GLOSSARY March 24, 2014

Transcription

1 GLOSSARY March 24, 2014

2 TABLE OF CONTENTS A... 3 B... 4 C... 5 D... 6 E... 7 F... 8 G... 9 H... 9 I K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Page 2

3 A Advance Purchase This refers to how far in advance of travel a traveler purchased a ticket. If a traveler purchased a ticket on March 1 and travel on his first segment initiates March 8, then the advance purchase is calculated by taking March 8 and subtracting March 1 equaling 7 days in advance. Air Leg The path between the departure and destination cities for a traveler. ex: DFW-ATL-JFK Air Segment The path between 2 places where an aircraft takes off and lands (i.e. between 2 airports). ex: DFW-ATL Aircraft code Abbreviated code given to each type of aircraft. Each aircraft has a different seat configuration. Airline Code Unique 2 letter code given to each airline. Example: DL is the code for Delta Airport/City Code Unique 3 letter code that denotes a specific airport or city. Example: NYC is the city code for New York City, but New York has 3 airports. LGA is the airport code for LaGuardia, JFK for JFK airport, and EWR for Newark airport, all of which are considered airports in New York City. ARC Airline Reporting Corporation - An organization created by a consortia of all scheduled airlines. ARC issues ticket stock, handles ticket monies, maintains records for all tickets issued, and pays commissions against tickets issued. ARC also collects monies due to the industry from travel retailers. BSP is the term used in Europe that is the equivalent of ARC. ARC Report A report sent to the Airline Reporting Corporation each week. The report is a list of every ticket issued in a travel agency. It also lists the amount and invoice number for each ticket as well as any refunds or voids. ATP or Average Ticket Price This is derived by taking the Fare Paid and dividing it by the number of tickets. Page 3

4 B Back Office Back office normally refers to the system used by each companies ARC department. All ticket data is transferred to this system in order to run the weekly ARC report. Baggage Allowance The number of pieces of luggage (or total weight of luggage), permitted by the airline. Base Fare An airline fare that does not include taxes, security fees, or other airline fees. Batch To submit a job in batch or use batch processing is to use a mode of computer operation in which the computer reads a file and serially executes the commands without any interaction with a user. This is a very efficient way to use computer resources at off-peak times, but only if user intervention is not required to handle unexpected results. Blackout Dates Certain dates or periods when travel on specific discounted fares is not permitted (i.e., heavily traveled holidays). Boarding Pass This is a card (that looks like a ticket) or form given to passengers indicating their seat assignment on a flight. Booking A booking is a reservation. It can also refer to the confirmation of airline, car, and/or hotel reservations. Booking Code This is a code that indicates the class of service on a flight. It is usually one or two alpha digits. BSP (Business Settlement Plan) This is a clearing house for airlines that belong to this entity. All airline documents are issued and must be accounted for via this entity. In the US, this entity is referred to as ARC (Airline Reporting Corporation), but BSP is the more global term. All the major carriers belong to ARC. Examples of these airlines include: American, Delta, Continental, USAir, etc.). Branch Code Unique client identifier within a GDS. Page 4

5 C Carrier Code A two letter code for the airline that has been booked for a specific segment of a flight. CD Number This is a Corporate Discount number. This number (alpha numeric code specific to each company and/or fare) has to be input to the traveler s reservation when it is booked so they will get their company s discount rate on an airline ticket, hotel room, or car reservation. Circle Trip An itinerary which allows a customer to originate in one city then continues to two or more other cities (for more than just stopovers) and returns to the originating city. City Pair A city pair is two cities that consist of an origin city and a destination city within an itinerary; the airport codes or names for the departure and the arrival airports. City/Airport Code The unique 3 letter code that denotes a specific airport or city (for more detail, see Airport Code). Class of Service This is the category type for which the traveler has been booked. Typically people think of this as Economy/coach, Business, or First class. Letters, which are derived from the fare basis, can be used to represent these various categories. Coach Cabin Non-first or business class section of a plane. Coach Class A class of service in the coach cabin. Also referred to as economy class. Code Sharing An agreement between two airlines allowing the first carrier to use the airline designation code on a flight operated by the second carrier, and vice versa. (A system in which smaller airlines use the codes of a major airline in flight schedule listings.) Commuter Flight A propeller or small jet aircraft used in a route where there is a low passenger demand. Confirmation Certification that the passenger is holding a seat, car, room, or other travel space. A confirmation number is usually returned to the passengers PNR. Confirmation Number A number/code given when a passenger s seat, car, room, or other travel space are confirmed in the GDS or the vendor s computer system. Connection A flight requiring a change of plane in transit between 2 cities. Page 5

