ISSUE DOCUMENTS MANUAL ELECTRONIC & PAPER TICKETS Jul 07 2.4 DOCUMENT DISTRIBUTION TEMPLATE INFO 4G#ME INFO STOCK Each DA (work station) that is designated for issuing electronic tickets must be associated to a printer.
A ticket cover from Austrian Airlines, circa 1960s
A sample Northwest Airlines ticket
Air China's ticket for Domestic Service (from Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport to Kunming Wujiaba International Airport)
An airline ticket is a document or electronic record, issued by an airline or a travel agency, that confirms that an individual is entitled to a seat on a flight on an aircraft. The airline ticket may be one of two types: a paper ticket, which comprises coupons or vouchers; and an electronic ticket (commonly referred to as an e-ticket).
The ticket, in either form, is required to obtain a boarding pass during check-in at the airport. Then with the boarding pass and the attached ticket, the passenger is allowed to board the aircraft.
Details[edit]
Regardless of the type, all tickets contain the following information:[1]
- The passenger's name.
- The issuing airline.
- A ticket number, including the airline's 3 digit code[2] at the start of the number.
- The cities the ticket is valid for travel between.
- Flight that the ticket is valid for. (Unless the ticket is 'open')
- Baggage allowance. (Not always visible on a printout but recorded electronically for the airline)
- Fare. (Not always visible on a printout but recorded electronically for the airline)
- Taxes. (Not always visible on a printout but recorded electronically for the airline)
- The 'Fare Basis', an alpha or alpha-numeric code that identifies the fare.
- Restrictions on changes and refunds. (Not always shown in detail, but referred to).
- Dates that the ticket is valid for.
- 'Form of payment', i.e., details of how the ticket was paid for, which will in turn affect how it would be refunded.
- The Rate of Exchange used to calculate any international parts of the fare and tax.
- A 'Fare Construction' or 'Linear' showing the breakdown of the total fare.
Times on airline tickets are generally for the local time zone where the flight will be at that moment.
Issuing air ticket[edit]
A revenue passenger on an airline must hold a valid issued ticket. In order for a ticket to be issued, there are two distinct process:
- Reservation
A reservation for an itinerary is made in the airline system, either directly with the airline or by an agent. The itinerary includes all the above details needed for the issuance of an air ticket, except the ticket number.
When the reservation the made, a passenger name record (PNR) will be created which is used to manage the reservation and check in. It is possible to have multiple passengers in a single passenger name record.
- Issuance
Having a reservation itself does not entitle the passenger to travel. Only when the airline receives the payment or a passenger redeems miles/points, a ticket is issued which is linked to the reservation which allows the passenger to travel.
Traditionally, reservation and payment are separate steps, which the time between them are defined in the fare rules when the reservation is made. However, it has become more common to require immediate payment on online booking systems.
Each passenger must hold his/her own air ticket, as shown by an individual ticket number, even when the reservations are linked by a single PNR.
An itinerary where multiple passengers are in same reservation with a ticket number for each passenger
Replacement of paper tickets[edit]
A handwritten flight coupon for Biman Bangladesh Airlines
IATA announced that as of June 1, 2008, IATA-member airlines will no longer issue any paper tickets.[3]
A ticket is generally only good on the airline for which it was purchased. However, an airline can endorse the ticket, so that it may be accepted by other airlines, sometimes on standby basis or with a confirmed seat. Usually the ticket is for a specific flight. It is also possible to purchase an 'open' ticket, which allows travel on any flight between the destinations listed on the ticket. The cost for doing this is greater than a ticket for a specific flight. Some tickets are refundable. However, the lower cost tickets are usually not refundable and may carry many additional restrictions.
The carrier is represented by a standardized 2-letter code. In the example above, Thai Airways is TG. The departure and destination cities are represented by International Air Transport Association airport codes. In the example above, Munich is MUC and Bangkok is BKK. The International Air Transport Association is the standard setting organization.
Only one passenger can use a ticket. If multiple passengers are traveling together, the tickets are linked together by the same record locator or reservation number, which are assigned, if the tickets were purchased at the same time. If not, most airlines can cross-reference the tickets together in their reservation systems. This allows all members in a party to be processed in a group, allowing seat assignments to be together (if available at the time of the assignment)
Resale[edit]
When paper tickets were still frequently used, a practice existed by travellers to get rid of their tickets (which are person-specific), when they decided to alter the course of their trips. This practice consisted of selling the ticket to other travellers (often at discount prices), after which the seller accompanied the buyer at the time of departure to the airport. Here, the original owner checked in under his name and provided the airline with the buyer's baggage. After this, the buyer boarded the airplane at the moment of departure.[4] However, since most airlines check identification on boarding, this procedure is rarely functional.[citation needed] The practice of using another person's ticket is illegal in many jurisdictions.
