In this post we have tried to answer all questions with regards to reservations, you will learn about various terminologies used in travel industry relating to airlines reservations, we have tried to explain readers in simplest language as possible.
Cancellation: – In an event when a traveler or airline cancels the reservation due to a certain reason it is termed as a cancellation. Cancellation can be classified as a voluntary and involuntary cancellation.
Voluntary Cancellation: – When a traveller himself cancels his/her reservation due to a personal reason it can be termed as a voluntary cancellation. In case of cancellation, the airline levies a cancellation charge as per fare rules for cancelling the reservation and rest is refunded as per fare rules. Please note cancellation charges depend upon fare booked, booking class, etc.
In Voluntary cancellation: – In an event when a airline cancels a flight due to inclement weather or a technical reason it is termed as an involuntary cancellation. In such a event the airline provides a full refund for the ticket purchased.
12.Class of Booking:- A class of booking is the class of service in which a reservation has been confirmed. An Airline reservation is classified in three classes viz :- First, Business and Economy. There are few airlines who also offer a premium economy class or business first cabins. The class of service which you are booked in is a major factor determining the fare of a reservation.
1. Airport Codes and City Codes:- Airport codes and city codes are codes designated by IATA for a particular city. This facilitates smooth and easy operation as there are many places with a similar name. For e.g.:- There is a Birmingham in the UK and in the US. Imagine booking someone on a flight from Houston to Birmingham UK instead of Birmingham Alabama. To avoid such errors coding system was introduced.
Click here to find code for any airports or cities worldwide.
2. Airline codes: – A airline code is two digit code which can be alpha or alphanumerical code. This is a designated code for a particular airline instead of the entire name of the airline. You can see this code on the aircraft, your ticket, boarding card, etc. An airline may have a similar name, however, the airline code cannot be the same. For e.g:- Virgin Atlantic’s code is VS and Virgin America is VX and Virgin Australia is VA though all three belong to the Virgin group.
Click Here to check any airline code.
Availability:- Availability refers to a reservation being available or not as per the inventory for a particular flight. Airline availability is dynamic and reservations are made on a first come first serve basis. The earlier you book the cheaper the fare would be. Hence a ticket purchased a day before your departure is always expensive. However please note this may not be the case always as the airline may introduce saver fares 4months prior departure. Hence if you purchase a ticket 8months in advance may prove to be expensive.
″Tip :- Ticket prices prove to be cheap when booked at the airport just before departure-This is actually a misconception. There is actually a very rare chance that you may even actually get to buy a ticket in case the flight is running full, it is only in event when there are cancellations you may find availability but the airline will not sell the ticket at the same cost. In earlier days this was the case however due to advance revenue management systems the ticket becomes available for the most profitable class of booking in such a scenario. Hence it is advisable to rather plan in advance if you are hoping to buy a cheap air ticket.”
CRS: – CRS is an acronym for Computer Reservation System which is used by an airline and travel agents to make reservations. It is also known as GDS(global distribution system) Airline employees have a modified version of a CRS which is designed for the particular airline only. Whereas a travel agent has a CRS capable to do reservations on various airlines, car rentals and hotels. There are various Computer reservation systems in the market today, however, Amadeus, Apollo, Galileo and Abacus have a major market share.
GDS: – A GDS is acronym for Global Distribution System also known as CRS. It is reservation software (platform) which uses internet and is connected to all major airlines, hotels and car rentals. A GDS is used by all major travel agents for making reservations. If you want to learn more about GDS/CRS you can take our basic course on amadeus or Galileo, these are major systems used by travel agents for making reservations.
Conjunction ticket: – A ticket has basically four coupons. When an itinerary exceeds four legs a fifth leg is issued on a separate ticket and this ticket is known as a conjunction ticket since it is issued in conjunction with the same itinerary. Nowadays the systems are capable of distinguishing itineraries and issue conjunction tickets without any manual intervention as and when required.
Downgrade: – In a situation where a traveller booked in a higher cabin class is asked to move to a lower cabin class it is termed as a downgrade. A downgrade is done in the very rare case when due to a certain technical problem an airline is not able to accommodate a certain passenger. Please note in case of a downgrade traveler is entitled for compensatsion as per airline regulations.
Upgrade: – When a traveller is bumped to a higher cabin class it is called as upgrade. An upgrade is when a passenger is shifted from economy cabin to business class cabin or from business cabin to first class cabin. An upgrade is normally provided to travellers who are part of frequent flyer programs with a airline.An upgrade can be a free upgrade or a upgrade utilizing frequent flyer miles.
