Secure authentication and delayed transaction processing for booking management systems is provided. Third-party services partner with booking management systems to aggregate and list offerings of the third-party services in a digestible display on a one-stop platform. A booking management system can manage the authentication of payment card information on behalf of any number of such third-party services. The booking management system can maintain and process authentication information associated with traveler payment cards, and provide virtual payment information to the third-party services for delayed transactions. The third-party services may later initiate the delayed transactions using the virtual payment information, without being required to perform authentication processing on the traveler payment card information maintained by the booking management system.
G06Q 20/40 - Authorisation, e.g. identification of payer or payee, verification of customer or shop credentials; Review and approval of payers, e.g. check of credit lines or negative lists
G06Q 20/34 - Payment architectures, schemes or protocols characterised by the use of specific devices using cards, e.g. integrated circuit [IC] cards or magnetic cards
An image classification system is provided for determining a likely classification of an image using multiple machine learning models that share a base machine learning model. The image classification system may be a browser-based system on a user computing device that obtains multiple machine learning models over a network from a remote system once, stores the models locally in the image classification system, and uses the models multiple times without needing to subsequently request the machine learning models again from the remote system. The image classification system may therefore determine likely a classification associated with an image by running the machine learning models on a user computing device.
Disclosed are systems and methods for handling categorical field values in machine learning applications, and particularly neural networks. Categorical field values are generally transformed into vectors prior to being passed to a neural network. However, low-dimensionality vectors limit the ability of the network to understand correlations between contextually, semantically, or characteristically similar values. High-dimensionality vectors, in contrast, can overwhelm neural networks, causing the network to seek correlations with respect to individual dimensional values, which correlations may be illusory. The present disclosure relates to a hierarchical neural network that includes a main network as well as one or more auxiliary networks. Categorical field values are processed in an auxiliary network, to reduce a dimensionality of the value before being processed by the main network. This enables contextual, semantic, and characteristic correlations to be identified without overwhelming the network as a whole.
H04L 9/32 - Arrangements for secret or secure communications; Network security protocols including means for verifying the identity or authority of a user of the system
A network -based service is disclosed for disambiguating search queries based on a location-based clustering of search results corresponding to the query. In one embodiment, a user may submit a query for travel items, such as hotel accommodations. The service can determine, based on the query, an initial set of hotels providing such accommodations. The service can then cluster the hotels according to their geographic positions. If the service identifies multiple clusters, the user can be prompted to select a specific cluster to receive additional information regarding the cluster. Illustratively, if a user submits a query for a hotel in "Springfield," the service may ask the user to select among multiple clusters of results, each corresponding to a different city named "Springfield" in which results have been located.
A network-based service may be provided for facilitating queries for a number of items, such as travel services. A user may submit a query including criteria for determining relevant items. The network-based service may be configured to generate opaque search results in response to queries, revealing sufficient detail to allow the user to confirm the relevance of the travel item, but insufficient detail to disclose the identity of the supplier. Based on the submitted query or other information, the network-based service may associate a persona with the user, such as the persona of a business or leisure traveler. The network-based service may use the persona to determine a travel item or items best suited to the user, by identifying the travel item attributes that correlate positively with preferences of the persona. The network-based service may then generate an opaque search result that reveals travel item attributes desired by the persona.
The present disclosure relates to automatic conversion of travel data encoded in Computer Reservations System (CRS) format into corresponding human-readable information, and subsequent presentation of that human -readable travel information to a user to enable booking of a travel item corresponding to the travel item information. CRS systems and databases provide data encoded in formats that make it difficult for a travel agent to convey corresponding travel items to a user. The present disclosure provides systems and methods that can automatically convert encoded CRS travel data input through an agent communication interface into a human-readable representation of travel items available through an electronic travel item marketplace. The system can further present the human- readable representation to the user through a user chat interface, which enables the user to book the travel items without further actions by the travel agent.
A network-based service may be provided for facilitating queries for a number of items, such as travel services. The items may be complimentary, such that users frequently desire to purchase two or more items in conjunction. A user may submit a query including criteria for determining one or more relevant items. Based on the submitted query, the network-based service may infer a desired travel plan of the user, such as a trip or vacation to a specific destination. The network-based service may use the inferred travel plan to generate queries for combinations of items that correspond to the inferred travel plan. These queries, or items corresponding to the queries, may then be returned to the user.
A network-based service may be provided for facilitating queries for a number of items, such as travel services. A user may submit a query including criteria for determining one or more relevant items. Based on the submitted query, the network- based service may present the user with information regarding the actions of other similar users of the network-based service, such as searches performed by the other users. Based on this information, the user may elect to supplement the current query to conform to the actions for other users. In some embodiments, actions by other users may be based at least in part on a category of the querying user. By presenting actions of similar users, a current user may be enabled to select the most relevant query terms for identifying a desired item.
A travel advisory generation system is provided that enables generation of travel advisories based upon one or more selected parameters (e.g., location, origin, destination, date, date range, travel provider, class of service, etc.). These travel advisories may be further incorporated into travel search results, providing relevant advisory information in conjunction, e.g., concurrently or in-line, with travel options. The advisories may be further customized in order to display desired notifications and not display undesired notifications to selected users of the travel advisory generation system (e.g., system operators, travel service providers (including, but not limited to, travel agents and travel managers of an organization), and travelers).
A user of a personal computing device may identify multiple travel items of interest displayed for purchase by a network-based travel service. However, the user may not desire to purchase the travel items in a single purchase. Upon making a travel purchase that includes a first travel item that does not include a second travel item corresponding to the first travel item, the user may employ the network travel package service to search for second travel items corresponding to the first travel item, select from discounted travel packages including the first travel item and second travel items returned from the search, and purchase a discounted travel package. Beneficially, multiple travel items may be purchased separately while obtaining a package discount as compared to the stand-alone price of the travel items.
A system registers mobile devices for flight status updates and sends relevant updates to the wireless devices. Flight status updates are processed by the system and evaluated for their usefulness to the end-user. Updates that are above a minimum level of usefulness are sent to the mobile device. The system compensates for missing and/or invalid data in flight status updates. In addition to flight status updates, the system may evaluate and provide status updates for complete travel itineraries including, but not limited to, connecting flights, hotel availability and transportation options.
A method and system are provided for presenting rates for travel services using dynamic pricing bands. The dynamic pricing bands represent approximate rates for travel services relative to available rates during or close to the proposed dates of travel, or at or near the proposed travel destination. Each dynamic pricing band is keyed to a particular color, intensity, pattern, sound, or other graphical and/or audio characteristic, thereby providing the consumer a sense of the seasonal, regional, day of week, or other variability of rates for travel services without having to compare actual numbers. The dynamic pricing bands are applied to an interactive presentation of rates for travel services to allow the consumer to explore possible rate variations for particular travel services in a manner that provides a birds-eye view, is intuitive and user-friendly.