Abstract: The invention is a pre-paid airline ticket comprising a record of an advance-purchase of an airline ticket for a fixed price that may be used by a customer to reserve and book a flight. The pre-paid airline ticket includes a unique identifier and, associated with the identifier, a plurality of geographic flight parameters and a plurality of non-geographic flight parameters. At least one of the plurality of geographic flight parameters is unspecified, as are possibly any of the non-geographic flight parameters, so that the customer may later convert the pre-paid airline ticket into a conventional airline ticket by specifying any unspecified parameters. The customers ability to do so is subject to any restrictions placed upon the pre-paid airline ticket by the unspecified parameters, and also to the availability of seats meeting the unspecified parameters. In other aspects the invention is a network server configured to sell pre-paid airline tickets, and a method of selling pre-paid airline tickets.

Abstract: A system and method for making an initial product offering of tangible products and services. A price for a product may be determined by calculating an aggregate customer history factor by aggregating customer history factors of potential purchasers in a buying group, calculating a cumulative demand for a product as a function of (i) expected purchase quantities of the product indicated by the potential purchasers in the buying group and (ii) the aggregate customer history factor, and setting a price of the product as a function of the cumulative demand for the buying group. The tangible products and services may be offered at the determined price.