E-ticket– E-ticket stands for an Electronic ticket. E-ticket is a virtual document which can be carried on your cell phone or tablet. This is the most common form of a ticket today and almost all airline tickets issued today are e-tickets. E-tickets have reduced a considerable amount of costs for all the airline and have also made travel a lot easier. Earlier paper tickets used to be issued which had to be safeguarded. However now one need not even carry a ticket since one can simply save it on your cell phone or tablet. E-ticketing is one of the major reasons for increased air travel.
Fare: – A Fare or Airfare can be described the cost of the ticket or monetary value a passenger pays to the airline for travelling from one point to another. Although the term itself may seem quite simple however how an airfare is derived upon is a complex process and there are various factors which contribute in determining an airfare. Airfares are divided into various categories such as published airfare, agency private fares, corporate fares, military fares, student fare, seamen fare, etc. The cost of airfare primarily depends upon three basic factors which are availability, seasonality and destination besides this there are other contributing factors like, competition, taxes, route and timing of purchase. We will below elaborate in brief on these factors which determine air fare.
a)Availability: – This is one of the prime factors which determine airfare for a particular journey. Availability of space or seat on a flight is one of the biggest factors determining an airfare. In case a flight has limited seats available the airfare for the same will be considerably high as compared to a flight which has ample space available. The airline’s inventory and space control department further divides every class of booking. Economy class is subdivided into different classes of booking which is termed as RBD or reservation and booking designator. An economy class may have several RBD’s for e.g.:- O, H, K, R and Y. “Y” by default is the highest RBD in Economy class. Anything above “Y” is classified as the premium economy or business or first depending upon the inventory. The space control department determines on the number of seats to be sold on a particular RBD. Suppose if an aircraft has 100 seats in economy class then RBD “O” will be allotted 20 seats, RBD “H “ will be allotted 20 seats, RBD “K” will be allotted 30 seats, RBD “R” will be allotted 25 seats and RBD “Y” would be allotted 5 seats. The First RBD will have the least fare and consequent RBD’s will have a higher fare. The airline sells air tickets in this sequence and hence when you purchase early there is a high percentage of getting a lower airfare. Hence when a flight remains unsold there would be high availability and lower airfare.
(TIP: – Airlines at times also sell promotional airfare which is sold way in advance to attract customers. Although these fares are extremely cheap but usually are completely non-refundable and changeable.)
b)Seasonality: – Seasonality can be termed as a specific time period when there is high or low demand for the air travel which spikes up the cost of airfare or reduces the cost of air ticket. Seasonality is determined by analysing the data from previous years and factoring the reasons for sudden increase or decrease in demand. Seasonality is divided as High season, Low season and Shoulder season.
High Season: – When the demand for air travel is higher than the average during a certain period of time then it is called as high season. A high season can be on account of weather or holiday or any other reason during which more people decide to travel. For e.g. :- Around Christmas and New year ticket prices can go high as a huge number of people visit their relatives or take vacations owing to which there is exponential demand for air travel which is pre determined by the airline and ticket costs are spiked up to gain more profits during such periods.
Low Season: – When the Demand for air travel is lower than average it can be termed as low season. During such period fewer numbers of passengers choose to travel hence there is a high possibility of inventory wastage (seats going vacant) and as such the airline tries to sell as much as possible by offering discounted prices or promotional fares to lure more travellers.
Shoulder season: – Period between high season and low season is termed as shoulder season.
Hence seasonality can be a detrimental factor for the airfare. An air ticket purchased for travel to New York in March can be comparatively cheap as compared with a ticket purchased for travel in the month of December.
c)Destination: – The destination one travels to is also one of the major factors which determines the airfare. Airfare for a certain destination can be considerably high when there is less competition and flights to the destination are dominated by one or two airlines. As such the airline will have a monopoly over the sector and can charge a premium on flights. For e.g:- there are very few flights which operate to remote island destinations and fare for even a short distance of travel can be considerably high. Similarly, the fare for certain sectors can be considerably high as compared to others. Like fare for New York to Houston will be always on the higher side compared to fare from New York to Austin. The airfare can also vary upon airport chosen, airfare for the main international airport can be high compared to a nearby domestic airport within the same city this is due to airport taxes and parking charges which are levied upon an airline which add up to the airfare. For e.g.: -Travelling to Houston hobby airport instead of Houston bush can save you on the airfare or taking a flight to La Guardia instead of JFK.
