Essential Air Travel Concepts: Itinerary, Segments, and More
Essential Air Travel Concepts
Key Concepts:
Itinerary – The term itinerary refers to the origin, destination, and intermediate points in a journey. Each portion of an itinerary is referred to as a segment. An itinerary is constituted by one or more segments. For example, an itinerary that would be Lisbon – Paris – São Paulo, the itinerary would be Lisbon-São Paulo and would have two segments which are Lisbon-Paris and Paris-São Paulo.
Percurso (Route) between two points (city pair).
Segment – A segment refers to a single flight with the same flight number. It’s a piece of a trip. Part of an itinerary.
City Pair – A set of cities, the place where you enter and the place where you leave an airplane. Pair of cities.
Classe de Reserva (Reservation Class) – The IATA class codes are codes that were created by IATA to standardize the different levels of travel conditions for passengers, indicated on tickets and other traffic documents. The price plan is integrated into the reservation class. Price Plan.
Timetable (Horários)
- The timetable function may be used to display flight schedules for any two specific points.
- In most cases, the travel date and city pair must be input to obtain an accurate timetable.
- If a date is not specified, Galileo will display only schedules starting with the current day.
- Since schedules often change, it is important to specify the departure date.
- Dates are entered as codes, with the day entered as one or two digits and the month as a three-letter abbreviation.
For example:
- 17 July is entered as 17JUL
- 3 December may be entered as either 3DEC or 03DEC.
Availability – Availability of companies to fly. The entry code A is used to display flight availability, as follows: AExampleA10MAYAMSMAD Flight Availability
An approximate departure time may be specified as follows: A14MAYFRALON.0900
When this entry is input, Galileo will search for flights departing up to two hours before the specified time.
A precise departure time may be specified as follows: A14MAYFRALON.0700#
Carrier – Airline company.
Flight Number – The flight number, shown to the right of the carrier, may consist of one to four digits. A flight number, when combined with the name of the airline and the date, identifies a particular flight.
- Flight numbers of less than three digits are often assigned to long-haul or otherwise premium flights.
Seat Quota – The columns to the right of the flight number indicate the number of seats that can be sold in each class of service. This information is called the seat quota. The classes offered on each flight depend on the carrier, type of aircraft, route, and other factors.
Seat Availability – Availability of seats on a flight. If no seats are available, the class is said to be “sold out.” Often, when a class is sold out, seats may be placed on a waiting list, or waitlist, for that flight. If passengers who have confirmed seats cancel their reservations, the waitlisted seats may eventually be confirmed. Price plan within the class.
Layover (Escala): a connection (less than 24 hours) between two flights on one ticket example: New York – London via Frankfurt, the layover is in Frankfurt as you are just “connecting”
Stopover: a stop in a city that is not your final destination for more than 24 hours example: New York – San Francisco – Honolulu, you spend more than 24 hours in San Francisco It is considered a stopover (if it was less than 24 hours, it would be a layover)
Tipos de Viagem (Types of Travel)
Direct – Used to describe a flight from A to B with the same flight number and no change of aircraft. May have one or more stops. Compare with nonstop.
ONE WAY (OW) – An itinerary (a list of points, routes and transportation carriers for a trip) in which the traveler will not return to the originating point Ex: LIS FRA
ROUND TRIP (RT) – Travel from A to B then back from B to A using the same fare basis code. A circle trip with one stopover; a journey consisting of direct transportation from one point to another, returning to the point of origin. Ex: LIS FRA LIS
Open Jaw
Travel from A to B then from C to A, with no air ticket from B to C. Usually the distance BC must be less than both AB and CA (i.e. the part without the air ticket must be shorter than the shortest distance flown).
OPEN JAW (OJ) – Viagem de ida e volta com ponto de partida e de retorno diferentes (Round trip with different departure and return points). A circle trip with a surface portion at the outward destination or just before the return segment ( a specific portion of an itinerary) to the originating point. Ex: LIS ROM // MIL LIS