You Can Walk the Walk, But Can You Talk the Talk?
By Amy Ziff, Editor-at-Large
June 16, 2004
I've always believed the key to the inside track is to know the lingo, whether in a foreign country or a place of business. I've told myself I don't need an MBA—I just have to be able to hold my own in a conversation with all those buzz-word-users tossing about terms like "scalability, EBITDA, ROI, LIFO," and "FIFO." Plain and simple: you have to be able to talk the talk.
In the world of travel, it's not just about knowing destination hot spots. There is a whole lot of jargon employed by those in the know. Take my travel insider test and see if you can decipher the meaning of the following sentence: Looking at the green screen, I decided to non-rev it to MIA on the terminator for a party in Sobe and back on an originator--if I play my cards right there's no need for a MMH.
If you understood it, my guess is you're doing just fine. If you didn't, and you want to be hip with the latest travel speak to see if you can finagle any freebies, an upgrade, or merely to impress, I can help you break the code with some of the defined words below.
- Originator – What airlines call the first flight out each day on a given route.
- Terminator -- What airlines call the last flight out each day on a given route.
- Non-stop – A flight that goes directly to the destination without stopping.
- Direct – A flight that stops, but does not require you to change planes en route to your destination.
- Connecting – A flight route that requires a change of planes in order to get to your destination.
- Code Share – Essentially this is a marketing agreement between two airlines allowing them to sell seats on another airline under their name own name. This simplifies life for travelers because it allows them to get worldwide tickets without different bookings.
- Segment – Each individual flight on a given itinerary.
- Leg – How a traveler goes from origin to destination (there can be two or more segments in a leg).
- Non-Rev – Non-revenue passengers: Non-rev is frequently how airline employees who don't have to pay for their flights travel (although they usually aren't guaranteed seats either).
- PNR – Passenger Name Record: A PNR is how your itinerary is identified.
- MIA -- The three letter airport code for the Miami Airport. These codes are how airports are identified and selected when making travel plans.
- Sobe – The insider nickname for South Beach in Miami, similar to NoLa for New Orleans, Louisiana.
- GDS – Global Distribution Service: A distribution service for all available travel services. Think of it as the Yellow Pages for travel suppliers to list inventory so that agents or online reservations systems can offer that to customers.
- CRS – Central Reservation System: This is usually a system for a group of hotels (like Carlson hotels, Hyatt or Synexis) that want to control reservations at its properties.
- PMS – Property Management System: This is what the front desk operator at a hotel looks at and is also how the hotel manages its room inventory and rates.
- ADR – The Average Daily Rate at a hotel property.
- BAR – The Best Available Rate at a hotel property.
- MMH – Merchant Model Hotel: The term suppliers use to name a kind of low rate that can be marked up (as opposed to a commissionable rate).
- Green Screen – The term used to describe what travel agents look at when seeing and booking available travel. (The term comes from the fact that the screen originally was green.)
- Shoulder Season - The period of travel that is just before or after high season; often it is a time when rates go down, but conditions can be just slightly less than perfect.
I can't promise that this travelese will come in handy, aside from providing stunning armchair repartee when you're on the road. Then again, when you can talk the talk, you just never know what doors may open. …
For the most recent travel news check out Amy Ziff's Travel Tips from AtoZ at www.travelocity.com/atoz. If you have a question or topic you would like covered in a future column, please e-mail Amy Ziff at ask.amy@travelocity.com ask.amy@travelocity.com. Visit www.travelocity.com/askamy monthly to see if your question has been answered.
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