6 Consolidator A travel agency which buys flights in bulk at discounted fares and resells them to other travel agencies at a marked up price. These are non-published fares; individual consolidators have to be called to get their quote on a cost and the conditions of the fares they have available for resale Corporate Rate A special discounted rate offered to business clients. Coupon The part of an airline ticket that is surrendered by the passenger to the airline for service. CRS (Computer Reservations System) This is a computer program that allows travel agents to access information, check availability, book, and issue tickets for flights, cars, hotels, rail, and cruise. This system allows travel agents to search for the best itineraries and lowest fares quickly and efficiently. (Also called GDS) D Destination City Termination point of a segment of travel but not necessarily the final destination of the traveler. If a traveler is, for example, flying from Atlanta, connecting through Dallas to ultimately arrive at San Francisco then this routing would have two destination cities: Dallas and San Francisco. Direct Flight A flight that makes an intermediate stop between the originating city and the destination city without a change of planes. There will be only 1 flight number. Discount Fare A dollar amount off the base ticket amount or a percentage off. DK / Client Code A subset of the Branch Code; unique account code. Domain The last part of an Internet address (i.e.,.com,.org,.net). Domestic A segment or ticket is considered domestic if the cities traveled to/from within the ticket (or segments) are within the country of the company that sends the data. Domestic Airline Airline carrier providing service within its own country. Double Booking The practice of confirming two or more reservations for the same trip when only one will be used. Double Occupancy A hotel rate for two persons sharing the same room. Drop-Off Charges Fees added when a vehicle is not returned to the original renting location. Page 6

7 E Encryption Encoded data for security uses. E-Ticket This is an electronic ticket. It is paperless. The passenger will not receive a tangible ticket, but rather a ticket number within their reservation. ETR (Electronic Ticketing Record) This is a separate record that is kept in the GDS for each electronic ticket. This term may be used when someone prints out the paper coupons. Exception Codes Code entered into a PNR by the booking or ticketing agent that will identify what type of fare a traveler selected. Codes are specific to each company and normally denote whether a fare is within policy or not. If the fare was out of policy, this code can provide further explanation as to why the traveler selected the fare they chose. Exchange An exchange is when one ticket is used as partial (or full) payment toward the purchase of another ticket. Expense (Hotel) Calculation that equals the rate per night multiplied by the room nights (number of rooms x number of nights). Page 7

8 F Fares (Air Fares) The price of a flight quoted by an airline. Fare Basis This is an airline driven code used to identify inventory on a given flight. It is an alpha numeric code with more than one digit. Fare Basis Code The alpha/alpha numeric code assigned to a specific fare as an identification so the GDS/CRS knows what fare to apply to a booked itinerary (flights). Fare Paid (or Ticket Amount) This is the amount paid for a transaction. When this is used in reference to air/rail transaction, this amount is inclusive of fees and taxes. Field The physical unit of data in a record. File Any collection of data treated as a single unit. Fire Wall Security barrier on the Internet. Flight A flight is one segment of an air itinerary. Format The arrangement by which data are store or displayed. FTP (File Transfer Protocol) A semi-private method by which to download software using the Internet as a vehicle to access the file. Page 8

