Booking flights from availability
Part 1
Booking flights from availability
When a client calls or comes into a travel agency to make trip reservations, he or she will very often give the destination and dates of the proposed trip before any other information. This means the travel agent's first step in building a PNR is often to display flight availability.
Imagine, for example, that you are a travel agent in Miami. A client comes into your office and says "I'm interested in travelling to San Francisco two days before Christmas, leaving early in the morning". If you made the availability entry 123DECMIASFO0600, you could inform your client within seconds of what airlines fly the route, when the flights depart and arrive, and a host of other information.
The next step, after the client decides on a flight, is usually to book the flight. This action creates an itinerary segment, which begins the process of building the client's PNR. In most cases, the agent will then book a return flight by displaying return availability, choosing a flight from the resulting display, and making another booking.
It is important here to understand a few things about booking flights in Sabre. First, the act of booking a flight does not commit the client to anything, until the ticket is issued. If the client changes his or her mind about the flight(s) before that time, the itinerary segments can be amended or deleted as necessary. Or, if the client decides not to go through with the reservation after you've made a booking for him, you can simply ignore the partial PNR, which will completely wipe out the booking-in-progress.
Second, even after a PNR is ended, nothing is "set in stone" until after a client's ticket is issued. After this point, the client's ability to make changes in his or her reservation is usually restricted or prohibited.
The subjects of amending itinerary segments and printing tickets will be covered later in the course. For now, you should simply keep in mind that an airline booking is not stored in the computer's memory until the PNR is ended, and it is not truly made permanent until the client's ticket is issued.
SELL ICK | NUMBER OF SEATS | BOOKING CODE | CPA LINE NUMBER |
0 | 2 | Y | 1 |
Shown above is the entry to book seats on a nonstop or direct flight from an availability display.
The entry begins with the sell ICK 0, which is followed by the number of seats you wish to book, the booking code you want the seat(s) to be booked in, and the CPA line number of the desired flight.
In application, the entry shown above would book two Y seats on the flight on line one of the current availability display.
SELL ICK | SEATS | BOOKING CODE | CPA LINE NBR | ASTERISK |
0 | 2 | Y | 4 | * |
Shown above is an entry to book seats on a connecting flight in an availability display when the booking code is the same for both legs.
The entry begins with the sell ICK 0, which is followed by the number of seats desired, the booking code, availability line number and an asterisk.
In application, the entry shown above would book two seats in Yon the connection appearing on lines 4 and 5 of an availability display.
SELL ICK | SEATS | BOOKING CODE | CPA LINE NBR | BOOKING CODE | CPA LINENBR |
0 | 2 | Y | 4 | Q | 5 |
When a connecting flight will be flown in two different booking codes, the above entry should be used.
The entry begins with the sell ICK 0, which is followed by the number of seats desired, the booking code for the first leg, the availability line number for the first leg, the booking code for the second leg and the availability line number for the second leg.
In application, the entry shown above would book twoY seats on the first leg of the connection appearing on line 4 of a CPA display, and two Q seats on the second leg of the connection appearing on line 5.
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