See also[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^'Industry Bids Farewell to Paper Ticket' (Press release). International Air Transport Association. 31 May 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ^Airline and Airport Code Search
- ^'Industry Bids Farewell to Paper Ticket' (Press release). International Air Transport Association. 31 May 2008. Retrieved 17 October 2013.
- ^Timmerhuis, Frans (2007). Handboek Voor De Wereldreiziger (in Dutch). Rijswijk: Elmar. ISBN978-9038917597.
External links[edit]
- The dictionary definition of paper ticket at Wiktionary
- Media related to Air tickets at Wikimedia Commons
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Airline_ticket&oldid=927378535'
Airline reservation systems (ARS) are part of the so-called passenger service systems (PSS), which are applications supporting the direct contact with the passenger.
ARS eventually evolved into the computer reservations system (CRS). A computer reservation system is used for the reservations of a particular airline and interfaces with a global distribution system (GDS) which supports travel agencies and other distribution channels in making reservations for most major airlines in a single system.
Overview[edit]
Airline reservation systems incorporate airline schedules, fare tariffs, passenger reservations and ticket records. An airline's direct distribution works within their own reservation system, as well as pushing out information to the GDS. The second type of direct distribution channel are consumers who use the internet or mobile applications to make their own reservations. Travel agencies and other indirect distribution channels access the same GDS as those accessed by the airline reservation systems, and all messaging is transmitted by a standardized messaging system that functions on two types of messaging that transmit on SITA's high level network (HLN). These messaging types are called Type A [usually EDIFACT format] for real time interactive communication and Type B [TTY] for informational and booking type of messages. Message construction standards set by IATA and ICAO, are global, and apply to more than air transportation. Since airline reservation systems are business critical applications, and they are functionally quite complex, the operation of an in-house airline reservation system is relatively expensive.
Prior to deregulation, airlines owned their own reservation systems with travel agents subscribing to them. Today, the GDS are run by independent companies with airlines and travel agencies being major subscribers.
As of February 2009, there are only four major GDS providers in the market: Amadeus, Travelport (which operates the Apollo, Worldspan and Galileo systems), Sabre and Shares. There is one major Regional GDS, Abacus, serving the Asian market and a number of regional players serving single countries, including Travelsky (China), Infini and Axess (both Japan) and Topas (South Korea). Of these, Infini is hosted within the Sabre complex, Axess is in the process of moving into a partition within the Worldspan complex, and Topas agencies will be migrating into Amadeus.
Reservation systems may host 'ticket-less' airlines and 'hybrid' airlines that use e-ticketing in addition to ticket-less to accommodate code-shares and interlines.
In addition to these 'standardized' GDS, some airlines have proprietary versions which they use to run their flight operations. A few examples are Delta's OSS and Deltamatic systems and EDS SHARES. SITA Reservations remains the largest neutral multi-host airline reservations system, with over 100 airlines currently managing inventory.
Inventory management[edit]
In the airline industry, available seats are commonly referred to as inventory. The inventory of an airline is generally classified into service classes (e.g. first, business or economy class) and up to 26 booking classes, for which different prices and booking conditions apply. Inventory data is imported and maintained through a schedule distribution system over standardized interfaces. One of the core functions of inventory management is inventory control. Inventory control steers how many seats are available in the different booking classes, by opening and closing individual booking classes for sale. In combination with the fares and booking conditions stored in the Fare Quote System, the price for each sold seat is determined. In most cases, inventory control has a real time interface to an airline’s Yield management system to support a permanent optimization of the offered booking classes in response to changes in demand or pricing strategies of a competitor.
Availability display and reservation (PNR)[edit]
Users access an airline’s inventory through an availability display. It contains all offered flights for a particular city-pair with their available seats in the different booking classes. This display contains flights which are operated by the airline itself as well as code share flights which are operated in co-operation with another airline. If the city pair is not one on which the airline offers service, it may display a connection using its own flights or display the flights of other airlines. The availability of seats of other airlines is updated through standard industry interfaces. Depending on the type of co-operation, it supports access to the last seat (last seat availability) in real-time. Reservations for individual passengers or groups are stored in a so-called passenger name record (PNR). Among other data, the PNR contains personal information such as name, contact information or special services requests (SSRs) e.g. for a vegetarian meal, as well as the flights (segments) and issued tickets. Some reservation systems also allow to store customer data in profiles to avoid data re-entry each time a new reservation is made for a known passenger. In addition, most systems have interfaces to CRM systems or customer loyalty applications (aka frequent traveler systems). Before a flight departs, the so-called passenger name list (PNL) is handed over to the departure control system that is used to check-in passengers and baggage. Reservation data such as the number of booked passengers and special service requests is also transferred to flight operations systems, crew management and catering systems. Once a flight has departed, the reservation system is updated with a list of the checked-in passengers (e.g. passengers who had a reservation but did not check in (no shows) and passengers who checked in, but did not have a reservation (go shows)). Finally, data needed for revenue accounting and reporting is handed over to administrative systems.