9 G Gateway An interface from a company s network to the GDS. GDS (Global Distribution System) This is a computer program that allows travel agents to access information, check availability, book, and issue tickets for flights, cars, hotels, rail, and cruise. This system allows travel agents to search for the best itineraries and lowest fares quickly and efficiently. (See also CRS) Guarantee Hotel Using the traveler s credit card, the hotel guarantees that you will have a room if you arrive after a certain time. If you do not guarantee the room, the hotel has the right to give your reserved room to another traveler if you do not arrive by that time. In addition, if you do not cancel your reservation for the room, your credit card will be charged for the room. The arrival times and charges vary by hotel. H Help Desk A group of specialists responsible for answering questions, handling escalated calls and issues, and identifying training needs or system or procedural issues for an application, website, company, etc. Hotel Brand A collection of hotels with similar or targeted amenities that are usually traveler focused - business or leisure. In some cases the brand name is assigned in the property name. Ritz Carlton, Courtyard, Fairfield Inn, and Marriott Hotels are all brands of the Marriott International parent chain. Hotel Chain This identifies the chain to which a property belongs. For example, Marriott is the hotel chain for the hotel property Atlanta Marriott Marquis. Hotel Parent Chain Chains may belong to a larger Parent (or entity). For example, the Marriott, Fairfield and Courtyard chains all belong to the Parent, Marriott International. Hotel Property Name The actual name of the hotel. The hotel property name can be listed differently depending on the system you re booking/searching in. EXAMPLE: The Atlanta Marriott Marquis is the property name, the brand would be the Marriott Hotels, and the parent chain would be Marriott International. Page 9

10 I IATA Number (International Air Transport Association) Each agency is given an ARC assigned IATA number. The IATA number is used to designate what agency booked a reservation, and what agency issued a ticket. See: ID Number Individual Identification Number. In Terminal (Car) A car rental office located within the airport terminal. International A ticket is considered international if at least one of the cities in the itinerary or ticket is outside the country in which it was booked. Itinerary The travel information for a passenger giving the departure city, location, time, vendor name, arrival city, time and price for air, car, hotel, cruise, and/or rail. K None L Loss/Loss Amount This is a calculation that takes the Fare Paid for a ticket and subtracts the Low Fare that was entered manually by the travel agent at the time of the booking. This shows the client how much the passenger lost by not booking the lowest fare. Low Fare This is a lower fare that has been identified and offered to a traveler for that traveler's trip. Typically a company establishes specific guidelines that a lower fare must meet before it can be considered a viable alternative. This low fare is manually input by a travel agent. Low Season Time period when fares and/or passenger traffic is lowest. Lost Ticket Application (LTA) A form filled out by a customer or agency when the customer s airline ticket is lost. Page 10

11 M Market This is the origin and destination of a trip reflected alphabetically. MCO (Miscellaneous Charge Order) This is issued when standard ticket stock cannot be used. It is usually used for the residual value of a ticket. It is sometimes referred to as MPD (Miscellaneous Purchase Document). Meal Codes Unique codes used to identify meal service on an airline flight. B=Breakfast, J=Brunch, L=Lunch, D=Dinner, S=Snack MIDT A data file which contains booking transaction data for bookings that are made through the Global Distribution Systems (GDS). It contains valuable information on each booking such as point of sale, class of service, booking date and segment detail. Minimum Connecting Time A pre-established minimum amount of time that is required to connect to another flight in a particular airport. These times are designed to allow passengers to physically be able to catch their connecting flight, and for the airline to transfer the baggage to the connecting flight. Times vary by airport. There are different minimum connecting times for flights that start in another country to allow the passenger to go through customs. MIR line (Mini Interface Record) It is a GDS line of code linking the back office application to the front office systems. If the line of code is correct or valid, it allows transmittal of data. If it isn t valid, the information cannot be sent. N Negotiated Rate A special discounted rate available directly from a vendor, requiring special processing by a travel agent. Net Spend This includes amounts for all transaction types: tickets, refunds (full & partial) and exchanges. If you are summing the Net Spend then tickets/exchanges will have a debit amount and refunds will have a credit amount. Net Tickets This includes the number of tickets for all transaction types: tickets, refunds (full & partial) and exchanges. Typically reports use the True Ticket Count when providing Net Ticket count. True ticket count accounts for transactions in the following manner: Original Ticket (+1), Full Refund (-1). Partial Refund (0) and Exchange (0). Non BSP Some airlines do not utilize BSP/ARC. They operate independently and are not required to report through the Business Settlement Plan/Airline Reporting Corporation. Typically these are the low cost carriers such as Jet Blue and Southwest Airlines. Non-Refundable Money which cannot be refunded; usually used in reference to an airline ticket that cannot be refunded. Non-Stop Flight An airline flight made without a stop. No-Show A passenger not arriving for services and failing to cancel the reservation. Page 11

