shorthand for travel

The Travel Glossary - find the best Terms, Definitions and Acronyms

Travel terms, glossary, definitions and acronyms of the travel industry from A – Z. Click on a letter to see the terms and descriptions in our glossary.

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Add-collect, adjoining room.

Average Daily Rate. A hotel industry term used to calculate average hotel room rate. Equal to room revenue divided by rooms sold.

advance purchase

The advance time before travel that a fare requires a ticket to be issued, normally 3,7,14 or 21 days.

Agent Error. An incorrect entry made by a consultant during the reservation process.

AEA (see “Association of European Airlines”)

A US based travel agency that has entered into an agreement with BCD Travel to use the BCD Travel trademarks and provide travel services to customers in the affiliate’s territory.

Airlines Reporting Corporation (ARC)

An independent corporation jointly owned by most of the major United States airlines; ARC collects payments for tickets sold by travel agencies and distributes the monies to the airlines; ARC also governs appointment of travel agencies to sell domestic air transportation.

airport code

The three-letter code used by airlines and the air travel industry to identify airports around the world, e.g. LHR=London Heathrow, JFK=New York John F. Kennedy. http://www.world-airport-codes.com/

airport security check

Airport security checks are procedures and measures for screening passengers and baggage to ensure security against terrorist threats and other dangers.  Find out how to get through quickly

airport tax

Tax levied by certain airports throughout the world. In many cases this can be built into the total ticket price, although some airlines will not co-operate, thus making payable locally by the passenger.

On outbound journey’s, airside includes all those areas of the airport terminal after you have passed through passport control. On inbound journey’s, airside includes all those areas of the terminal before you pass through passport control.

A short-hop aircraft for up to 20 passengers, usually flying unscheduled services with a 200 / 500-mile range.

all-inclusive

A hotel program which usually includes all meals, snacks, beverages and activities.

A joint partnership between specified carriers which may include, but not limited to, interlining, code-sharing, joint frequent flyer program participation, and even equity participation of stock ownership.

The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, a government-subsidized corporation that operates all passenger train service in the United States.

Automatic Number Identification. A contact center term for a telephone network feature that passes that number of the phone the caller is using to the contact center, real-time.

American Plan. A hotel rate that includes breakfast and dinner, sometimes lunch.

Asia Pacific. A geographical term used interchangeably with ASPAC and often used in reference to the entire Asian market.

Advance Purchase Excursion Fare

applicable fare

The fare to be applied.

Accounts Receivable. Money which is owed by a customer to a company for products or services provided on credit.

ARC (see “Airlines Reporting Corporation”)

An eight-digit identification number issued by ARC to travel agencies who have met accreditation standards.

Arrival Unknown. An ARNK is added to a reservation when there is a break in the itinerary and continuity is not recognized; it does count as a segment when ticketing.

Around-the-world

A continuous journey circumnavigating the globe in one general west-to-east or east-to-west direction in which both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are crossed not more than once each.

ARR (see “Average room rate”)

Asia South Pacific. A geographic term used interchangeably with APAC.

Automated Ticket & Boarding Pass. IATA standard transportation ticket and combined boarding pass which features a magnetic strip containing passenger and journey details.

Average Ticket Price. The average price of all tickets purchased; domestic and international are sometimes calculated separately.

availability

The total number of seats allowed to be sold at a particular rate.

average room rate (ARR)

Ratio of hotel’s sales revenue to the number of occupied rooms.

back-to-back ticketing

An against-the-rules practice whereby a traveler books a return ticket nested inside another return ticket to avoid minimum stay requirements for the purpose of saving money. For example, the traveler uses the first ticket to fly from origin to destination on Monday in week 1, then he uses the second ticket to fly from destination to origin on Friday in week 1 and back to destination on Monday in week 2, and then he uses the first ticket again to fly back to origin on Friday in week 2. The normal Saturday night stay requirement is then avoided. While this will sometimes save money, most airlines do not allow this practice and doing so might result in penalties.

backtracking

Having to return to your original airport of entry in a country to make the return trip home. A time-consuming and costly procedure to overcome by arranging an op-jaw itinerary, which allows you to fly out to one point and return from another.

Carry-on-baggage and checked baggage have many restrictions. Most notable are the number and size of the baggage. Many airlines allow only 1 carry-on bag, plus one personal item (purse, back-pack, computer bag). For checked baggage restrictions and fees, refer to the carrier’s website for details.

banker’s buying rate (BBR)

Exchange rate used to convert from one currency to another; called the ‘buying rate’ because it is the rate used when banks purchase currency from an individual

banker’s selling rate (BSR)

Exchange rate used to convert from one currency to another; called the ‘buying rate’ because it is the rate used when banks sell currency to an individual

Best Available Rate. A hotel industry pricing method for yielding room rates (floating) based on demand while ensuring the best rate is presented for sale to agents, consumers.

A fare without tax.

Measurement of hotel occupency.

blackout dates

Certain dates or periods when travel on specific fares is not permitted (usually holidays).

blocked space

Multiple reservations, often subject to deposit forfeiture, which wholesalers or travel agents make with a supplier in anticipation of resale.

boarding pass

A permit to board a ship, plane, or other form of transportation. In the case of air travel, the card indicates boarding gate and aircraft seat number.

booking code

A letter code used to make an airline reservation at a particular fare level in a computerized reservation system. (CRS/GDS)

Bank Settlement Plan. Outside the USA, a system by which the travel agent community pays carriers for tickets it issues.

Business Travel Account. If a company has a corporate credit card program where certain purchases such as air, rail, and associated transaction fees are centrally billed to one “master” credit card number, this is referred to as the Business Travel Account (BTA). This account allows for the purchase of certain air travel expenses for corporate employees without the need to issue individual credit cards to each traveler for the designated expenses. Because the account has no physical card, it’s often called a “ghost card.”

BTC (see “Business Travel Center”)

Business Travel News. A travel industry publication that delivers news and research to the corporate travel population.

bucket shop

An unlicensed, unbonded travel agency used by some airlines to dispose of excess capacity seats that are available on certain flights.

buffer zone

For taxation purposes, an extension of the US border 225 miles north into Canada and 225 miles south into Mexico border; all cities within this area are assessed the 7.5% US domestic tax when tickets are purchased and sold in the US.

A net fare contract for certain number of seats. Similar to blocked space except that the tour operator, wholesaler, or travel agent usually contracts for airline seats at a low, non-commissioned price without the option of releasing space back to the airline.

A partition (usually a wall) on an airplane separating compartments.

Travel slang for the removal of a passenger from a flight through overbooking; usually applied to those holding concessionary tickets.

bundled pricing

A pricing proposal, always a transaction fee, where elements other than air (e.g. car hire, hotel, rail) are included in the fee with the air transaction.

business class

Level of airline service between First class and Economy class. On European routes business class has now replaced first class as premier service level. Most airlines have their own brand names. (e.g. British Airways – Club World and Club Europe: Air France – Le Club etc.)

Business Travel Center (BTC)

Standard full service and online service in a local call center, undedicated, team environment.

Business Travel Management

Business travel management is the process of planning, organizing, and overseeing business travel for an organization. This includes booking travel arrangements, managing expenses, and developing policies and procedures for business travel.

cancellation policy

The advance time a hotel requires a booking to be canceled by to avoid being billed for the room

carrier (CXR)

Another term for airline.

Credit Card. A system of payment whereby the issuer of the card grants a line of credit to the cardholder, to be used to make payment to a merchant or to withdraw cash.

Collision Damage Waiver. An industry term for optional insurance provided by car rental companies that eliminates all responsibility of the driver in an accident.

centralized billing

System under which a travel supplier, credit card company, agency or other supplier consolidates all costs/charges incurred by different employees or departments into one total invoice.

change of equipment

Also known as “change of gauge”. A single flight number used to represent flights on two different aircraft; usually on international destinations.

Notification to an airline or hotel that a traveler has arrived to take a flight or stay at a hotel; some airlines provide curbside check-in while others only allow check-in at the ticket counter.

Advice to a hotel that a guest is leaving the property and usually includes payment for the stay.

A traveler who has had his/her second birthday, but not yet his/her twelfth birthday (this definition may vary by carrier).

Churning refers to any repeated booking or canceling of the same itinerary in the same class or different classes of service in one or more PNRs or GDS.

circle pacific

Travel from IATA Area 1 (North and/or South America) to IATA Area 3 (Asia, Australia, South Pacific) by way of the North Pacific Ocean in one direction, via the South Pacific Ocean in the opposite direction, and at least one flight within IATA Area 3 that crosses the Equator.

circle trip (CT)

A journey from origin to destination with a return to origin in a continuous, circuitous route using two or more fare components

The orgin (from) and arrival (to) points of a trip, usually by air or train.

city terminal

Airline office, usually city center, where passengers may check-in, receive seating details and board special bus/ taxi/ helicopter/ rail/ shuttle services to the airport.

class of service

The interior of an aircraft is divided into sections, each with a different level of service and amenities; common classes of service are first, business, and economy.

Cruise Lines International Association. An association dedicated to the promotion and growth of the cruise industry.

Section of a hotel offering higher security and special facilities either for a premium payment or as an incentive/ privilege for frequent users.

club ticket

Fully flexible, redeemable business class ticket valid one year from date of issue. Phrase used primarily in the U.K.

Another term for bus.

Close of Business. A term meaning the end of the business day.

A marketing agreement between two airlines (very common amongst airlines that have an alliance) where a seat is purchased on one airline (the selling carrier), but the flight is actually operated by a different airline (the operating carrier).

combination

Two or more fares shown separately in a fare calculation.

Computerized Reservation System

System used to book and process travel reservations, also known as a Global Distribution System (GDS).

A hotel employee who attends to guests’ needs for special information, theater and restaurant reservations, and any other special requests.

connecting flight

A flight which the passenger must change aircraft.

A stop in a given city for less than 4 hours (domestic US); less than 12 hours (domestic US as part of an international journey); less than 24 hours (international); continuing on the next applicable flight to an onward destination; designated by X/ in a linear fare construction line.

conjunction ticket

Two or more tickets concurrently issued to a passenger and which together constitute a single contract of carriage.

connecting rooms

Two rooms that are side-by-side that have a common connecting interior door.

consolidation fare

A group inclusive tour fare available to travel agents and other operators to construct packages to destinations which are inclusive of accomodation. Consolidation fares, although group fares, are for sale to individual passengers.

consolidator

A person or company which forms groups to travel on charter or at group fares on scheduled flights to increase sales, earn override commissions or reduce the chance of tour cancellations.

A group of independent companies that join together to gain greater profits.

construction point

A city through which fares have been combined for the purpose of pricing an itinerary; a destination city or a turnaround point; a fare break shown on the ticket.

A contact center term for an individual who is calling or visiting your company by phone or through the website, and who is requesting an interaction with an agent.

contact center

An umbrella term that generally refers to reservations centers, help desks, information lines or customer service centers, regardless of how they are organized or what types of transactions they handle.

continental breakfast

A light breakfast of such things as coffee, pastry and sometimes juice.

contract fare / contract discount

A discounted fare agreed upon by the client and a carrier; contract fares require a client give the carrier a certain percentage of its business in all markets.

corporate fare

A discounted airfare for business travelers.

corporate rate

A special rate negotiated between a supplier (hotel or car for example) and a company.

corporate hotel rate

Learn how to get corporate hotel rates .

Corporate Travel Department (CTD)

A CTD (Corporate Travel Department) establishes a direct purchasing relationship between the company and its travel suppliers. The accrediting body, ARC (Airline Reporting Corporation) authorizes the company to function as its own “travel agency” and control it’s financial settlement.

co-terminals

A group of cities/airports considered to be the same point; example: JFK/LGA/EWR.

country of commencement (COC)

The country in which a journey begins; the base fare is converted from NUCs into the currency of the Country of Commencement by using the IATA ROE.

country of payment (COP)

The country in which a ticket is being purchased; the base fare is converted from the currency of the Country of Commencement into the currency of the country of payment using the Bank Rate if the countries are not the same.

Cost Per Mile. A calculation of the average price paid per mile.

Cost Per Transaction. A calculation of the total cost a company incurs for generating a customer transaction.

Customer Relationship Management. A term used for a database that is used to house and maintain customer information.

CRS (see “Computerized Reservation System”)

Corporate Social Responsibility . A concept whereby companies consider the impact to society and the environment of their actions.

Central Security Record. A hotel industry term for the name of the Viewership Management Table used to maintain a list of offices authorized to access a client’s negotiated hotel rates.

Central Standard Time. A time zone in the US, also known as Central Time or CT.

Corporate Travel Department. A company’s in-house travel agency that purchases air transportation and related travel services on behalf of its own employees.

Computer Telephony Integration. A contact center term for the software, hardware, and programming necessary to integrate computers and telephones so they can work together seamlessly and intelligently.

A checkpoint at which imported goods are verified for legality and value.

Data Release Authorization (DRA)

Under a DRA, Client instructs, as of the date specified, BCD Travel to receive, process, and/or transfer certain personal travel data from Client’s travelers, including, but not limited to, transactional ticket-level, segment-level, and traveler-level information, which may include, without limitation, traveler name and address, origination and destination, corporate and/or personal credit card number, passport number, drivers license, travel preferences, and other special needs or any other sensitive data as may be provided by or behalf of the travelers (“Travel Data”).

Decision Source (DS)

A BCD Travel product that allows our customers to interact with their reservation data.

delegate rate

An inclusive rate for meetings on a daily basis. Twenty-four hour delegate rate also includes accommodation. Phrase primarily used in the U.K.

denied boarding compensation (DBC)

Commonly called “bumping,” – When more passengers arrive to take a flight than can actually fit on the plane; although legal, the carrier is only responsible for providing compensation to a traveler if he/she has a confirmed reservation and is checked in and has arrived at the departure gate within a pre-determined time period; compensation may be in cash or in a voucher for future travel; passengers who voluntarily relinquish their seats are compensated with a cash payment or voucher towards a future trip and are then accommodated on the next available flight; if an airline delivers a bumped passenger to his/her destination within an hour of the originally-scheduled time, no compensation is required.

deregulation

Originally applied to American air travel: in 1978, federal law phased out the civil Aeronautics Board and stopped government intervention or regulation of airline routes and fares.

destination

The final stopping place as shown on the ticket; the furthest point on a fare component used to price an itinerary.

Destination Management Company

Company, possibly an incoming tour operator, who organizes local ground services at destination.

differential

The difference between the fares for two different classes of service between two cities; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

direct fare

The fare for one-way or half round-trip travel visa the shortest route operated between two cities.

direct flight

A flight from origin to destination that makes one or more intermediate stops, but passengers do not change planes.

directional fare

Fare valid only in a specified direction of travel.

discount fare

Transportation fare lower than the full published tariff for an airline’s route. A discount fare usually entails certain stipulations regarding purchase or travel (space availbility).

DMC (see “Destination Management Company”)

Domestic travel.

Travel wholly within any one country; typically used to designate intra-US travel.

A hotel room with two double beds and/or accommodating 2-4 people.

double booking

The practice of making reservations for two or more flights, cars or hotels as a type of backup; considered to be unethical.

double occupancy

The way in which almost all cruise fares and tour packages are quoted, that is, based on two people traveling together. Most hotel rooms are quoted based on two adults to a room, as well.

double open jaw (DOJ)

Travel in which the outbound departure point and arrival and the inbound point of departure and arrival are not the same.

To move a passenger to a lower class of service or accommodation.

drop-off charge

A fee charged for dropping a rental car at a different location from where it was picked up.

Being exempt from any import tax.

economy class

The rear area of the aircraft in which passengers having paid one of the lower fare types are seated.

electronic miscellaneous document – Associated (EMD-A)

Document that allows for the fulfillment of all flight related services and fees (such as bags, seats, meals, etc.). An EMD or EMD-A is linked to a specific eticket coupon in the airline’s database.

electronic miscellaneous document – Standalone (EMD-S)

Non-flight related services (such as lounge access or change fee collection) a stand alone EMD, a EMD-S is issued. To issue an EMD-S a manually created service segment must be in the PNR. Specific services that can be charged on an EMD-S is dependent on the airline’s own requirements.

electronic ticket (eticket)

An airline transportation ticket that is entirely in a GDS; no physical ticket is required for travel.

EMD (see “electronic miscellaneous document”)

Endorsement.

Permission from the plating carrier, the ticketed carrier or the carrier losing air space for the traveler to use the flight coupon(s) for travel on another airline at no additional cost; usually only required for international tickets.

end-on-end combination

A special type of combination in which two round trip fares are combined to produce a complete itinerary.

In this example, the passenger buys a round trip ticket from AAA to BBB (Rule 1), and a separate round trip fare from BBB to CCC (Rule 2). The net effect is to travel from AAA to CCC, but breaking the fare at BBB, which may in some cases be less expensive than the round trip (through) fare from AAA to CCC.

equivalent fare paid

An amount converted into the currency of the country of payment when the published fare is in a currency other than that of the country of payment.

ERA (see “European Regions Airline Association”)

Eastern Standard Time. A time zone in the US, also known as Eastern Time or ET.

Electronic System for Travel Authorization. ESTA is a free, automated system that determines the eligibility of visitors to travel to the U.S. under the Visa Waiver Program. The ESTA application collects the same information collected on Form I-94W. ESTA applications may be submitted at anytime prior to travel, though it is recommended travelers apply when they begin preparing travel plans.

