Classifications

• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/04—Forecasting or optimisation specially adapted for administrative or management purposes, e.g. linear programming or "cutting stock problem"
  • G06Q10/043—Optimisation of two dimensional placement, e.g. cutting of clothes or wood
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/02—Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• • G—PHYSICS
  • G06—COMPUTING OR CALCULATING; COUNTING
  • G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • G06Q10/00—Administration; Management
  • G06Q10/02—Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
  • G06Q10/028—Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events for seating or spaces in a venue
  • G06Q10/0283—Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events for seating or spaces in a venue for travel seating

Definitions

• the present invention relates to a customer seating system for allocating seats to a group of customers using a computer system. More specifically, the invention relates to a customer seating system for allocating seats to a group of passengers into a cabin of an airplane or similar using a computer system, while maximizing the requirement to the airplane and the preferences of the customers.
• a system like the above-described system works well for individual passengers. However, when several passengers are travelling together as a group, specific seating is needed. It is for example preferred to place the group together when possible. Also different passengers being part of that group might have different preferences.
• the present invention relates to a customer seating system for allocating seats to a group of customers, adapted to
• said global satisfaction value is the sum of the previously calculated satisfaction values for the customers of the group
• Target areas defining an area where the customer should be seated.
• Th is allows grouping customers of same characteristics (value, booking class %) in same areas.
• - Suitability telling if a seat is suitable for a customer depending on his characteristics.
• a criterion can be defined optional or mandatory.
• the interface of the system allows the definition of about thirty different types of passengers (wheelchair, unaccompanied minor, child %) and forty types of seats (exit row, close to lavatory, bulkhead ).
• - Multiple legs based on that a same seat should be assigned in case of a trip involving multiple sections with no change of aircraft between the sections.
• One of the main features of the present invention is how to seat a group of customers. According to the invention, passengers in a group will not be considered as individuals, but as a whole unit. This is possible by introducing geometrical seating patterns or "shapes", which may be predefined in the seating allocation system.
• the geometrical shapes corresponding to the number of customer seats required for a group are selected from a set of predetermined geometrical shapes. There is for each number of customers in a group, a certain number of possible geometric shapes.
• the predetermined geometrical shapes may have a ranking order, defining which shape is preferred. This preference can be configurable and even be aircraft or cabin dependent.
• the next shape in the ranking order is selected and so forth.
• a suitable shape we mean the highest ranked geometrical shape that can physically fit with regards to free seats, and which fulfills the above listed criteria.
• a lower ranked shape may actually be a sum of two smaller shapes separated from each other. This way, every customer from a group will still be seated next to another customer from the same group, even though the group is split into two or more smaller groups.
• the maximum number of customers in a group is preferably limited to a predetermined number, for example 9.
• a group having more than 9 customers may be split up in two or more smaller groups.
• the system comprises computer program stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium that is executed by at least one data processor that comprises part of all the system.
• the present invention further comprises a method for allocating seats to a group of customer comprising the steps of:
• said global satisfaction value is the sum of the previously calculated satisfaction values for the customers of the group
• the method is preferably performed as a result of execution of computer program by at least one data processor, the computer program being stored in a non-transitory computer-readable memory medium.
• a terminal comprising:
• the terminal may furthermore communicate with a local or remote server.
• Fig 1 is a schematic view showing how customer satisfaction value is determined for each seat.
• FIG 1 a and 1 b is a schematic view showing the criterion of multi-leg.
• Fig 2 is a schematic view showing how a group of customers is seated according to the invention.
• Fig 3 is a schematic view showing how a best seating "shape" is placed.
• Fig. 4 is a chart showing an example of particular weight a user could give to criteria.
• Figs. 5A and 5B are examples of shapes tried by the system for a group of 4 passengers.
• Fig. 6 is an example of a next shape in the ranking order to be tired.
