PNR, Record Locator & Booking Reference Explained

The six characters at the top of your itinerary go by several names — PNR, booking reference, record locator, confirmation number, reservation code. They mostly refer to the same thing, and the small differences between them occasionally matter.

What a PNR is

A Passenger Name Record is the reservation itself: a structured record created when someone books travel. At minimum it holds the passenger name, the itinerary segments, a contact, and the identity of whoever made the booking. In practice it accumulates far more — ticket numbers, seat assignments, meal requests, frequent-flyer numbers, baggage, payment traces, and a running log of every change.

The PNR is the fact. Everything else — the confirmation email, the itinerary PDF, the entry in the airline’s app — is a view onto it.

What the booking reference is

The booking reference or record locator is the six-character key used to retrieve that record. Combined with a surname it is enough to pull up the reservation.

The format is consistent across the industry: six alphanumeric characters, usually uppercase, commonly avoiding characters that are easy to misread. It is short because it was designed to be read aloud over a telephone by a travel agent in 1965, and the format never needed to change.

What is a record locator?

A record locator is the six-character code that locates a PNR — the same code most people call a booking reference. “Record locator” is the reservation-system term, used by agents, airline staff and the GDS screens they work in; “booking reference” and “confirmation number” are the words airlines use when they print the same code for passengers.

So for most practical purposes, all of these name one thing:

Term	Who tends to use it	What it is
Record locator	Airline staff, travel agents, reservation systems	The code that retrieves the PNR
Booking reference	British and European airlines, itinerary emails	The same code
Confirmation number / code	North American airlines and booking sites	The same code — see airline confirmation number
PNR	Agents, and loosely everyone else	Strictly the record itself; in casual use, its locator
E-ticket number	Ticketing and refunds	A different thing: 13 digits, one per passenger per ticket

The last row is the one that causes real confusion. A record locator identifies the reservation; an e-ticket number proves a ticket was issued and paid for. One PNR can hold several passengers, each with their own ticket number, all under a single six-character locator. If an airline asks for your ticket number, the locator will not do, and the reverse is equally true.

Where to find yours — in the confirmation email, the airline app or a receipt — is covered step by step in airline confirmation number.

Why you often have more than one

A journey booked through an agent or a booking site can carry several references:

The airline’s record locator, in the operating carrier’s own system
The GDS record locator, in the system the agent used (Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport)
The agency or website’s own booking number, which is internal to them

These are different codes for related records. If an airline says your reference is not recognised, you are probably quoting the agency’s number rather than the airline’s. The one printed next to the airline’s name on the itinerary is usually the one they want.

On a codeshare or interline journey you may also hold a separate reference with each operating carrier. See operating vs marketing carrier.

A booking reference is not a password

Worth stating plainly: a booking reference is an identifier, not a credential. Combined with a surname it grants access to a reservation — which is why booking references appear on baggage tags and should not be photographed and posted publicly.

Airlines have gradually added protections, but the underlying design assumes the reference is semi-public. Treat a picture of your boarding pass the way you would treat a picture of your address.

Why this site will not generate one

The generator here prints SAMPLE — NOT ISSUED in the booking-reference field. This is deliberate, and it is the design decision most often asked about.

A booking reference is the only field on an itinerary that makes a claim capable of being checked. Six plausible characters transform a document from “here is a trip I am considering” into “here is a booking I have made”. Everything else — the airports, the times, the layout — is descriptive, and a sample can carry it honestly. The reference cannot be carried honestly, because its only meaning is “look this up”, and there is nothing to look up.

Generating one adds nothing for anyone planning a trip and everything for anyone intending to misrepresent one. Leaving it blank costs the first group nothing.

If you need a real reference, the honest routes are in flight reservation vs ticket: a free hold, a paid hold, or a refundable fare all produce a genuine one.

Reading a PNR if you ever see the raw version

Occasionally an agent will show you the underlying record, which looks like this:

1.1SMITH/JOHN MR
 1  BA 112 Y 06OCT 1 LHRJFK HK1  0835 1135
 2  BA 113 Y 20OCT 1 JFKLHR HK1  1830 0630+1

Reading across the segment line: carrier and flight number, booking class, date, day of week, origin and destination airport pair, status and passenger count (HK1 = holding confirmed, one seat), then departure and arrival times. The +1 marks arrival on the following day.

Status codes are worth recognising: HK confirmed, HL waitlisted, TK schedule changed and needs confirmation, UN unable — flight cancelled, NO no action taken.