System and method for selecting and reserving airline seats

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

• a data storage storing a plurality of entries denoting a plurality of available individual seats on an airplane;
• and
• a server, configured to:
• query the data storage for information descriptive of available individual seats on one or more airplanes;
• receive over the network from a general purpose computer first data representing payment information;
• transmit second data to an application running on the general purpose computer, the second data including the information descriptive of available individual seats on one or more airplanes, the second data processed by the application to generate a graphical user interface on the general purpose computer that comprises an interactive seating map representing individual seats on the one or more airplanes, the second data processed by the application to generate an additional display of information about selection of seats in response to a user interaction with the graphical user interface, the interaction being triggered when placing a mouse over a portion of the graphical user interface;
• and
• receive from the general purpose computer third data representing one or more seats selected by one or more mouse clicks.

A computer-implemented method running on a general purpose computer for interactively selecting one or more tickets to seats on an airplane by an end user over a network, the method comprising:

• receiving payment information;
• receiving, via an application running on the general purpose computer from a server coupled to the general purpose computer over the network, data including information descriptive of available individual seats on one or more airplanes, the data processed by the application to generate a graphical user interface on the general purpose computer that comprises an interactive seating map representing individual seats on the one or more airplanes, the data processed by the application to generate an additional display of information about selection of seats in response to a user interaction with the graphical user interface, the interaction being triggered when placing a mouse over a portion of the graphical user interface;
• and
• receiving from the end user a selection of one or more seats selected by one or more mouse clicks.