d)Competition: – Cutthroat competition amongst airlines to gain an edge over each other in the market can result in less airfare. When a certain sector is dominated by multiple airlines the airfare can go down as the airlines would resort to various tactics to induce more customers while trying to build a customer base over a period of time. This would result in lower airfare for travellers. For e.g.:- Airfare for frequently flown sectors like Chicago to New York can be cheap as compared to a ticket to Buffalo although New York and Buffalo are in the same state.
e)Taxes: – Airport taxes, Fuel taxes and various government taxes also add up to your airfare which also at times plays a dominant role in determining an airfare. Especially when it comes to international air tickets taxes play a huge role. There are certain governments which provide subsidies for an airline which may cut down the cost for the particular airline which reduces its airfare. Many of the middle eastern airlines are government owned and enjoy the benefits of less taxation which reduces the cost and leaving more room for profit. For e.g.:- Major component of Airfare in domestic market constitute of taxes which have to be remitted to various government departments.
f)Route: – The route or itinerary chosen can be one of the biggest factors in determining the cost of the ticket. At times taking a flight with a stopover can save you as much as half the cost of the ticket as compared to a nonstop flight. This may not apply at times to shorter routes but for longer routes or international routes, this can be a detrimental factor.
g)The timing of purchase: – When you purchase your flight ticket most definitely affects the cost of the airfare. Logically earlier you buy there are very high chances you get a lower airfare. A ticket purchased just a day before or a couple of hours before your departure can prove to be a costly affair. If you have firm travel dates it is advisable to purchase tickets at least 3 months in advance. All airlines publish fares which are called advanced purchase fares, tickets on these fares have to be purchased before the designated time period to avail these fares. For e.g.:- United issues a published fare with advance purchase of 45days, which means the ticket has to purchased before 45days of departure to avail the fare. However please note such fares are very restrictive in nature and have very little or no room for flexibility.
(TIP: – There are certain excursion airfares which have minimum stay restriction or a maximum stay restriction. In case a airfare has a minimum stay restriction for three days it means the traveler can only avail this fare when the return date of travel is post 3 days. Similarly a fare also has a maximum stay restriction like 3 months which means the traveler can avail this airfare when his return date is within 3 months of the original travel date.)
Types of Air Fare: – Apart from fares which are issued to all people, in general, an Airline also issues different kinds of airfares catering to the special requirements of all kinds of passengers like students, seamen, corporate, etc. These fares serve varying needs of passengers and have certain benefits and restrictions. Below we will discuss in brief on various kinds of airfares.
Published Fare: – This is the most common form of airfare. A published airfare is a fare which is issued to all public and is not limited only to a special group of travellers. This type of airfare is the most common form of airfare which can be offered by both agent and airline. Published fares are subject to rules and regulations which are common for all travellers.
Private fare or Agency private fare: – Private fare is a fare which is private in nature and selling this type of fare is limited to the agency to which such a fare has been provided. Due to high sales volumes generated by a particular agency the airline may decide to provide them a private fare. This type of fare may be offered at a slight discount to the agent or with special conditions such as free cancellations, changes, etc. This helps the agent to gain an edge over its competition in the market and increase its sales volume. The travel agent may decide to keep the entire discount for himself and sell the ticket on the market value of the fare increasing its profitability or the agent may sell the tickets offering a slight discount to its customers and luring more customers in the bargain. Agency private fares are not offered to all the travel agencies and are limited mostly to big agencies with huge sales volume. The discount offered by the airline is upfront and can range from 2 to 30 per cent depending upon class off booking. Earlier this type of airfares was not uploaded on the GDS and had to be built manually by the travel agent as per fare data provided by the airline but nowadays these type of airfares are uploaded on GDS systems as well. Although private fare has sales restrictions and can be sold by certain travel agencies only but like published fare it can be used for anyone. Airlines do not sell these types of fares and hence cannot make any changes to the reservations which are made confirmed on private fares.
Corporate fare: – Corporate fare is the airfare which can be utilized by employees of a company who are on business travel. This type of airfare is offered to companies by an airline to increase its sales volume. Since business travel segment forms the majority of the passenger volume, the airline offers attractive corporate fares to companies trying to lure more travellers to use their airline over competing airlines. Apart from the discount in fares corporate airfares also offer additional benefits like free cancellations and changes, extra baggage allowance and at times free meals on board. Airline sales managers keep a keen eye on corporate companies and try to attract more travellers from an organization by offering corporate fares. A big corporation has a designated travel management company or a travel agent who usually arranges for all travel. The airline enters into a contract with the company directly instead of the agent however since the agent ultimately has to sell the tickets hence the fares are uploaded on the agents GDS through which the agent can pull up these fares by using a special command for the particular corporate. These type of fares are limited to employees of a particular corporation only and can be only utilized for companies business travel only.