• Fig. 7 is an example of another shape showing a split up of a group into smaller groups.
• Figure 1 shows the criteria taken into account by the seat allocation system when seating a single passenger onboard an airplane.
• Each matrix in figure 1 represents the cabin in the airplane and each box represents a seat.
• the matrix "free mask” shows available seats. This group of available seats is defined by subtracting the seats considered as unavailable, including those for which the reservation is confirmed, from the total number of seats.
• Seats can also be considered as unavailable for other reasons, in particular if they cannot be used in the course of a flight.
• the seats marked with a "0" in the figure are not available.
• the seat allocated to him is thus considered as unavailable. This is particularly the case when he has already checked in and has a boarding pass with a published seat number.
• next matrices or "marks" define different preferences and criteria accommodating the passenger's wishes as well as the rules of the airplane.
• a value is determined as a function of the correspondence to the placement criteria for a given passenger in each seat.
• Each seat will then have a passenger satisfaction value for each rule. These values are added together for each seat and a global mark representing available seats with all rules taken into account is provided. The highest value is translated to the best seat to assign to that given passenger.
• the user interface allows these criteria to define different levels of importance and the calculation will thus be more difficult as a result. The user gives thus a particular weight to each criterion, it can be for example as seen in Fig. 4.
• the multiple-leg penalty applies when a passenger travel on several sections (for example: Nice -> Paris - Paris -> Berlin) and the aircraft is the same for those sections.
• the goal is to avoid that a customer has to move from a seat to another between the sections of his trip. See Fig. 1 .
• a seat available in section can be already occupied in the other sections. To ensure that such a seat won't get a good mark, we penalize it in dividing its score by two. For example, a multiple-legs penalty looking like shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 1 a. for the section Nice -> Paris, would mean that the free mask for the section Paris -> Berlin would be as shown in Fig. 1 b.
• This seat allocation system only works on one single passenger at a time. This is different for a group of passengers, where passengers willing to travel in group should be seated next to the other group members as much as can be.
• the global mark for each passenger from the group is calculated according to figure 1 . Thereafter, all the global marks (one for each passenger in the group) are added together to define a global group mark as shown in figure 2.
• the group can be seated according to their criteria, availability and the rules of the airplane.
• Figs. 5A or 5B To assign seats to a group, different predesigned seating shapes have been defined and stored in the system. For example for a group of 4 passengers, the following good shapes are tried by the system shown in Figs. 5A or 5B.
• the line shape may be preferred to the square shape. This remains configurable and may even be aircraft or cabin dependent.
• the shapes have a ranking order, where the highest ranked shape always will be chosen if suitable in terms of seat availability.
• the group can be split up into smaller groups such as seen in Fig. 7 until a suitable shape is found.
• figure 3 the global mark group in shown on the right.
• an average mark is calculated by summing the marks contained inside the shape in every position in the cabin matrix. The resulting matrix is shown in figure 3, left matrix.
• the highest value is in this example 67, which will therefore be the position of the square shape.
• the final step of the system is to assign individually each passenger of the group inside the best shape, on the seat having the maximum satisfaction value.
• computer means may be used. These means comprise data storage means for storing databases such as a database of predefined geometrical shapes, and particularly a computer database as wel l as processing means in the form of a processor.
• a communication network may or may not be available. All the data accessed may be stored on the terminal itself or on a remote server.

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Publications (1)

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• 2009
  • 2009-10-09 EP EP09305962A patent/EP2323082A1/en not_active Withdrawn
• 2010
  • 2010-03-18 US US12/661,527 patent/US20110087506A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2010-10-11 WO PCT/EP2010/065174 patent/WO2011042563A1/en not_active Ceased
  • 2010-10-11 CA CA2782076A patent/CA2782076A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2010-10-11 IN IN3007DEN2012 patent/IN2012DN03007A/en unknown
  • 2010-10-11 AU AU2010304977A patent/AU2010304977A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2010-10-11 CN CN2010800534649A patent/CN102725768A/zh active Pending

Patent Citations (2)

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