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Pre-Travel
Process
Departure
Process
Arrival
Process
SESSION TOPIC: AIR TRAVEL PROCESS
LEARNING OBJECTTIVES:
At the end of the session you will: 1.Understand the pre-travel process
- Describe the basic arrival and departure processes
- Understand the development of Airline Reservation System
- Identify the elements within a passenger name record
- Describe the basic departure process
- Describe the basic arrival process
KEY TERMS :
Pre-travel process Leisure travel Change of gauge interlining Business travel Arrival process Paper ticket Minimum connecting time Departure process Passenger name record Electronic ticket transfer CORE CONTENT:
Introduction to Air Travel Process
For us to understand the roles of people behind our air travels, we have to understand first the essential of the air travel process. Airline Agents are required to work as a team in different areas and responsible to provide a positive experience every time they enter the airport. The air travel process may be categorized into three stages: the pre-travel process, the departure process and the arrival process.
The Pre-Travel Process
The pre-travel process is the first stage when the passenger makes plans for trip. There are different reasons for passengers to travel and these purposes can be divided mainly into business and leisure.
- Business Travel. Business travel, otherwise known as corporate travel, is a term used to describe travel that is carried out on behalf of a business, or for the purposes of doing business with someone else. The term applies regardless of how frequent the travel is, or how far away from the day-to-day workplace it takes the traveler. Many airlines today are concentrating on providing premium service on long-haul flights, especially for the first-and-business-class passengers. Business travelers are less price-sensitive and are willing to buy premium air tickets because of last- minute needs and for flexibility and comfort. Business traveler’s expenses are covered by their companies.
- Leisure Travel. Leisure travel is travel in which the primary motivation is to take a vacation from everyday life. Leisure travel is often characterized by staying in nice hotels or resorts, relaxing on beaches or in a room, or going on guided tours and experiencing local tourist attractions. Most meals are eaten out when traveling for pleasure, and often more expensive modes of transportation, such as taxis, are used to get around. In some cases, leisure travel might be used to refer to any trip that lasts more than a week, regardless of the primary focus. Leisure travel is generally seen as the opposite of business travel. Airlines mostly target these passengers with their economy-class products. During the pre-travel process, passengers traveling for different purposes consider different methods of purchasing the ticket. Airlines have set up different locations such as their own airline reservation office, the airline city office, and the airport ticket counter where the passengers may reserve and purchase their tickets. Passengers can also purchase tickets online or via the services of the travel agency and mobile applications.
Airport ticket counter
Airport ticket counters are usually located in the airport terminal nearby the check-in counter. Their main role is to handle ticketing issues at the airport which include date and itinerary changes for reservations, ticket revalidation (change of tickets), and selling airline tickets on the spot. Passengers may contact the airline directly at the airport ticket counter to purchase their tickets ahead of travel when tickets are available at various cost levels or tickets on the actual day of travel when usually only the full-fare tickets are available.
Online
With the use of technology, many airlines today sell airline tickets directly to passengers via the Internet. This is especially popular with the low-cost carriers that try to minimize their labor costs. Airlines are creating user-friendly websites and smart phone applications to provide the most cost-effective methods to dispense their tickets. With online application, airlines are able to employ limited numbers of reservation agents and reduce commission expenses being paid to travel agents.