Estimated Time of Arrival. A measure of when an object is expected to arrive at a certain place.

Estimated Time of Departure or Delivery. The expected start time of a particular journey or the expected delivery of a good or service.

e-ticket (see “electronic ticket”)

Electronic Ticket Record.

European Regions Airline Association

Association which aims to identify, protect and promote the interests of regional air transport in Europe. Over 170 memebers including airlines, aircraft manufacturers and airports. www.eraa.org

excess baggage

Baggage in excess of the allowable number, size or weight.

The process of reissuing a ticket due to a change of flight, fare basis, dates or routing.

excursion fare

Round-trip fare with restrictions, such as minimun and maximum stays and the need to purchase well in advance.

executive card

Types of privilege cards available to frequent users of airlines, hotel chains, car rental companies, etc. Most carry benefits and have their own brand names, e.g. British Airways Executive Blue, Executive Silver, Executive Gold and Premier.

executive room

Higher grade than standard room and usually slightly larger, the executive room often has additional facilities for the business traveler such as trouser press, desk etc. and may be located on a separate Executive Club Floor.

Expatriot (or expat)

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence.

explant/ outplant/ offsite

Branch office dedicated to serving a single client that is not located on the client’s premises, but rather operates as a separate part of a BTC.

familiarization tour

A complimentary or reduced-rate travel program for travel agents, airline or rail employees, which is designed to acquaint participants with specific destinations. Often known as “Fam-Trips”.

family plan

A hotel rate that allows children to stay free with adults in the same room.

A combination of letters and numbers used to identify a fare type which may also indicate the rules of the fare

fare component

A fare between two points.

fare ladder

A vertically-written fare construction that includes fare components, surcharges and additional amounts collected.

• fee – bundled air transaction fee An air transaction fee that includes the costs associated with servicing air, hotel and car transactions. Therefore, hotel and car only bookings (not to exceed XX% of air bookings) are not charged a transaction fee.
• fee – management fee Fee assessed in addition to direct costs. Covers primarily overhead and profit. Can be assessed as % of sales, per transaction or fixed amount.
• fee – management fee structure (formerly cost plus offering) Client fee arrangement whereby direct expenses are passed through to the client in addition to management fee. Management fee could be % of sales, fixed fee, or per transaction.
• fee – online booking tool fee (PNR fee) Charged per unique reserved PNR. Additional fees may be assessed for transactions booked on a website accessed via the online booking tool.
• fee – online transaction fee (e-fulfillment fee) Charged per online transaction – that excludes any ‘flow through costs’ charged by the online booking tool provider.
• fee – transaction fee structure Client fee arrangement whereby client is billed per transaction for all major program costs including direct expenses and contribution to overhead and profit, usually at POS.
• fee – unbundled (menu) transaction fee Separately charged per each type of transaction, e.g. hotel, car, rail and air. AM and MIS costs might also be charged separately.

final destination

The last point on an itinerary/fare component.

first class

The cabin on an aircraft where there are fewer seats, more elaborate service and amenities.

FIT (see “Fully Independent Traveler”)

Flag carrier.

The airline that internationally represents a given country; sometimes financed or owned by the government.

flight coupon

A section of an airline ticket; one flight coupon is required to take each flight.

flight/time specific

A fare rule that requires a to fly on a specific flight or at a specific time of day.

FOI (see “Form of Indemnity”)

Form of Payment. The method of payment for a transaction.

form of indemnity

A form that needs to be completed by the passenger in order to claim refund in respect of an air ticket that has been misplaced or stolen.

frequent flyer number

Find out what a frequent flyer number is and how to get one

frequent flyer program

An airline loyalty program that provides awards to travelers who use an airline or its partners.

frequent guest program

A hotel loyalty program that provides awards to guests who use a hotel chain.

frequent renter program

A car rental loyalty program that provides services (such as fast pickup) to those who use a car rental vendor.

front office (FO)

An industry term used for products associated with customer-facing activities. The GDS is a front office system.

fuel surcharge

A surcharge assessed for fuel use applicable for travel between specified points and/or for departure from a specified city.

Hotel rate with accommodation, breakfast, lunch and dinner included.

full economy

This is a fully flexible, fully refundable ticket which is valid for one year from date of issue in economy class.

full exchange

Change an already ticketed reservation, with no flown flight segments.

full to full exchange

Change to a ticketed reservation when no segments are flown and the change is to any segment other than the outbound flights. Or when a segment has been flown and there is a change to a remaining flight segment. In either of these instances, the FULL value of the original ticket must be exchanged for the ‘combined’ FULL value of the new ticket.

fully independent traveler

A traveler / tourist not part of a tour group.

One of the world’s CRSs (GDSs).

Area in an airport where passengers for a flight gather before boarding their flight or deplane on arrival.

gateway city

The last domestic city from which a passenger departs prior to arriving at an international destination; the first point of arrival in a given country (e.g., on the journey SFO-CHI-FRA-MUC, CHI and FRA are gateway cities).

GDS (see “ Global Distribution System “)

Gds operations (gdso).

An industry term for computer reservation systems that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines.

GEBTA (see “Guild of European Business Travel Agents)

In the credit card industry a system used by corporations whereby travel related charges made through designated travel agencies are centrally billed but no plastic card actually exists. Often referred to as “Lodge card” in Europe.

global distribution system

An industry term for computer reservation systems that book and sell tickets for multiple airlines.  Learn more

global indicator

Two-letter code used to identify the direction of travel applicable to a given fare.

governing carrier

The airline whose fares and rules are used on a given itinerary.

Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)

Solar based time in Greenwich, England, from which time in all other time zones in the world is based.

ground time

The time not flying.

A booking solution that allows the booking and managing of all ground transportation services, such as limousines, executive sedans, taxis, vans and parking services.

A fare that offers discounts to groups of varying minimum sizes in selected markets, with various conditions, and usually require round trip travel within a specified time limit.

guaranteed hotel reservations

This means that the hotel will hold the room all night. However if the room is not required, failure to cancel will result in a charge. Where reservations are made on an ad hoc basis, rather than through a regular account arrangement, a credit card number will be required to effect this guaranteed reservation.

Hotel rate for accommodation, breakfast and one other meal.

half round trip fare

Half of a fare designated for use on round-trip journeys.

Fee or tax some countries or cities levy on arriving or departing travelers.

Half of the globe; the North and South hemispheres are divided by the Equator; the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans divide the East and West hemispheres.

higher intermediate point (HIP)

A pair of cities within a one-way or half round-trip fare component that has a direct fare higher than the direct fare between the origin and destination of the fare component; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

hotel sourcing

Hotel sourcing or procurement is the process of identifying, negotiating and contracting with hotels to secure accommodations for a specific group, event or organization.

An airport at which an airline centers many of its schedules, particularly connecting flights to smaller destinations.

(see “International Air Transport Association”)*

IATA Number (see “ARC Number”)

Iata rate of exchange (roe).

Rates of exchange designated by IATA to convert local currency to NUCs and to convert NUCs into the currency of commencement of travel.

ICAO (see “International Civil Aviation Organization”)

Interline e-ticket. An interline agreement between airlines that allow e-ticketing on each other’s flights. Interline agreement between airlines permitting travel service cooperation in areas such as: baggage transfer services, guaranteed connection times.

IGK (see “International Gatekeeper”)

Immigration.

Area at which a traveler’s documentation (e.g., Passport and Visa) are verified to ensure the traveler may enter the country.

implant (on-site)

Dedication operational team, based within an office of the client.

implementation

Phase of launching a new relationship, including e.g. opening a new location, training staff, installing technical equipment, and informing clients, travelers and travel arrangers.

inbound travelers

Travelers coming into a specified location are considered inbound. Travelers departing from the location are considered outbound.

A traveler who has not yet reached his/her second birthday.

Term used in the U.S. to describe an implant.

international departure taxes

Taxes levied on all travelers departing a country on an international journey that are, typically collected at the airport at the time of departure.

Between two airlines; TUS-HP-DEN-UA-LON is an interline journey.

interline baggage agreement

An agreement between two air carriers that a carrier will transfer baggage to the other carrier.

interline connection

When a passenger changes airlines as well as aircraft during a journey (same as off-line connection).

interline ticketing agreement

An agreement between two air carriers that permits air travel of one carrier to be on a ticket issued and/or ‘plated’ on another carrier.

intermediate point

A ticketed point of an international journey at which there is no fare break; an intermediate point may be a stopover or connection.

intermediate stop

An enroute stop at a city between the origin and destination (see also Direct Flight).

International Air Transport Association

The world trade association of international air carriers; appoints travel agencies to sell tickets; determines rules and regulations for international carriers. www.iata.org

International Civil Aviation Organization

Specialed agency of the United Nations with responsibility for civil aviation action in standardization, technical co-operation and the formulation of international aviation law. www.iaco.int

A chronological plan showing a traveler’s booked arrangement.

A special through fare (usually only internationally) that permits travel on two or more different airlines.

The origin to final destination of a fare construction.

BCD Travel provides support for KDS. KDS provides an online booking platform for the confirmation of air, car, hotel and rail itineraries.

On outbound journeys, landside includes all those areas of the terminal before you arrive at passport control. On inbound journeys, landside includes all those areas of the terminal after you’re through passport control.

last date of purchase

The date by which a ticket must be issued – fares are not guaranteed until tickets are issued.

last room availability (LRA)

A hotel industry term for ensuring a negotiated rate is always available when standard inventory is available or when the room type negotiated is available.

LDW (see “Loss Damage Waiver”)

One flight; one part of an entire journey.

Lowest Fare Routing. The least expensive airfare available to a destination.

local currency fare (LCF)

See Country Of Payment (COP).

locator reference

Unique identifying booking number used within a computer reservations system as part of a booking file.

In the credit card industry a system used by corporations whereby travel related charges made through designated travel agencies are centrally billed but no plastic card actually exists. Often referred to as “Ghost Card” in the U.S.

Loss Damage Waiver

Additional insurance pertaining to car rentals, covering theft and vandalism in addition to accident damage.

low cost carrier (LCC)

An airline that offers generally low fares in exchange for eliminating many traditional passenger services.

lowest combination principle

Construction of a fare using a particular combination of sector fares to provide the lowest fare when there is no published fare between two points.

Marine Travel

Specialized travel services, available 24/7, provides travel arrangements (including helicopters and charter aircraft) for marine personnel.

Market Number (MK)

A code all online booking tools (OBTs) add at the time each reservation is made, as a way to track PNRs for online adoption and fulfillment purposes. It should never be removed once added to the PNR.

Married Segments

Two or more connecting flight segments joined, or “married,” meaning that these segments are inseparable and the subsequent rebooking or cancellation of any one flight segment must, at the same time, be applied to the connecting flight segment.

maximum permitted mileage (MPM)

The number of miles that may be flown on a published direct fare between origin and destination; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

maximum stay

The maximum amount of time a traveler may stay at a destination before return is required.

MCO (see “Miscellaneous Change Order”)

Meetings, Incentives and Corporate Events. An industry term for a department within a company that offers meeting planning services to customers. BCD Travel’s department is called BCD M&E

midoffice (MO)

An industry term for the management information (MIS) portion of a travel agency’s system.

mileage fare

A fare based on the total miles flown from the origin to destination; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

mileage surcharge

A percentage of fare increase applied to a fare because the routing exceeds the maximum permitted mileage; the percentage is in 5% increments to a maximum of 25%; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

minimum connection time

The amount of time required to change planes; varies by airport and often varies by carrier.

minimum stay

The minimum time a travel traveler must stay at a destination (or be gone ‘away from home’ internationally) before return travel can commence.

miscellaneous charge order (MCO)

An accountable document issued by a travel agency or airline as proof of payment for a specific fee (such as pet service fee) or as residual amount of an exchange (higher priced ticket exchanged for a lower priced ticket) to be used on a future purchase.

Mountain Standard Time. A time zone in the US, also known as Mountain Time or MT.

National Business Travel Association

U.S. business travel association which is a member of IBTA. www.nbta.org

NBTA (see “National Business Travel Association”)

New distribution capability. Read more

negotiated fare/rate

This is a term used by travel agents to descibe reduced airfares that have been negotiated by their air fare specialists on behalf of clients.

neutral units of construction (NUC)

An imaginary currency established by IATA that allows fares of different currencies to be added together; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

Non Last Room Availability. A hotel industry term for restricting availability of a negotiated rate when occupancy levels are high. Negotiated room rate is not guaranteed to be available.

Net Operating Income. A financial term for the amount by which operating revenue exceeds operating expenses in a specific accounting period.

non-endorsable

This expression often appears in the endorsements box of an airline ticket and it means that the flight coupon on which the worlds appear may be used only on the services of the airline indicated.

non-refundable(NR)

A ticket issued on a fare that does not allow for a refund; most non-refundable tickets can be changed for a fee and any difference in fare.

normal fares

The full fare established for first, business, economy or an intermediate class and any other fares published designated as normal fares.

normal open jaw (NOJ)

Travel from a country and return to the same country with a surface sector at either the origin or turnaround point (single open jaw – SOJ) or at both the origin and the turnaround point (double open jaw – DOJ).

An airline passenger or hotel guest who fails to use and/or cancel a reservation.

National Transportation Safety Board. An independent US government agency that investigates accidents including aviation, highway, marine, pipelines and railroads.

OBT and OBLT (see Online Booking Tool”)

Off-airport location.

Usually a car rental office serving an airport but physically located off the airport site (and often picking up renters at the airport in buses or taxis). When the office is located on-site, the term used is on airport location.

A destination that a carrier does not serve; see also Interline.

off-line connections

When a traveler changes airlines as well as aircraft during a journey (may also be referred to as interline connection). Changes of aircraft with the same airline are known as on-line connections.

offline transaction (traditional transaction)

A transaction that initated by an agent following a call/email request by a client.

Time of year or day of the week when travel is less common.

off-line point

Airline term to describe points (areas or cities) they do not serve.

off-loading

This occurs when an airline has over-booked: that is, it has sold more seats on a particular flight than the aircraft has to offer. The passengers to be off-loaded are usually those who have paid the lowest fares. Off-loaded passengers will normally qualify for denied boarding compensation. Passengers may also be off-loaded at the captain’s discretion if they are unfit to travel due to drink, drugs, illness or for bad behavior.

BCD Travel is a re-seller of onesto. On-esto provides an online booking platform for the confirmation of air, car, hotel and rail itineraries.

Online Booking Tool

A web-based platform allowing travelers to make self-service reservations (e.g. Cliqbook, GetThere).

operating carrier

In a codeshare, the airline providing the plane, crew and ground handling services.

online or online point

On the same carrier; TUS-UA-DEN-UA-LON is an online journey.

online adoption

An account’s use of their predetermined online booking tool.

online high touch transaction

A transaction that originates via an online booking tool, but then requires more than one agent intervention (one touch).

online low touch transaction

A transacion that originates via an online booking tool, and then requires agent intervention or manual review/processing that is initated by the customer.

online transaction fee

(E-fulfillment fee) A fulfillment fee canged per online trasaction – that excludes any ‘flow through costs’ charged by the online booking tool provider.

A BCD Travel office located at/on/in a client’s location.

Term used to describe the principle of showing a client the complete cash-flow cycle, including commissions and overrides.

open date sector

Part of a journey for which no firm reservation has been made (usually owing to changeable plans on the part of the traveler) but for which the fare has been paid.

open jaw ticket

Where passengers fly out to one destination and return from another. Open jaw arrangements save backtracking and make a trip more cost effective.

Much-used term for unrestricted air services between several countries.

open ticket

A ticket valid for transportation between two points but has no specific flight reservation.

originating carrier

The first airline of a passenger’s journey and/or portion of a trip.

Other Service Information. A GDS entry that provides information to a carrier that does not require action for traveler action such as contract discount code, record locators of additional family members traveling together (TCP), age information for children/infants, etc.

Travel from the point of origin to the farthest destination.

outplant (off-site)

Dedication operational team, based within a BTC office.

overbooking

Also known as bumping. Airlines and hotels can predict, with some accuracy, how many travelers/guests will show up for previously made reservations; when more people show up than what is expected, travelers/guests are re-accommodated; see also Denied Boarding Compensation.

Abbreviations for ‘passport and visa’ used in the U.K. Some affliates have a specialist team which advises on and acquires passports/visa on behalf of their clients.

Pacific Asia Travel Association

Association which aims to promote travel to Asia Pacific. www.pata.org

PAR (see “Passenger Account Record”)

Passenger account record.

In Galileo, the profile showing passenger information.

passenger facility charges

An airport-designated surcharge to raise funds for airport expansion, renovation, operating costs, etc.

passenger name record

Record held within a CRS/GDS which gives the personal details associated with a particular booking.

An official document issued by a government to its citizens that establishes an individual’s identity and nationality and enables travel abroad.

PATA (see “Pacific Asia Travel Association”)

Abbreviation for passengers.

Payment Card Industry. Security standards set to help protect account data information.

Time of year or day of the week when travel is most common.

A fee charged by a carrier or vendor for changing and/or canceling a reservation or ticket.

Per diem is a daily allowance given to an employee to cover business travel expenses such as lodging, meals and incidentals while traveling for the company. Learn more about per diem .

Penalty excursion fare. Public excursion fare are within minimum stay requirements, but which has no advanced purchase requirements.

PIR (see “Property Irregularity Report”)

Plate / plated.

