Abstract: A system and method for use by a transportation service provider to process multiple bookings in a single transaction. This single-transaction processing can be initiated to place passengers of multiple bookings on a same flight, to seat passengers of multiple bookings next to one another, or to reserve special services for passengers of multiple bookings. This mechanism is supported by a user interface that allows multiple bookings to be “visually merged”. This provides a display that presents data for multiple bookings as though that data is part of a same booking, and which readily allows a user to initiate processing of the data during a single transaction.

Abstract: A method to book events such as trips are discloses. The method provides a conversation mode that allows a booking to be created within retentive storage in a portable format. In one embodiment, this portable format is a string written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). This format may be stored to a database using a single database access operation. According to another aspect of the method, a user may ignore selectable portions of the booking as the booking is being created such that an entire booking need not be discarded when it is determined that a single service or informational element included in that booking is no longer needed.

Abstract: A system to book events such as trips are discloses. The system provides a conversation mode that allows a booking to be created within retentive storage in a portable format. In one embodiment, this portable format is a string written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). This format may be stored to a database using a single database access operation. According to another aspect of the system, a user may ignore selectable portions of the booking as the booking is being created such that an entire booking need not be discarded when it is determined that a single service or informational element included in that booking is no longer needed.