Since June 2008, all members of the International Air Transport Association issue exclusively electronic tickets. The first airlines to introduce them in Russia were SkyExpress and S7 Siberia. Today, almost all air carriers provide this service. When purchasing such a ticket, you should not be surprised to see a simple printed A4 sheet - Itinerary Receipt (itinerary receipt). But you can do without it during registration, just show your passport.
Basic encodings in an electronic air ticket
To correctly fill out an electronic ticket for a flight, you need to know the basic symbols. After detailed analysis In all columns, the decoding of the air ticket will become simple and clear. Let's look at the existing lines and fill them in order.
Name of passenger
Passenger personal data is always entered in Latin letters in accordance with the transliteration rules in force within the country of departure.
At the very end, an appeal to the passenger is written:
- MR/MRS – Mr./Mrs.
- MISS/MSTR – girl/boy no older than 12 years.
Flight route (From/To)
The departure location is written in Latin transcription on the highlighted colored field. Below is the arrival location. If there is not one airport, but several, then indicate the letter encoding. This can be obtained from your airline agency or airport manager.
Stopover indicator
When your layover between flights lasts more than a day (24 hours), the field will be blank or marked with the symbol “O” (yes). However, if the time is limited to 24 hours or less, then the code "X" (none) is indicated. The amount of airport taxes is reduced during a transit flight if you stay at the waiting point for less than 24 hours. Therefore, the airfare will be slightly lower.
Carrier
The field is filled with the symbol of the airlines you have selected. This is a two-letter code assigned only by the International Air Transport Association.
Flight number
Flight number on electronic ticket consists of an encoding of numbers and letters.
Booking class (Class)
There are 3 main comfort levels.
First grade
P – the most expensive, improved first class. The company provides all clients with satellite phones, personal television monitors, and places to sleep.
F – first class. Extended rates apply. No discounts available.
A – first class with discount .
The airline only provides a basic fare plan. But seasonal benefits are also possible to reduce the cost.
Business Class
J – improved business class. Passenger seats are noticeably roomier and more comfortable than in a simple business class cabin. Often offered computer games And big choice menu.
C – business class. Extended tariff rates, and the conditions are pleasant and comfortable. Fringe benefits are not provided.
D – business class with a discount. When choosing this air ticket, only basic services will be provided.
Economy class
K, S – fixed economy class fares. Any promotions are not available.
Y – Economy class with discount. Includes the cheapest air tickets with basic services, as well as a tourist route (MM), shuttle fare (EE and UU) and group fare (GG). The most common tariff plans with a complete limitation of quantity and validity period are marked as G.
For first and business class passengers there is individual approach and special treatment - a large selection of dishes on the menu, as well as any amount of alcohol. Additional benefit is check-in and boarding without a queue.
Departure date (Date)
When the date of your departure is determined in advance, it is indicated here. If there is no exact time, then the encoding is “Open”.
Time
Exact time departure of the flight is certainly recorded according to local calculations. And the arrival time is according to the local time of the final location. That is, the departure time from Novosibirsk will be Novosibirsk. And the time of arrival in Magadan is Magadan.
Booking status (Status)
The column indicates the number and status of your seat inside the cabin. There aren't many options.
- OK marking requires a specific location number;
- On a child ticket, passengers under two years of age and flying in the arms of an adult are not provided with a seat. The string uses the NS cipher;
- the RQ code is assigned to a location determined only at the time of registration.
Type of tariff (Fare basis)
Decoding an electronic air ticket in this line implies choosing a departure date when the purchased tariff plan provides the opportunity to fly on a day convenient for you.
- after the abbreviation NVB, that is, “not valid until,” the first date is filled in. Starting from there, you are allowed to fly;
- behind the NVA code, that is, " not valid after", indicates the period after which the flight is prohibited;
- an empty field allows you to use a plane ticket no later than one year from the date of issue;
- Economy class fares often do not allow changing the date of the selected flight. As a result, the period in the indicated column coincides with the line “flight date”.
Fare calculation
Methods for calculating the cost of all items of an air ticket are indicated. Letter codes indicated settlements and air carriers. Tariff price components are expressed in neutral customary units of measurement. A breakdown of airport tax amounts is also provided.