See Validating Carrier.

PMS (see “Property Management System”)

Pnr (see “passenger name record”).

Purchase Order. A commercial document issued by a buyer to a seller that indicates the quantities and agreed upon prices for products / services.

point-to-point fares

De-regulation has led to a growing number of these on routes throughout the world. They are low fares in first, business, or economy class between two points by direct flights. Stopovers are usually, but not always, prohibited.

Point of Service or Point of Sale. The time and place in which a transaction is made.

prepaid ticket advice (PTA)

A form used when a person is buying a ticket that will be issued at the airport of the same or a different city. Example: A ticket purchased in Chicago to be picked up by the traveler in and for a departure from Buenos Aires.

pre-trip auditing

A product offered by travel management companies that allows for the review of travel itineries before departure to identify savings or prevent unnecessary expenditure.

pricing unit (PU)

A journey, or part of a journey which can be priced and ticketed as a separate entity; a round-trip, circle trip, one-way, normal open jaw or special open jaw; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

pricing unit concept (PUC)

An alternative method of fare construction for multiple-stopover journeys that uses pricing units; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

primary carrier

Airline flying the governing sector (prime segment).

prime segment

The first “true” international journey; often called the “over-the-water” segment; see also Gateway.

A computerized file containing company and traveler information.

promotional fare

A fare designed to attract passengers who would not otherwise travel.

proof of citizenship

Documentation that establishes nationality.

property irregularity report

Form submitted by passengers to ground handling agents at airports in the event of loss or damaged baggage.

property management system

Computer-based system for controlling hotel inventory, check-in and -out and billing.

Pacific Standard Time. A time zone in the US, also known as Pacific Time or PT.

PTA (see “Pre-paid Ticket Advice”)

Public fares (air).

Fares that anyone can obtain and is available in a regular fare display.

Quality of Service Index. An index developed by the Civil Aeronautics Board to provide a comparative rating of service offered by individual airlines.

A computer’s electronic filing system. Also a contact center term for the holding point for a number of calls or interactions that are waiting to be answered by an agent. The calls or interactions are usually assigned to available agents in a first-arrived, first-answered basis, but may also be assigned based on a company’s routing strategies.

queue group

A contact center term for a group of virtual queues. Also referred to as a DN Group or Group of Queues.

The official posted rate for each hotel room.

rate desk (see “International Rate Desk”)

Rate of exchange (roe) (see “iata rate of exchange”), rearden commerce.

BCD Travel is a referrer for Rearden. Rearden provides an online booking platform for the confirmation of air, car, hotel and rail itineraries.

reason codes (RC)

An industry term for codes used to document and report on traveler decisions and behavior.

reconfirmation

Particularly on international flights, passengers are required to indicate their intention of using the next leg of their itinerary by contacting the appropriate carrier before departure; internationally, reconfirmation is requested 72 hours prior to departure.

record locator

A computerized number that identifies a Passenger Name Record – PNR or other reservation; when speaking to travelers, usually called a confirmation number.

red-eye flight

Usually an overnight flight that arrives early in the morning – great when you don’t want to lose precious sightseeing time at your destination.

If necessary for a passenger to change journey en route, the ticket must be reissued. The value of the original ticket will be offset against the new fare and any extra or refund, calculated. Settlement can be direct with airline or with referral to the issuing agent.

BCD Travel is a re-seller for ResX. ResX provides an online booking platform for the confirmation of air, car, hotel and rail itineraries.

return journey

A journey for which the fare is assessed as a single pricing unit using half round-trip fares.

revalidation

If the passenger’s travel date or flight needs to be changed, without affecting the route, there is not always a need to reissue the ticket. The relevant flight coupon is simply revalidated by means of a revalidation sticker.

Revenue Per Available Room. A hotel industry measure that calculates room revenue divided by rooms available (occupancy times average room rate will closely approximate RevPAR.)

Rate Loading Instructions. A hotel industry term for the instructions provided to hotel properties for loading client-specific or TMC-specific rate codes as displayed in the GDS.

room with facilities

Describes a hotel room which has a bathroom en-suite. In some smaller two-star or three-star hotels facilities may refer to toilet and washbasin only.

round-the-world (RTW) (see “Around-the-World”)

A trip that begins and ends in the same city with no un-flown portions; internationally, with the same dollar amount on both portions .

route deal / route incentive

An agreement between a corporate customer and an airline. The agreement allows for an incentive payment to be made to the cient by the airline as a reward for loyalty.

The carrier and/or cities and/or class of service and/or aircraft type via which transportation is provided between two points.

routing fare

A fare based on a specified routing.

run-of-the-house (ROH)

A flat rate for which a hotel offers any of its available rooms.

Schengen Visa

A special visa that permits holders to travel to any of the 25 Schengen member countries on a single visa (rather than obtaining a visa for each country. It is only issued to citizens of countries who are required to obtain a visa before entering Europe for leisure, tourism or business travel. Schengen Visa holders are not permitted to live permanently or work in Europe. The following countries are currently active Schengen Visa members: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.

A specific time of year for a fare; High Season is the most popular time of year to travel to a specific destination and fares are more expensive at that time; Low Season is the least popular time of year to travel to a specific destination and fares are less expensive at that time; Fares affected by seasonality are usually indicated as such by fare basis coding and/or seasonality details listed in the fare’s rules.

The distance between aircraft seats, measured in inches and commonly used to show a passenger’s legroom.

security surcharge

Surcharge assessed by a carrier to cover costs of airport and in-flight security.

secondary carrier

Airline(s) flying the sectors preceding and/or succeeding the prime segment.

A journey from one point to another.

A flight; see Leg.

self-service reservations

Situation where the traveler makes his/her own reservations. A reservation generated by the customer using an online booking tool.

selling carrier

In a codeshare, the airline offering the flight for sale, under their vendor code

service fee

A fee charged by a travel agency to a company/individual for travel services.

Service Level Agreement

An agreement stating measurable performance commitments made to our customers.

Regular or schedulable bus/van transportation such as from an airport to a downtown location; regular air service on heavily-traveled routes (e.g., BOS-LGA).

A journey from and/or to an enroute point of a fare component.

Accommodations designed for one person.

SLA (see “Service Level Agreement”)

Designated take-off and landing times allocated to airlines at certain airports.

soft opening

Period when new hotel is open for business although not entirely finished – some services of facilities may not yet operate.

Standard Operating Procedure. A set of instructions that define the official standard for a specific process or situation.

Scope of Services. A document that defines the number, type, and intensity or complixity of services to be provided.

space available

Confirmation of a reservation subject to availability at the last moment.

special needs

Atypical traveler needs such as a special meal or wheelchair service.

split ticket(ing)

Issuance of two or more tickets usually for the purpose of obtaining a lower fare; usually applied to international itineraries to take advantage of fare and/or currency conversion differences.

Spouse fare

This type of are applies to selected destinations on a round-trip only basis and offers a discount of 50% to the spouse of a full first class or business class passenger. Economy passengers also qualify where there is no business fare.

SSR (see “Self Service Reservation”)

Special Service Request. A GDS request for a carrier to provide additional action for a traveler such as special meal, ticket number transmission, wheelchair, etc.

standard room

The normal hotel room type, generally with television, and en-suite bathroom.

A passenger on waitlist or one prepared to travel if space becomes available at the last moment.

Interruption of travel for more than domestic US – 4 hours; domestic US as part of an international journey – 12 hours; international – 24 hours .

stopover charge

An additional fee assessed for making a stopover.

STP (see “Satellite Ticket Printer”)

Any extra literature included with the delivery of travel documents.

sub-journey

A self-contained pricing unit that is combined end-on-end with another self-contained pricing unit on the same ticket; this fare construction principle is only used internationally.

surcharge (Q)

An airline-imposed fee included in fare calculations; see also Excess Mileage Surcharge, Fuel Surcharge, and Security Surcharge.

surface sector

Travel from one point or another not by air (ARNK – which stands for Arrival Not Known).

Travel 24. A BCD Travel department that services customers 24 hours a day when their normal business office is closed.

Ticket Fulfillment Location. An industry term for a virtual ticket printer that is shared by various BCD Travel ARC ticketing locations on the same GDS.

through fare

A fare applicable for transportation via an enroute city(ies) between the origin and destination of the fare that allows for intermediate points of travel.

A contract of carriage for an airline to transport a passenger from one point to another.

ticket on departure

Transportation ticket collected at the point of departure such as an airline ticket counter at an airport.

ticketed point

A city for which a flight coupon has been issued.

time and mileage rate

Car rental rate based on fixed charge for the rental period plus a charge for each kilometer or mile driven during the period of the rental.

TOD (see “Ticket on Departure”)

Tourist card.

A registration form required by certain countries indicating a traveler’s intended stay; used in lieu of a Visa and common in Latin America.

transaction

A Ticket issued; defined as all airline and rail tickets (electronic and paper) issued by BCD Travel or reserved by BCD Travel through a third party, regardless of whether the ticket is subsequently used, refunded, or voided in whole or in part. Cancellation of a reservation before a ticket is issued is not considered a transaction. Optional: Hotel and car booking made, regardless of whether or not the traveler uses the hotel or car reservation.

transaction – domestic air

Domestic – travel between two destinations that are within the same country. e.g. Frankfurt to Berlin

transaction – regional air

Regional – Travel within the same continent. e.g. Madrid to London

transaction – international air

International – Travel between two continents. e.g. New York to London

transaction – offline – traditional

A transaction that is initiated by an agent following a call/email request by a client

transaction – online high touch

Transaction – online low touch.

A transaction that originates via an online booking tool and then requires agent intervention or manual review/processing that is initiated by the customer.

transaction – online no touch

“Touchless E-fulfillment transaction” An electronic transaction entirely processed through an online booking tool and BCD central fulfillment service, without any agent intervention and where invoicing is provided via email.

A point at which the passenger changes aircraft; if the change is to/from the same carrier, it is an online transfer; if the change is to/from different carriers, it is an interline transfer.

transit lounge

An area within an airport for the sole purpose of international flight connections; travelers do not clear immigration or customs to enter the transit lounge as it is considered to be an international point.

transit point

Any stop at an intermediate point which does not fall into the definition of a stopover whether or not a change of planes is involved.

Travel Management Company

A travel management company (TMC) is a company that provides corporate travel services to businesses.

A BCD Travel umbrella brand name for our technology suite, which includes a variety of products listed below. read more

• TripSource:Active Itinerary A single point of access for traveler and travel arrangers for active and historical travel detail, including real time flight status, itinerary details, destination information and invoicing, billing and expense information.
• TripSource:Flight Alert Keeps travelers informed & productive while on the road by providing flight status information, including delays and real-time gate changes, for BCD Travel bookings.
• TripSource:Fulfillment Drive touch-less transactions with as little human intervention as possible while driving traveler contact behavior to minimize touches.
• TripSource:Portal (TSP) A comprehensive global solution to address traveler needs, travel program and corporation objectives. Arming travelers with rich content, productivity tools and critical safeguards for business travel, TripSource:Portal empowers travel programs as a centralized communications vehicle to deliver relevant, timely information and critical alerts to targeted audiences. The Portal expands traveler services while aligning program needs to drive savings, support business objectives and avoid corporate travel program risks.
• TripSource:Profile Manager (TSPM) Drives optimal data management by integrating profile management and online booking, and promoting secure web-based self-service maintenance of traveler-level detail.
• TripSource:Quality Measurement (TSQM) Ensures a means to track and manage supplier & transaction quality in addition to resolution of client concerns.
• TripSource:Rail Search (TSRS) BCD own rail booking tool for Deutsche Bahn only.
• TripSource:Ticket Tracker BCD manages and recovers committed travel dollars. Based on markets and supplier rules, BCD communicates with travelers to prevent loss of committed funds and when to apply unused funds toward future travel.
• TripSource:Trip Authorizer In response to growing concern for compliance, this module enables clients to implement pre-trip authorization requirements as well as post-ticketing compliance reporting.

Transportation Security Administration

twin for sole use

A twin-bedded reserved for sole occupency and charged out at a rate that falls between the single and double room price.

Two Factor Authentication

Also known as 2FA. Method of accessing a secure environment where a person proves their identity with two of three methods

User-Defined Interface Data. UDID remarks are standard and contain predefined reporting information such as lost hotel night reason codes, merchant billing codes or additional traveler data fields.

unlimited mileage rate

Car rental rate that covers all costs, other than insurance and petrol, for the duration of the rental, regardless of the distance driven.

Move to a better class of airline service, larger rental car or more luxurious hotel room.

validating carrier

Airline designated as the “owning” ticketed carrier; the carrier on whose “plate” the ticket is issued. The validating carrier is the carrier to which payment is submitted and is usually the first carrier on the itinerary (domestic) or the carrier on the first international flight (international). If a ticket is issued on multiple carriers or is validated on a carrier not on the itinerary, the validating carrier is responsible for payment to the other airlines on the ticket.

The process of stamping an air ticket or other airline document, at the time of issue, with the issue date, name and location of the issuing office and its IATA code number. Tickets not bearing such a stamp re invalid and will not be accepted by airlines.

value-added tax (VAT)

A general tax that applies, in principle, to all commercial activities involving the production and distribution of goods and the provision of services.

VAT reclaim

Value-added tax, or VAT, is included in hotel, dining and car rental bills and more when travelers go to countries that assess the tax. It can be a significant expense: VAT rates can be as high as 25%. The good news is most T&E-related VAT is eligible for reclaim. The bad news: In the past, it’s been hard to collect. But automation has made VAT reclaim for European Union transactions much easier. BCD Travel has partnered with VAT-recovery firm Taxeo to automate the process.

virtual credit card (VCC)

A VCC isn’t a physical card, but it has many of the same features as plastic corporate cards.

virtual payment

A virtual payment is a terminal-based payment method where the payment is delivered through a virtual card (VCC) instead of by check or cash.

An endorsement or stamp placed into a passport by officials of a foreign government giving a traveler permission to visit; not all countries require visas.

VCC (Virtual Call Center)

A network of call centers where the client calls one phone number, regardless of where they are based, that will be routed through to an available agent. For multi-national accounts this service would be multi-lingual as appropriate.

Virtual Multiple Purpose Document. A document issued by a travel agency or airline, working with BSP, as proof of payment for transactions and services, either related to an eticket already issued (example: rebooking fees) or for services other than flights (for items like surface transportation, transfers, and excess luggage charges).

A traffic document which has been spoiled or canceled.

Documents issued to confirm arrangements or used to be exchanged for services.

A list of people seeking a travel service that is sold out; generally, as other travelers cancel, waitlisted individuals are confirmed in the order in which their waitlist request was received – sometimes prioritized by frequent traveler membership.

When a hotel is sold out and there are no rooms available for a person who has a confirmed reservation, the hotel provide alternate accommodations at a different hotel.

an agreement to pay to use an aircraft with a crew , fuel, and insurance

wide-body aircraft

Aircraft with wide passenger cabins and seating configurations that require more than one aisle. Current models include Boeing 747, 777 or Airbus A380, A350

system that checks hand luggage at an airport, without damaging, for example, light-sensitive film material or laptops.

Yield Management

is a variable pricing strategy, based on understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize revenue or profits from a fixed, time-limited resource (such as airline seats or hotel room reservations).

Zulu Time Zone (Z) has no offset from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Zulu Time Zone is often used in aviation and the military as another name for UTC +0. Zulu time, also known as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), is the time zone used by the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, England. It is the basis for all other time zones in the world.

2FA, or two-factor authentication, is an extra layer of security used to protect online accounts. In addition to a password, users are also required to enter a code that is sent to their mobile device. This makes it more difficult for hackers to gain access to an account, as they would need to have both the password and the code.

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Travel Glossary: 100+ Terms, Acronyms & Definitions You Need To Know

This travel glossary contains more than 100 of the most common terms and acronyms you are likely to hear in the travel industry.

The travel niche has its own terms, abbreviations, and definitions.

As it can get complicated to understand them all, we created this complete travel glossary. 

You can either click on:

• A letter 
• Ctrl + f to use the search function

Note that we are still working on this glossary and we’ll update it frequently.

Abbreviation for American Airlines.

A Broken Backpack

A travel blog about long-term travel, adventure travel, budget travel, and more. You’re currently reading abrokenbackpack.com. At first, our blog was targeting backpackers and long-term travelers. Over the years, we have expanded our content with more travel tips for everyone.

Abbreviation for Air Canada.

Usually, an option that can come with an extra cost. Examples: optional luggage, optional meal.

Abbreviation for Air France.

Abbreviation for Air India.

Airalo is an online eSIM store that allows you to purchase eSIMs (digital SIM cards) in 190+ countries and regions around the world at affordable prices. Learn more about eSIM cards for travel .

An organization that provides air transportation.

A set of buildings, facilities and runways that are made for take-off, landing, and plane maintenance.

Airport codes

A combination of 3 letters is used to identify a specific airport. Examples: YUL identifies the airport in Montreal city.

Airport tax

Costs that an airline has to pay for departure and arrival in airports. These can vary from one airport to another and are usually included in a flight ticket price.

Practice in which you can order individual items from a menu instead of a set meal.

All-inclusive

A vacation that includes all the essentials (usually accommodation, food, and drinks). We commonly refer to an all-inclusive holiday or an all-inclusive resort.

An association or union between countries or airlines. Examples: Star alliance is an airline association regrouping several major airlines that collaborate to offer more flight connections and smooth stopovers.

