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It happens every fourth dimension travelers volume a flight. No affair whether they somewhen purchase tickets and board a airplane or abolish the reservation and stay home, the deed is done. Data on them has been collected and saved in the class of a passenger name record or PNR.

Introduced to facilitate the commutation of booking information betwixt airlines, PNRs have get an important component of the travel industry. They act every bit booking confirmation, a repository of valuable commercial information, and fifty-fifty a weapon against global terrorism.

This article describes the of import technical and legal aspects of PNR cosmos and usage. It takes a close look at its content, touches on some privacy concerns, and peeks into the future of travel records.

PNR pregnant and lifecycle

A passenger name record, also chosen a booking file, is a digital certificate with details of the itinerary for a passenger or a group of passengers traveling together. It's an essential part of the flight booking process that precedes and enables ticketing. Watch our video detailing how online booking unfolds offscreen.

Flight booking steps and key systems involved.

So, nobody can book a flight, pay for a ticket, and go on a plane without a PNR. In the most basic scenario, a PNR makes the following steps during its lifecycle.

PNR inb flight booking process

PNR every bit a part of the flying booking process.

1. Information collection. The essential trip information is gathered when an private passenger or arrangement books a flight via a travel retailer — carrier's website, online travel bureau (OTA), travel management company (TMC), tour operator, or other channels.

2. Data submission to the CRS. The reservation data is transmitted to the airline's fundamental reservation arrangement (CRS). Well-nigh airlines don't run their own CRS. Instead, they host inventory and manage bookings on one of the major global distribution systems (GDSs) — Amadeus, Sabre, or Travelport — which function as data warehouses and aggregators. You may acquire more about the main GDSs from our dedicated video.

Amadeus vs Travelport vs Sabre: explaining chief global distribution systems.

three. Initial PNR generation. A carrier'due south operator or authorized travel agent logs into the CRS/GDS to build a PNR file with 5 mandatory elements (to be discussed later in the department nigh PNR information).

4. Booking reference consignment. The system generates a booking reference — a unique alphabetic or alphanumeric code assigned to the PNR file. It serves as a digital address of the document in the airline's database.

five. Booking confirmation. The travel retailer sends an e-mail with the booking reference to the passenger as a reservation confirmation. The ticket volition be issued only after the passenger pays the fare.

6. Updates and improver of new details. If required, the agent or operator adds new data elements or makes changes to the tape. Generally, the PNR is updated every time the reservation data is altered.

7. Archiving. When the trip ends, the PNR is automatically archived. Usually, it happens within 1 to five days subsequently the final segment of the itinerary is completed.

first PNR by Amadeus

The offset PNR generated by Amadeus, Jan seven, 1992 for "Wolfgang Amadeus". Source: Amadeus for Developers

Booking reference or what is PNR number

Nigh passengers take never seen a PRN file itself. What they deal with is a PNR number, assigned to each PNR file upon creation. It may appear nether different names — a record locator, booking reference, reservation code, or just PNR.

No matter what you call information technology, the code ordinarily contains half dozen characters — letters or letters and numbers, depending on the system used to brand a booking. Sabre sticks to messages only; Amadeus and Galileo generate alphanumeric strings.

A unique booking reference is emailed to passengers after they complete a reservation and сan be institute on e-tickets and boarding passes. It enables travelers to manage their bookings and check in online. The code also gives travelers access to their flying details, only not to PNR files with personal information.

Booking confirmation example

Receipt for booking confirmation where 01FH53 is the record locator or PNR number. Source: Bank Info Security .

Though PNR codes look like random mixtures of characters, in fact, airlines use special algorithms to place the letters and numbers in a certain sequence and avoid duplicating already existing combinations. When generating references, carriers also strive to recognize and censor profanity. Codes can be repeated just only long later on the trip nether the same PNR is completed.