Fare
The estimated price of your tariff plan. Many states allow prices to be stated in US dollars. The Confidential plan selection is marked with "IT"/"Forfait" or an empty line.
Total
The entire amount of the fare plan and additional fees is given in the national currency of the country of the agency that issued the ticket. The column is not filled in when choosing a confidential tariff or is marked with the IT/Forfait code.
Fare equivalent (Equiv/Fare PD)
This line includes the price of the tariff plan in the currency of the location of the agency that issued the electronic ticket, provided different currencies departure and check-in points. That is, the air ticket is booked in Manchester for pounds sterling, and boarding is done from Lyon, where euros are used. The field contains the price in pounds sterling.
Tax
In the national currency of the place where the itinerary receipt was issued, a letter code is written and total cost airport fees and charges.
Form of payment (Form of paint)
There are three payment methods:
- Depositing cash into the cash register (cash);
- Transfer by bank transfer through a bank (Invoce or INV);
- Payment credit card(SS).
Origin/Destination
Enter the letter code of the departure city. The final place of arrival is indicated through the fraction.
Special column (Airline data)
The line is intended for entering special notes by the air carrier.
Booking number (PNR Code)
Enter a specific code of random numbers and Latin letters, obtained when making a reservation.
Endorsements/Restrictions
The field contains information about flight limits, as well as options for transferring a passenger to another airline. This includes all allowed adjustments that are not prohibited by the tariff you have chosen.
Issued in exchange for
When issuing a new air ticket, the individual number of the previous one is written down in the line. Often such adjustments are made when changing the return route.
When contacting the company manager, it is quite possible to reissue a ticket to a new departure location. And the difference in cost will be returned to you or you will pay extra. It depends on the distance to the new arrival point.
Additional (connected) ticket (Conjunction tickets)
For group shared flights, additional air ticket numbers are recorded here.
Additional endorsements/restrictions
If there is not enough space for some information in the “Restrictions” line, then this information is indicated here.
Tour code
The field contains a special marking record for special and confidential tariff plans.
Validator place
This is the mark of the airline, as well as its representatives who issued the ticket. Information about the date of discharge, agent reference, unique office code, abbreviated name and location of the air carrier, as well as the letter code of the airport terminal are entered.
Accepted symbols of additional services
Special additional symbols are used on electronic air tickets.
- Plate indicated\B – breakfast provided;
- Mark with crossed fork and knife\L – hot food available;
- Fork with knife\S\bun – only snacks are provided;
- X – hot meals are provided several times during the flight;
- The broadcast of a feature film is indicated by the symbols M and F.
Advantages of an electronic plane ticket
The most important advantage of an electronic ticket is its reliability. After all, it is almost impossible to either lose or falsify it, since all the information is stored in the air carrier’s database.
Availability of purchase plays an important role. You can issue an electronic ticket via the Internet and receive a receipt from the airline by email. Another option is to buy it at the office or at the airline ticket office. The cost will be lower than the usual paper version, and the time investment will be much less.
If you know all the positions and columns in the itinerary receipt, then checking the accuracy of filling out and deciphering the electronic plane ticket will not cause you any inconvenience and will help save time and money.
In contact with
A ticket is the main document that defines the relationship between the airline and the passenger. It necessarily includes several pages describing the conditions of transportation. From them, for example, it follows that the airline does not bear any responsibility for the timing of passenger transportation. Its task is to take you from one point to another, but when is another question.
"The carrier undertakes to take all measures within its power to transfer the passenger and baggage within a reasonable time. The times indicated in the schedule and other documents are not guaranteed and do not constitute integral part of this agreement. The carrier may, without warning, transfer the passenger to another carrier, replace the aircraft, change or cancel boarding at the points indicated on the ticket, if necessary. The schedule may be changed without warning the passenger. The carrier is not responsible for ensuring flight connections."
And this does not violate the conditions of transportation in accordance with the Warsaw Convention, which stipulates the conditions for international transportation by all airlines.
Thus, a situation may arise when, instead of the promised business class flight on a Boeing 747, you are sent economy class on a TU-154 plane a day late. Formally, the airline will fulfill its conditions to the passenger.