Abbreviation for Aeromexico Cargo.

Abbreviation for Alaska Airlines.

Abbreviation for Royal Air Maroc.

Availability

The number of hotel rooms, or seats remaining.

Abbreviation for Finnair.

Abbreviation for Alitalia.

A bag that you use to carry things on your back. Usually large enough to carry all your things when you travel. Synonyms include “packsack” or “rucksack”.

A traveler or hiker who carries their belongings in a backpack.

Backpacking

A travel style that includes travels or hikes with a large backpack. Commonly, backpacking is a way to travel on a budget. The traveler may hike and camp outside for multiple days, or stay in hostels during their travels.

The basic cost of an airline ticket. Usually, this fare doesn’t include extra fees, taxes, or surcharges.

A bed and breakfast (often shortened to B&B) is a small hotel that offers overnight accommodation and breakfast.

Black Friday

A Friday at the end of November when you’ll find crazy travel deals on airfares, hotels, Amazon, etc. You can stay up to date with Black Friday deals here .

Step in which passengers are getting into the airplane. Usually, the airport staff calls passengers divided into different zones to board the plane.

Boarding pass

A paper ticket or a mobile ticket issues after check-in that allows you to board the plane.

Booking.com

An accommodation travel booking website with worldwide coverage comparing hotels, hostels, apartments and car rentals. You can book your hotels easily on Booking.com .

Booking number

Also known as a reservation number – a unique code including letters and numbers that confirm your reservation.

Bucket list

A travel expression used to define a set of destinations to visit or things to do in a country.

A bus travel booking website with worldwide coverage comparing bus route fares. You can purchase bus tickets on Busbud .

Business-class

A section that is usually between the first class and the economy class. The business class provides more amenities and services than the economy class. You can find a business class on planes or trains.

A cabin in a plane is the space inside the plane where passengers sit. A cabin in a ship is a room where a passenger sleeps.

Van that was designed for sleeping and road-tripping. Some campers prefer to sleep inside a van than in a tent. Also known as a camper van.

An activity that involves sleeping in a tent.

A captain in a plane is the pilot.

Carry-on baggage

A piece of luggage that you can bring along on the plane cabin. Usually, you’ll put this luggage in the overhead compartment or under the seat in front of you.

Checked luggage

A bigger piece of luggage that you don’t have access to during the flight. Usually, you’ll drop off your luggage at the airline counter before you go through security and customs.

A confirmation of your presence on a flight, train, or bus. Usually, you can check-in online or directly at the airport, bus station, or train station. Once the check-in is completed, you’ll get a boarding pass which can be issued electronically or on paper.

It can also be used in hotels. In this situation, the client goes to the hotel reception, presents identification documents, and receives a key to their hotel room.

A client leaves a hotel by bringing back the key on time at the hotel reception and paying for any remaining fees.

It’s a synonym of a bus.

A hotel staff member who helps guests organize transportation, reservations, or any special requests.

Connecting flight

A flight that includes a stopover and as a result, the passenger must change aircraft.

Culture is a shared system of symbols and meanings that allow people to communicate and interact with one another. It includes the customs, traditions, and values that are passed down from generation to generation.

Custom Tour

A custom tour is a personalized experience that is tailored to your specific needs. A custom tour can be created for any location, and can be customized to include any number of activities or attractions.

Cyber Monday

A Monday at the end of November or early December when you’ll find crazy travel deals on airfares, hotels, Amazon, etc. You can stay up to date with Cyber Monday deals here .

Direct flight

A flight that goes from an origin to a destination without stops, or connections.

A deck is a floor on a ship. Some cruise ships can have multiple decks.

Destination

The final stop on a travel itinerary. 

Type of rooms where you’ll find several beds or bunk beds. Usually popular in hostels because of their cheap rates.

Double room

A hotel room that had two double beds and that can accommodate between 2 and 4 people.

Exemption from import taxes. For example, in an airport, there’s a duty-free shop area where you won’t need to pay import taxes on products.

Early check-in

Early check-in is when you check in to your hotel before the check-in time.

Economy class

A section of the plane, bus, or train, with basic services and lower fares.

Electronic boarding pass

A virtual boarding pass that is usually on a mobile phone.

Another word for expatriate. A person who lives in a different country temporarily or permanently.

First class

The class with the most services – usually comes with more space, better meals, and premium services.

A fjord is a long and narrow inlet of the sea, usually flanked by steep cliffs.

Frequent flyer program

An airline loyalty program that allows you to collect points and transform them into vouchers or rewards.

G-Adventure

Adventure travel company that organizes small-group tours, expeditions and safaris around the world.

Area and door where passengers board their flight from or deplane at their arrival.

An establishment that provides accommodations to travelers.

Holafly is a website that allows you to purchase eSIM for your travels. You can read our complete Holafly review to learn more about it.

A budget accommodation offering shared dorms and private rooms. Very popular amongst budget travelers, backpackers and young travelers.

A popular airport where many airlines organize connecting flights to smaller destinations.

Immigration

An area where a traveler must present travel documents like their passport or visa in order to enter the country.

A plan, or route designed for a trip, usually in chronological order.

A feeling of tiredness felt by a person after flying across different time zones.

King-size bed

The biggest bed size there is.

A period of time between transportation connections, or stopover.

One part of a journey. For example, one flight out of a 3-flight route.

A small house or a part inside a large house where travelers sleep. Usually, it’s a synonym for guest houses or hotels.

The hotel is located next to the main roads and that is made for road trippers.

A vehicle that is designed for mobile living accommodation. For example, RVs, campervans, campers.

A traveler or passenger that doesn’t show up for a flight, hotel, or reservation without canceling the booking.

Point of departure.

Overbooking

A popular practice in which airlines sell more seats that they have available to compensate for no-shows. Unfortunately, this practice can create problems if all the passengers show up.

A document issued by a government that includes information about the identity, nationality, and visa of a traveler.

A word used as a synonym for passenger, mostly used in the travel and the tourism industry.

When staying in a hotel, a traveler can request a quiet room. Usually, this room is isolated or is in a quieter area.

Reservation

Action taken to book a flight, activity, or hotel room.

An area designed for massage, hot springs, steam baths, or saunas.

A building or area inside an airport. For example, an airport can be divided into multiple terminals so that passengers can know where their departure or arrival gate is located.

Moving to a better class of service, or accommodation.

A stamp or a sticker in a passport allowing you to enter a country for a specific amount of time.

Documents you can use to exchange for goods, accommodation, or services. Usually, the payments for these good, and services has already been made.

Synonym of travel in the French language.

A list of potential travelers that are not confirmed yet.

A software designed for digital nomads and online entrepreneurs who have a business in Estonia.

An expression used amongst young people that means You Only Live Once.

An establishment that displays, studies, and rescues wild animals.

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Travel and Tourism Terms, Acronyms & Abbreviations

Every industry has its language; can you talk tourism.

We abbreviate words or phrases to save time, effort or space. This is great, but if you don’t know what the acronym or abbreviation stands for, it may feel like people are speaking a different language. For those of us in the tourism industry, like many others, we use a wide array of abbreviations and/or acronyms. Below are 21 travel and tourism terms used frequently.

Jump to a section: A-D F-G I-N M-T

Travel and Tourism Terms

Accessible:  Usable by all people . Whether a hotel, restaurant, or attraction can by enjoyed by people of all ages and abilities, regardless of physical or other limitations.

Assets: The attractions, hotels and restaurants within a given region . Assets are what that area has to offer guests who visit.

Buyers: Travel Trade professionals who sell to consumers . They are tour operators, receptive operators, travel agents and OTAs (online travel agents). They look for destinations and attractions to package and sell to their customers.

CVB :  Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Primarily the same thing as a DMO or TPA (see below).

DMO: Destination Marketing Organization.  A destination marketing organization is an entity that promotes a town, city, region, or country to increase visitation. It promotes the development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing, and services. The primary goals of a DMO are to create and implement strategic marketing plans around tourism, to bring local tourism businesses together and to help them work collectively. This transforms a set of attractions, activities and services into a cohesive and compelling travel experience. For example, Break the Ice Media works with several DMOs, including Cayuga County Office of Tourism , Genesee County Office of Tourism and Visit Syracuse .

Implement strategic marketing plans

FAM : Familiarization Tour . FAMs are marketing initiatives, inviting either media or travel trade professionals to tour a region or destination . Experiencing it helps them write about it or sell it as a product to their customers.  The activities on a FAM are typically shorter than what the actual visitor experiences. They provide a sampling of what is offered.

FIT:  Foreign Independent Traveler .  An international family or small group travelling to the USA. They arrive by airplane and usually rent cars for transportation.

Fly drive:  A v acation package that includes air transportation and a rental car . Many international tourists (FITs) prefer to buy these types of packages to explore a destination.

Front-line staff:   People who interact with and give service to customers, guests and visitors. For example, front desk staff at a hotel or a cashier at an attraction.

Group Leader:   The p erson who accompanies and/or leads the people on a group tour . They work for the Group Tour Operator who sells the tour.

Group Tour Operator: A person who puts together vacation packages for groups .  They sell these packages as products to consumers. They also fit into the category of Buyers.

Tourism generated by visitors from foreign countries

Inbound operators:   Agencies that specialize in providing tour packages to international travelers visiting the United States.  Also known as Receptive Operators. Travel agents from foreign countries will work with an inbound receptive operator to find a travel package that suits their customers. A couple of examples are TourMappers and ATI , who we’ve worked with.

Inbound Tourism:   Tourism generated by visitors from foreign countries .  This does not include domestic travel like visitors from drive markets and in-state visitors.

Itinerary:  The planned route for a trip.  This is what travel trade professionals sell to their customers. It’s a pre-planned experience with where to go, when, and what to expect when you get there.

Motorcoach:   Large passenger bus.  This is the vehicle most often used for people travelling with group travel tours.

Net Rate:   Hotel room inventory sold via a third-party distributor at prices subject to commission. The  Net Rate  is the price for a hotel room without the commission of the third-party distributor. These distributors could be a travel agent, receptive operator or online travel agent. (See also, Rack Rate)

Create Itineraries for Foreign Independent Travelers

Partners:  The people who own or manage the assets of a region.  These partners work closely with their region’s DMO and benefit from tourism dollars spent at their establishments.

Rack Rate:   Standard daily rate established for hotel rooms.  This rate is typically public, printed on hotel brochures and listed on websites.

Suppliers: Tourism or Travel professionals who sell to businesses aka Buyers . They sell B2B (that means business to business). They work with tourism companies to promote their attraction or destination.

TPA: Tourism Promotion Agency. This is basically the same thing as a DMO. A government agency that promotes tourism in a specific county or region within a state.

Travel Advisor: Someone who assists consumers in booking trips. Previously called travel agents, travel advisors do more than book travel for people. The term agent switched to advisor to demonstrate how these professionals coordinate trips and help groups, families or individuals plan and book their travel.

Rhonda Carges

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Travel Acronyms And Meanings Go Back Button

A4A Airlines for America

Arab Air Carriers Organisation

Association of Asia Pacific Airlines

Airline Association of Southern Africa

Association of British Travel Agents

Arab Civil Aviation Commission

Airborne Collision-Avoidance System (ICAO)

Airport Consultative Committee (IATA)

Airports Council International

Association of European Airlines

European Association of Aerospace Industries

African Civil Aviation Commission

African Airlines Association

Aeronautical Fixed Telecommunications Network

Annual General Meeting (IATA)

Air Line Pilots Association

ALTA Asociación Latinoamericana del Transporte Aéreo

Air Navigation Services

Air Operator's Certificate

Advance Passenger Information

Advance Passenger Information Systems

Auxiliary Power Unit

Aeronautical Radio Inc (US)

Air Services Agreement

Association of South East Asian Nations

Agence pour la Sécurité de la Navigation Aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar

Agency Services Office

Association of South Pacific Airlines

American Society of Travel Agents 

Air Transport Association of Canada

Air Transport Action Group

Air Transport Association of America

Air Traffic Control

Available Tonne Kilometre

Air Traffic Management

Aeronautical Telecommunication Network

Air Traffic and Navigation Services

Air Traffic Services

Air Traffic Services Direct Speech

Air Traffic Service Providers

Air Transport Users Council

Air Waybill

Board of Airline Representatives

Bar Coded Boarding Passes

Board of Governors (IATA)

Bilateral Interline Traffic Agreement

Certificate of Airworthiness C of R

Certificate of Registration

Counterindemnity Agreement (BSP)

Civil Aviation Authority

Civil Aviation Administration of China

Cargo Conference

Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation

Computer Assisted Passenger Pre- screening System

Cargo-IMP     

Cargo Interchange Message Procedures

Computer Aided Software Engineering

Clear Air Turbulence

Categories defined by ICAO for bad weather landings

Cargo Agency Training Board

Customs and Border Protection

Cargo Business Processes Panel

Computer Based Training

Continuous Descent Approach

Controlled Flight Into Terrain

Central Flow Management Unit

Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

Cargo Network Services Corporation (wholly owned subsidiary of IATA)

Communications

Computer Reservations System

Common Use Self-Service

Common User Terminal Equipment

Cockpit Voice Recorder

Digital Flight Data Recorder

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (various countries)

Dangerous Goods Regulations

US Department of Transportation (also refers to Dept of Transport in many countries)

European Action Group

European Aviation Suppliers Organisation

European ATC Harmonisation and Integration Programme

European Business Aviation Association

European Civil Aviation Conference

Group of National Travel Agents' and Tour Operators' Associations within the EU

Electronic Data Interchange

European Regions Airlines Association

Electronic Ticketing

Emissions Trading Scheme

European Union

EUROCONTROL

European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation

Federal Aviation Administration

Facilitation

FDA Flight Data Analysis

Flight Data Recorder

International Federation of Freight Forwarders Association

Flight Information Region

Flight Management System

Flight Operations Quality Assurance

Fedération Universelle des Associations d'Agences de Voyages

Global Aviation Security Action Group

General Agreement on Trade in Services (under WTO)

Global Distribution System

Global Navigation Satellite Systems

Global Positioning System (US)

Ground Proximity Warning System

General Sales Agent

Ground Service Provider

Greater Toronto Airport Authority

High Frequency

International Air Carrier Association

International Airline Passengers Association

International Air Transport Association

International Airlines Travel Agent Network (wholly owned subsidiary of

International Airline Training Fund

International Civil Aviation Organisation

IATA Currency Clearance Service

IATA Clearing House

International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations

International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations

In-flight security personnel

Instrument Landing System

IATA Operational Safety Audit

International Standards Organisation

International Transport Workers Federation

International Telecommunication Union

Joint Aviation Authorities (European)

Japan Action Group

Joint Aviation Requirements

Latin American Civil Aviation Commission

Man Portable Air Defense Systems

Multilateral Interline Traffic Agreements

Microwave Landing System

Ministry of Transport (various countries)

Memorandum of Understanding

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

PAAST Pan-American Aviation Safety Team

PAConf Passenger Agency Conference

PATA Pacific Asia Travel Association

PNR Passenger Name Record

PRM Persons with Reduced Mobility

Radio Frequency Identification

RNAV Area Navigation

RNP Required Navigation Performance

Revenue Passenger Kilometers

RSVM Reduced Vertical Separation Minima

RTKM Revenue Tonne Kilometre

SATCOM Satellite Communications System

SMS Safety Management Systems

SeMS Security Management Systems

SES Single European Sky

StB Simplifying the Business

SITA Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques

SPT Simplifying Passenger Travel

SST Super Sonic Transport

STEADES Safety Trend Evaluation, Analysis & Data Exchange System

STB Simplifying the Business

TCAA Transatlantic Common Aviation Area

TCAS Traffic Collision Avoidance System (US-FAA)

TSA Transportation Security Administration

TWIC Transport Worker ID Card

TWOV Transit Without Visa

UATP Universal Air Travel Plan

UFTAA Universal Federation of Travel Agents' Associations

VAT Value-added Tax

VHF Very High Frequency

VSAT Vectoral Satellite

World Health Organisation

WTO World Tourism Organisation

WTO-OMC World Trade Organisation (formerly GATT)

WTTC World Travel and Tourism Council

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Miles and Points Abbreviations and Acronyms

If you are new to the hobby of miles and points, you may be tempted to give up rather quickly.

Or you might feel shy asking “What does XYZ mean?”

Whether you head to the blog, the MilesTalk Facebook group , or even an old-school message board like FlyerTalk, there’s one thing that’s sure: you will struggle to get the hang of the shorthand.

It’s certainly not unique to miles and points!

No matter what niche thing you start out in, there are sure to be tons of abbreviations. In a prior life, when I worked in the pinball industry, there was no shortage of abbreviations and acronyms. How would one not know that TAF was “The Addams Family,” ST:TNG was “Star Trek: The Next Generation or AFM was “Attack From Mars?” An EM? Electro Mechanical. DTD? The ball went down the drain…

Just like in miles and points, one learned the lingo over time.

With that in mind, and with miles and points firmly where I live now, I thought I’d create a list of abbreviations and acronyms for terms that come up a lot at MilesTalk , so there’s a central repository.

Please feel free to either leave any important ones that I missed in the comments or ask me to add one that you are trying to figure out.

I’ll break these into categories where e ach category is alphabetized.

If you are looking for something specific, remember that you can search inside your browser window. Command + F on a Mac and CTRL + F on a PC are the keyboard shortcuts.

