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PNR

What is a PNR? Passenger Name Records Explained

Introduction

A Passenger Name Record, or PNR as they’re known as is a digital record that’s used by travel agents, airlines, hotel operators and more to store details about a passengers and a booking. These PNR’s hold all information necessary for a travellers booking, including personal details and such things as itinerary details. While PNRs originated in the airline industry, as a way for airlines to keep track on who was travelling, however they have now been adopted by other travel sectors, including car rental companies, railways and hotels.

What data does a PNR hold?

A PNR is created digitally when a consumer makes a booking, and holds all of the necessary information about that booking. This includes personal details such as a name and contact details, as well things like the date, time and destination of your reservation. Other information held in a PNR includes ticket numbers and details, any requests made as part of the booking, such as allergies or assigned seat number, and payment information. If the booking was made through a travel agent, their details will also be added to the PNR.

And what is all the information in a PNR used for?

While there is a lot of personal data stored in a PNR, it is required to ensure that a passenger’s travel plans operate smoothly, and any important details or changes to a booking are not misplaced. One key function of a PNR is to allow airlines and other travel businesses to manage reservations. If a booking is amended or cancelled, the reservation system can update the PNR to ensure these amendments are made in practice. It is a useful tool which can be used to allow airlines and travel agents to communicate with each other. For example a travel agent can assign seats or request wheel chair support directly in a PNR, and likewise an airline can inform a travel agency of any changed to aircraft or schedule. This communication happens in real time as well, meaning travel agents always have accurate up to date information. PNRs are also important for safety and to prevent fraud. A PNR can be used during check in and boarding of an aircraft, for example, to verify the identity of passengers and to check that their travel details match a reservation. This reduces the chance of fraud and even serious crime such as terrorism. Governments and crime agencies can also request PNR data for security purposes, helping to keep civilians safe. PNR’s are also beneficial to travellers. Having all your travel details in one place, means that your total travel arrangements can can be seen by the operator. This is particularly useful if, for example, you have a connecting flight, but your first flight is delayed. Thanks to the information in a PNR, the airline will know that you are on a delayed flight, and can fast track you through security.

What happens to my data?

The use of PNR’s by travel companies has strict rules and regulations in place to protect customers. Most countries have data protection laws that airlines and other travel businesses have to comply with. The exact details vary by country, but travel companies can be fined if they do not comply with each countries requirements. This can involve ensuring data is only kept for a certain amount of time after a reservation has been completed, or restricting who can access PNR data. Audit trails and history logs are also used in PNRs. An audit trail is a record of who has accessed and modified a PNR. This means that should a PNR be compromised, there is a record of who made any unauthorised changes or gained unauthorised access, allowing the authorities to easily apprehend the instigator.

Now I know what a PNR is, how do they work in practice?

The process behind the creation of a PNR is actually quite simple. Let’s take an airline booking as an example.

  1. I book a flight to New York. The necessary information, including my name, contact details, payment details and flight itinerary are entered into the airline’s reservation system, creating a PNR for my booking.
  2. I realise I need to change my booking due to personal circumstances. I call the airline who change the date of my flight, they amend the PNR so there is a clear record of the change to my plans.
  3. The PNR sits in the reservation system until the day of my flight. When I check in, the details on my passport and other documentation are checked against the details in the reservation system, to make sure that I am who I say I am, and I am travelling on the correct service.
  4. I enjoy my flight and have a wonderful time in New York!

The structure of a PNR:

Here we can see an example of a PNR, while it looks confusing at first, once you know what you’re looking for it’s actually quite each to read.