Of course, when such situations arise, the airline tries to make amends to passengers with the help of various bonuses or compensation - amount which are not specified on the ticket.
Form and contents of the ticket
In addition to the mentioned pages with the conditions of transportation, the ticket includes flight coupons, each of which is used for one of the flight segments. Usually, 2 or 4 coupon tickets are used for issuing transportation. When issuing an air ticket, all coupons are filled out at the same time, since back side have a copying layer of red color. After issuing an air ticket, two control coupons are immediately withdrawn by the agent, and only flight coupons remain in the ticket.
All coupons look the same, but the line related to a specific flight segment is highlighted in a different color.
The entire ticket is always filled out in Latin font (according to international rules), and there are always a lot of abbreviations in it. Let's see what all the abbreviations in the air ticket mean, which will help you correctly read the information indicated on the ticket.
1.Good for passage between points outlined.
Everything is very simple. The column “From” indicates the point of departure, and “to” indicates the point of arrival. If the flight consists of several segments, several points with a three-letter airport code will be indicated, for example:
Minsk (MSQ)-Frankfurt(FRA)-Milan(MXP)-Vienna(VIE)-Minsk(MSQ).
2.Carrier/Carrier.
This column indicates the international two-letter code of the airline.
For example: SU (Aeroflot) or LH (Lufthansa).
3.Flight/Flight.
This column does not need any comments; the flight number is indicated here, which, together with the airline code, is indicated on the board at the airport during check-in. However, you should know one more small detail, having bought a ticket for the Aeroflot flight Moscow-Paris, does not mean at all that you will fly on an Aeroflot plane. Many carriers agree with each other to operate a joint flight (“code sharing”). And in this case, when purchasing tickets at Aeroflot ticket offices, you will be given a flight number under the code SU on your ticket, and if you buy a ticket for the same flight in at the Air France ticket office, your flight will be indicated on your ticket under the code AF. And don’t be alarmed when on the airport board you see a flight number with the double code SU/AF. This means that this is a shared flight, and the airline code that comes first means that the flight is operated by an Aeroflot aircraft.
For a passenger, in principle, it should not make any difference who is actually carrying him: companies are trying to unify the service on board. However, “code sharing” is accompanied by some restrictions. If there are more tickets sold for a flight than there are seats on the plane (a quite common practice: this is called “overbooking”), then the company actually operating the flight will try to put “its” passengers on it first. The rest will wait for the next flight. And, as a rule, for those who are not boarded on a flight, the airline tries to pay for a hotel or compensate for the inconvenience in cash: everything is decided individually.
4.Class/Class.
This column does not indicate the service class, but the fare class. There are significantly more fare classes than service classes: tickets to two neighbors in economy class could be sold at different prices. It’s just that one passenger has the opportunity to easily exchange his ticket for other flight dates before the flight, and the other passenger is strictly bound to the departure dates, according to the purchased ticket.
Typically, an airplane has two or three classes of service: “first”, “business”, “economy”. Each company uses its own designations for fare classes; usually they use letters F,A,P, for "business" class of service use letters C,D,J, the remaining letters are used to designate "economy" class.
Class doesn't just matter on board an airplane. First and business class passengers have separate check-in counters at the airport, and passengers in these classes have the right to spend time before departure in a special lounge with free snacks and drinks.
5.Date/Date and Departure Time/Time.
The flight departure time is local. The departure time is not considered to be when the plane leaves the runway, but when it undocking from the ramp. However, this is not important for the passenger: what is important is the check-in and boarding end time. As a rule, the check-in end time is 40 minutes before the plane’s departure. But some airlines set their own standards, so when purchasing a ticket you should check the check-in closing time.
6.Status / Status.
The column indicates the status of the reservation. If it says OK, your seat is guaranteed. If at the time of payment there is no such confirmation, the abbreviation RQ appears in the column. In this case, the passenger may have to wait until check-in is completed to find out whether there is a seat left for him on board or not.
However, even the OK status does not always guarantee the absence of problems due to resale. Each airline strives to maximize the load on its flights and, if there is demand, they obviously sell 5% more tickets than seats in the aircraft cabin - based on passengers not showing up for the flight. If they come If all, then preference at check-in will be given to those who have passed check-in earlier and, of course, to passengers of expensive classes.