Airline Class of Service Abbreviations / Acronyms

F: First Class

J: Business Class

PE: Premium Economy

Y: Economy Class

Frequent Flyer Program Abbreviations / Acronyms

AA / AAdvantage: American Airlines ‘ program

DL / SkyMiles: Delta Air Lines’ program

Aeroplan: Air Canada’s program, often used for Star Alliance bookings via transfer from Amex or Chase.

Avios: Frequent Flyer Program for British Airways , Iberia, Aer Lingus, Vueling, and Qatar. Each airline has its own version of Avios with slightly different award charts, however you can transfer between them. Bonus: You can redeem for and credit from Aer Lingus flights to either Avios or United’s Mileage Plus program.

LM or Lifemiles: Avianca’s Lifemiles Frequent Flyer program , often used for booking a variety of Star Alliance flights. They don’t pass along fuel surcharges, making them used often for premium cabin redemptions. Transferable from many credit card programs and they have frequent transfer bonuses.

SW: Southwest

UA / MP / MileagePlus:   United ‘s program

Hotel Chain Loyalty Program Abbreviations / Acronyms

Choice: Choice Hotels

HH or HHonors: Hilton’s program –  Hilton Honors

IHG: Intercontinental Hotel Group’s program.

Bonvoy: Marriott Bonvoy .

RC: Ritz Carlton

StR : St Regis

W:A : Waldorf Astoria, part of Hilton Hotels

WR: Wyndham Rewards (rarely used;  Wyndham is  often typed out)

SPG: The old Starwood Preferred Guest program. Was mergerd into Marriott Bonvoy in 2018.

WoH, WOH, Hyatt: Hyatt’s World of Hyatt program

Casino Loyalty Program Abbreviations / Acronyms

MLife: MGM Resort’s Loyalty program, MLife

TR / CR / CET Caesars Rewards , the rewards program for Caesars Entertainment. Formerly known as Total Rewards, so TR is still commonly used.

Airline Abbreviations / Acronyms

(This is not a complete list – I’m displaying the ones we use most commonly). The abbreviation is actually the two letter IATA code ).

AA : American Airlines

AC : Air Canada

AF : Air France (sometimes interchangeable with FB for the Flying Blue program)

AS:  Alaska Airlines

AY : Finnair

BA : British Airways

B6: JetBlue

CX : Cathay Pacific

DL:  Delta Air Lines

EI: Aer Lingus

EK : Emirates. Home of the onboard shower in 1st Class. Also see:  Review: Emirates A380 First Class New York (JFK) to Dubai (DXB )

EY: Etihad. Home of the Etihad First Class Apartment – also with shower. Also see: Etihad First Class Apartments – A380 Abu Dhabi to JFK – review )

IB:  Iberia

JL or JAL : Japan Airlines

LAN / LATAM : The LATAM family of airlines

LH : Lufthansa

KE : Korean Air

KLM : Dutch airline KLM 😉

LX : Swiss Airlines

MH : Malaysian Airlines

NH: (but more commonly written as ANA) = All Nippon Airlines (ANA)

NZ or ANZ:  Air New Zealand

OZ : Austrian Airlines

QF : Qantas

QR: Qatar (Home of the QSuites – Fancy name for their Business Class product, widely considered the best Business class around).

SQ: Singapore Airlines

UA : United Airlines

WN: Southwest

Other Travel Abbreviations / Acronyms

2x (or similar): Used in context: “This card earns 2x at groceries” means  that it earns double the points that it normally would in this particular purchase category.

AFAIK: As Far as I Know

BA: In context when it’s referring to blogs and not British Airways, it refers to Boarding Area, a collection of frequent flyer blogs.

Bask . A online bank that earns American Airlines miles.

CPP / CPM:  Cents Per Point or Cents Per Mile. Used to calculate the return on your award. Example: “I booked a ticket that would cost $10,000 for 200,000 miles, so I got 5 CPM.”

DoC: The famous Doctor of Credit blog

DYKWIA: “Do You Know Who I Am” – refers to a blowhard that thinks their status means they need to be treated like royalty. Also can refer to a famous (or semi-famous) figure doing the same.

EF: Expert Flyer (an advanced tool for locating award availability)

FCT: Lufthansa’s First Class Terminal

FT: FlyerTalk (a message board that used to be the place everyone talked miles and points

GC: Gift Card

IMHO: In My Humble Opinion

HUCA: Hang Up, Call Again –  used when you get a rude or unhelpful phone agent. You make a polite excuse to hang up and then call back.

MSR: Minimum Spend Requirement (to meet a bonus threshold on a new credit card account)

MS: Manufactured Spend (not discussed on MilesTalk. You can Google it…)

MO : Money Order; related to MS, above.

Newbie: Probably you if you are reading this 😉 Someone new to miles and points.

NLL: No Lifetime Language. Refers to a welcome offer from American Express that does not contain language prohibiting someone that’s had the card from getting another bonus. Otherwise, you can only get one bonus per Amex card per lifetime (officially – 7 years unofficially).

OTA : Online Travel Agency (like Expedia , Hotels.com , etc)

OW: One Way (can also be Oneworld, the airline alliance)

PP: Priority Pass (airport lounge access program)

RT: Round Trip

RTW : A Round the World trip. For example, ANA’s program allows you to book award travel  around the world for a very reasonable amount of miles. Used in a sentence: “I transferred 125,000 Amex MR to ANA to book a RTW.”

SA: In context, either Star Alliance or South African Airways. SAA can also be used for the airline.

ST: SkyTeam. The airline alliance that Delta is in.

SUB : Sign up bonus

TL;DR : Way too much information. “ T oo L ong; D idn’t R ead”. Try to simplify your post.

UG: Upgrade on an airline or in a hotel. Also for upgraded status.

WM: Walmart, also used in conjunction with MS and MO.

YMMV: Your Mileage May Vary (different results for different people)

YQ: The airline designator for Fuel Surcharge. Is sometimes still used to refer to surcharges on award tickets even when it’s under another fee line. Example: “The base fare for the ticket was only $20 but the YQ was $500 so it wasn’t a deal.”

Credit Card Rewards Program Abbreviations / Acronyms

C1 or CapOne – Capital One

(Also see: Credit Cards That Earn Capital One Miles )

MR: Membership Rewards – American Express ‘ program

(Also See: Credit Cards That Earn American Express (Amex) Membership Rewards Points )

TY / ThankYou – Citi’s ThankYou program

(Also see: Credit Cards That Earn Citi ThankYou Points )

UR: Ultimate Rewards, Chase’s program

(Also See: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points: How to Earn and Redeem with Transfer Partners [Comprehensive Guide]  and Credit Cards that Earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points )

Personal Credit Card (Product) Abbreviations / Acronyms

Black Card: Refers to the American Express Centurion card

BCP: Blue Cash Preferred Card (Amex)

CFU: Chase Freedom Unlimited

CF: Chase Freedom

CSP : Chase Sapphire Preferred

CSR: Chase Sapphire Reserve

EDP: EveryDay Preferred (Amex)

Green/Gold/Platinum/Centurion:  American Express’ Charge Card products

Business Credit Card (Product) Abbreviations / Acronyms

BBP or BB+: Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express

CIC: Chase Ink Cash

CIP: Chase Ink Preferred

CIU: Chase Ink Unlimited

Other Credit Card Abbreviations / Acronyms

5/24: The Chase rule that ensures you will be denied for a new credit card with Chase if you have opened 5 or more personal credit cards with any issuer in the past 24 months (Exceptions apply… see this post for more info on the Chase 5/24 rule .)

LOL/24: When someone is so far over 5/24 it’s laughable

AF:  Annual Fee

AU: Authorized User

Amex :  American Express

BofA  / BOA:  Bank of America

CFPB: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

CSR: Customer Service Representative (used in context, else could refer to Chase Sapphire Reserve)

Chip: The new chips on credit cards that require you to insert vs. swiping

Chip and PIN: The norm in most of the world but very rare in the US, this refers to having to enter a four digit PIN on a keypad when paying for a purchase. The US version is a less secure “Chip and Signature.”

DCC: Dynamic Currency Conversion. A scam wherein a business abroad offers (or in some cases defaults to without asking) to charge you in your home currency. The conversion fee % is always higher than any credit card would charge you and most premium and even mid-tier credit cards these days (with even small annual fees) as well as all Capital One cards do not charge any fees at all.

DP: Data Point (when someone has a personal experience of a particular thing working/not working)

Downgrade: The reverse of the above. To go from a card with an annual fee to one in the same product family without an annual fee. Example: “I had the Hilton Aspire but PCed to the no-fee Hilton Amex.”   (Also see: Upgrade, below)

FX or FOREX: A Foreign Exchange Fee charged by many credit cards, especially those with no annual fee.

GE / PreCheck: GE is Global Entry, the program that allows you to re-enter the USA using a kiosk. PreCheck allows you to use special domestic airport security lanes with reduced annoyances (shoes can stay on, laptops can stay in your bag). Many credit cards offer fee credits for these programs.

HP: Hard Pull on your credit (also known as a Hard Inquiry)

MC: MasterCard

P1 / P2:  When accumulating credit card rewards with a spouse/partner, this refers to Player 1 and Player 2.

PC / Product Change:  To change an existing credit card to a different one by the same card issuer. Each issuer has different cards that you can or cannot change an existing one to/from. Generally requires having existing card at least one full year.

SSN / EIN / TIN: Social Security Number, Employer Identification Number, Tax Identification Number

Upgrade: To go from a no-annual fee version of a credit card to a more benefit rich version with a fee (or higher fee). Example: “I PCed from the Hilton Amex to the Hilton Ascend.”

WF : Wells Fargo

Is this list helpful? If so, please share it!

Have additions or corrections.

Let me know here, on Twitter , or in the private  MilesTalk Facebook group.

You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards . 

New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.

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The status match merry go round™ explained (using both hotel and casino status match opportunities year after year).

*A – Star Alliance PRG – precursor to Amex Gold BCE – Amex Blue Cash Everyday 1K – United 1K status LTS/LTG/LTP/LTPP/LTT – Lifetime Silver/Gold/Platinum/Platinum Premier/Titanium. The latter 2 refer solely to Marriott Bonvoy status, are one and the same (Titanium being the new name), and are no longer attainable.

TBB – Travel Blogger Buzz The infamous blog of the Grand daddy of miles and points blogosphere 🙂

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20 important travel industry abbreviations you need to know as you start your travel business

• March 7, 2023
• Pickles Travel Network

When you’re new to the travel industry, there’s a lot to learn. The thing that makes many new agents’ heads spin is the huge amount of travel-related acronyms they’re expected to learn and use regularly as they book trips for clients and communicate with suppliers. To help you talk the talk as a new travel agent, we put together a list of the top must-know travel industry abbreviations to get you started. Ready to dive in?

Tips for memorizing travel industry abbreviations

With so much to learn, it’s impossible to memorize every travel industry abbreviation on day one. Here are our best tips for making the process easier:

• Create flashcards. The best way to learn is through repetition! Write out flashcards on index cards and run through them whenever you have a free moment. If you’re on hold with a supplier, that’s the perfect chance to run through a few flashcards sitting next to you!
• Don’t underestimate the power of chunking. Chunking is a memorization technique in which an individual breaks down information into smaller groups or units.  For example, instead of memorizing a 10-digit number like “5834568971,” memorize 5834, 568, 971.  This trick is helpful with memorizing strings of letters as well.
• Use association. Another memorization method is to associate what you want to be able to recall with what you already remember.  For instance, if you want to remember to follow up with your client, “Sam,” on July 4th, you may think of [“Uncle”] Sam and Independence Day.
• Visualize drawing the abbreviation. When we use positive imagery to memorize things, our brains tend to retain information more.  Picture yourself on an exotic island drawing these abbreviations in the sand.  Who wouldn’t want to remember this?  As an agent, being familiar with as many travel industry abbreviations as possible will come in handy and save you precious research time.
• Use the tools available to you from your host agency. A huge benefit of working with a host agency is the education and resources they provide as you’re getting started. Instead of simply memorizing what a CLIA is, watch your host’s video training about booking cruises and how CLIA benefits you – information in context is much more likely to stick.

Travel abbreviations you need to know as a new travel agent

Ai – all-inclusive.

This term generally pertains to eating plans, meaning meals, snacks, and beverages (even alcohol) are included in the charges.  All-inclusive resorts also include gratuities and most activities.

ASTA – The American Society of Travel Advisors

The American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA) is a professional trade organization that represents, promotes, and sets the standards for travel agents, suppliers, and those affiliated with the travel industry. This is a great resource for travel industry news, learning the ins and outs of being a travel advisor, networking, and verifying the legitimacy of travel schools and suppliers. Learn more about the ASTA on the American Society of Travel Advisors website.

BTA – Business Travel Account

A company can start a corporate credit card program to purchase air, rail, and associated transaction fees with a  “master” credit card.  This is called a Business Travel Account (BTA) and allows employees to make purchases with one company card instead of having to issue cards to each individual employee.

CLIA – Cruise Lines International Association

The  Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) educates its members on cruising and distributes a CLIA number to travel agencies.  This number is recognized across the travel industry except when dealing with direct air bookings.

CXR – Carrier

When booking trips, some airlines are referred to as “carriers” and use the travel industry abbreviation “CXR.”

FAM Trip – Familiarization Trip

FAM trip stands for “familiarization trip” and is similar to Seminars at Sea (SAS).  Travel agents can visit certain destinations in order to obtain first-hand knowledge of places to share with their clients. Having personal experience and being familiar with specific destination details can increase an agent’s sales. These trips vary in price and sometimes come at a discount or special rate.

FIT – Foreign Independent Travel

FIT is an acronym for “foreign independent travel,” designed for those who desire a trip that does not follow a set itinerary or require a tour guide.

GDS – Global Distribution System

A Global Distribution System (GDS) is said to be the “brain of the travel industry.”  A GDS is a computerized network system that gives real-time data to airlines, hotels, car rental companies, travel agencies, and other travel-related businesses.

GMT – Greenwich Mean Time

All of the world’s time zones are based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), solar-based time stemming from Greenwich, England.  These time zones ensure bookings are accurate no matter where clients live and/or travel.

GST – Goods & Services Tax

Accommodations, tour packages, transportation services, and other travel-related fees (including those for meeting facilities) have an added tax known as the Goods & Services Tax (GST).  This tax is levied in many places around the globe and these charges may be reclaimed.  Having knowledge of regulations regarding GST is highly encouraged.

IATA – International Air Transport Association

The  International Air Transport Association (IATA) “represents, leads, and serves the airline industry” in various ways.  For agents, resources are available to provide a firm foundation in travel, teach the skills needed to work within the industry, and give your clients remarkable service.

IBTA – International Business Travel Association

The International Business Travel Association (IBTA) is a global business travel association that connects travel managers worldwide and allows them to share knowledge and ideas on business travel issues.

LDW – Loss Damage Waiver

Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) is supplemental insurance pertaining to vehicle rentals, theft coverage, and acts of vandalism.  This type of insurance is recommended instead of insurance that only covers basic accidents.

MK – Market Number

All online booking tools (OBTs) issue a code at the time a reservation is made.  This is a way to track Passenger Name Records (PNRs) and fulfillment. MKs should never be removed once they appear on the PNR.

NR – Non-refundable

Any fare that does not allow for a refund is non-refundable, or NR.  In many cases, non-refundable tickets may be changed for a set fee and the difference in the ticket price.

OBT – Online Booking Tool

An online booking tool (OBT) is a web-based platform that streamlines the booking process by helping travel agents save time and money. OBTs help travel managers keep track of policies, contracts, suppliers, and more.  OBTs can also help agents reach higher compliance ratings.

OSI – Other Service Information

Other Service Information (OSI) is any Global Distribution System (GDS) entry that does not require further traveler action.  Examples of OSI are contract discount codes and additional information on family members traveling together, such as the ages of children.

PAX – Passenger

When booking trips, agents may encounter the abbreviation, PAX.  This is simply a short term for “passenger.”

PNR – Passenger Name Record

A record found within a Global Distribution System, or GDS, that contains personal client details associated with a particular booking is known as a passenger name of record, or PNR.

SAS – Seminar at Sea

A Seminar at Sea (SAS) is a trip travel agents can take to become familiar with different cruise ships. Usually short cruises, these trips offer educational sessions that teach agents about the cruise line. These trips are excellent opportunities to tour new ships as well as travel to exclusive destinations.

Remember, you’re not the only one who isn’t 100% familiar with the travel industry abbreviations!

Eventually, these abbreviations will become second nature to you, and it might be tempting to use them often to save time and showcase your expertise! It’s important to remember that when speaking with clients who aren’t travel industry experts, they need to understand what you’re talking about. Always let them know what an abbreviation means if you do need to use one, and check in to see if they have any questions. While learning these shorthands can make your job as an agent easier, your number one job is always client service!

Happy learning and safe travels!

As a new professional in the travel industry, there’s no need to be intimidated by the terminology so many others have mastered.  Use memorization tips to make the process easier and use these terms as much as you can.  Practice makes perfect and with a little effort you, too, will soon feel like an expert in the travel industry.

