Travel Operations Glossary

3D Secure (3DS) is a card-network authentication protocol (Visa Secure, Mastercard Identity Check, Amex SafeKey) that verifies the cardholder at checkout and shifts fraud liability from the merchant to the issuer when the challenge passes. 3DS lands at the desk as a booking that stalls on a bank-verification step, or as

The 24-hour rule is a US Department of Transportation requirement that lets a customer cancel most air bookings without penalty within 24 hours of purchase, provided the flight was booked at least seven days before scheduled departure. The 24-hour rule exists because the US Department of Transportation decided that a

Agent assist is a class of AI feature that sits alongside a human support agent in the ticket view, drafting replies, surfacing knowledge, extracting fields, and suggesting the next action while the agent reviews and sends. Agent assist is the practical middle ground between fully manual support and fuller AI in

An AI agent is software that reads a query, plans a short sequence of steps, calls tools such as booking APIs and knowledge lookups, and produces an action or a drafted reply that a human reviews and sends. At a travel support desk, an AI agent behaves less like a

An AI travel assistant is an AI layer that helps travelers or support agents complete a booking-related task, drawing on live booking data, fare rules, and policy content. Two flavours exist. Traveler-facing assistants answer customer questions on chat or WhatsApp. Agent-facing assistants sit inside the support desk, summarizing threads, drafting replies, and

An airline booking system is the commerce stack (search, pricing, seat hold, and ticket issuance) a carrier and its distribution partners use to sell flights, connecting the storefront to the airline reservation system for PNR creation and ticketing. Where the ARS is the airline’s system of record, the booking system is the

An airline chargeback is a credit or debit card dispute filed by the passenger against a ticket or ancillary purchase. The card scheme (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) issues a reason code, and the merchant has a fixed window to respond with evidence. Travel chargebacks cluster around four reasons: “service not rendered”

An airline chatbot is a conversational AI or rules-based assistant deployed on a carrier’s web, app, WhatsApp, or Messenger to help passengers with flight status, bookings, seat and baggage queries, and refund requests. Airline chatbots earn their keep on high-volume, low-variance intents: check-in reminders, boarding pass retrieval, flight status, and

Airline compensation is money or vouchers a carrier owes a passenger when it cancels, delays, downgrades, or denies boarding on a covered flight, set by rules such as EU261, UK261, Canada’s APPR, Brazil’s ANAC Resolution 400, and the US DOT. Compensation sits on top of the refund. A refund returns

An airline complaint is a formal passenger grievance about a service failure (delay, cancellation, baggage, refund, or conduct) filed with the airline, a regulator, or a resolution body. Complaints tend to concentrate around IROPS, denied boarding, downgrades, baggage, and refund delays. The passenger usually files with the airline first; if

An airline consolidator is a wholesale reseller that holds contracted net-fare deals with airlines and distributes them at discounted rates to travel agencies, TMCs, and OTAs. Consolidators let smaller sellers access fares they cannot negotiate directly. Bookings usually issue on the consolidator’s IATA plate rather than the agency’s, which means

Airline consumer rights are the passenger protections set by aviation regulators: refunds, rebookings, care, and compensation when the airline disrupts a flight. The three big regimes are US DOT rules, EU Regulation 261/2004, and the UK’s retained UK261. Each defines the threshold for compensation (usually distance and delay length), the duty-of-care

Airline customer service is the set of processes and channels a carrier uses to help passengers with booking, disruptions, refunds, and post-flight complaints, delivered across web, app, phone, email, WhatsApp, social, and airport counters. An airline customer service desk sits at the intersection of reservations, operations, and irregular-operations recovery. When a passenger writes

Airline customer support is the reactive help team and tooling a carrier uses to resolve passenger tickets on disruptions, refunds, baggage claims, seat changes, and rebooking, across every intake channel. On an airline support desk, a single passenger issue often touches three back-office systems: the reservation record, the operations feed, and the refund

An airline refund policy is the rule set that defines when a passenger gets a refund, how much of the fare returns, in what form (cash, original tender, or voucher), and within what timeframe, based on the ticket’s fare rules and the applicable regulation. Every ticket sold has two layers of refund

An airline schedule change is a carrier-initiated shift in flight time, routing, or equipment that happens after a ticket has been issued. Schedule changes arrive as SKCHG or TKCHG messages in the GDS, and each carrier sets its own threshold for what counts as significant (commonly 90 or 120 minutes, but verify against the

An airline ticket refund is the return of fare and taxes to the passenger after a cancellation, schedule change, or involuntary disruption, subject to fare rules, distribution channel, and applicable passenger-rights regulation. Refunds split into voluntary (the passenger cancels a refundable fare) and involuntary (the airline cancels or changes the

An ATOL certificate is the document the ATOL holder must give to every passenger on an ATOL-protected booking, at the point of payment. The certificate lists the ATOL holder, the ATOL number, the flights and services covered, and what the passenger should do if the ATOL holder fails. It has to be issued whether

ATOL protection is the UK Civil Aviation Authority’s financial protection scheme for air package holidays sold from the UK. If the ATOL holder fails, the scheme repatriates passengers already abroad and refunds those who have not travelled. Every ATOL-protected sale must include an ATOL certificate, issued at the point of booking. Support teams see