Military fares:– An airline offers special discounts to military personnel. These types of fares are offered at a slight discount to the published fare. This type of fares can be sold by both the airline and the travel agent. The agent making a reservation has to price the reservation using a special command which puts in a designator in the fare specifying the fare was offered to military personnel. This type of fare has the same rules and regulations as a regularly published fare. Click on below link which will redirect you to one of the websites which focuses on military airfares.Click Here.
Student Fares: – This type of fare is offered to students visiting foreign countries to study abroad. The student fare is not offered by all airlines and may or may not offer a discount, however, a student fare allows excess baggage allowance which proves to be useful for a travelling student since the student traveller may have more baggage than a normal traveller. This type of fare is sold by both agent and the airline.
Seamen Fares: – A seamen fare is offered to seamen travellers who would be joining a ship or a vessel. This type of fare may be slightly expensive than the normal airfare but does offer benefits like extra baggage allowance (40kgs of cabin baggage) and free cancellations. Seamen fares are designed considering the uncertainty of the nature of travel and as such this type of fare offers free cancellations, changes and extra baggage allowance. The traveller utilizing this type of fare should have a CDC or a seamen’s book with him while travelling. This type of fare can be utilized only when the traveller would be joining a ship. An agent has to update details such as vessel number in the Special service request informing the airlines which ship the traveller would be joining. Seamen fare can be sold by both agent and the airline but there are special travel management companies who deal primarily with this type of travellers.
Offshore fare: – A Offshore fare is offered to passengers of an offshore oil drilling company. This type of fare is similar to seamen fare offering more baggage allowance and less restriction on cancellations and changes.
MCO: – MCO stands for miscellaneous charges and order.
MPD :- MPD stands for Multipurpose document. This is generally used by airline employees and travel agents when a fee needs to be collected which cannot be added to the main ticket cost. Nowadays Virtual MPD’s or EMD’s are issued instead of MPD’s.This type of document is generally issued for collecting excess baggage fees, reissue charges for certain airlines or a ancillary service,etc.
NUC: – NUC stands for Neutral unit of Construction. It is a unit created by IATA to facilitate fare construction so there would be uniformity in the rate used for deciding a airfare. US dollar is the universal currency and is considered as NUC while constructing a airfare.
No Show :- When a traveler /passenger fails to board the flight or does not cancel the reservation before designated time of boarding the flight it is termed as no-show. For eg :- Gates for all domestic flights close 30min prior to departure and if the passenger fails to reach the gate 30min prior to boarding he would be considered as no-show by the airline. In this scenario the passenger won’t be allowed to board the particular flight. As per normal fare rules most economy class airfares are non refundable in case of no-show and the passenger won’t get any refund in this case. Since its a revenue loss for the airline as the traveller did not reach in time and the airline would be unable to sell that particular seat. In case the passenger is able to cancel the reservation well before time (2-4hrs in case of most airlines) a refund will be processed for him after deducting the requisite cancellation charges and the airline is also able to resale the same space to another passenger. The no-show charges vary from airline to airline the class of service booked, etc.
(TIP: – If a traveler expects he would be possibly get delayed or late it would be ideal to cancel a reservation rather than letting it go as no show.)
Open Ticket: – A ticket which is open dated is called as a open ticket. This type of ticket is not permitted anymore and cannot be issued. This type of ticket used to offer complete flexibility to the traveler where the traveler can choose to travel on his desired travel date on the particular airline which has issued the ticket. This ticket usually used to be expensive as they had to be issued on full fare economy fares published by IATA.
(TIP :- Though Open tickets have been abolished a person can have a choice of travelling on any date if he chooses a fully refundable fare which offers complete flexibility however this is always subject to availability of space on the flight. A traveler can ask for full fare economy class fare which is fully refundable in case of cancellations or no show. However the traveler has to specify a date at the time of booking. This type of ticket is valid for 1 year from the date of issuance. However before making a reservation one must make sure of no show clause as some airline do allow cancellations but do not permit no show.)
