the lower estimated fare when the fare products are arranged according to the approximate fare based on the approximate fare calculated by the approximate fare calculation step. flight plan creation method which is characterized in that narrow down the fare product by. A computer-executable flight plan creation program that allows a computer to create a flight plan that travels with multiple round-trip flights.
A condition acquisition step for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
Temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations , obtaining information on distances from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting a visited location having the maximum distance from the location as the temporary fair breakpoint;
A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits Refer to the fare product database having information as to whether or not each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint, and based on the plan creation condition and the provisional fair breakpoint, the plurality of visited locations of the plan creation condition and the Using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, from the fare product database, the fare product including a plurality of visitable locations of the plan creation conditions in the plurality of visitable locations, and the temporary fair breakpoint Are visited as places that can be set as fair breakpoints. And fare product selection step of selecting the fare product you are,
Based on the fare product selected in the plan creation conditions and the fare product selection step, the flight is a flight of a plurality of sections created by the departure location and a plurality of visit locations in the plan creation conditions, and in the fare product database A flight plan generation step of generating a flight plan composed of operating flights of a plurality of sections obtained by acquiring operating flights of an airline set in the fare product from a computer reservation system ;
A program for creating a flight plan, which causes the computer to execute. In the flight plan creation program according to claim 13,
The fare product database has information as to whether or not each of a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product can be set as a stopover ,
The fare product selection step refers to information on whether or not a stopover is possible at each visitable location in the fare product database, and sets the plurality of visited locations in the plan creation conditions as stopover locations in the fare product database. A flight plan creation program characterized by selecting a fare product stored as possible . In the flight plan creation program according to claim 13,
The fare product database stores, as ½ sum information for each fare product, information on whether or not ½ sum can be applied to each fare product and fare products that can be combined with each fare product,
The fare product selection step is a process of selecting two different fare products with the tentative fair breakpoint as a boundary based on the 1/2 summation information, and the two different fare products include the 1 / It is possible to combine ½ sums in the information of two sums, and a plurality of visitable locations of one fare product include the visit locations from the departure location to the temporary fair break point, and the other fare product A program for creating a flight plan characterized in that a plurality of visitable locations of the two perform processing for selecting two fare products including the visited locations from the temporary fair break point to the departure location . In the flight plan creation program according to claim 13,
The fare product database stores, as fare information of each fare product, a fair break point and a fare associated with each other,
The fare product selection step includes an approximate fare calculation step, and the approximate fare calculation step reads the fare corresponding to the temporary fair breakpoint from the fare product database using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key. A program for creating a flight plan, which causes a computer to execute a process for obtaining a fare when a tentative fair breakpoint is a fair breakpoint as an approximate fare. In the flight plan creation program according to claim 16,
The plan creation condition includes the number of created plans, and the flight products selected in the fare product selection step are processed in order according to the approximate fare to create a flight plan, and the predetermined number corresponding to the created plan number A program for creating a flight plan, which causes a computer to execute a process for obtaining a number of flight plans. In the flight plan creation program according to claim 16,
The fare product selection step extracts a predetermined number of fare products from the one with the lower estimated fare when the fare products are arranged according to the approximate fare based on the approximate fare calculated by the approximate fare calculation step. A program for creating a flight plan, which causes a computer to execute a process for narrowing down fare products.   A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 13 is recorded.   A device that selects fare products for the creation of a flight plan that travels with multiple round-trip tickets.
  Condition acquisition means for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
  Temporary fair breakpoint setting means for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations, acquiring distance information from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair break point setting means for selecting a visited point having a maximum distance from a point as the temporary fair break point;
  A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits A fare product database with information on whether each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint;
  Based on the plan creation conditions and the temporary fair breakpoints, using the plurality of visit locations of the plan creation conditions and the temporary fair breakpoints as search keys, the plurality of visits of the plan creation conditions from the fare product database A fare that selects the fare product that is a fare product that includes a location in the plurality of visitable locations, and in which the visit location of the temporary fair break point is stored as a visit location that can be set as a fair break point Product selection means;
  A device for creating a flight plan characterized by comprising:   A method of selecting a fare product for creating a flight plan that travels with a round-trip ticket at a plurality of visited locations by computer processing,
  A condition acquisition step for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
  Temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations, obtaining information on distances from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting a visited location having the maximum distance from the location as the temporary fair breakpoint;
  A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits Refer to the fare product database having information as to whether or not each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint, and based on the plan creation condition and the provisional fair breakpoint, the plurality of visited locations of the plan creation condition and the Using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, from the fare product database, the fare product including a plurality of visitable locations of the plan creation conditions in the plurality of visitable locations, and the temporary fair breakpoint Are visited as places that can be set as fair breakpoints. And fare product selection step of selecting the fare product you are,
  A method for selecting a fare product for creating a flight plan.   A computer-executable flight plan creation program that allows a computer to select a fare product for creating a flight plan that goes around multiple visits with a round-trip air ticket,
  A condition acquisition step for acquiring a plan creation condition including a departure point, a plurality of visit points, and a visit schedule,
  Temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting temporary fair breakpoints from the plurality of visited locations, obtaining information on distances from the departure location to each visited location, and based on the obtained distance information A temporary fair breakpoint setting step for selecting a visited location having the maximum distance from the location as the temporary fair breakpoint;
  A fare product database having information on fare products, which includes information on a plurality of visitable locations set for each fare product, and information set as a reservation rule for each fare product, wherein the plurality of visits Refer to the fare product database having information as to whether or not each possible location can be set as a fair breakpoint, and based on the plan creation condition and the provisional fair breakpoint, the plurality of visited locations of the plan creation condition and the Using the temporary fair breakpoint as a search key, from the fare product database, the fare product including a plurality of visitable locations of the plan creation conditions in the plurality of visitable locations, and the temporary fair breakpoint Are visited as places that can be set as fair breakpoints. And fare product selection step of selecting the fare product you are,
  A program for creating a flight plan, which causes the computer to execute.