Travel agents
A travel agency is a retail business engaged in selling and arranging transportation, accommodations, tours, and trips for travelers. Also known as “travel bureau”. A travel agency's main function is to act as an agent, selling travel products and services on behalf of a supplier or in this case are the airline companies They do not keep inventory in-hand unless they have pre- booked hotel rooms or cabins on a cruise ship for a group travel event such as a wedding, honeymoon, or other group event. Airline Mobile Applications (^) Travel Agency
Airline Reservation Systems
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. In 1946, American Airlines began experimenting with the first automated booking system, the Electromechanical Reservisor. In 1952, the airline introduced a newer system in order to gain access to inventory in real time from across their network. The system, called the Magnetronic Reservisor , was able to store up to 1,000 flights, a major feat at the time. However, it did have some obvious flaws including that it required a team of agents, multiple phone calls and considerable effort to book even a single seat. In 1953, American Airlines’ CEO, C.R. Smith, met an IBM sales representative and invited him to see Reservisor system, to look for areas of improvement. From there, American Airlines and IBM began collaborating on an idea of an automated airline system. In 1959, the venture announced the Semi-Automatic Business Research Environment, commonly known as SABRE. The network was completed in 1964 and was the largest civil data processing system in the world. In 1964, IBM and American released Sabre, which had the capability to update seat inventory in real time. The system could also function with only one agent working to search for and update inventory, create a reservation and print a ticket. The airline industry was at last using computers to better their industry and compete within it. Following suit, other airlines created their own systems. Delta Air Lines launched the Delta Automated Travel Account System (DATAS) in 1968. United Airlines and Trans World Airlines followed in 1971 with the Apollo Reservation System and Programmed Airline Reservation System (PARS), respectively. Soon, travel agents began pushing for a system that would automate their side of the process. Fearful this would place too much power in the hands of agents, American Airlines executive Robert Crandall proposed creating an industry-wide computer reservation system to be a central clearing house for U.S. Travel. The other airlines said nothing, citing fear of antitrust prosecution. In 1976 United began offering its Apollo to travel agents. While it would not allow the agents to book tickets on United’s competitors, the convenience of having such a program proved indispensable. SABRE, PARS, and DATAS were soon released to travel agents as well. Following deregulation in 1978, an efficient computer reservation system proved important. Frank Lorenzo purchased money-losing Eastern Air Lines to gain control of its own SystemOne computer reservation system. In 1976, Videcom International with British Airways, British Caledonian, and CCL launched Travicom, the world’s first multi-access reservation system. Forty-nine international airlines subscribed to the system providing distribution to thousands of travel agents in the UK. It
SABRE
The Sabre global distribution system (GDS) is the world's largest electronic travel reservation system. We are a primary component for travel and transportation information for over 55,000 travel agencies, major travel suppliers, Fortune 500 companies and travel web sites around the globe. Our system provides users with schedules, availability, pricing, policies and rules, as well as reservation and ticketing capability for travel suppliers including: airlines, car rental companies, ferry companies, hotel properties, rail operations, tour operators, event tickets, cellular phone rentals, sightseeing, travel insurance, theme parks, independent resorts, condos, campgrounds, charter operations, golf course tee times.
Travelport
The Travelport GDS is regarded as one of the three major global distribution system operators. The company has its headquarters in the United Kingdom, but can trace its history back to 1971, and the creation of the Apollo GDS in the United States. Indeed, today, Travelport is comprised of the Apollo, Worldspan and Galileo GDS systems. While Travelport GDS was initially geared towards airline companies, it is today used to distribute a variety of products and services for those in the travel industry, including hotel rooms and hotel products.
Amadeus
Amadeus is the largest global distribution system by pure market share, accounting for around 40 percent of travel agency bookings. It was established in 1987 and connects travel agents to hotel rooms, airline tickets and other travel services, although the majority of Amadeus bookings are actually flight related. The company headquarters is in Spain, while the central database is in Germany. As a result, it may appeal to hotel owners who are particularly focused on the European market, where it is by far the strongest GDS.
Abacus
Abacus is a global distribution system (GDS) only used by travel agencies in Asia. It is operated by Abacus International Pte, Ltd., which is headquartered in Singapore and which is owned by Sabre Holdings and eleven Asian airlines; All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, EVA Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Dragonair, Philippine Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Brunei Airlines and SilkAir.
