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Passenger Name Record (PNR)

Passenger Name Record (abbreviated PNR) is a record in GDS or CRS database in accordance with the existing standards, containing information about the service, route, passenger, group of passengers (or service users). It has a five or six digit numeric locator of the form 1XXX2Y, assigned automatically as a result of the booking procedure, and which then remains unchanged regardless of the transformation of the route. PNRs relating to a cancelled or completed flight are to be stored in computer systems and will be available for a long period of time.

If sections of the route are not operated by the PNR owner, a copy of the record is forwarded to the operating carrier (or several in the case of interline agreements). Many airlines have their CRS in the field of one of the GDSs, allowing them to share PNR information.

PNRs were invented for air travel, but are now used in hotel, train ticket and car rental bookings.

Contents

Main PNR Points

There are five basic PNR items that are required to make a booking:

  • Name of passenger(s) and remarks;
  • Contact information of the agency that made the booking;
  • Ticket details (date of sale information that is used by the agent to sell or cancel in a timely manner);
  • Itinerary details (flight segments);
  • Name of the person at whose request the booking was made, changed, or cancelled.

However, there are other details often requested by airlines and travel agents. For example, fare details and restrictions, the form of payment used, special service requests (SSRs), passenger disability information, etc. In order to prevent terrorist threats and crime, some governments also require airlines to provide traveler details such as date and place of birth, gender, nationality, home and work phone numbers, credit card details, IP (when booking online), another person's details for emergency contact, etc. Individual private organizations have expressed concern about the fact that the information contained in the PNR is exceptionally detailed.

Websky transmits the phone numbers of all passengers when making reservations to promptly inform the airline of any changes to the flight.

PNR Modification

The GDS provides the ability to modify elements of the PNR. If a modification of the PNR elements may violate the homogeneity principle (all passengers whose information is recorded on the PNR are travelling together in one direction) a PNR division (split) shall be applied in this case.

The procedure for modifying elements is defined by the rules of the particular GDS and is contained in the relevant booking instructions.

A change in passenger data is possible only if the airline's rules for booking and sale of air transportation allow such a change.

Changes to the time limit can only be made by specially authorized employees of the agencies by permission of the carrier.

Attention! When modifying data in the PNR through the terminal, as well as when manually (through the terminal) deleting passengers, the data and service remarks in Websky with these passengers' data must also be changed/deleted.

Procedure for creating a group PNR

The group of passengers is assigned a name - any name formed according to the rules of the particular booking system. In some cases the group additionally receives a five-digit alphanumeric registration number (in order to simplify the agency's work and to control transportations).

When booking a large number of seats (usually more than 9), the time of confirmation by the airline of the requested number of seats may be longer than usual.

If the group is a transit group, it is necessary to enter an arrival segment (information segment about the method and time of arrival of the group to the point of departure).

A separate ticket is issued for each member of the group when air transportation is arranged.

Modification of group PNRs in CRS is carried out according to the rules of individual PNR modification.

See also