What I Need to
Know
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, the learner is expected to:
1. differentiate reservation and confirmation;
2. do some flight reservations; and
3. encode the necessary information needed for confirmation.
What is It
Reservations and Confirmations
Advance request for available space and services at some time in
the future are reservations. It is also an arrangement to secure
accommodations, as in a restaurant or on a plane. A confirmation is
a written advice by a travel agency that a reservation has been
accepted and will be honored, thus, the term “confirmed
reservations”. It is also the written acknowledgment provided by a
broker indicating that a trade has been completed. This includes
details such as the date, price, commission, fees and settlement
terms of the trade.
Reservations may be done through a variety of methodologies, but
basically, by using any of the three methods: 1) manual
reservations; 2) electronic reservations; and 3) automated
reservations. The information relayed per method varies but is
basically the same.
Flight Reservations
1. Manual Reservations – refers to direct contact with the supplier’s
staff by mobile or regular phone. (see appendices for illustration)
Manual reservations are the traditional way of placing reservations
before the advent of e-commerce and the internet.
This method involves direct contact with the supplier’s staff by
mobile or regular phone.
It is highly personal and fosters client-intermediary and
intermediary-suppliers commercial relations.
Provide the following information when making manual
reservations:
i. Sector/leg required - sectors being traveled, point of origin to point
of destination.
ii. Date of travel – this refers to the dates the passenger(s) is/are
traveling.
iii. Flight number/class – this refers to the flight number and class.
iv. Passenger(s) name, and how many passenger/s (adults/children
with corresponding ages) or seat/s are being reserved.
2. Electronic Reservations – is done through the supplier’s email
address and interactive website that accepts reservations and
provide confirmations.
These were introduced by the use of email correspondence, and
these involved writing to the email address of the supplier and
receiving a reply from a department or individual.
This is less personal since there is no direct human contact.
Another way to place an electronic travel reservation is through an
interactive website where no human contact is involved.
Field or boxes in the screen are filled out with the necessary details
and the site either accepts or rejects the request.
Confirmations are provided for confirmed companies that do not
make electronic reservations as these are geared for consumers.
1. Automated reservations – is done through a global distribution
system wherein the supplier is a member that provides availability
of seats and accepts reservations.
This method provides the availability of a service first, allowing the
client to make a choice.
After the selection is made and inputted, the system provides
confirmations.
Amadeus Automated Reservation System
Amadeus air provides airline schedules for more than 780 airlines ad
available information for flights that have seat available for sale on
more than 460 airlines. The Amadeus system stores over 500,000
city pairs and 3.9 million routings worldwide, offering a wide range
of direct flights and over 6 million connecting flight options.
1. Availability of all flights are displays with at least one seat available for
sale or waitlist for all airlines, which have sales agreement with
Amadeus. Each time availability is displayed, the flights are sorted
following the hierarchy shown below:
Flight Type Definition
Non-stop A flight that operates between two cities
and does not make any stops.
Direct An online flight that operates between two
cities and makes a stop in one or
more cities en route.
Connecting A flight that operates between two cities
and makes a change online or
interline in one or more cities en
route.
Change of An online flight that operates between two
Equipment/ cities with a change of aircraft at an
Gauge international city.
Flight Hierarchy Display
2. City Pair Availability. To display a neutral availability display, enter:
AN19SEPMNLBKK
AN Transaction command for neutral availability
19SEP Date, DDMMM
MNLBKK City pair
3. Dual-City Pair Availability. You can request two availability display in
one entry:
AN23SEPMNLHKG826SEPHKGSIN
AN Transaction command for neutral availability
23SEP Date, DDMMM
MNLHKG Fist city pair for the outbound flight
* Separator (mandatory)
26SEP Date, DDMMM
HKGSIN Second city pair for inbound or onward flight
4. Schedule display contains flights that submit schedule dates to
Amadeus irrespective of the availability status of their flights.
5. Timetable display contains flights of all airlines between a specific city
pair for a one-week period. The display shows you the frequency of
flights between two airports and indicates which airlines operate on
a particular day of the week. The display contains flights of airlines
that participate in Amadeus. To request for a neutral timetable
display, enter:
TN12AUGMNLSIN
TN Transaction command for neutral code
12AUG Date, DDMMM
MNLSIN City pair
6. Flight Information on the operation of a specific flight and date as
provided by the respective airlines. There are two ways of checking
the flight information:
Using a follow-up entry form and availability display
DO1
DO Transaction command for flight information
1 Flight line number form an available display
By displaying the flight number and date:
DOCX751/10AUG/HKGBOM
DO Transaction command for flight information
CX751 Flight Number
/10AUG Slash and date, DDMMM
/HKGBOM slash origin and destination airport/city codes
7. Airline access levels – Amadeus offers airline campanies several types
of access for availability and schedule display, and for booking
seats. Some of the inclusions here are the following: full Amadeus
access, Amadeus access sells, and Amadeus direct sales.
8. Amadeus passenger name record (PNR) mandatory elements.
A PNR contains the details of a passenger’s reservations and other
information related to a passenger’s trip.
PNR’s can also contain information to assist airline personnel with a
passenger handling.
Addition
9. Segment
Title Explanations al
element can
Info
be a flight,
hotel, car, or
cuisine MR or MS 12 years or older
element. A PNR
can contain up
to 99 MSTR or MIST 2 up to 11 years CHD
segments.
INF I month to 23 INF
months old
Acceptable titles in name element
10. Name Element – a passenger name consists of the family name, given
name, and title. You can enter up to nine names in the PNR. A name
can contain up to 60 characters. When creating a name element for
an infant, you must include the passenger type, and the infant must
be associated to an adult name. (Note: some airlines may require
specific titles. Check with the airline company.)
Entry Requests
Here are some of the NM2REYES/HANS More than one
examples of MR/HEIDI MS passenger
different with the same
possible name family name
element
entries:
NM1BRADLEY/MICHAEL Child name
MSTR(CHD)
NM1TAN/SUSAN Infant associated
MS(INF/LISAMARI with an adult
E) with the name
The system
family name
automatically:
*no spaces inside
1. numbers that
the
name element.
parentheses
2. places the
name in
alphabetical NM1LIM/JANET Infant associated to
order by family MS(INFVALDEZ/IR an adult with a
name, ENE) different
regardless of family name
how you
entered them.
NM1GOMEZ/ARTHUR Child name with
MSTR(CHD) passenger ID
(IDRTT124) code
3. creates an OSI element when entering a child or infant’s name.
11. Contact element – used to store contact information of a travel agency
and their passengers in the PNR.
12. Received from Element – identifies the person making or modifying a
reservation. During the PNR creation, the received from the element
is displayed as the second line in the PNR.
13. Ticketing element – indicates the type of ticketing arrangement made
to provide tickets to a passenger.
14. End Transaction – when you have entered the five mandatory
elements, SMART, you must end the transaction to file the record in
the system.
Other Reservations
The three methods of making flight reservations are also applicable
to reservations made for other supplier of travel services, although
the required information differs. Here are some of the other
reservations that your clients may avail:
1. Accommodation establishments. When placing manual reservations
with hotel, resorts or any other lodging establishment, for lodging
and board, the following information must be provided:
Passenger name number
Inclusive dates
Room breakdowns
ETD / ETA information
Meal required
Special functions/activities (if any)
Form of payment
If reservations are not available, present the booking and the other
accommodations establishments of similar category in the locality;
change the dates only with the client’s consent.