Passenger Name Record
PNR stands for: Passenger Name Record. It is commonly used in the travel industry and it’s basically a ‘file’ in the database of the system (GDS or CRS/ PMS) which contains information about a passenger (or a group of passengers traveling together) and his travel plans (flight itinerary, hotel booking segments, car rental bookings, etc.). This concept was first introduced by airlines that needed to exchange reservation information in case passengers booked flights of multiple airlines to reach their destination. When a passenger books an itinerary, the travel agent or travel website user will create a PNR in the computer reservation system it uses. This is typically one of the large Global Distribution Systems, such as Amadeus, Sabre, or Travelport (Apollo, Galileo, and Worldspan) but if the booking is made directly with an airline the PNR can also be in the database of the airline’s CRS. This PNR is called the Master PNR for the passenger and the associated itinerary. The PNR is identified in the particular database by a record locator. When portions of the travel are not provided by the holder of the Master PNR, then copies of the PNR information are sent to the CRSs of the airlines that will be providing transportation. These CRSs will open copies of the original PNR in their own database to manage the portion of the itinerary for which they are responsible. Many airlines have their CRS hosted by one of the GDSs, which allows sharing of the PNR. The record locators of the copied PNRs are communicated back to the CRS that owns the Master PNR, so all records remain tied together. This allows exchanging updates of the PNR when the status of trip changes in any of the CRSs. Although PNRs were originally introduced for air travel, airlines systems can now also be used for bookings of hotels, car rental, airport transfers, and train trips. There are five mandatory entries within a PNR, known as PRINT each letter representing the following:
- P - Phone field
- R - Received field
- I - Itinerary field
- N - Name field
- T - Ticketing field In addition to the above mandatory fields of PRINT, 38 other types of information can be found in a PNR. Furthermore, four extra items, including name, home address, home phone number, and date of birth, are required for the Computer-Assisted Passenger Prescreening System
4. Name Name of person(s) who intend to travel, in the format of LAST NAME / FIRST NAME 5. Other names on PNR If there is more than one passenger, more names can be added into the same PNR; in other words, a PNR can be created with more than one passenger traveling on the same itinerary. 6. Number of passengers on PNR The number of passengers in the reservation record 7. Seat information Passenger's reserved seat or requested seat information 8. Address Home address and/or destination address of the passenger 9. All forms of payment information Mode of payment (cash, agent, credit card) 10. Billing address If paying by credit card, the passenger's billing address will be shown. If payment is made to a travel agent, the agent's address will be shown 11. Contact telephone numbers Origin and destination's telephone number (home, mobile, hotel) 12. All travel itinerary for specific PNR The travel itinerary showing flight details (flight number and city code) 13. Frequent flyer information Frequent flyer membership information (name and membership number) 14. Travel agent Name of travel agency and agent responsible for making the booking 15. Code share PNR information When the itinerary involves other airlines, their record locatorcodes will also be shown
16. Travel status of the passenger The following codes are used to identify the status of reservation: HK-Confirmed HN-Have requested FS-Seat sold on a free sales basis HL-Have waitlisted KK-Confirming KL-Confirmed from waitlist SS-Seat status code-sold UC-Unable to confirm LL-Flight is waitlisted NN-Request NS-No seat NO-No action taken RR-Reconfirmed US-Unable to accept sales UU-Unable to be waitlisted 17. Split or divided PNR information: Information displayed if the PNR is previously split from one to two or more. The divided PNR will be given a new record locator code. 18. Identifiers for free tickets Type of free tickets used by the passengers 19. One-way tickets Displays name of passenger holding a one-way ticket 20. E-mail address E-mail address of the passenger 21. Ticketing field information Displays ticket issuer's information, name, address, and phone number
34. SSI information Special service information-comment of special format that can be typed in free format 35. SSR information Special service request-special meal requirements, seating preferences, wheelchairs, and other similar requests 36. Voluntary/involuntary upgrades Displays upgrade information 37. Received from information Responsible person who made changes to the PNR 38. All historical changes to the PNR Shows previous detailed changes to the PNR
TSA additional PNR requirements
TSA requires that air carriers collect and complete the following fields for passengers who are traveling to the United States.
**39. Passenger's full name
- Date of birth
- Complete address in the United States
- Home phone number**
Airline Tickets
After a reservation has been made and paid for, air tickets are issued to the passengers. There are two types of ticket formats: paper and electronic. Paper Tickets It is a conventional airline ticket, consisting of a coupon for each flight together with other administration coupons. Paper tickets are rarely required nowadays. As of 31 May 2008, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which represents 230 airlines worldwide, and 93% of scheduled international air traffic, no longer issues paper
tickets. The primary motivation behind scrapping paper tickets was to cut costs and increase efficiency. Although not every airline worldwide is subject to IATA’s rules, the vast majority are, and paper tickets are now virtually obsolete. The airline industry estimates that it will reduce costs by three billion U.S. dollars worldwide by eliminating paper tickets. This is because the paper to print the tickets had to physically delivered, and equipment used for printing had to be maintained. The cost of issuing a ticket will decrease from ten U.S. dollars to one, and 50,000 trees will be saved, according to the industry. There is a common belief that airlines in developing countries are the last to move to electronic tickets, but this is not always the case. Some small regional airlines, such as Aerocondor in Peru and Kingfisher Air in India went paperless before industry behemoths such as Virgin Atlantic which issues tickets to multiple international destinations across carriers. The elimination of paper tickets will make things more difficult for airlines that serve remote locations where there are no computers or electricity. In these cases, the airline will have to print out passenger lists at its headquarters and carry them to remote airports and rely on radio and phone connections to verify changes to the lists. Just because the IATA no longer issues paper tickets does not mean that people are not using them. Under the IATA’s rules, paper ticket holders have up to one year from the date of issue to use their ticket, and an additional year to make a return trip. This means that some paper tickets will be valid until 31 May 2010. It is important to remember that an airline ticket is not the same thing as a boarding pass. Possession of an airline ticket, either electronic or paper, is what allows the airline to issue a boarding pass, which is a paper document. The boarding pass is then used to proceed through security, pay any immigration or airport duties or fees and secure a seat on the plane.