Why airlines need Super PNRs

The trip may incorporate multiple flights operated past different carriers — let alone machine rentals, hotel reservations, and other travel services. In this case, a CRS receiving a reservation request lacks data to cover all segments of the itinerary.

For this problem, there is a solution. The initial CRS creates a so-called Super PNR or Main Itinerary and sends copies to providers involved in the multi-leg flight. Each carrier manages its portion of the trip, saves the updated document in its database, identifying it with a divide record locator.

How Super PNR is generated

Super PNR connects all parts of the multi-leg trip.

Eventually, all participants send record locators (PNR numbers) back to the Super PNR holder, connecting documents related to a item itinerary and ensuring substitution of updates. As a outcome, the same trip tin get several PNR numbers in different reservation systems. A passenger receives a booking reference to the Super PNR that combines all parts of the trip.

A PNR multiplies each time several systems are involved in the reservation. If, for example, a travel agent uses Amadeus to book a flight operated past a Sabre-hosted carrier, in that location volition be at least two PNRs with their own record locators. The unabridged process gets much simpler when agents and all providers serving the itinerary utilise the same GDS. This enables sharing a single PNR with just one record locator rather than creating multiple copies under different codes.

At present, that we've addressed fundamental technical details and terms, allow'south proceed to the well-nigh essential affair most PNRs — their content.

Passenger name tape data

Standards for the PNR were initially developed by the International Air Send Association (IATA), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and Airlines for America, previously known as the Air Transport Association of America (ATA). For those who want to better understand the part of IATA in the travel industry, we' ve prepared an educational video.

What is IATA and how does it work?

Even so, neither IATA, nor any other international organisation dictates universal formats, verbal number, and order of information pieces for PNRs. These bodies also don't put restrictions on the number of characters to be used for each data chemical element.

Due to the absenteeism of unified rules, the file size and its content vary greatly from system to organization and may reach every bit many as 999 data elements if you create a PNR in Amadeus. Regardless of the platform, much fewer components are used in practice and only five of them are mandatory to comply with IATA/ICAO requirements.

PNR file data elements

Cardinal data components of a PNR file.

Mandatory data elements

To easily remember the nearly essential data elements, Sabre suggests using the acronym Impress, which stands for:

  • phone either a traveler'southward or travel amanuensis'due south to enable contact;
  • received from field indicating the last person who has made changes in the PNR, typically, a passenger or travel agent;
  • itinerary that must include at least 1 segment of the journey;
  • proper noun of a passenger or passengers, containing the total first and last proper noun (the center name is non required); and
  • ticketing specifying how and when a ticket is to be issued.

The mandatory elements tin can be arranged in any guild and modified any fourth dimension after the booking is made. In the absence of at least one of them, it's impossible to complete a reservation, create a PNR, and obtain a tape locator.

Optional data elements

Mandatory parts incorporate essential trip details, describing where and when a particular passenger intends to fly. Optional components are added co-ordinate to the commercial needs of airlines and may include

  • additional itinerary segments that can be a flight, hotel reservation, car rental, etc.;
  • payment method (cash, credit/debit carte, or check);
  • credit card number;
  • passenger email address;
  • frequent flyer number;
  • travel agency name and address;
  • fare and pricing details;
  • restrictions that may apply to the ticket;
  • age details relevant to the travel (for example, unaccompanied children or elderly people who need assistance);
  • special service requests (SSRs) like meal or seating preferences;
  • agency service fees;
  • other remarks related to the trip; and
  • historical changes to the PNR.

In different CRSs and GDSs, the aforementioned data elements can exist presented under different names and in a dissimilar lodge, split into two fields or vice versa, grouped under one heading. This hit diversity hampers the effective evaluation and processing of data collected by airlines. So, when security bodies decided to systematically review PNRs equally a office of counter-terrorism measures they insisted on the implementation of a special field with a strict structure.