7.Type of tariff/Fare basis.
This column contains the alphanumeric code of the fare at which the air ticket was sold. Under the specified code there is a fare rule, which stipulates all the conditions for rebooking, returning the air ticket, and the application of discounts, if any. The agent who issued the ticket will always instruct you about all the rules for the purchased air ticket. You have a ticket.
But in the graphs " Not valid before" and "Not valid after"
the indicated dates will tell you whether you can change anything on your ticket using your flight coupons and until when.
8.Baggage allowance / Allow.
This column shows the free baggage allowance corresponding to the class of service: "first" class - 40 kg, "business" class - 30 kg, "economy" class - 20 kg. Hand luggage can be 5 kg, 8-10 kg, it all depends on airline rules. When purchasing an air ticket, ask your agent. And remember, you will be asked to pay extra for excess baggage at check-in.
9.Name of passenger.
An electronic ticket is issued, which is valid for boarding the aircraft. This is an A4 sheet, which contains information about the passenger himself and the details of the flight he has chosen. The data is presented in English with codes and numbers that may not be understandable to everyone.
If this is your first time flying on an airplane, then you just need to know the decoding of an electronic air ticket. If you don't know these things, you may have problems finding information about your flight time, terminal number and other important details.
Electronic ticket - general data
Decoding an electronic plane ticket
When you receive a ticket, it is immediately difficult to figure out where and what is indicated. Finding the flight number on an electronic ticket or its arrival and departure times is very difficult. Below in the photo you can see an example of a ticket. All important data is on it marked with blue numbers.
E-ticket.
Information about your last name and first name is indicated number one. They are indicated with Latin letters. When flying abroad, check that their spelling coincided with how they are indicated in your passport. If they are not the same, then you may not be allowed on board the plane.
At number two you will find the name of the company you purchased the ticket from. Number three- the organization that sold you the ticket with its geographical location is indicated.
Number four- this is your individual reservation code. It consists from a set of Latin letters. If you want to find out the status of your ticket or clarify some details about the flight, then this is exactly what you need to call a company employee.
Under the number five The number of your document with which you purchased the ticket is indicated. Check that it matches what is indicated in your passport. They also should not differ from one another.
Number six is your date of birth, and seven- this is the day when your ticket was issued.
Under the number eight you will find the city of departure and arrival. The names may be abbreviated, but this does not play a special role. The name of the airport may be written next to it, if it has one.
Nine means your flight number, which consists of the airline code and a set of three digits.
At number ten the booking class code is indicated. If you see the letters - F, P or A, then this is first class. The difference between them is:
- R is the first class with the most high level service;
- F is regular first class;
- A - first class with a discount.
Saw the letters J, C, D, I, Z? This is Business Class. Each of them represents a specific level of service on board the aircraft. J is business class, but with an improved service option, close to the first. C - regular business class. D, I, Z - the same, but with a discount.
Letters W, S, Y, B, H, K, L, M, N, Q, T, V, X denote Economy class. If you see the first letter, then this is premium Economy class. S and Y - regular Economy. B, H, K, L, M, N, Q, T, V, X - Economy with discount.
At number 11 arrival and departure times are indicated. Please note that local time is indicated.
Number 12- this is the amount of luggage you can take with you for free.
Number 13- this is the amount of the cost of your ticket, indicated in the currency in which you paid for it. It consists of two parts - the tariff (fare) and various fees (tax).
Fourteen- This total amount, paid by you for the ticket, indicating the currency of payment.
Last digit— total amount of the tariff.
On tickets, pnr is designated as the order number.
There is also the so-called PNR designation. What is pnr in an electronic ticket? This is an abbreviation for in English— “Personal Name Record”. In Russian - designation of your order, which consists of a set of numbers and letters. It is unique for each ticket.
At the very bottom of the ticket The rules of the airline under which the flight is carried out are listed. If you do not understand English, you can always contact service center companies where they will definitely explain them to you.
If you are flying with a transfer, then all the information listed above is added to that relating to your transfers.