Every Field on a Flight Itinerary Explained

A reference you can read alongside an actual itinerary. Fields are grouped by the block they usually appear in.

Passenger block

Passenger name. Written SURNAME/GIVEN NAMES TITLE — for example SMITH/JOHN MR. It must match the travel document you present. Middle names are included where the passport shows them; airlines differ on how strictly they enforce this, and the strictness rises with the security requirements of the route.

Passenger type code. ADT adult, CHD child (2–11), INF infant under 2 without a seat, INS infant with a seat. It determines the fare and the baggage allowance.

Frequent flyer number. Attached to the reservation for accrual. Not proof of anything about the ticket.

Reference block

Booking reference / PNR / record locator. Six alphanumeric characters. The key to the whole reservation — see PNR and booking reference.

E-ticket number. Thirteen digits, prefixed by the airline’s accounting code. Present only once the ticket has been issued — see e-ticket numbers.

Issuing agency / IATA number. Who issued the ticket. Relevant if you need to change it: the issuer often controls the booking.

Date of issue. When the ticket was issued, which starts the clock on some fare rules.

Segment block

Marketing carrier and flight number. The airline selling the flight, e.g. BA 112. Flight numbers run from 1 to 4 digits.

Operating carrier. Who actually flies it. Shown as “operated by” when it differs. You check in with the operating carrier. See airline codes.

Origin and destination. Three-letter IATA airport codes plus airport names. Note the difference between an airport code and a city code — see airport codes explained.

Departure and arrival date and time. Always in the local time of the respective airport. This convention is why arrival times can look impossible. See flight time zones.

Terminal. Scheduled at time of issue and genuinely liable to change. Verify on the day.

Aircraft type. Indicative. Equipment swaps are routine.

Duration. Block time — gate to gate, including taxi.

Status code. HK holding confirmed, HL waitlisted, TK schedule change requiring your confirmation, UN unable / cancelled, NO no action taken. HK is the one you want on every segment.

Cabin. Economy, premium economy, business, first.

Booking class / fare class. A single letter such as Y, Q, J or O. This is the important one: it sets the price, the change and refund rules, and the mileage earned. Two passengers in the same cabin can be in very different booking classes.

Fare basis code. A longer alphanumeric string encoding the full fare rule, e.g. QLXRT. Airline staff read this to determine what you are entitled to.

Commercial block

Base fare. The fare before taxes and carrier-imposed charges.

Taxes, fees and charges. Government taxes, airport charges and carrier surcharges. Often the larger part of a cheap ticket, and the part that is not refundable in the same way.

Total. What was charged.

Currency. The currency of issue, which affects refund amounts.

Form of payment. Usually masked. There is no reason for a full card number to appear on an itinerary; if one does, redact it before sharing.

Baggage allowance. What the fare includes at time of issue, per segment. Mixed-carrier journeys can carry different allowances on different legs, and allowances change.

Small print

Fare rules / conditions. Change fees, refundability, validity period, minimum and maximum stay.

Endorsements and restrictions. Codes such as NONREF or NONEND limiting what can be done with the ticket.

Notice of incorporated terms. The legal boilerplate incorporating the conditions of carriage and, on international journeys, the Montreal Convention liability limits.

Which fields change after issue

Worth knowing which parts of the document age:

Field	Stability
Passenger name	Fixed — changes usually require reissue
Booking reference	Fixed for the life of the reservation
Ticket number	Fixed unless reissued
Flight number	Can change with a schedule change
Times	Can change, sometimes by hours
Terminal	Frequently changes
Aircraft	Frequently changes
Seat	Not guaranteed until boarding
Gate	Not on the itinerary at all — assigned on the day
Baggage allowance	Can change with fare-rule updates

The stable fields are the identity and reference fields. The volatile fields are the operational ones. This is a useful lens: an itinerary is reliable about what was booked and only indicative about how it will be operated.

On a sample itinerary

Everything in the passenger and segment blocks can be shown honestly on a sample, because they describe a plan. The reference block cannot, because it describes a transaction that did not happen. That is why the samples generated here leave the booking reference and ticket number as SAMPLE — NOT ISSUED — see sample flight itinerary format.