12 O Off Airport (Car) A car rental office located outside the airport, usually requiring a shuttle-bus. On Airport (Car) A car rental office located within the airport, but not necessarily in the terminal. Online Connection A flight that stops and requires a change of planes and is on the same airline carrier before arriving at the passenger s destination city. On-Time Percentage The percent the flight has been on time in the past. Example: 5=50% on time. Opaque Fare Discounted wholesale tickets that conceal the airline's identity and flight times until they are purchased. Open Jaw Trip Involves a total of 3 cities where transportation between one city pair is by means other than air. Most open-jaw trips have an origin city and 2 destination cities. Sometimes, a passenger will have one destination, but will return to a city other than the origin city. The non-air transportation leg is called a surface segment (ARNK). Origin City This is the initiation point of a segment of travel. Outbound The portion of the trip involved when leaving the origin city and going to the destination. P Parsing The process of taking unstructured GDS data (screen scraped) and turning it into a more machine readable (structured) format. Passenger Name Record (PNR) A passenger s reservation and all reservation information that was booked in a GDS. See also PNR. Peak Season High Season. Season when travel traffic is heavy or busy and rates are normally higher during this period. PED (Period Ending Date) The ARC week runs from Monday to Sunday at midnight. Sunday at midnight is the period ending date. Penalty (Fare) An amount charged by an airline if the passenger changes or cancels a restricted fare or reservation. Page 12

13 PNR (Passenger Name Record) A record of a customer s reservation in an airline system. A PNR is the computer s record of a reservation and is a storage area for all passenger names, flights, phone numbers, and other travel related information. Each PNR has 4 mandatory fields: Phone field- This field generally includes the agency s phone number, and the customer s home and or business and or cell phone numbers. Itinerary- This field includes any flight, rail, car, and/or hotel reservation. (Can also include a tour or a cruise.) Name- This would include all passenger names. The names are always entered as LAST/FIRST. One PNR can have multiple names. Ticketing- The information in this field changes based on the state the reservation is in. If the ticket is being purchased, the travel agent adds information to this field showing the date the ticket is supposed to be issued, and who will be doing the ticketing. Once the ticket is issued, this field reflects the date and time the ticket was issued, who issued the ticket, the ticket number, and the invoice number. Preferred Vendor A company s or traveler s favored air, car or hotel vendors. This normally refers to the favored vendors of each company and is supposed to be used over other vendors so they can increase their discount. Prepaid Ticket An authorization that permits issuance of a ticket at a point other than the point of payment. (PTA) Prepaid Ticket Advice (PTA) Airline form used when a person in one city wants to buy an airline ticket to be issued at the airport in another city. It can be issued in the same city if departure is within 24 hours. Promotion ID Identification number associated with a certain promotion. Promotions/Redemptions Special offer honored by certain airlines. Proof of Citizenship Documents such as a passport, birth certificate, or a voter registration card that certify citizenship. Proof of citizenship requirements vary per country. Pseudo City Code (PCC) The GDS identification number given to a specific travel agency. See SID. Q Queue Electronic file drawers where PNRs are placed for appropriate action. A folder or set of folders that contain messages that have been sorted by content, responder or subject line. Page 13