Fare quote and ticketing[edit]
List of fares for travel on Delta Air Lines from San Francisco, CA to Boston, MA. Applicable booking classes, as well as specific restrictions such as minimum stay and advance purchase can be seen.
The Fares data store contains fare tariffs, rule sets, routing maps, class of service tables, and some tax information that construct the price – 'the fare'. Rules like booking conditions (e.g. minimum stay, advance purchase, etc.) are tailored differently between different city pairs or zones, and assigned a class of service corresponding to its appropriate inventory bucket. Inventory control can also be manipulated manually through the availability feeds, dynamically controlling how many seats are offered for a particular price by opening and closing particular classes.
The compiled set of fare conditions is called a fare basis code. There are two systems set up for the interchange of fares data — ATPCO and SITA, plus some system to system direct connects. This system distributes the fare tariffs and rule sets to all GDSs and other subscribers. Every airline employs staff who code air fare rules in accordance with yield management intent. There are also revenue managers who watch fares as they are filed into the public tariffs and make competitive recommendations. Inventory control is typically manipulated from here, using availability feeds to open and close classes of service.
The role of the ticketing complex is to issue and store electronic ticket records and the very small number of paper tickets that are still issued. Miscellaneous charges order (MCO) is still a paper document; IATA has working groups defining the replacement document the electronic multipurpose document (EMD) as at 2010. The electronic ticket information is stored in a database containing the data that historically was printed on a paper ticket including items such as the ticket number, the fare and tax components of the ticket price or exchange rate information. In the past, airlines issued paper tickets; since 2008, IATA has been supporting a resolution to move to 100% electronic ticketing. So far, the industry has not been able to comply due to various technological and international limitations. The industry is at 98% electronic ticket issuance today, although electronic processing for MCOs was not available in time for the IATA mandate.
Notable systems[edit]
Name | Description | Vendor |
---|---|---|
ACCELaero | PSS, reservations, DCS, inventory and e-commerce platform. | Information Systems Associates FZE |
AirCore | Passenger services system (PSS) of modular, open-platform, web applications that replace core legacy systems.[1] | Unisys |
Altéa Res | Integrated airline reservation system and global distribution system (GDS). | Amadeus IT Group |
Crane PAX | Web-based airline reservations and ticketing system. | Hitit Computer Services |
Navitaire New Skies Integrated Customer Centric Passenger Service System | Integrated reservations, departure control, inventory system and e-commerce platform. | Navitaire |
Radixx International | Hybrid travel distribution and PSS. | |
SabreSonic Customer Sales & Service | Integrated reservations, departure control, inventory system and e-commerce platform. | Sabre Airline Solutions |
SITA Horizon Customer Sales & Service | Integrated reservations, departure control, inventory system and e-commerce platform. | SITA |
Travel Technology Interactive Solutions | Integrated airline management system and global distribution system (GDS). | Travel Technology Interactive |
Videcom Reservations System (VRS) | GDS, IET, Codeshare. | Videcom international |
History[edit]
Agent set of the Magnetronic Reservisor system
Until the 1950s, airline reservations used manual systems at centralized reservation centers, which consisted of groups of people in a room with physical cards that represented inventory, in this case, seats on airplanes. In the late 1950s, American Airlines wanted a system that would allow real-time access to flight details in all of its offices, and the integration and automation of its booking and ticketing processes. It introduced an electronic reservations system, Magnetronic Reservisor, in 1952.[2] In 1964, it developed the Sabre (Semi-Automated Business Research Environment). Sabre's breakthrough was its ability to keep inventory correct in real time, accessible to agents around the world.[3]
The deregulation of the airline industry, in the Airline Deregulation Act, meant that airlines, which had previously operated under government-set fares ensuring airlines at least broke even, now needed to improve efficiency to compete in a free market. In this deregulated environment, the ARS and its descendants became vital to the travel industry.
See also[edit]
Further reading[edit]
- Winston, Clifford, 'The Evolution of the Airline Industry', Brookings Institution Press, 1995. ISBN0-8157-5843-X. Cf. p. 61–62, Computer Reservation Systems.
- Wardell, David J, 'Airline Reservation Systems', 1991. Research paper.
References[edit]
- ^http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/unisys-launches-suite-of-aircore-passenger-service-solutions-300453373.html
- ^'Magnetronic Reservisor'. American Airlines C.R. Smith Museum. Retrieved 3 August 2014.
The Magnetronic Reservisor, introduced in 1952, was the first electronic reservations system in the airline industry
- ^'How Sabre Changed Airline Reservations'. Scott's Cheap Flights. Retrieved July 24, 2017.[permanent dead link]
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