Example of a red carbon paper ticket
Once a reservation is made, an electronic ticket is created as a digital record in the airline’s computer reservation system. The passenger’s ticket is a printed copy of the receipt that contains the record locator or reservation number and the e-ticket number.
Departure Process
On the day of the departure, passengers are required to arrive at the airline's check-in counter one to three hours prior to the flight to obtain their boarding passes. At the same time, any baggage to be checked in is accepted and a baggage ticket or receipt is attached to the boarding pass. After checking in, passengers are required to go through immigration- for international flights-and the security check before entering the waiting area near the boarding gate while waiting to board their flight. Passengers who are important to the airline, such as long-term business partners and VIPS, are invited to wait in the lounge of the airline where extra services such as food, beverages, meeting areas, communication facilities, showers, and resting facilities are provided. First class, business class passengers, and passengers who are frequent fliers’ members with gold card or above status are also invited to wait in the lounge. When the flight is ready for boarding, passengers are invited to boardthe aircraft vía the boarding gate.
Electronic ticket issued through Amadeus System
Last July 2018, the Bureau of Immigration successfully installed electronic gates (or e-gates) at NAIA Terminal 3. These machines can process passports in as fast as 15 seconds and spare passengers with Philippine passports the long queues at immigration. E-gates have been installed in NAIA Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, as well. International departure process flowchart Check in Security (^) Immigration Boarding
Interlining There are two types of interline agreements: interline check-in or baggage only. With interline check-in agreements, the airlines may issue boarding passes on each other's flights and transfer baggage between their respective flights. Alliance airlines generally have full interline check-in privileges. However, when the agreement is limited to baggage, the airline may issue a baggage tag to connecting flights but not issue boarding passes. For example, a passenger is flying with United Airlines from San Francisco (SFO) to Taipei (TPE) and connecting to C&M Airlines to Mumbai (BOM). There is no interline agreement between UA and C&M. Therefore, the check-in agent in SFO can only check in the passenger and baggage to Taipei. In Taipei, the passenger must go through immigration, retrieve the baggage, go through customs to the departure hall. The passenger will then have to check-in with C&M Airlines whose agent will issue boarding passes and a bag tag to Mumbai. The passenger must then go through immigration and proceed to the gate. Alternatively, if the airlines have agreements on baggage only, the agent cannot issue a boarding pass to the connecting airline but can issue a bag tag for the connecting flight. For example, a passenger is taking an Air France flight from Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport (CDG) to Rome's Leonardo da Vinci Airport (FCO) and transferring to Doha on C&M Airlines. The passenger will be given the boarding pass from CDG to FCO in Paris. However, the baggage will be tagged all the way to Doha. Therefore, the passenger upon arrival in Rome will proceed to the transfer desk for C&M Airlines to obtain the boarding pass and then proceed through the security and to the departure gate. This passenger will not have to enter Italy. Arrival (^) Security (^) Boarding International transit flowchart Arrival Waiting Lounge^ Boarding Domestic transit flowchart
Change of Gauge
Change of gauge refers to a passenger traveling on a direct flight that requires changing aircraft type at connecting airports. This is often confusing to passengers who equate "direct flight" with "non-stop flight." With the differences in airline networks and passenger demand, some airlines require passengers to make aircraft changes at one or multiple points. Even though passengers are traveling with the same flight number, multiple aircraft types may be deployed. For example, C&M Airlines' Flight CM 887 is a direct flight service from Singapore to Los Angeles, United States via Tokyo, Japan. Passengers travel from Singapore to Tokyo with a Boeing 737 aircraft require changing to a Boeing 747 at Tokyo to continue their journey to Los Angeles. Arrival (^) Immigration Baggage Claim^ Customs^ Check in^ Security Immigration Boarding Transfer flowchart passengers are required to retrieve their baggage and re-check- in with another airline Arrival (^) Check in Security Boarding Transfer flowchart when passenger’s baggage is checked to its final destination
CM887 Singapore^ Tokyo Los Angeles
A typical change of gauge flowchart
