Directly view the travel itineraries created by travel agents or airlines.
Almost all the travel bookings you make either directly or via an agent get placed on enormous mainframe computers. In recent years these computers have become available to the public, but travel agents and airline like to keep it a secret!
That’s a pity since these web portals let you see details and updates in your travel arrangements without calling your agent or airline. You need a little knowledge or persistence to get the info you need but its worth it because you often get more details and options than the airline offers like:
· See all flights and other bookings on that booking code, not just flights on one carrier
· What type of plane will be used, not just a short code
· Mileage for each flight
· Meal / Drink service
· Seat allocation or seat request
· Any special requests, meals etc.
· Full e-ticket reference number
· Print all details
· Email all details, to yourself or someone else
· You can provide details of one trip to someone else (give them the reference code) without displaying all other flights you may have planned.
· There’s links to maps and other destination information.
There’s three different web sites you could use, depending on what system your airline or agent uses to make bookings. All the services have similar features, you can view an itinerary, print it or email it. Some let you add the details into your PIM software (like Outlook) directly.
In addition you can get weather and destination information associated with your trip. Quite often these web sites provide more details than your own airline does. Some airline web sites let you look up your booking but it won’t show seat allocation or meal information.
You can’t change anything on these web sites, only view the current itinerary. If you need to make changes then contact your agent or airline, once the changes are made they’ll show up on the web site.
THREE WEB SITES
www.virtuallythere.com is run by Sabre and so has Sabre, Abacus and Infini agencies plus ATA, Gulf Air, Hawaiian, National and US Airways.
www.viewtrip.com is run by Galileo which means bookings done by Apollo / Galileo.
www.checkmytrip.com is for Amadeus bookings.
The web sites above work independently of the airlines and will show you the information available, regardless. Many airlines have online viewing of itineraries but are limited in various ways. Either you have to be a member of that airlines flyer scheme (eg American Airlines AAdvantage) or they’ll only display full details of that airlines flights, not connecting flights on other airlines, hotel bookings etc.
This independence is also useful when getting a printout of flight details so you can get through airport security. A printout from one of these web sites is sufficient proof of travel to get you into an airport and has the virtue of covering all your flights for a trip, not just those of one airline.
What you need
It does look a little daunting but it really isn’t in practice. You need to know only two things to access any of these systems:
· Your surname as recorded in the computer system
· The reservation code. This is a 6 character code unique to that booking. All the systems use the 6 character code, it can be letters (upper / lower case makes no difference) or numbers. Confusingly it’s sometimes called a reservation number even when there are letters in it!
The surname and reservation code have to match before any information is displayed.
How it works
Go to the correct web site, enter your surname and reservation code where shown and click. Your itinerary will appear. It’s as simple as that.
Each site has different additional features:
ViewTrip
· Times in 12 or 24 hour format
· see city temperatures in Fahrenheit or Celsius
VirtuallyThere
· Download your itinerary to a Palm or Pocket PC via Avantgo.
· Add details to your PIM via an Infotreiver add-on
· Times in 12 or 24 hour format
CheckMyTrip
· Add details to your PIM via an Infotreiver add-on
· Some flight details are only available when clicking on the plane icon.
· To see more complete info on one page click the printer icon on the top left of the page. Another browser window will open showing fuller details ready to print if you choose.
Depending on the web site you can see all the details on one screen (ViewTrip) or click on details button to see more info (CheckMyTrip). Personally I prefer to see all the details on the one page.
Getting your reservation code
Generally your travel agent can give you the reservation code and tell you what system they use. Sadly you can’t always trust this information, one agent we’ve used swore they used Sabre but the booking came up only on the Galileo system.
The reservation code will be on a paper airline ticket. Under your name look for a 6 character sequence perhaps prefixed with 2 characters and a slash. For example if you see 1A/FGY5RE then FGY5RE is the reservation code.
E-ticketing makes getting the reservation code more difficult since it doesn’t always show up on the printouts.
You can also ask the airline if you call them. Sadly the staffer might not want to tell you or will give you the airline internal reference number NOT the mainframe reference.
My usual travel agent knows to give me the reservation code for any booking I make, this saves her taking extra phone calls from me. If I’m booking elsewhere I usually ask the agent for a printout of the booking as produced from the computer. This printout is often short and chock full of codes – not intended for reading by us mere mortals – but it does have the raw and unadulterated data including the reservation code. The code usually on the first or second line near your name.
If your travel agent refuses to give you the reservation code or doesn’t understand the question, then you know to look for another agent.
I don’t know which agency system they use.
It doesn’t matter. Just try the reservation code and surname on each of the web sites until one of them pops up the itinerary. You won’t get in trouble for trying the wrong web site, just a message saying the code / surname has nothing recorded.
What is my surname?
The surname is the part of the Passenger Name Record (PNR) before the slash. DEEGAN/PMR is my PNR so the surname I enter is DEEGAN. You’ll find your PNR on the top of your paper ticket or agency printout.
You might think you know your own name, but sometimes the travel industry will try to change it!
· no punctuation, spaces, hyphens, etc. O’Donald becomes ODONALD , Green-Smith becomes GREENSMITH .
· Asian people especially might find their family name and personal names reversed!
· wrong spelling – if so you should get it changed immediately since it can cause problems in these security conscious times. Any discrepancy between the name on your passport or other ID and travel documents can cause trouble.
Still can’t find my travel info
· Is it the right reservation code? A character could be a zero instead of letter o. It possible copy from an actual printout or ticket.
· Is the surname correct, see above.
· Is it an internal booking? If you’ve booked directly with a hotel or airline it might not show up on a major system only their in-house computers. This is also the reason why you might find airline details online but not the hotels.
· Are you using the right reservation number? Some airlines allocate two reservation codes, one for internal use and the other from the reservation system.
SOME MORE USES
You are waitlisted for a flight. To find out if you’ve moved from the waitlist to a confirmed seat you normally have to call the airline, wait on hold (“your call is important to us”, yeah right) then ask an operator of varying ability. If the news isn’t good you have to call again later. But with these web sites you can check for yourself anytime from your own computer or public Internet terminal. A flight status will change from Waitlist to Confirmed.
You can also check if your frequent flyer / points reference has been recorded properly.
Seat allocation, meal requests etc should all show up. If they don’t you know to call the airline and see that the message is added to your booking.
Your family / friends can keep an eye on your travel plans. Give them the reservation code and surname and they can look it up for themselves. Your kids might like that. Or you can email your itinerary from any web browser. This is especially useful if you’re across many time zones from home. Your partner could get their morning email with an overnight message from you saying “I’m coming home early – be back on Thursday and below are my new flight details.”.
The important thing is that you’re looking at exactly the same information as the airline, hotel or agent is using, any changes that are made are immediately displayed on the web site. We’ve tried this by calling an airline and asking for a change of flight, while still on the phone we’ve refreshed the site and the changes appear, like magic.
