Transaction Card Price Tracking System for Airfare Compensation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Cardholders face frustration when purchasing items like airline tickets with fluctuating prices, as they often miss out on price drops due to lack of awareness or inability to track and claim compensation under guaranteed airfare policies, especially when purchasing through travel aggregation websites.
Innovation Solution
A computer-based method and network-based system that tracks price changes of purchases made using a transaction card, alerting cardholders to price decreases and facilitating compensation by comparing purchase prices to current asking prices, thereby enabling cardholders to benefit from price reductions without manual monitoring or contact with airlines.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cardholders manually monitor prices and claim compensation under guaranteed airfare policies, then they can receive compensation for price drops, but this requires significant time, effort, and awareness of complex policies that most travelers lack
Solution Approach 1:
The system enables automatic price monitoring and compensation claiming without requiring cardholder intervention. The price tracking system continuously monitors purchased items and automatically identifies price drops, eliminating the need for cardholders to manually track prices or understand complex guaranteed airfare policies while ensuring they receive applicable compensation
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary price tracking system that acts as a mediator between cardholders and merchants. This intermediary automatically monitors price changes, compares purchase prices to current prices, and facilitates compensation claims, bridging the gap between cardholders who lack policy awareness and the complex compensation processes
2Adaptability or versatility
If travel aggregation websites offer price assurances, then travelers may receive some compensation, but these assurances are limited to cases where another traveler purchases the same travel at a lower price, excluding many eligible scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The system provides universal price monitoring coverage for all purchased items regardless of whether other travelers have purchased the same items. The price tracking system monitors any price decrease for monitored items and facilitates compensation under guaranteed airfare policies, making the protection applicable to a broader range of scenarios beyond what aggregation websites offer
Data Source
AI summary
A computer-based method and system for tracking a price change of a purchase made using a transaction card over an interchange network is provided. The interchange network includes a price tracking computer device in communication with a memory device. The method includes receiving, at the interchange network, transaction data associated with a purchase of an item by a cardholder using the transaction card, transmitting via the interchange network an authorization message in response to the purchase of the item, directing at least some of the transaction data to the price tracking computer device including a purchase price of the item, and using the price tracking computer device to track changes in a current asking price of the item, and compare the purchase price of the item to the current asking price of the item.