ABCXYZ 
1.1DOE/JOHN MR 1 AA 100B 15JUL 2 LAXJFK*HK1 0800 1600
/DCAA*34DE5F /E 2 AA 200T 16JUL 3 JFKLHR*HK1 1930 0730 17JUL
/DCAA*34DE5F /E 3 AA 201T 22JUL 1 LHRJFK*HK1 1200 1500 /DCAA*34DE5F /E 4
HHL YX HK1 JFK IN22JUL 2-OUT23JUL 1NT 987654 TH /DCYX E CENTRAL HOTEL NY
1A1K4PP -1/ 270.00USD/RC-FPP-FPP-X/CMN-NC/CM T-**NON-COMMISSIONABLE
PRODUCT**/AGT87654321/GCA5XXXXXXXXXXX987 2EXP 07 25-AA GUARANTEE/NM-DOE
JOHN/C01D/SI-CHARGEBACK ROOM ONLY TO AA-CF-12345SE678901- 5 AA 101B
23JUL 3 JFKLAX*HK1 1800 2100 /DCAA*34DE5F /E

Lets break it down,

1) Booking Locator

ABCXYZ The first line, in this case ABCXYZ, is the travel agents locator. This is different to the airline or hotels booking number.

2) Passenger Name

1.1DOE/JOHN MR This is the name of the passenger or passengers. It always takes the format [lastname]/[firstname] [title], where first name and last name must match the clients passport. Title is often optional. In addition to this, if the passenger is a child (aged 2 to 12) on an in fact (aged under 2), the name will specify this, for example:

1.1DOE/JOHN MR 1.2DOE/JAMES MSTR(INF*11NOV24)

In the above example there are two passengers travelling, an adult, Mr John Doe, and an infant, Mstr James Doe who was born on the 11 November 2024.

3) Flight Details line

The next three lines in the PNR are flight details. In this case there is thee flights, the first from Los Angeles to New York, the next from New York to London, and then another one from London back to New York. Lets break them down and look at the first flight line in detail:

1 AA 100B 15JUL 2 LAXJFK*HK1 0800 1600 /DCAA*34DE5F /E
  • 1. - This is the booked segment number. It allows you to see the order that things were booked in. If, for an example a PNR starts at line 3, you know that previously there were two other items that have since expired. Once a segment has passed it will disease from the PNR, but can be viewed in the PNR History
  • AA - This is the airline iata code, in this instance AA refers to American Airlines. You may also come across Airline codes that look like AA/BA, which would mean it is an American Airlines code share flight operated by BA, British Airways
  • 100 - This is the flight number, used to identify the flight
  • B - These letters, known as fare classNamees, are categorised into First ClassName, Business ClassName, Premium Economy, and Economy ClassName. Within each category, airlines use specific codes (like Y for Economy or J for Business) to differentiate between fare types and their associated benefits, such as baggage allowance, seat selection, and change or cancellation policies
  • 15JUL - This is the departure date of the flight
  • LAX - This refers to the iata code of the departure airport, in this case LAX is reference to Los Angeles International Airport.
  • JFK - This refers to the iata code of the arrival airport, specifically JFK is John F Kennedy Airport in New York
  • HK - HK refers to the status of the booked segment, a list of status codes and explanations can be seen here.
  • 1 - The number here refers to the number of seats held. Generally for flights you will need one seat for an adult, one for a child, but an infant can share a seat with an adult. As such you may sometimes see there’s more names on a booking than seats held.
  • 0800 - This is the time the flight leaves from the departure airport, depending on your location and GDS it maybe either be in 24 hour format, e.g. 14:15, or 12 hour forma 2:15P (where P stands for PM, A for AM and N for noon. Often you will see airlines schedule their flights for 12:01 to avoid any confusion about departures at mid night.
  • 1600 - This is the flight arrival time, In local time at the destination. From a surface level glance there is no way to determine the duration of the flight, although some GDS’s allow you to click on the flight details and discover additional details about the flight
  • /DCAA - Refers to the ticketing carrier (direct connection), if different to above
  • 34DE5F - Finally the last 6 digits are the airline locator.

Date Format in a PNR,

To avoid confusion, dates are always written in the same format in a PNR, [Day Number][Month first three letters][yYear 2 digit]. Due to the nature of travel arrangements it’s a common occurrences that they span destinations where two different date formats are common, for example the date 02/04/2024 would refer to the 2nd April to a European customer, but February the 4th to a US customer. As such things could get confusing pretty quickly.

Conclusion

On the face of it, a PNR can seem complicated. But in fact, it is simply a digital record of a booking. Kept on a company’s reservations system, it makes things easier for both business and consumer, by keeping all of the important information in one place. PNRs reduce the risk of fraud and serious crime, and they are regulated by governments to ensure there is no abuse of customer data.