Travel technology glossary
Plain-language definitions of the distribution, ticketing, pricing and platform terms behind modern travel systems — written from the engineering side.
A
- ADMAgency Debit Memo
- An Agency Debit Memo (ADM) is a charge an airline raises against a travel agency, usually through BSP, when it finds a ticketing or booking error such as an incorrect fare, a rule violation or an unauthorised refund.
- Ancillary services
- Ancillary services are the optional products sold alongside a flight or room — checked bags, seat selection, meals, lounge access, priority boarding, Wi-Fi or insurance.
B
- B2B travel platform
- A B2B travel platform is a booking system that sells travel to other businesses — sub-agents, corporate clients or partners — with account hierarchies, credit, markups and permissions rather than consumer checkout.
- Bedbank
- A bedbank is a hotel wholesaler that contracts room inventory with many hotels and distributes it, usually at net rates, to travel agencies, OTAs and tour operators through an API.
- Booking class
- A booking class (or RBD, reservation booking designator) is the single-letter inventory bucket an airline uses to control how many seats it sells at each price level within a cabin.
- Booking engine
- A booking engine is the software that searches supplier inventory, prices options, takes passenger and payment details and confirms the reservation for a travel website, app or API.
- BSPBilling and Settlement Plan
- The IATA Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) is the system that collects ticket and EMD sales from accredited travel agencies in a market and settles the money with airlines in a single payment cycle.
C
- Channel manager
- A channel manager is software a hotel uses to distribute its rates and availability to many sales channels — OTAs, GDSs, wholesalers and its own website — and keep them in sync.
- Codeshare and interline
- A codeshare is a flight operated by one airline but sold under another's flight number; interlining is an agreement that lets one ticket cover flights on several airlines with through check-in.
- Consolidator
- A travel consolidator is a wholesaler that negotiates bulk or net fares with airlines and resells them to travel agencies, usually with ticketing and support services included.
- Continuous pricing
- Continuous pricing is an airline approach that sets prices on a continuous scale for each request instead of choosing from a fixed ladder of filed fare levels.
E
- EDIFACTElectronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport
- EDIFACT is the UN/EDIFACT messaging standard that traditional airline and GDS systems use to exchange reservation, availability, pricing and ticketing data in compact, segment-based text messages.
- EMDElectronic Miscellaneous Document
- An Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD) is the IATA standard electronic record used to collect payment for airline services that are not the flight itself, such as bags, seats, penalties or upgrades.
F
- Fare basis code
- A fare basis code is the alphanumeric code that identifies a specific airline fare and links it to the rules — booking class, restrictions, refundability and validity — that apply to it.
- Fare family
- A fare family (or branded fare) is a named bundle — such as Light, Standard or Flex — that groups a fare with a defined set of services and conditions like baggage, seat selection and change rules.
G
- GDSGlobal Distribution System
- A Global Distribution System (GDS) is a network that aggregates airline, hotel, car and rail inventory and lets travel agencies and booking platforms search, price and book it through one connection.
H
- Hotel content mapping
- Hotel content mapping is the process of matching the same property, room type and rate across different suppliers so a platform shows one hotel instead of many duplicates.
L
- LCCLow-cost carrier
- A low-cost carrier (LCC) is an airline that competes on low base fares, usually sells mainly through its own website or API, and charges separately for services such as bags and seats.
- Look-to-book ratio
- The look-to-book ratio is the number of searches or availability requests a seller sends to a supplier for every booking it completes.
M
- Metasearch
- A travel metasearch engine compares prices from many OTAs and suppliers and redirects the traveller to the seller's site to book, earning money per click or per booking.
N
- NDCNew Distribution Capability
- NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an IATA data standard that lets airlines build offers dynamically and sell them directly to any seller through an XML API, instead of relying only on fares filed in advance.
O
- Offers and orders
- Offers and orders is the airline retailing model in which the airline builds a priced, time-limited offer for each request and, once accepted, manages the purchase as a single order.
- ONE Order
- IATA ONE Order is an industry initiative to replace the PNR, e-ticket and EMD with a single customer order record held by the airline, simplifying booking, delivery and accounting.
- OTAOnline Travel Agency
- An Online Travel Agency (OTA) is a consumer-facing website or app that lets travellers search, compare and book flights, hotels, cars or packages from many suppliers.
P
- PCCPseudo City Code
- A Pseudo City Code (PCC) is the identifier a GDS assigns to a travel agency location or account; it controls which fares, credentials, queues and ticketing rights apply to bookings made under it.
- PNRPassenger Name Record
- A Passenger Name Record (PNR) is the booking record in an airline or GDS reservation system that holds the passengers, itinerary, contact details and ticketing information for a trip.
R
- Record locator
- A record locator is the short alphanumeric code — usually six characters — that uniquely identifies a booking (PNR) in an airline or GDS reservation system.
T
- TMCTravel Management Company
- A Travel Management Company (TMC) is an agency that manages business travel for corporate clients, combining booking, policy enforcement, duty of care and spend reporting.
- Travel API aggregation
- Travel API aggregation is combining content from several supplier APIs — GDS, NDC, LCC, consolidator, hotel and others — into one normalised search, pricing and booking interface.
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