OTB :- OTB stands for Ok to Board. A OK to Board is a documentation process which all travelers from Indian subcontinent travelling to the middle eastern countries like UAE, Qatar,etc have to comply with. A copy of the visa and passport has to sent to the airlines who verify that the traveler has a valid visa and is ok to travel to the country. If the traveler does not comply with this regulation the airline can deny the passenger to board the plane even if the passenger has valid ticket, passport and visa. An OK to board has to be submitted at least 24 hours prior to departure and one has to see that the same is acknowledged.
.Overbooking: – Overbooking can be described as a condition when the airline miscalculates and books more passengers then the number of seats that are available. The airline space control team anticipates that certain number of reservations would be cancelled and hence to maximize profits a airline may overbook a flight. The space control check for the trends and analyses the data from previous years during the same time and also considers various current situations and comes to a conclusion as how to sell the flight to its maximum capacity. However there are chances wherein there may be a miscalculation. During such a situation the airline provides a free ticket on the next flight to the same destination and may also compensate in kind by upgrading or providing redeemable vouchers, lounge access, etc. This is a rarity and very few situations like this arise.
PAX: – A passenger in airline industry is known as a PAX.
Phonetic Alphabet: – Airline staff and travel agents use this method for clear communication over the phone. As per this method every alphabet is recognized by a word which makes it clear for the listener avoiding any mistakes which may occur due to varying accents and pronunciations. Especially for international travel it is compulsory that the name on the reservation has to be as per passport. Below we have listed all Phonetic Alphabets as per international standards.
ALPHA
BRAVO
CHARLIE
DELTA
ECHO
FOX-TROT
GOLF
HOTEL
INDIA
JULIET
KILO
LIMA
MIKE
NOVEMBER
OSCAR
PAPA
QUEBEC
ROMEO
SIERRA
TANGO
UNIFORM
VICTOR
WHISKEY
X-RAY
YANKEE
ZULU
( TIP :- The airline employees use Phonetic alphabets for spelling out a name or a PNR for e.g. :- Suppose Name of a traveller is John Adams which would be spelt by a airline staff as J as in Juliet, O as in Oscar, H is in Hotel, N is November. Last name A as in Alpha, D as in Delta, A as in Alpha again, M as in Mike, S as in Sierra. Similarly if a PNR for a reservation is 5QJ3TM would be spelt as Number 5, Q as in Quebec, J as in Juliet, Number 3, T as in Tango and M as in Mike)
PNR: – PNR stands for passenger name and reservation. A PNR is a booking file made on the CRS which contains all details of the traveler like name, phone number, email address, itinerary, ticket number, frequent flyer number and record locator or reservation code. A PNR is a 6 digit or a 5 digit alpha numeric code generated by the reservation system which acts as a reference for all the information stored in the reservation system. Once all the information is fed into the system the system makes a tentative booking and provides the PNR number. This reservation is not confirmed until and unless a ticket has been issued for the reservation. Till a ticket is issued the reservation is only on hold and not confirmed. The reservation systems nowadays are also connected to the airline website through which a passenger can have access to a particular reservation and can make requisite changes as and when required.
Illustration
(TIP :- The Basic elements for creating a PNR are Phone field ,Reference field or received from (who has asked to make the reservation), Itinerary, Name Field and Ticketing time limit (as to when the reservation will be ticketed).All these 5 Elements “PRINT” together make a PNR.)
Revalidation: – Revalidation can be termed as validating the ticket by the airline for re-usage. A revalidation may take place due to voluntary or involuntary reasons. The airline revalidates a ticket when due to certain reason a flight has been cancelled or delayed and the traveller is shifted to another flight on same day or next day. In such a situation the airline simply revalidates the ticket as per new itinerary instead of reissuing the ticket. Earlier the airline used to apply a sticker on the paper ticket as form of revalidation however now one can revalidate the ticket on GDS itself. A travel agent is also permitted to revalidate a ticket which has been issued by the same travel agency. The major difference between a reissue and revalidation is that there can be no alteration to origin point, destination, stopover points or fare. If a change is required due to change in destination then one has to reissue a ticket instead of revalidating the same. Please note very few airlines allow revalidating of a ticket depending upon fare, class of travel, etc.
Waitlist: – When a reservation is not confirmed due to non availability and is on standby list it is termed as a Waitlist reservation. This type of reservation is not confirmed but can possibly be confirmed in case a availability opens up upon cancellation of other reservation on the same flight. Airlines allow waitlist reservations free of cost and do not charge a cancellation fee for cancelling a waitlist reservation.
(TIP: – Adding a frequent flyer number to a waitlist reservation can help in confirming a reservation. If the traveller is a frequent flyer with a airline the airline would provide preference to such travellers.)