Fundamentals of flying reservations and ticketing · Reservations and ticketing in Fundamentals of flying
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Reservations and ticketing in Fundamentals of flying
Reservations and ticketing in Fundamentals of flying
From the moment you first book your flight to the moment you step on the plane, there's a lot going on in the background. The following may be helpful in understanding what is happening.
The first step is to make a reservation for your flight. This means that the airline will hold a seat for you until a given date, typically a week or so before the flight. If you do not pay up before the expiration date, the booking will be canceled and somebody else can grab the seat. Reservations can be changed and canceled freely.
A seat reserved for you will be listed as confirmed in your reservation, and will not be taken away. You can confirm only a single seat in each direction per ticket.
If a specific flight is fully booked but you want to try to get on it, you can make a waitlisted reservation. If the waitlist "clears" (somebody else cancels and you get their seat), the waitlisted reservation becomes confirmed and your previously confirmed seats on other flights are canceled. You can usually waitlist multiple flights, but really cheap nonchangeable tickets may not allow any waitlisting at all.
Turning a reservation into an actual ticket is called issuing the ticket. An issued ticket must be paid for and - depending on ticket type - some or all of following restrictions may now apply:
nonchangeable: you cannot change the flight time and date (at least not without paying a heavy change fee)
nonendorsable: you cannot fly another airline if your airline has problems (for serious cases like flight cancellations this is usually overruled by local legislation)
nonrefundable: you cannot get your money back if you don't fly
nonreroutable: you cannot change to another route, even if the destination is the same
nontransferable: you cannot sell the ticket to somebody.
These various restrictions (or lack thereof) play a large role in determining the price of that ticket. As mentioned in the section finding a cheap ticket, a rule of thumb is that higher prices mean fewer restrictions.
If you are still waitlisted for a flight that you would like to board, or if you would like to take an earlier flight than you're booked on, you can try to fly standby. This means simply showing up at the airport check-in counter and asking to be put on the next flight. If there is plenty of space, you'll be checked in right there. However, if the flight is looking full, you will have to wait until the flight is closed (typically 30-60 minutes before departure) and the airline can count how many seats it has left. Don't count on any special ticket savings if you fly standby.
If you don't check in by closing time, you will be declared a no-show. Your seat can now be given to somebody on standby. The result depends on your ticket restrictions and conditions, which can be either total loss of your fare, or on some flexible tickets you can just book onto the next flight.
Many airlines now streamline this process considerably so that no reservations are possible, only fully paid and issued tickets. Flight restrictions can be draconian ? some companies even ban standby changes ? so you'll have to pay (sometimes dearly) to make any change; some also do not allow refunds. Check your conditions carefully.
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