Meet Pickles Travel Network: The Host Agency That Makes It Easy to Start and Scale Your Travel Business

Whether you’ve just started your travel agent journey, or you’ve been on it… Pickles Travel Network has the tools and resources to help grow your business. Unlike other host agencies, we believe in letting our members choose what works best for their business. Pickles Travel Network allows you to choose your commission rate, along with whether or not you want to charge planning fees. As a member, you’ll receive instant access to our list of suppliers, several marketing platforms and monthly coaching/trainings. 

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Ptn iatan code: 45769253, ptn clia number: 00032299.

When you enroll with suppliers, you must use PTN’s codes to receive a commission from us. Want to sign up for your own CLIA or IATA numbers for exclusive travel benefits? See below.

Get your own IATA/IATAN ID Card:

The IATA/IATAN ID Card is the industry-standard credential to identify bona fide travel professionals. Key benefits include access to concessionary incentives from industry suppliers. Just added, the IATA MemberPerks program provides cardholders with daily savings at over 300,000 merchants across North America.

To be eligible, you must be registered with IATAN under PTN’s IATA number 45769253, working a minimum of 20 hours per week and earning a minimum of $5,000 per annum in commissions. You’ll need to send PTN a support ticket asking for approval. Once approved, we will send you a PRIN # to allow you to register with IATAN and ask for an ID card.

Get your own CLIA EMBARK ID:

Obtain a CLIA EMBARC ID for travel discounts and FAM (Familiarization) trips. Join CLIA as an Individual Agent Member, under Pickles Travel Network CLIA #00032299.

Once you’ve registered, submit a support ticket to let us know, and we will approve your registration.

Please select the option that best describes you for more information.

Top 20 Slang For Travel – Meaning & Usage

Whether you’re a seasoned globetrotter or planning your first adventure, staying up to date with the latest slang for travel can make your journeys even more exciting. From “wanderlust” to “jet lagged,” our team has scoured the globe to bring you a curated list of the most trendy and essential travel slang. So pack your bags, get ready to explore, and let us be your guide to the lingo of the wanderlusters!

Click above to generate some slangs

1. Hit the road

This phrase is used to indicate the beginning of a trip or adventure. It can be used both literally and figuratively.

• For example , “We packed up the car and hit the road for our cross-country road trip.”
• Someone might say , “I’ve been stuck at home for too long, it’s time to hit the road and explore.”
• In a figurative sense , a person might say, “I’ve accomplished all my goals here, it’s time to hit the road and find new opportunities.”

2. Globetrotter

This term refers to someone who travels frequently or extensively to various parts of the world.

• For instance , “As a globetrotter, she has visited over 50 countries.”
• A travel blogger might describe themselves as a globetrotter , saying, “Follow my adventures as a globetrotter exploring the world.”
• In a conversation about travel , someone might ask, “Are you a globetrotter or do you prefer to stay in one place?”

3. Take off

This phrase is used to indicate the start of a journey or flight. It can be used for both literal and figurative departures.

• For example , “The plane is about to take off, please fasten your seatbelts.”
• Someone might say , “I’m taking off for my vacation tomorrow, can’t wait to relax on the beach.”
• In a figurative sense , a person might say, “I need to take off from work early today to attend a family event.”

This slang phrase means to leave for a trip or vacation in a hurry or without much notice.

• For instance , “She jetted off to Paris for a weekend getaway.”
• A friend might say , “I’m jetting off to visit my family in another state.”
• In a conversation about travel plans , someone might ask, “When are you jetting off on your next adventure?”

5. Get a little R&R

This phrase is an abbreviation for “rest and relaxation.” It refers to taking time off to relax and unwind from daily stress or work.

• For example , “After a busy week, I’m looking forward to getting a little R&R at the beach.”
• Someone might say , “I’m planning a spa weekend to get some much-needed R&R.”
• In a discussion about self-care , a person might suggest, “Take some time for yourself and get a little R&R to recharge.”

6. Backpacking

Backpacking refers to a style of travel where individuals carry their belongings in a backpack and typically stay in budget accommodations or camp. It often involves exploring multiple destinations and immersing oneself in the local culture.

• For example , “I’m going backpacking through Europe this summer.”
• A traveler might say , “Backpacking allows you to have more flexibility and freedom in your journey.”
• Someone might ask , “Do you have any tips for backpacking on a tight budget?”

7. Sightseeing

Sightseeing involves visiting famous landmarks, attractions, or points of interest in a particular destination. It often includes activities such as taking guided tours, visiting museums, or exploring natural wonders.

• For instance , “I spent the day sightseeing in Paris and saw the Eiffel Tower.”
• A traveler might say , “Sightseeing is a great way to learn about the history and culture of a new place.”
• Someone might ask , “What are the must-see sights when sightseeing in New York City?”

Wandering refers to exploring a destination without a specific plan or itinerary. It involves taking spontaneous detours, getting lost in the streets, and embracing the unexpected discoveries along the way.

• For example , “I love to wander through the narrow alleys of old cities.”
• A traveler might say , “Wandering allows you to stumble upon hidden gems and experience the local vibe.”
• Someone might ask , “Do you have any tips for wandering around a new city safely?”

Roaming involves moving freely and aimlessly, without a specific purpose or destination in mind. It often implies a sense of adventure and exploration, as one roams through different places and experiences.

• For instance , “I spent the day roaming the streets of Tokyo.”
• A traveler might say , “Roaming allows you to embrace spontaneity and go wherever your curiosity takes you.”
• Someone might ask , “What are the best neighborhoods to roam around in London?”

Cruising refers to traveling in a relaxed and leisurely manner, often by ship. It can also refer to driving or moving smoothly and effortlessly through a destination, enjoying the scenery and taking in the surroundings.

• For example , “We went on a Caribbean cruise and visited multiple islands.”
• A traveler might say , “Cruising allows you to enjoy a stress-free vacation and explore different ports of call.”
• Someone might ask , “What are the best cruise destinations for first-time travelers?”

11. Wanderer

A wanderer is someone who travels aimlessly or without a specific destination. It can also refer to someone who enjoys exploring new places and experiencing different cultures.

• For example , “He quit his job and became a wanderer, traveling from country to country.”
• A travel blogger might describe themselves as a wanderer , saying, “I’m always on the move, seeking new adventures.”
• In a conversation about travel , someone might ask, “Are you more of a planner or a wanderer?”

12. Road tripper

A road tripper is someone who enjoys traveling long distances by car, often taking a leisurely route and making stops along the way to explore different places.

• For instance , “We’re going on a road trip across the country and plan to visit several national parks.”
• A group of friends might say , “Let’s gather some snacks and hit the road as road trippers.”
• In a discussion about travel preferences , someone might ask, “Are you a road tripper or do you prefer flying?”

13. Travel enthusiast

A travel enthusiast is someone who has a strong interest in and passion for traveling. They enjoy exploring new destinations, trying new experiences, and immersing themselves in different cultures.

• For example , “She’s a travel enthusiast who has visited over 50 countries.”
• A travel blogger might describe themselves as a travel enthusiast , saying, “I’m constantly planning my next adventure.”
• In a conversation about hobbies , someone might ask, “Are you a travel enthusiast? Where have you been?”

14. Explore new horizons

To explore new horizons means to venture into unfamiliar territories or to try new travel experiences. It refers to the act of broadening one’s travel experiences and seeking out new destinations or activities.

• For instance , “I’m ready to explore new horizons and visit countries I’ve never been to before.”
• A travel agency might advertise , “Let us help you explore new horizons with our unique travel packages.”
• In a conversation about travel goals , someone might say, “I want to explore new horizons and step out of my comfort zone.”

15. Adventure seeker

An adventure seeker is someone who actively seeks out thrilling and exciting experiences while traveling. They enjoy activities such as hiking, skydiving, and exploring challenging terrains.

• For example , “He’s an adventure seeker who loves bungee jumping and rock climbing.”
• An adventure travel company might target adventure seekers , saying, “Join us for adrenaline-pumping experiences around the world.”
• In a discussion about travel preferences , someone might ask, “Are you more of a beach relaxer or an adventure seeker?”

16. Travel aficionado

This term refers to someone who is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about travel. A travel aficionado is someone who has a deep love for exploring new places and experiencing different cultures.

• For example , a travel aficionado might say, “I’ve been to over 50 countries and counting. Traveling is my biggest passion.”
• In a conversation about favorite destinations , a person might ask, “Any recommendations for a travel aficionado like me?”
• Someone might describe themselves as a travel aficionado by saying , “I spend all my free time planning my next adventure. I’m a true travel aficionado.”

17. Jet off to paradise

This phrase is used to describe traveling to a beautiful, exotic location, typically a tropical paradise. It implies a sense of excitement and luxury associated with traveling to a dream destination.

• For instance , someone might say, “I can’t wait to jet off to paradise and relax on the beach.”
• In a conversation about vacation plans , a person might say, “We’re jetting off to paradise next month for our honeymoon.”
• A travel blogger might write , “If you’re looking to escape the cold, jet off to paradise and enjoy the crystal-clear waters and white sandy beaches.”

18. Travel the world

This phrase is a common expression used to describe the act of traveling to various countries and experiencing different cultures. It emphasizes the idea of exploring and broadening one’s horizons through travel.

• For example , someone might say, “My dream is to quit my job and travel the world.”
• In a conversation about travel goals , a person might ask, “Have you ever wanted to travel the world and see all the wonders it has to offer?”
• A travel vlogger might say , “I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world and document my adventures on YouTube.”

19. Go on a journey

This phrase is used to describe the act of starting a new travel experience or adventure. It conveys a sense of excitement and anticipation for what lies ahead.

• For instance , someone might say, “I’m ready to go on a journey and explore new places.”
• In a conversation about travel plans , a person might ask, “Where are you going on your next journey?”
• A travel writer might describe their latest trip by saying , “I recently went on a journey through Europe, visiting multiple countries and immersing myself in the local culture.”

20. Travel in style

This phrase is used to describe traveling with a sense of luxury and style. It implies that the person is not just focused on getting from one place to another, but also on enjoying the journey and making a statement with their travel choices.

• For example , someone might say, “I always travel in style, staying in the finest hotels and flying first class.”
• In a conversation about travel preferences , a person might ask, “Do you prefer to travel in style or are you more budget-conscious?”
• A travel influencer might post on social media , “Traveling in style is all about the little details. From designer luggage to luxury accommodations, I always make sure to travel in style.”

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Travel on Point(s)

• Points & Miles Glossary: Every Travel Abbreviation & Acronym You Need

• July 26, 2023
• Brian Soares

Travel on Point(s) is an independent, advertising-supported website. This site is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites like Cardratings.com. This compensation does not impact how or where products appear on this site. Travel on Point(s) has not reviewed all available credit card offers on this site. Reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any partner entities.

Points Miles Glossary

The points & miles world is filled with acronyms and abbreviations. Many of these become second nature after some time. If you are just starting out or saw a new acronym used in our Facebook group , our points and miles glossary has a list of common abbreviations and acronyms that should help below.

Table of Contents

Common Miles & Points Abbreviations and Acronyms

This points & miles glossary is in alphabetical order to make it easy to locate what you need. If you don't feel like scrolling you can use the following shortcuts:

• Ctrl + F to pull up a search box
• Cmd + F to pull up a search box
• In Safari, type the word in the search bar, then choose the  On This Page  option to find a word on a web page.
• Open the kebab menu (three vertical dots) in the upper right.
• Tap Find in page.
• Chrome will search as you type and highlight matching text. Select Search (the magnifying glass icon) to close the keyboard and finish your search.

Points & Miles Abbreviations: 

• Chase’s rule that you cannot get a new Chase product unless you have less than 5 new credit card accounts in the (rolling) prior 24 months
• American Express
• Amex Offers (targeted offers from Amex on specific cards for bonus points or cash back at specific merchants)
• Amex Platinum
• Authorized User (on a credit card)
• American Express Blue Business Plus Card
• Bonvoy Rewards (Marriott’s loyalty program)
• a company and/or a CSR botched a simple task (usually in reference to Marriott, as its new Bonvoy Rewards and integration with the old SPG Hotel chain has not gone smoothly)
• Cash Advance
• Charles Schwab
• Chase Freedom
• Chase Freedom Flex
• Chase Freedom Unlimited
• Chase Ink Business Preferred
• Chase Ink Cash
• Chase Ink Unlimited
• Southwest Companion Pass
• Cents Per Point, the cash value derived from a points redemption
• Chase Sapphire Preferred
• Chase Sapphire Reserve OR Customer Service Rep
• Downgrade, usually the same as a Product Change (see PC)
• First class
• Free Night Certificate (a certificate issued by a hotel (often through a co-branded credit card) that is valid for a one-night stay) (also known as FNA – free night award)
• Fuel Rewards (Shell) OR Financial Review (usually Amex)
• Global Entry
• Hang Up, Call Again (speak to multiple CSRs to get the response you want)
• Business class
• The airline on whose plane you're actually flying, not the airline through which you necessarily booked your flight (e.g., if you redeemed British Airways Avios to fly on American Airlines, you're flying on AA metal)
• United MileagePlus X mobile app
• Membership Rewards (Amex’s rewards currency)
• Minimum Spend or Minimum Spend Requirement , the amount of money required to be spent on a particular card in order to earn the sign up bonus
• No Lifetime Language (credit card offers from Amex without the standard language in the terms and conditions precluding applicants from receiving a welcome bonus if they have received a welcome bonus for that card before)
• Player One, the primary points and miles enthusiast in a household/family/relationship
• Player Two, a secondary person (spouse/significant other/family member/friend) whose points and miles and credit contribute to travels with P1
• Product Change (to a different credit card), usually the same as a Downgrade (see DG)
• PayPal or Priority Pass (Lounge Access)
• PayPal Key, a virtual Mastercard debit card offered by PayPal that is linked to any form of payment you want.
• A Reconsideration Call . Asking a human to review a credit card application after a denial. It happens and if the first one doesn’t work, HUCA.
• Sign Up Bonus
• Thank You Points (Citi’s rewards currency)
• Ultimate Rewards (Chase’s rewards currency)
• World of Hyatt (Hyatt’s loyalty program)
• Economy class
• “Your mileage may vary” (your experience might be different than someone else's when trying something)
• Fuel surcharges or “carrier-imposed surcharges” (fees charged by some airlines when booking an award flight)

A lot of acronyms also involve airlines and airport codes. A list of popular airline codes is available here , and a list of airport codes is available here .

Points & Miles Glossary: ToP Thoughts

Hopefully you found this points & miles glossary helpful. If there is anything we missed please let us know in the ToP Facebook Group and we will be sure to add it in. Safe & happy travels out there!

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• Credit Cards

Earning and redeeming points for travel is a lot of fun, but the volume of abbreviations and jargon that you encounter along the way can seem daunting at first.

Here’s a rundown of all the lingo we use when describing the process of racking up the miles and then splashing them on amazing travel experiences.

1x/2x/5x 1% back/2% back/5% back; used to describe the rewards earning rate on your spending on a particular credit card

5/24 Refers to a rule put in place by Chase in the USA where you can’t be approved for certain cards if you’ve opened five or more cards in the past 24 months

X/24 Used to indicate that you’ve applied for X cards within the past 24 months, in reference to the 5/24 rule

*A Star Alliance; the world’s largest airline alliance that counts Air Canada, Lufthansa, ANA, and United as members

AAoA Average age of accounts; a way for credit bureaus to measure the length of your credit history, which is a component that’s worth about 15% of your credit score

AC The airline code of Air Canada, our national flag carrier

AF Annual fee; the fees commanded by higher-end credit cards

AM Air Miles ; one of Canada’s most popular rewards programs that unfortunately doesn’t provide great value for travel

Amex/AMEX American Express; issuer of the credit cards with some of the highest signup bonuses in Canada and operator of the Membership Rewards program

AP Aeroplan ; Air Canada’s loyalty program and one of the most versatile programs for Canadian points collectors

AS The airline code of Alaska Airlines, often used in shorthand to refer to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

AU Authorized user; also known as a supplementary cardholder, this is a secondary cardholder who can charge purchases to the credit card account but is not responsible for paying off the card

Aventura Refers to the in-house rewards program of CIBC, one of Canada’s Big 5 banks

Avion Refers to the in-house rewards program of RBC , one of Canada’s Big 5 banks

Avios Refers to the rewards currency of British Airways’s loyalty program , which is useful for short-haul flight redemptions

CL Credit limit; the spending limits imposed on your credit card by the issuer

CPM/CPP Cents per mile or cents per point; one of the most common metrics for determining the value of a points redemption, typically calculated as follows:

(cash price – award taxes and fees) / # of points used

CSR Customer service representative; managing credit cards and redeeming points typically requires dealing with call centres, where you’re subject to the whims of the customer service representative

DP Data point; a single item of information about one’s experiences that may be helpful to others, such as whether you receive the signup bonus on a certain card despite having held it before

EQ Equifax; one of the two credit bureaus in Canada

F The letter designation for First Class used in the commercial aviation industry; often used in conjunction with an airline code to denote the product (e.g., “CX F” for Cathay Pacific First Class)

FF/FFP Frequent flyer program; a loyalty program offered by an airline to incentivize you to fly with them regularly

FR Financial review ; a process in which financial institutions conduct a thorough review of your finances because of suspected credit risk

FT FlyerTalk ; the world’s largest frequent flyer forum and a good source of Miles & Points information

FTF Foreign transaction fees; the conversion fees that banks and credit cards tack on to purchases denominated in foreign currencies, with 2.5% being the industry standard here in Canada

FYF First Year Free; first-year annual fee waivers offered by credit card issuers as a promotion

