A Mathematical Study of Purchasing Airline Tickets

We have sought to apply ideas from foraging theory to the purchase of airline tickets from competing websites in an online shopping environment. We explore how consumers might distribute themselves among websites and different tickets dependent on parameters such as price of ticket, number of stops, input rate of tickets into the site, and so on. To facilitate our exploration of consumer behavior, we have developed a system of difference equations and rules as to why consumers may prefer one website over another. By tuning parameters such as quality of a ticket and input rate of tickets, different distributions of consumers are observed. Based on these distributions, we seek to determine the best way - measured by the average quality of ticket purchased - for consumers to distribute themselves among websites and ticket types.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Mathematical Sciences

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Mathematics

Grantor dc:publisher

The Ohio State University

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Smith, Heather

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lou, Yuan
• Hamilton, Ian

• Mathematics

Statement dc:rights

• unrestricted
• This thesis or dissertation is protected by copyright: all rights reserved. It may not be copied or redistributed beyond the terms of applicable copyright laws.

Language dc:language

English

Repository record dc:identifier

http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1366235256

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:etd.ohiolink.edu:osu1366235256