Comments on: Your e-ticket number — don’t leave home without it.

By: sami ali

sami ali — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 17:01:59 +0000

thank you for the advice.
there is one more thing.that when you have a ticket used partially. how you can get information about which sector is used?
is there any website can get you this information?

By: Delta/Northwest/KLM: the lost reservations

Delta/Northwest/KLM: the lost reservations — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:50:20 +0000

[...] written in the past of why you should keep e-ticket numbers handy because they are the easiest way for an airline to pull up any reservation, although this Delta-KLM [...]

By: Janice Hough

Janice Hough — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 16:47:36 +0000

Update. Just had a KLM passenger completely panic when she called Delta – now the surviving carrier and the Delta agent couldnt find the flight and said she had no tickets.. Apparently according to Delta the only way for them to see KLM flights booked earlier this year is to have the ticket numbers.

By: Paula Demmer

Paula Demmer — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 04:28:28 +0000

Great advice Janice! It’s so easy to forget which variation got ticketed. And whether the record locator is for the airline, the codeshare or the agency record.

By: Scott

Scott — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:39:19 +0000

Exactly. (except for dcta)

The ONE essential piece of backup information is your ticket number, assuming of course it is the most recent. (An “original” e-ticket number after being changed by a travel agent, for example, may be useless.)

Your ticket number is ALWAYS a 13-digit number.

I see customers arrive sometimes with reams of paper, yet they are missing that one crucial piece of information. They book online and print itineraries, but that is all. No purchase or ticket information.

Most travelers still do not understand that there is a BIG difference between a “reservation” and a “ticket.” Generally, you need both to travel. Having only one is not good enough. Don’t know how many times I have seen people get extremely aggravated and upset, insisting they have a reservation. They may very well have that, but they are not going anywhere without a ticket to match.

With the increase of online agencies and multi-carrier itineraries, reservation numbers — or record locators — (i.e. that confirmation cod of 6 letters or numbers) is increasingly useless as they are different from carrier to carrier. If you have an itinerary traveling on three airlines, there will be three distinct reservation codes. They are only useful if you book directly with the carrier, though that is assuming you have the correct one.

By: Janice Hough

Janice Hough — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:25:26 +0000

One more thing. Many airlines have cracked down on what they call “churning.” This is the practice of making one reservation several times, either because the airline has cancelled the original one for not being ticketed, or because the fare has expired on the original reservation because it wasn’t ticketed enough.

Unfortunately, what the airlines call “churning’ – and will bill travel agents for doing, is often just an uncertain client. To avoid being billed (with what are called “debit memos.”), when a client asks that a reservation be reinstated, most agents have learned to start over with a new booking.

So if you have an original locator, it might not be correct. Plus if you as a traveler have been changing your mind on flights, then those are the ones most likely to have fallen through the cracks so it’s even more important to know you have a ticket number. (Had one last week where an admin sent an itin to a client for possibly attending a board meeting, the client never responded, the admin figured they weren’t coming, and then we discovered somewhat last minute that he client had figured not responding meant she thought the flights were fine. It all worked out but had she just taken the locator to the airport she would have been told, no reservation and no ticket.)

By: Carrie Charney

Carrie Charney — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 15:41:19 +0000

Good to know. I have always only taken my reservation # with me and I’ve never had a problem. Now, I will take my ticket # as well. Thank you!

By: Jennifer Deutsch

Jennifer Deutsch — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:38:55 +0000

In regards to not just needing your record locator, Janice points out that a record locator is not evidence that you actually have a ticket. Just a reservation. I have clients who ask me to put flights on hold for them and then never get back to me on whether or not they want me to ticket it. I always send them an itinerary and then tell them at what point they have to get back to me. They don’t always do that. I have informed them to make sure that they have that e-ticket number on their itinerary otherwise it is possible that the ticket was never issued.

By: AirlineEmployee

AirlineEmployee — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 04:34:48 +0000

dcta March 22, 2010 at 11:48 am
Honestly, all you need is the record locator – you don’t really need the entire ticket number.

—————————————–
Wrong. If your travel agent or you booked on i.e., Delta website but you’re actually flying on Air France, your record locator is associated only with the booking carrier; not the carrier you are flying. You need the ticket number, i.e., 006-1234567890 (006) meaning the carrier code, in this case Delta. This code can be found by the carrier you are actually flying…. This happens a lot with codeshare, alliance partners (one ticketing for the other partner) – both get a piece of the pie.

By: Jeff L

Jeff L — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 18:00:57 +0000

Consider a service like TripIt (which is free for the basic version) which allows you to forward the entire confirmation email you get from booking and stores all the relevant data for easy access, even via mobile devices. Then you have every possible number you need.