System and method for selecting and reserving airline seats

• US 7,548,870 B2
• Filed: 12/11/2008
• Issued: 06/16/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 04/22/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: CEATS Incorporated
• Original Assignee: CEATS Incorporated
• Inventors: Halavais, Richard Arthur, Chung, Tony Cheng-Tong
• Primary Examiner(s): Hayes; John W
• Assistant Examiner(s): CAMPBELL, SHANNON S
• Application Number:
  US12/333,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20090083086A1
• Time in Patent Office: 187 Days
• Field of Search: 705/1, 705/5
• US Class Current: 705/5
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/02 Reservations, e.g. for tickets, services or events
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0601 Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/12 Hotels or restaurants

Abstract

The present invention relates to a system and method for selecting and reserving airline seats. The system or method transmits information relating to available seats on one or more airplanes traveling a flight segment of a trip to an application running on a general purpose computer for display to an end user. The system or method also provides one or more pages that include an interactive seating map showing information relating to the available seats on the one or more airplanes. Through the interactive seating map the end user can select one or more available seats. The interactive seating map may provide additional information on the one or more of available individual seats when triggered by, for example, a mouse placed over one of the available individual seats.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for interactively selecting tickets to seats on an airplane by an end user over a wide area network, the method comprising:

transmitting information relating to a plurality of available individual seats on one or more airplanes to an application running on a general purpose computer on the wide area network for display to the end user, each of the one or more airplanes traveling a flight segment of a trip having one or more segments;

providing a graphical user interface on the computer that comprises an interactive seating map representing information relating to available individual seats on each of the one or more airplanes from which the end user, selects one or more available individual seats, the graphical user interface providing additional current available seat information on the one or more available individual seats in response to a user interaction with the graphical user interface, the interaction being triggered when placing a mouse over at least a portion of the interactive seating man, wherein the mouse over causes the computer to display the additional current available seat information indicating seats that have not been previously taken;

receiving from the end user a selection of one or more selected seats for each of the one or more airplanes, wherein the selection is based on a mouse click; and

accepting over the wide area network from the end user payment information for the one or more selected seats.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

sending to the end user information that can be printed as a ticket by the end user.

3. A system for interactively selecting one or more tickets to seats on an airplane by a plurality of end users over a wide area network, the system comprising:

a database storing a plurality of entries denoting a plurality of available individual seats on an airplane; and

a server, configured to;

query the database for information relating to the plurality of available individual seats on one or more airplanes, each of the one or more airplanes traveling a flight segment of a trip having one or more segments;

transmit information relating to a plurality of available individual seats on the one or more airplanes to an application running on a general purpose computer on the wide area network for display to an end user;

provide a graphical interface one the computer that comprise an interactive seating map representing information relating to available individual seats on each of the one or more airplanes from which the end user selects one or more available individual seats, the graphical user interface providing additional current available seat information on the one or more available individual seats in response to a user interaction with the graphical user interface, the interaction being triggered by placing a mouse over at least a portion of the interactive seating map, wherein the mouse over causes the computer to display the additional current available seat information indicating seats that have not been previously taken;

receive from the end user a selection of one or more selected seats for each segment of the journey, wherein the selection is based on a mouse click; and

accept over the wide area network from the end user payment information for the one or more selected seats.

4. The system of claim 3 where the server is further configured to:

send to the end user information that can be printed as a ticket.