14 R Rack Rate The normal published rate without any discounts applied. Reason Code Code entered into a PNR by the booking or ticketing agent that will identify what type of fare a traveler selected. Codes are specific to each company and normally denote whether a fare is within policy or not. If the fare was out of policy, this code can provide further explanation as to why the traveler selected the fare they chose. Record A group of related fields storing data about a subject. This term is also used to refer to a PNR. Record Key This is a unique identifier in the database that uniquely identifies a transaction. It is created within the Agency or Credit Card ETL system. Record Locator An alpha-numeric code assigned to a passenger s reservation; usually 6 characters. Refund If a transaction or a part of a transaction is no longer required then, if the rules that apply to that transaction allow, the transaction can be returned for a credit. For example, if a traveler has booked a round trip flight between LaGuardia and Boston and no longer needs to make this trip, if the rules that apply to the fare used to book the ticket allow, then the ticket can be refunded and the traveler is credited all or part of the original fare. REN (Refund Exchange Notice) This is a form designed to simplify and support the processing of exchanges and refunds. Reservation See PNR. Room Nights This is a calculation that takes the number of rooms x number of nights. Run of the House (ROH) Receiving the best available rate on hotel room in a particular room category. Sometimes, ROH rooms are upgraded upon arrival at no additional charge. Page 14

15 S Segment A single part or portion of a trip; sometimes called leg. Each segment will be numbered based on its date. Segment Flight Time The amount of time it takes for the entire flight. It is the segment arrival time minus the Segment departure time. Segment Value This is the fare that is applied to specific segments of a complete trip. The segment value does not include taxes and fees (though the Fare Paid does). Not every segment has a value assigned to it, so a calculation is done to prorate the value based on segment mileage. Server A computer that distributes information or files automatically in response to specific requests. Service Date This is the departure date of the first segment of travel on a ticket Shoulder Season The season between the high and low seasons of rates or traffic. SID A unique security and identifying code in a GDS for each travel agency. See also Pseudo City Code (PCC). SSR (Special Services Request) A unique passenger request generated to the airline for items such Vegetarian meals, wheelchairs, and supplemental oxygen. An SSR usually requires an action by the airline. Stopover A planned interruption/stop of an airline trip. Surcharge An additional cost for a specific situation, such as traveling on a Friday or Sunday. T TAW Line Line of information in Worldspan (a GDS) where ticketing instructions can be verified. Ticketing Deadline The date which the airline requires the ticket to be printed/issued in order to guarantee the airfare. Time Window The time range acceptable for the flight departure. This normally is used to determine a company s policy. \ For example, you wish to travel at 8:00AM, but to find a flight to your destination; you may have to travel at 6:45AM or 9:10AM. In this case, you would have a time window of 2 hours, so the system would expand its search 2 hours before and 2 hours after the desired travel time. Page 15

16 U UATP (Universal Air Travel Plan) Also known as an Air Travel Card. An airline sponsored credit card for airline ticket purchases and accepted by many airlines. Card users do not benefit from protections of U.S. Consumer Credit Protection Act regarding billing disputes or claims against card issuers. UDID (User Defined Interface Data) Fields of the PNR used for customized information. The udid numbers and the data contained in the udid may vary per company. V Validating Carrier Code The 2 letter code for the airline that issues the airline ticket. For example, if an itinerary has 3 different airlines, the airline ticket has to be issued by one of those airlines. That airline will receive the money for the ticket. The criteria to determine which carrier is the validating carrier, is varied. Validating Carrier Name The name of the airline that issues the airline ticket. (See Validating Carrier Code) Value Season Season when traffic or rates are lower. Opposite of peak season; aka low season. Variable Cost A unit cost which depends on total volume. Visa A stamp or endorsement placed in a passport by a consulate allowing a person to enter a country for a period of time, and usually for a stated purpose. Void This is the term used for a document/ticket that has been issued and then, for various reasons, is canceled. The charge for the document/ticket is voided out of the system before it is reported to ARC/BSP. A void is different from a refund because a credit is not issued to offset the original debit as it is with a refund. W Wait List List established when there are no available airplane seats. Waitlisted passengers will be boarded if confirmed passengers do not use their assigned seats. X None Y Yield Management Airline pricing according to the expected revenue on a seat over a certain route. Page 16