Understanding Amadeus PNR

In this lesson, we will learn what is a PNR and how to read or understand a PNR. We will also learn how to retrieve a PNR, ignore an existing PNR.

A PNR stands for Passenger name record it is also called as booking file. A PNR basically is a reservation for a passenger it can contain flight reservation, Hotel reservation, Rail Reservation, Car rental or any other form of reservation.  However, in this lesson, we will be explaining you on a PNR which has Air ticket reservation, This the most common form of reservation that is booked on any GDS. Before you create a PNR you must know how to read a PNR or how to understand a PNR.

A PNR basically consists of 5 main elements which can be abbreviated as PRINT – Phone, Received from, Itinerary, Name and  Ticketing Time limit. Besides these 5 mandatory elements, PNR also contains other information like ticket number if reservations are confirmed, Passengers seating information, Meal information and other supplementary information. Below is how a PNR looks like in Amadeus.

In the above image we have numbered all important elements so you can easily read the PNR. We will try to explain the details numbered.

1. O4C8DL – This is the Amadeus PNR, this is the reference number which will be used for retrieving the reservation on Amadeus we will explain in our next topic on how to retrieve a PNR. (please note this is an alphanumeric code and every PNR is unique. ) An Amadeus PNR can be retrieved only in agency PCC.
2.  AA/HDGZTE – This is the Airline PNR.  This is the Reference locator which you need to provide to the passenger. The Airline recognizes only this locator and cannot recognize the Amadeus PNR.
3. This is the Name of the traveller for whom the reservation is confirmed. The name as per airline/ systems rule is stored in reverse starting with last name first followed by first name and initial, Hence Smith/Brady Lavelle is displayed.
4.  This is the area where travellers contact number, Agency contact number, Email address are displayed. Other information such as ticketing time limit can also be seen here in this image you will see at TKOK 02JUL was the time limit for this PNR. Besides this other supplementary information such as meal requests, seat requests, travellers passport information etc is displayed in this area.
5.  This is the most important area where the Itinerary of the travel is displayed. In this case, an air travel itinerary between London Heathrow (LHR) to Dallas fort worth (DFW) is booked for 11th of July the AA stands for Airline code, in this case, its American airline hence AA. The flight will leave at 1100 hrs from London and will reach Dallas same day by 1500 hrs.
6.  This is where the ticket number can be seen. A ticket number is displayed only when a ticket is issued. This means that that travel is confirmed and paid for.
7. The TST line suggests that fare and pricing exist for this PNR, which can be displayed by TQT command.

These are some basics on how to read a PNR.  Whenever you see a PNR on Amadeus remember to look for information in these 7 areas highlighted.

Next, we will see how to Retrieve an existing PNR.

Now that you know what is a PNR and how does a PNR look like in Amadeus next we will learn how to retrieve a PNR. In the next lesson, you will learn how to create a PNR. But before creating you must know what is a PNR and how to retrieve a PNR.

There are a few ways how you can retrieve a PNR in Amadeus but we will be learning the most common ways of retrieving a PNR.

1. Using the PNR number or PNR Code – This is the most common way of retrieving the PNR. If you have noted the PNR number you can retrieve the same by below command.

RTLAU7RB

RT is the command to retrieve a PNR followed by the PNR number or code.

Now above is a method when you have the PNR or have noted the PNR. Suppose in case you do not know the PNR or have not noted the PNR still you do not need to worry as you can also retrieve a PNR by Last name. This is the second most common way of retrieving a PNR. But please remember the spelling of the last name should be correct or near about correct. Below is the command you will use to retrieve a PNR with the Last name.

RT/SMITH/J

In this command against “RT ” remains the same followed by “/” and last name of the traveller. Now if you remember the initial of the first name or first name itself it will be easier to locate the PNR.

If you see the above image you will notice when we enter RT/SMITH the system displays all PNRS which are ending with the Last name as Smith. You can choose the PNR on line number which you are looking to retrieve. In this case, we were trying to retrieve a PNR with last name Smith and the first name starting with J hence we retrieve PNR on line number 4 hence RT4.

Now, these are two common ways how you retrieve a PNR to check more commands to retrieve a PNR you can use the help pages.

Now the Final topic we will learn in this lesson is how to Ignore a PNR. So far we have learned what is a PNR and how to retrieve a PNR,  Now suppose you are in a PNR and suddenly need to check a PNR for some other traveller then in that case you need to ignore the PNR. To ignore a PNR or for ignoring any transaction in Amadeus the Command is very simple as below.

IG

This the most common commands that will be in use. This command helps to ignore a PNR or a command or a transaction that you are in.

Above is how you ignore a PNR, However, please remember do not enter this command when you are trying to save something to the PNR or while creating a PNR. When you ignore the PNR without saving all data will be ignored. Another command similar to ignore is ignored and retrieve command which is a combination of the above two commands which we learnt. The command to ignore and retrieve is as below.

IR

This command is used when an automatic change or update is done in the PNR by the airline or when you want to ignore the command but do not want to ignore the PNR.  When the airlines does a change to the booking file the system will actually prompt you to ignore and retrieve the PNR to view the updated PNR.

Below is an example where we required 3 seats but sold 1 but now want to ignore the transaction but want to remain active in the PNR.

Now if you notice the above image you will see there are 3 passengers in this PNR and we sold 1 seat only for the return flight which is not sufficient. Since this transaction could not be saved we decided to ignore and retrieve the PNR which ignored the incorrect seats sold which were not saved but did not throw us out of the pnr like IG command. In case some of you did not understand this concept at the moment you can revisit after going through the next lesson of how to create a PNR.