Passenger Glossary

On the internet, and in our blog too, abbreviations and terms that are not clear to everyone are often encountered. To clarify them, we provide a small glossary that will be periodically updated (if you are interested in any abbreviation or term that is not on the list, write it in the comments, we will definitely add it). Airline Passenger Glossary

OW (One Way) — a one-way ticket;

RT (Round trip) — round-trip ticket;

Open jaw (from English “open jaw”) — a ticket for an open-jaw route “there and back”, when the passenger on the return journey departs from an airport that does not coincide with the arrival point on the outbound journey. That is, from the arrival point on the outbound journey to the departure point on the return journey, the passenger travels by another means of transport (car, train) or with another airline ticket.

For example: outbound London — Riga, return Paris — London. Or on the return journey, arrives at an airport that does not coincide with the departure point on the outbound journey. For example, Rome — London, London — Paris.

RTW (Round-the-world) — a round-the-world airline ticket, a trip that starts and ends at the same point. Your travel itinerary must include one transatlantic flight and one flight crossing the Pacific Ocean. The trip must necessarily include stops in all three IATA zones.

For example, Sydney — Vancouver — New York — London — Bangkok — Sydney.

RTW routes are offered within one alliance; special services exist for their planning, for example “Round the World Planner” from the SkyTeam alliance.

Transit — A flight with a layover. For example, London — Singapore with a transit in Dubai.

Stopover — this is a stop at an intermediate point of your route for more than 23 hours 59 minutes (3 hours 59 minutes, in the case of flights within North America or 5 hours 59 minutes in the case of flights within Central America and Panama).

Booking class — designation of the airfare in the booking system. Booking classes are denoted by Latin alphabet letters: O Q N T V H K M B Y. Each letter indicates specific fare conditions.

Fare — the cost of air transportation excluding fees and taxes.

Fees- an additional amount to the ticket fare, usually including payment for airport services, state duties, etc. Sometimes fees significantly exceed the fare cost. Read more about fees in the post “Airline and Airport Fees”.

Fare rules — this is a contract between you and the carrier, a set of rules and instructions for using the airline ticket. It contains information about ticket refundability, various penalties, the possibility of combining with other flights, etc. Before purchasing an airline ticket, be sure to familiarize yourself with the fare rules; as a rule, they are provided in English, and so that you don’t miss important points, we have made a translation of the main sections.

Codeshare — an agreement between airlines on joint operation of flights on the same route. Each airline that has entered into the agreement sells a flight, which is actually operated by one of them, at its own prices and under its own code and flight number.

E-ticket — this is an electronic form of an airline ticket, offered instead of a conventional paper ticket. Travel information is not printed on a form but is stored electronically in a secure airline database. When checking in for a flight, the airline employee only needs to enter your name and passport number to retrieve flight information and issue your boarding pass.