The travel industry has a lot of jargon. While much of it is relatively useless except to people in the industry. many of these terms matter. One of those is “record locator.”
In short, a record locator is the confirmation code for a flight, with the actual airline flying that flight. Depending on how a booking is made, it may or may not be the confirmation number.
When a booking is made in a GDS, like Apollo, Amadeus or Sabre, there is a confirmation number that usually shows on an itinerary, but it’s the reservation system locator. Some GDS’s also show the airline locator on the itinerary too, but it can be confusing.
When a booking is made directly in an airline’s system, the record locator and the confirmation usually match. However, if the flight is a code share, operated by an airline partner, the record locator and the confirmation number won’t match.
Thus if a Continental or Lufthansa flight is booked as a United flight, a United confirmation number won’t do much good for checking in on line, or when a gate or phone agent is having trouble finding the reservation.
Another issue is with travel agency reservations that are changed from the original booking, or not ticketed immediately (though it can happen with online reservations too). Often the new bookings will have new record locators.
Many travelers may not realize they have a “new booking,” if they simply made a reservation, and days later decided to confirm and purchase the same flights.
The way airline computer systems work, most reservations for any kind of discount fare now canceled within 24 to 36 hours if not ticketed. Reinstating the booking in the same record can result in bad things happening, especially in the form of airlines billing travel agents for a perceived ticketing violation.
So our agency, like most, will usually start over with a new booking when it has taken a client a long time to decide. This results in semi-regular calls and emails from travelers saying, “I plugged in my record locator/confirmation code and they say the flights were canceled.”
Now, a record locator isn’t usually necessary to travel. But as noted, but it can help with online checkin. (Most carriers will also accept ticket numbers or mileage numbers instead, if a traveler has either of those.)
If there are problems with your reservation, the record locator is one more tool to try to help in fixing them.
Photo: DCA Checkin ©Leocha
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