HUCA Hang up, call again ; when you deal with call centres to negotiate an annual fee or redeem your miles for a ticket, you might get connected to an agent who either can’t or won’t accomplish what you need, so just hang up politely and try again

IRROPS Irregular operations; a term used in the air travel industry to describe whenever something goes wrong, such as delays and cancellations

ITIN Individual Taxpayer Identification Number; an IRS-issued number to help foreign individuals declare income and potential stand-in for a social security number if you’re looking to get US credit cards

J The letter designation for business class used in the commercial aviation industry; often used in conjunction with an airline code to denote the product (e.g., “AC J” for Air Canada business class)

Layover Refers to stops of less than 24 hours in duration on award tickets

Mini-RTW The Aeroplan Mini-Round-the-World ; an unofficial term for the practice of leveraging Aeroplan’s generous stopover policies to build trips in which you visit 3+ cities around the world for the price of one

MR Membership Rewards ; the most useful transferrable rewards currency in Canada

MSR Minimum spending requirement; the amount of money you need to spend within a certain time period (typically three months) in order to earn the signup bonus on a new credit card

OJ Open-jaw; refers to the practice of flying into one city and out of another city on the same ticket

OW One-way; a ticket in only one direction as opposed to a round-trip

OW Oneworld; a leading airline alliance that counts American Airlines, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific as members

POT Point of turnaround; another term for the “destination” of an Aeroplan award ticket, which is the farthest city from your origin among all your stops of over 24 hours in duration

PP Priority Pass ; a membership-based global airline lounge program with over 1,200 lounges, often granted as a perk on premium credit cards

PY Premium economy; the class of service between economy class and business class that’s been recently introduced by some airlines on widebody aircraft

Recon Reconsideration; when you’re denied for a new credit card but you call the issuer to argue your case for why you should be approved

RT Round-trip; a flight that goes to your destination and then comes back, as opposed to a one-way

SM Secure Message; a feature offered by certain financial institutions in which you can send online chat messages to complete basic tasks like cancelling a card or transferring points, instead of having to call in

ST SkyTeam; the world’s newest airline alliance that counts Delta, Air France/KLM, and Korean Air as members

SUB Signup bonus; the bonus points you receive for opening a credit card

Stopover Refers to stops of greater than 24 hours in duration on award tickets

T&C Terms & conditions; the fine print on all credit cards and points programs laying out the rules of the game

TATL Transatlantic; flights between North America and Europe

TPAC Transpacific; flights between North America and Asia

TU TransUnion; one of the two credit bureaus in Canada

WB Welcome bonus; the bonus points you receive for opening a credit card

WS The airline code of WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline

Y The letter designation for economy class used in the commercial aviation industry; often used in conjunction with an airline code to denote the product (e.g., “WS Y” for WestJet economy class)

YMMV Your Mileage May Vary; used to describe the fact that experiences may vary between different people, so (for example) just because one person got their annual fee waived on a card doesn’t mean that everyone else will

YQ A code used in the air travel industry to denote fuel surcharges or carrier-imposed surcharges, the pesky fees that certain airlines levy when redeeming award tickets

Great info I have been churning for years,enjoy your site.Lerning new tricks!!!

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Words to Know: A Beginning Travel Agent Glossary

Written by: KHM Staff on March 28, 2019

The travel industry is full of lingo and acronyms that can be confusing for newcomers. There’s so much to learn, you don’t want to get stuck Googling definitions every time you start a new course or read through a supplier brochure. Knowing these common industry words and abbreviations will help those new to this world learn to speak travel agent.

AI stands for all-inclusive. In its most general use, this refers to an all-inclusive meal plan, which includes meals, snacks, and beverages, even those with alcohol. AI Resorts are all-inclusive resorts that include the meal plan, gratuities, and most activities. The amenities for these resorts can vary, and some may have additional fees for certain activities like golf or motorized water sports.

Mexico and the Caribbean are popular locations for all-inclusive resorts, though there are some in other locations like Costa Rica, and two in the U.S.

Use it in a sentence: “I loved the AI we stayed at in Cancun. I can’t wait to go back!”

This abbreviation stands for the American Society of Travel Advisors. This organization is a leading global advocate for travel advisors, the travel industry, and travelers. ASTA is an association of travel professionals who connect and share information about the travel industry. They offer resources and host events to educate their members about the latest news and information.

Use it in a sentence: “I am attending the ASTA convention this year to learn more about the policies and changes that are affecting the travel industry.”

A Business Development Manager represents a travel supplier. Their role is to increase awareness of their brand and help travel agents grow their sales with the brand. KHM Travel Group works with many leading travel suppliers and their BDMs to provide our agents with unique opportunities and offers. They can also assist when agents have special requests or unique challenges that arise.

Our BDMs and Supplier Relations teams work closely together to host educational events and webinars to share what is new with their brands and promotions that are available to our agents.

Use it in a sentence: “I met the BDM from Norwegian Cruise Line at Boot Camp last year.”

Cruise Line International Association is an organization that focuses its energy on educating its members on cruising. CLIA’s focuses on providing travel agents with educational opportunities to learn more about cruising through online courses and industry events. The association also issues a CLIA number, which travel agencies use as an industry identifier. It is widely accepted for all forms of travel with the exception of direct air bookings.

Use it in a sentence: “I was ready through CLIA’s website last night, and I learned all about sustainable cruising initiatives.”

FAM trip is a shortened version of “familiarization trip.” On these trips, travel agents visit certain destinations and resorts to gain first-hand knowledge of the places their clients want to visit. Agents are able to use their personal experience to provide their clients with specific details and increase their travel sales for these locations. The cost of these trips vary and are sometimes offered to agents at a discount or special rate.

Use it in a sentence: “I heard there is a FAM trip coming up for Sandals . Is there still time to register?”

FIT stands for “foreign independent travel.” This type of travel is designed for those who take a trip that does not follow an itinerary preset by a travel supplier and does not have a set tour guide or leader. Read more about FIT trips and how they differ from escorted tours here.

Use it in a sentence: “My clients opted for FIT over an escorted tour for their trip to Paris.”

Similar to a FAM Trip, a Seminar at Sea is a trip that travel agents take to familiarize themselves with a cruise ship. These are usually short cruises and can include educational sessions on board to help agents learn more about the cruise line. For agents that specialize in cruising, these can be important opportunities to see new ships and exclusive destinations, as many cruise lines also operate private island destinations in the Caribbean.

Use it in a sentence:  “The SAS I took last year gave me a whole new perspective on Carnival Cruise Line.”

Travel.state.gov

This website is the official government site for the U.S. Department of State. It is an important resource for travel agents to ensure their clients are prepared to travel abroad. The site includes a list of the entry requirements for U.S. citizens visiting foreign countries as well as the embassy locations for each country. It is also a key resource for learning about visa requirements and travel notices.

Use it in a sentence:  “For the most up-to-date passport information and travel advisories, I always check travel.state.gov .”

Are you interested in learning more about the travel industry and how you can launch your own travel business? KHM Travel Group is a host travel agency that provides the resources and tools that independent travel agents need to start and grow their business. For more information, fill out the form to the right or give us a call at 1-888-611-1220.

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Words To Know: A Beginning Travel Agent Glossary

Sachindra karki.

Sachindra Karki is a writer by profession, experienced in biography writing he is fond of free writing and wordplay. He believes that writing is an artistic form of expressing oneself.

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Like any other industry, the travel industry is also full of different kinds of acronyms and dialects, which can be hard for the new personnel and travelers to understand. You may not want to Google the definitions for the term every time you hear it. Learning these abbreviations and travel industry words can be quite helpful during your travel to properly understand the conditions of the terms your agent is using.

So, here we have come up with the list of travel agent glossary for a beginner, which can be valuable if you have to run across the industry terms that are unknown to you.

• AAA Five Diamond Award : AAA Five Diamond Award is also a type hotel valuation system similar to star systems like 3-stars hotels and 5-star hotels. The AAA (American Automobile Association) rewards the hotels this appraisal, the services of the Five Diamond Award hotels can be compared to the facilities of the 5-star hotels around the world. The hotels in the U.S, Mexico, Canada, practice this rating system.
• ABR= Average Bed Rate : ABR, which stands for the Average Bed Rate, is the total amount charged for the bed divided by the total number of sold beds. This rate is practiced by the hotels to maximize the revenue per bed in the hotel than maximizing the revenue by just only one room. The managers can find ways to increase their average rate by identifying the factors affecting the ABR.
• ASTA : ASTA stands for the American Society of Travel Advisors, which is a global leading advocate organization formed to aid the travel advisors, travelers, and overall the whole travel industry. The employees associated with the ASTA help to connect people of the travel industry with each other, share the chain of information, and keep notifying the travel personals about the new updates in the travel sector. Furthermore, the ASTA also organizes different kinds of events to educate the members of the tourism sector about the latest news, policies, and changes that are affecting the travel industry.
• Administration Costs : The administration costs are also known as the fixed cost or overhead cost that incur on business or hotels as the running expenses. It can be simply understood as the basic costs that occur in an organization without making any sales. Some of the examples of the administrative costs are taxes, licensing fees, facility upkeep, and so on.
• BDM= Business Development Manager : The BDM represents a top official in the industry who is in charge of handling the travel suppliers. The major role of the BDM is to increase awareness about their brand, which is designed to help the travel agents to grow their business. These types of personnel work with the top tier travel suppliers to provide the best deal and opportunities to the travel agents. Also, they can be of great assistance to aid the agents when there is a unique request or in cases where unique challenges arise, which can be too much for a single agent.
• Accommodation : The word accommodation can be understood as the lodging, renting a room or building as a shelter for a person while traveling. There are several types of accommodation facilities that are practiced throughout the travel industry, like; hostels, hotels, motel, resort, inns, homestays, etc.
• CLIA : CLIA, which stands for the Cruise Line International Association, is an organization that emphasizes educating its members about the cruising industry. This organization puts its resources and efforts to good use by creating several opportunities for the travel agents to learn more about cruising, be it via an online course or any other industry events. The CLIA also provides a number to the agents and the agencies which are used as the identifier for the recognition in the industry. The agencies that are associated with the CLIA and have got their own number can use it in all forms of travel, which is also widely accepted and with the benefit of direct air booking.
• ADR= Average Daily Rate : The Average Daily Rate is calculated in the hotels and accommodation facilities to find out the price or rate for each individual room for a specific day. It is the most common way of measuring the performance of the hotel organization and comparing it with other business rivals with a similar size, clientele, services, location, and so on.
• FAM Trip : The ‘FAM’ trip is the short version of the ‘Familiarization Trip.’ This trip is generally taken by the travel agents firsthand to get familiar with any new destination before creating a vacation package about it. The agents collect information about the place, and when it comes to the time to send clients, the specific details and attractions of the location can be used as the plus point to increase the sales package to the destination. This type of trip is offered to the agents at a heavy discount, special rate, or even free of cost in some cases by the hosts of the destination to increase the inflow of the customers.
• ADS= Alternative Distribution System : The ADS term is used to define the distribution of services through third-party websites. It is also known as the virtual marketplace where the agents can showcase their clients the services they host; the ADS include services like OTA, travel search directories, airline website, and other reservation websites.
• OTA= Online Travel Agency : OTAs recognized as online travel companies allow consumers to book various kinds of services from their websites. The consumer can choose the services they desire directly from the internet, including vacation packages, rental services, as well as hotels and restaurant reservations. As the consumer can book any kind of services on-the-go, these are the most popular ways for finding out the ideal vacation destinations.
• FIT : FIT stands for Foreign Independent Travel, these types of travel are designed for the people who don’t want to limit themselves with the plans of an itinerary. The agencies create FIT packages for the solo travelers or groups who can design their own trip plans, these kinds of trips also don’t have any tour guide or leader to manage the team. The FIT travel plans may not be able to cover the destination like a structured itinerary planned by the travel agent who has years of experience in the field. Further, for the new traveler, the escorted tour by an agency is more cost-effective, so unless you are expertise in the backpacking way of traveling, you may want to stick to an agency.
• AOR= Adult Only Resort : These kinds of resorts are designated for the couples and groups that are looking for a romantic or a relaxing holiday. The resorts and hotels in this category are only available for clients over the age of 18. The accommodation and other services in these categories are catered towards the older audience; also, every small detail and comforts are designed for adult clients.
• SAS : SAS, which stands for the ‘Seminar at Sea,’ is quite similar to the FAM trip where the agents take a cruise trip to get familiar with its services. However, compared to the FAM trip, these kinds of trips may last for only a little while, the agents who are present to get familiar with the cruise trip may be given an educational session on board to brief them about the services and specialties of the cruise line. This can be a hefty opportunity for the travel agents who specialize in the cruising sector as the SAS offers them the exclusive new destinations, the new ships in the game, and also an inner view on how cruise line operates on private islands or out in the deep oceans.
• All-Inclusive Hotel/Resort : When you come across a package that says all-inclusive either in a resort or hotel, it means everything is included in the price. The inclusive holiday packages include the minimum lodging, three meals a day, soft drinks or hard drinks, and other additional services in the price range. The packages may differ from hotel to hotel depending on the services, recreational activities, and entertainment facilities they can offer. Some resort or hotel may charge some additional fees depending on the extra activities they can offer like golf or water surfing, skiing, and so on.
• ALOS= Average Length of Stay : The average length of stay is the term practiced in the hospitality industry to determine the number of days a client would be staying. The ALOS is calculated, dividing the number of room nights by the number of bookings. The travel agents who are overseeing the vacation use this term to book the hospitality facility for their clients. So, next time you see the ALOS abbreviation on the form, but the number of days you are planning to stay.
• TRAVEL.STATE.GOV : The official government website of the U.S Department of State is an important resource for travel agents to prepare the clients for traveling abroad. This site provides all the requirements that a U.S citizen needs to fulfill before visiting a foreign country. Moreover, this site also includes the location of the entire U.S embassy for each of the countries in the world if the citizen needs some kind of aid in the middle of the travel. The users also can use learn about the visa requirements on the site, and they will also be frequently updated with the new travel news and notices.
• Allocation/ Allotment : The ‘Allocation’ and ‘Allotment’ terms are practiced by the hotels and accommodation service providers. Allocation stands for the process of selecting a number of rooms and making them available for sale, the number of room allocated may not be the same as the total number of the room the accommodation service provider is in possession of. The hotel manager can choose to allocate only a limited number of rooms so the hotel can make other rooms available at the near-peak season when the inflow of the customer is expected to be high, creating higher revenues at the period.                     Similarly, the Allotment is a process used to designate a certain block of pre- booked rooms, which was held by a thor party like a travel agency or any other booking party. If the hotel has any unsold room prior to a few days of the guest’s arrival from the third parties, they can also be released back to the party if there is any such kind of agreement between the supplier and the accommodation service providers.
• Agency Model : The Agency Model is a form of OTA but in a commercial model. The special feature about the agency model is that the clients pay directly to the accommodation service providers, and when the stay is confirmed, the service provider offers an agreed commission to the OTA agency. The hotels provide the OTA agencies a sell rate; it allows the hotels to create a transparent price and using the rate parity as a strategy to attract more consumers. The agency model is also very beneficial for the cash flow of the hotel; the clients also bear a low risk as they don’t book directly to the hotels and can cancel the reservation without being charged the cancellation fees.
• Back-to-Back Ticketing : The back-to-back ticketing is the process of booking two overlapping round trips with the opposite origin and destinations. Both bookings meet the restrictions required to get a discount fare, then one segment from each trip for both destinations of the single journey is used to get a lower fare. Generally, the travelers stick to this method of traveling to boycott the ticketing restriction like Saturday night stay-over and not to pay higher prices for the mid-week travels.
• Concierge : Concierge is hotel personnel who is provided by the hotel as an additional service to brief the client about the non-hotel attraction, services, and activities they can enjoy in the destination. These kinds of services are only provided at the high-grade hotels, which provide additional amenities and pieces of information to the guest at relatively higher prices. The additional services may include the reservation at the top restaurants or eateries, adventure activities or city tours, etc. The concierge works as the primary bond between the hotel guest and the non-hotel related activities that the guest wishes for. Booking different kinds of services or reserving adventure packages for guests is non-hotel related, so it can be more expensive depending on the nature of the activities and sightseeing the guest wishes for.
• Confirmed reservation : The confirmed reservation is a formal letter that is taken as the written statement by the supplier that he/she has received a reservation and will honor it. The travel agencies or any third-party booking services practice this tradition to confirm the reservation of their guests. This tradition is practiced in the tourism industry because the oral confirmation isn’t of much value as they don’t have any legal bounding, but the suppliers and hotels that have deep bonds do practice the oral confirmation of the number of guests arriving. However, the confirmed reservation letter also have their own limitations; they might not be obliged to follow if the arrival of the guest is behind the designated time; like the hotels may not honor reservation if the guest arrives after 6 p.m. unless the confirmed reservation confirms the late arrival.
• Consolidator : Consolidator is a wholesaler who purchases the airline tickets in large numbers and re-sells them to the individuals or travel agencies. The ticket provided by the consolidators comes at a low price, but they do tend to have some complex restrictions. The price difference when you purchase from a consolidator and direct airline can have a vast difference. So, if your travel agency has a connection with consolidators, the trip can be quite cost-efficient. The fares provided by the consolidator have been found to be the cost-saving way of traveling on international flights.
• Consolidation : Consolidation is the process of compensating a client if his/her flight is canceled due to any unforeseen event. If the charter flight has to cancel a flight in the specific departure period or charter departure, the tour operator transfers the traveler into another charter flight or to the other flights for the same destination on the same day. Further, the tour operators also sell the same tour with identical departures dates through other outlets and wholesalers to reduce the possibility of tour cancellations.
• Electronic Ticket : This is a special way of traveling where the travelers do not need any kind of paper airline tickets. The traveler can check-in and fly from the designated destination with just the proper photo ID of themselves. The tour operator makes every kind of preparation for the client booking and assigning an electronic ticket number. The best thing about the electronic ticket is that like a normal paper ticket, it never gets lost or can be used by anyone else besides the designated client. The only drawback electronic ticket has it, that if there is any cancellation of flights, the traveler must print the hard copy of the ticket so other airline services.