Secure flight passenger data and advance rider information systems

In 2009, the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) implemented the Secure Flight programme to screen passengers before they lath aircraft flying to, from, or over the U.s.a.. Under this mandate, PNRs of travelers making for the Land of Freedom must contain so-chosen secure flying rider information (SFPD) elements — such as:

  • total proper name with the middle proper noun or initial if it appears on the ID card, passport, driver's license, or another valid identity document with the photograph;
  • date of nascency;
  • gender; and
  • redress number issued by the (TSA) to facilitate identity checks. This unique number is particularly important if a passenger has a common name shared past many people or if he or she has been already misidentified in the past when crossing U.s.a. borders.

The Secure Flight terminal rule obligates airlines to enter secure flight passenger data in the PNR and transmit it to the TSA at least 72 hours earlier the flight departure. If the bookings are created within 72 hours, carrier operators must gather and provide the information equally shortly as possible.

So, the Secure Flying Programme matches the SFPD portion against watchlists maintained by the Terrorist Screening Eye. Based on the results, the passenger undergoes expedited, normal, or additional screening at the checkpoint or is denied boarding.

secure flight screening

Secure Flight screening facilitated past the TSA PreCheck plan . Source: Papers, Please!

Too that, the US and more than 60 other countries require airlines to collect advance rider data (API) that includes data travelers have to reveal at the border control — passport details, citizenship, place of residence, and even the accost of the first nighttime spent in the country for travelers to the United states.

Some of the API elements can be extracted from the PNR. Moreover, both are often regulated past the same documents. In the Eu countries, the utilise of PNR and API information for crime and terrorism prevention is ruled by the PNR Directive issued in 2016. However, advance passenger information has goose egg to do with the convenience of carriers and benefits security regime rather than airlines.

Commercial use of PNR data and privacy concerns

While PNR information is extensively used to fight terrorism, its commercial application is limited by privacy concerns. Data-rich records capturing habits and behavior patterns of passengers seem similar a gold mine for training motorcar learning models that will help airlines with dynamic pricing, client sectionalization, and other complex tasks.

Nevertheless, strict information privacy regulations hinder airlines from sharing information with research centers, start-ups, and It vendors to create data-driven apps and extract valuable business concern insights. Say, the above-mentioned PNR Directive prohibits processing sensitive data like special meal requests or seat preferences. All PNRs must be depersonalized six months afterward the trip and deleted in five years.

In the U.s.a., PNR data obtained from commercial carriers is stored in the Automated Targeting Organization. Just equally in the EU, PNRs are depersonalized after six months. In five years, records are moved to a fallow database where they remain available for another ten years — for security purposes simply.

In truth, "PNRs cannot be deleted," Edward Hasbrouck, travel expert and author of the Practical Nomad book, argues. "In one case created they are archived and retained in the CRS/GDS, and can all the same be viewed, even if you never bought a ticket," he explains. "To cancel or delete a data element in a PNR means to move it from the live portion of the PNR to the permanent history portion. To cancel an entire PNR ways to move it from active storage to archival storage."

Then, PNR data accumulated over years can eventually exist used — past criminals, by government bodies, or on a goodbye by commercial structures.

The future of PNR: One Order

The time to come of PNRs is likely to be engineered past ONE Order — an extension of IATA'south New Distribution Capability (NDC) program facilitating the direct distribution of travel products and shine information exchange amidst different platforms.

Currently, airlines have to bargain with iii types of travel records — PNRs focusing on itinerary details, e-tickets capturing payment information, and electronic miscellaneous documents (EMDs) with the listing of purchased ancillaries. These documents are created in the legacy EDIFACT format used across the airline manufacture. Moreover, they are stored in different back-office systems, which adds complexity and increases expenses for carriers.

In a 1 Order world, all travel data in question will be captured in a unmarried XML file by a single arrangement. This will brand things far easier for all providers and travel agents. IATA expects that its initiative will see widespread adoption betwixt 2021 and 2025. But even if these expectations are too optimistic, in that location won't be any backtracking.