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As globalization unwinds, the world is still growing more unequal

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A year ago, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan announced the advent of a new “Washington consensus.” The speech he delivered at a think tank then was something of a bombshell in the foreign policy community — a declaration by a senior U.S. official that the world’s leading superpower wanted to move on from decades of economic orthodoxy and unfettered globalization to a different arrangement between nations and their societies.

The old “Washington consensus” was shorthand for a set of neoliberal policies and prescriptions put forward in the last decades of the 20th century by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, its sister organization. The diktats of these Washington-based institutions — mandating austerity, deregulation and privatization — prefigured a wave of globalization that crested into the 21st century. They undergirded a sense of the world bound together by commerce and trade, and lifted up by a shared prosperity, that became a kind of dogma for political elites in the West and elsewhere.

Such convictions are no longer commonly held. In the West, political leaders now speak of globalization in pejorative terms — a legacy of economic policy that made some rich while weakening the middle classes of their own societies, where manufacturing jobs dried up, wages stagnated and life grew more precarious. Sullivan pointed to the Biden administration’s embrace of industrial policy and major stimulus spending as a major paradigm shift — and a key cog in the United States' plans to compete with China in the decades to come.

The world was not “flat,” Sullivan seemed to argue, but bumpy. And it was up to governments and alliances of like-minded states to smooth out the disturbances and disruptions caused by shocks such as the pandemic, the ambitions of rising great powers like China and wars that snarl global supply chains. Move over, laissez faire capitalism — welcome back, mercantilism and protectionism.

Even as the contours of the new orthodoxy are still taking shape, some underlying global realities remain the same — perhaps, even more pronounced. As the IMF and World Bank staged their annual meetings this week in Washington, officials and economists put forward somewhat gloomy prognostications. The IMF projected annual global growth at levels still below what took place before the pandemic, and warned of longer-term troubles ahead.

“Rising geopolitical risks, including signs of a global trading system dividing into separate blocs oriented around the United States and China, are also troubling fund officials,” my colleague David Lynch reported . “If that split widens, nations could suffer ‘large output losses’ as goods and capital move around the world less efficiently, the fund warned in its flagship World Economic Outlook.”

This sluggishness has major ramifications for the West’s graying societies, but it’s all the more concerning for poorer nations in the developing world. The ambitious programs of stimulus and subsidies put forward by the United States and the European Union may cut against investment and opportunities elsewhere. “Poorer and less-developed countries could be deprived of the benefits of globalization as the major economies turn inward and as trade and financial flows fragment and fall in line with deepening geopolitical fissures,” Eswar Prasad, an international trade expert at Cornell University, told Bloomberg News .

Many countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, are also buckling under crippling public debt burdens and struggling to chart a way out. “With growth being slow, the chances to catch up are actually worsened,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said earlier this year. “You have countries that are truly facing life or death, economic, social difficulties.”

To some in the Global South, institutions like the IMF and World Bank remain part of the problem . A new analysis by Oxfam found that “income inequality is high or increasing” in 60 percent of low- and middle-income countries that receive grants or loans from the IMF and World Bank. That’s in part due to enforced cuts in public spending that impact the lives of ordinary citizens in these countries.

Grieve Chelwa , a Zambian economist based in the United Arab Emirates, pointed to his country’s recent experience, where IMF mandates have hobbled social spending, contributed to a rise in food prices and exacerbated a cost of living crisis. “IMF-enforced austerity,” he told me, may “lead to another lost generation for Zambia and Zambians.”

“More than ever, the U.S. and other rich nations must wake up the reality that that these institutions, as they function, have not only outlived their usefulness, but fallen into a destructive obsolescence,” said Ndongo Samba Sylla, a Senegalese development economist, speaking at an event hosted by Oxfam in Washington this week.

While Americans and citizens of other wealthy nations face their own economic headwinds, people in poorer countries find themselves trapped in situations where their governments sometimes have their hands tied. The strength of the U.S. dollar and the whims of foreign credit ratings agencies have as much impact on their lives as the policies of their own states.

In the more competitive era hailed by Sullivan, Western governments appear to be reducing their development assistance to poorer nations , at ruinous cost. Mohamed Nasheed, former president of the Maldives and the head of a bloc of nations known as Climate Vulnerable Forum, which represents some of the nations most threatened by the effects of global warming, said that the 68 economies in this bloc lost more than half a trillion dollars in wealth over the past two decades thanks to climate change, though they contributed only about 4 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

But many of these countries find themselves grappling with high levels of external sovereign debt, and the obligation to service these debts to lenders like the IMF “are crowding out the ability of governments to make the investments required to achieve their climate change and development goals,” Nasheed told me.

The leaders of the IMF and World Bank are keen that their institutions — which emerged at a time when much of the world was still the province of fading European empires — evolve for the needs of the 21st century. Western officials are also trying to address widening inequalities both within countries and between them. In Washington, the finance ministers of France and Brazil jointly revealed plans to crack down on tax avoidance by the wealthy. These proposals may pick up steam in the coming months as Brazil takes charge of this year’s meetings involving the Group of 20 major economies.

But to many in the Global South, the “new” Washington consensus still registers as the old one. “That advanced economies are now openly pursuing industrial strategy is a shift — yet the same international financial institutions that rich countries dominate are still prescribing a heavy dose of the Washington Consensus to developing countries,” Adriana Abdenur, a policy adviser at the office of Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, said at the Oxfam event, while speaking in a personal capacity. “The system is fueling inequality rather than fighting it.”

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TNDTE February 2024 result for Typewriting, Shorthand, Accountancy out on dte.tn.gov.in, link, cut-off, merit list here

TNDTE Result 2024 : The Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) Tamil Nadu has announced results of the February 2024 government technical examination. Candidates who appeared in the TNDTE Government Technical Examinations in February 2024 can now check their results on dte.tn.gov.in. The merit list and pass percentages (cut-off marks) for Typewriting, Shorthand and Accountancy have been provided here.

TNDTE February result 2024 direct link

A total of 213067 students registered for the February exam, of whom 206331 took the test. The overall pass percentage stands at 65.71 per cent.

How to check TNDTE Typewriting, Shorthand, Accountancy February 2024 result

• Go to the official website of TNDTE at dte.tn.gov.in.
• Go to announcements.
• Open the ‘Government Technical Examinations February 2024 results-Reg’ link.
• A PDF containing the result document will open. Check and download it.

The consolidated result of the February exam is available through institute login at tndtegteonline.in. Candidates are advised to contact their respective institutes to know their individual results.

Read more news like this on HindustanTimes.com

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If last week’s process of selecting jurors was a kind of prologue to the criminal trial of Donald Trump, today marked the robust beginning of the first act, complete with introduction of the plot and foreshadowing of future drama.

The government’s first witness, David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, had laid out the basics of his résumé and his style of “checkbook journalism” in about 30 minutes of testimony yesterday.

But today was a longer, more in-depth session, running about two and a half hours. Pecker set the stage for future testimony by other witnesses and plunged into a crucial element in the state’s case: that Trump worked with allies like Pecker on “catch-and-kill,” shorthand for buying and then burying potentially unflattering stories.

It was a fascinating dive, including Pecker’s narrative of agreeing during a meeting at Trump Tower in August 2015 — not long after Trump had descended his building’s golden escalator and launched his presidential campaign — to be the “eyes and ears” of the Trump campaign , keeping a lookout for rumors in what he called “the marketplace,” where salacious tales are bought and sold.

Pecker’s main contact in many of these dealings was Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer, who is now expected to be a key witness against him.

In particular, Pecker said that he was to alert Cohen for stories involving women in Trump’s life, noting that the then-candidate was “well known as the most eligible bachelor” who “dated the most beautiful women.”

“I was the person who thought there would be a lot of women to come out to sell their stories,” Pecker said.

Pecker said that his arrangement with Trump also extended to writing negative stories about Republican opponents, including suggesting that Senator Ted Cruz was unfaithful to his wife and that Ben Carson had committed malpractice by leaving a sponge in a patient’s brain.

Pecker called the arrangement mutually beneficial, with Trump feeding him scoops about his show “The Apprentice” and driving reader interest: Trump was “a tremendous help” for his publications. “We followed him religiously,” he said.

Burying stories

Pecker’s testimony is apparently aimed at establishing Trump’s pattern of buying up unsavory stories, in line with the $130,000 payment Cohen made to Stormy Daniels, a porn star, in the weeks before the 2016 election. That payment, for which Cohen was later reimbursed, lies at the heart of the charges of falsification of business records that Trump faces. Trump denies the encounter with Daniels and the charges, calling them politically motivated.

Pecker also gave an example in which The National Enquirer paid off a doorman who previously worked at a Trump building, Dino Sajudin, who was looking to sell a story about an illegitimate child Trump was rumored to have fathered . The story turned out to be unfounded, but Pecker’s company, AMI, still paid $30,000 to shut it down.

And, in a potentially telling detail, after Trump won election in November 2016, a lawyer for Pecker’s company wrote the doorman and said he was free to shop the story — a detail supported by an email the prosecution introduced this afternoon.

Prosecutors also began to unspool the story of the Playboy model Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Trump, something he denies. In June 2016, Pecker sent his editor Dylan Howard to Los Angeles to interview McDougal to find out “what the details are.” Cohen repeatedly called Pecker, apparently worried about what McDougal intended to do, Pecker said.

“It looked like he was getting a lot of pressure to get the answer right away,” he said.

Trump has seemed largely unfazed: He listened to some legal proceedings today with his eyes closed, though his body language changed when Pecker started spilling details about the McDougal catch-and-kill deal. He began to move his head, squint and cross his arms over his chest.

And after leaving court, Trump vented — as he has before — that the trial is keeping him off the campaign trail, while President Biden is free to hold events across the country.

“This is all Biden,” the presumptive Republican nominee said, adding, “He’s out campaigning and I’m here in a courtroom, sitting up as straight as I can all day long.”

Trump’s grievances extend to a gag order, which forbids him from attacking prosecutors, jurors, witnesses and court staff, as well as their relatives and relatives of the judge in the case, Juan Merchan. This morning, prosecutors laid out 11 instances of what they saw as Trump violating that order, as recently as yesterday afternoon, when he spoke about Cohen in a statement he made in the hallway after court.

The judge did not immediately rule on those violations, though that decision is likely to land soon. And indications are that he will not favor the defense’s arguments that Trump is merely defending himself from political attacks.

In a memorable, and unpleasant, moment for the defense, Merchan told Todd Blanche, Trump’s lead attorney, that he was “losing all credibility with the court.”

With only a week or so in the books, and many weeks — and twists — yet to come, such an assertion cannot have been good news for Trump’s legal team.

Here’s the team we have reporting on the trial . During the proceedings, we’ll be sending you updates more frequently, including breaking news alerts and our weekly analysis on Thursdays.

Your questions

We’re asking readers what they’d like to know about the Trump cases: the charges, the procedure, the important players or anything else. You can send us your question by filling out this form.

How many reporters fit in the overflow room? Are they permitted to live-tweet, text or email from the courtroom or only the overflow room? Are any members of the public in attendance in either room? — Sonia Jacobsen, Seattle, Washington

Jesse: The media overflow room — a courtroom down the hall from the 15th-floor courtroom where Trump is being tried — sits about 150 people. During most of the trial days, it has been packed, particularly during jury selection when most of the seats in the actual courtroom were filled by prospective jurors. Since testimony began on Monday, that crush has been alleviated. About 50 news organizations have designated seats in courtroom. Posting on social media and texting on your phone is allowed in overflow, but phones can’t be used in the courtroom, except as hotspots. Photography, phone calls or recording are all strictly forbidden in both rooms. The public is also welcome, and people have been showing up to watch the trial, though space in the actual courtroom is limited.

What else to watch

On Thursday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments about Trump’s claim to be immune from prosecution in the election interference case in Washington.

Where does each criminal case stand?

Trump is at the center of at least four separate criminal investigations, at both the state and federal levels, into matters related to his business and political careers. Here is where each case stands .

Jesse McKinley is a Times reporter covering upstate New York, courts and politics. More about Jesse McKinley

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Photography

A photographer documented black cowboys across the u.s. for a new book.

Olivia Hampton

Riders pass a baton during a Pony Express relay race in Okmulgee, Okla. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Riders pass a baton during a Pony Express relay race in Okmulgee, Okla.

As a child growing up in Kansas City, Ivan McClellan would sing the national anthem at the American Royal rodeo with a youth choir. Those performances are some of his fondest memories, but they're also bittersweet.

That's because just about everybody else around him was white.

"It wasn't a place that we felt like we belonged," McClellan told Morning Edition host A Martínez .

Learning about Black rodeos as an adult came as a revelation to him. McClellan spent nearly a decade documenting this unique culture all across the United States.

Rodney & RJ, McCalla, Ala. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Rodney & RJ, McCalla, Ala.

His forthcoming photobook, Eight Seconds: Black Rodeo Culture , out April 30 from publisher Damiani Books, features highlights from that journey. The title refers to the minimum amount of time a rider has to stay on a horse or other livestock in order to register a score during a competition.

The Picture Show

Not their first rodeo: how black riders are reclaiming their place in cowboy culture.

"All of this beauty and energy and environment just stuck to me," McClellan said about his first encounter with a Black rodeo. "I saw thousands of Black cowboys and they were doing the Cupid Shuffle in the desert and they were cooking turkey legs. And there were Black folks dressed like traditional cowboys. There were also black folks riding their horses in Jordans and women riding with their braids blowing behind them and their hands with long acrylic nails clutching the reins."

Keary Hines, Prairie View, Texas. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Keary Hines, Prairie View, Texas.

That event, the Roy Leblanc Invitational Rodeo in Oklahoma , is one McClellan has come to dub "the Super Bowl of Black rodeos." It is the oldest of its kind in the country.

He began posting his photographs of the event online. As his social media audience grew, McClellan was soon traveling the country in search of similar happenings.

"There are Black cowboys pretty much everywhere. I mean, there are Black cowboys here in Portland, Ore., where I live, which I think is the last place that I would have expected to find them," said McClellan, who now runs his own rodeo.

Bucking stereotypes, a Black cowboy leads the way in South Central LA

"I went all the way to Oklahoma to realize that there were cowboys up the road from me who have been there for four generations ... You'd be hard pressed to find a part of America where there wasn't at least some some portion of this culture."

Jadayia Kursh, Okmulgee, Okla. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Jadayia Kursh, Okmulgee, Okla.

It's a narrative largely shunned by Hollywood and the broader mass culture, where the cowboy is consistently portrayed as a white male, be it John Wayne, Val Kilmer or on TV series like Bonanza (1959-73) and Gunsmoke (1955-75).

Up until a few years ago, "I really thought that term [cowboy] was a joke when applied to a Black person," McClellan said.

In fact, the term was once a pejorative for African Americans working on ranches and farms, while white cowboys were known as "cowhands."

Patrick Liddell, Las Vegas, Nevada. Ivan McClellan/Ivan McClellan hide caption

Patrick Liddell, Las Vegas, Nevada.

But ultimately, cowboy became "a shorthand for our noblest ideals," McClellan said. "A lot of these things our popular culture is hesitant to attribute to a Black person. So I think to have a cowboy rushing in, saving the day with a black face just didn't jibe with the stories that Hollywood was trying to tell. I think it's erasure. I think it's at best, laziness, at worst, very intentional and malicious. But I'm excited to see that transforming before my eyes."

Beyoncé's recent country-influenced album Cowboy Carter is the latest iteration of that push for change in popular culture. Lil Nas X challenged the country genre in 2018 with his song "Old Town Road." It became a viral hit after sparking widespread conversations about genre gatekeeping and Black musicians' place within country culture .

Bull Riders, Rosenberg, Texas. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Bull Riders, Rosenberg, Texas.

"It was a perfect alley-oop. And Beyoncé is hanging on the rim right now," said McClellan. "Beyoncé is not only revealing Black cowboy culture, but she's transforming country music forever and tearing down genres in a way that that I don't think has ever been done."

For McClellan, there's now one place where he keeps returning over and over.

"As far as cultural impact, there's nothing like the Roy LeBlanc Invitational Rodeo," he said. "On the second weekend in August at about 8 p.m. when the sun is going down, everything is gold and all the athletes are filing into the arena for the grand entry. And that is where I like to take photos more than anywhere else on the entire planet."

Rodeo Queen, Okmulgee, Okla. Ivan McClellan hide caption

Rodeo Queen, Okmulgee, Okla.

The broadcast version of this story was produced by Lilly Quiroz . The digital version was edited by Obed Manuel.

• Ivan McClellan