Baggage allowance airline rules define how many bags a passenger can check or carry, plus the weight and size caps that apply to each fare, route, and loyalty tier. Allowances split by piece concept (typical for the Americas) or weight concept (typical for Europe, Asia, and the Middle East), and

Denied boarding compensation is a payment a carrier owes a passenger involuntarily bumped from a confirmed flight (usually due to overbooking), calculated under EU261 in the EU, UK261 in the UK, and 14 CFR Part 250 in the United States. Involuntary denied boarding starts with a call for volunteers; if

Duty of care software helps corporate travel teams keep travelers safe: real-time locating, risk alerts, two-way communications, and evacuation coordination. It is the tooling side of a company’s legal and ethical obligation to protect employees on business travel. When an event happens (a strike, a weather closure, a security incident),

EU261 compensation is the fixed cash payment (roughly EUR 250 to EUR 600 by distance) that EC Regulation 261/2004 requires a carrier to pay a passenger for cancellations, arrival delays of 3 hours or more, or denied boarding on covered flights. EU261 covers any flight departing an EU airport, and any flight

Flight cancellation compensation is a fixed cash payment a carrier owes a passenger when it cancels a covered flight inside a defined notice window and the cancellation is within the airline’s control. Under EU261, cancellation compensation ranges roughly EUR 250 to EUR 600 per passenger by distance, on top of the refund

Flight delay compensation is a fixed payment a carrier owes a passenger when a covered flight arrives at the final destination beyond a defined delay threshold and the delay is within the airline’s control. The most common trigger is the Sturgeon ruling under EU261: an arrival delay of 3 hours or more entitles the passenger

A hotel chatbot is an automated conversational agent that answers guest questions and takes light-touch actions across the website, WhatsApp, Messenger, and in-app chat, before, during, and after a stay. Hotel chatbots handle FAQs (check-in time, breakfast hours, pet policy), simple upsells, booking modifications, and directions to on-property amenities. Because guests

A hotel CRM is the system that stores guest profiles, stay history, preferences, and communication logs so the property can personalize service, run loyalty programs, and market to past guests. The CRM pulls data from the PMS, booking engine, POS, and support channels into one guest record. When a returning guest checks

Hotel customer support is the reactive team, playbook, and ticketing tools a property (or its chain) uses to resolve guest issues during and after a stay: room complaints, folio disputes, refund requests, OTA claims, and reputation-recovery outreach. Hotel customer support differs from customer service in scope: service is proactive and

Hotel guest messaging is the practice of talking to guests through SMS, WhatsApp, web chat, and in-app messaging across the pre-arrival, on-property, and post-stay phases of a stay. Guests now expect to text a hotel the way they text friends. Pre-arrival messaging handles arrival time, room preferences, and upsell offers.

A hotel help desk is the team or platform that receives, tracks, and resolves guest and staff service requests across channels (WhatsApp, email, chat, phone, OTA inbox), tying each ticket back to the reservation and folio. A hotel help desk sits between the property management system and the guest. Instead of a

Hotel help desk software is a ticketing platform that unifies guest messaging, OTA inbox threads, complaints, refund requests, and internal work orders into one queue, integrated with the property management system so every ticket carries the reservation and folio context. The buying decision usually comes down to three factors: how

Hotel WhatsApp support is the use of the WhatsApp Business API by a hotel to receive and answer guest messages across pre-arrival, on-property, and post-stay moments. Guests already live on WhatsApp, so many hotels open it as an official channel through a business solution provider such as Twilio, 360dialog, or

An involuntary reroute is an airline-initiated change to a passenger’s routing driven by IRROPS, a schedule change past the significant threshold, or a cancelled flight. The passenger has three rights under most carrier contracts: accept the protected alternative, choose a different reasonable routing (often on interline partners), or take a

Missed connection compensation is the payment or rebooking a carrier owes a passenger when a delay or cancellation on one leg of a through-ticket causes them to miss the onward flight and arrive at the final destination 3 or more hours late. The key rule under EU261 (Folkerts case) is that compensation

Montreal Convention baggage rules come from the 1999 treaty (MC99) that sets airline liability caps for delayed, damaged, and lost checked and cabin baggage on international itineraries. Liability is expressed in Special Drawing Rights (SDR) per passenger, not per bag, and it applies to the operating carrier on the international sector. Support

Name correction airline rules govern how many letters an agent can fix, when a full reissue is required, and when the ticket must be voided and rebooked. Most carriers allow a small letter-count correction (commonly three characters, but verify against each airline’s contract) without a reissue. Anything larger, or a full first or

An OTA CRM is a customer relationship management system built for online travel agencies that stores traveler profiles, booking history, communication logs, and preferences across every trip a customer books. Because an OTA sells other people’s inventory, the customer relationship is its main asset. The OTA CRM ties every past

OTA customer support software is the ticketing and help desk platform an online travel agency uses to handle post-sale customer queries, schedule changes, refunds, and complaints across email, chat, and phone. A generic help desk was not built for a PNR, an involuntary hotel change, or a partial refund tied to a bedbank.

The Package Travel Directive is the EU rule set that governs how package holidays and linked travel arrangements are sold, changed, and refunded across member states. The directive requires clear pre-contract information, price-change limits after booking, insolvency protection, and a right to cancel or transfer under defined circumstances. Support teams

Rebooking airline tickets is the process of moving a passenger from the original itinerary to a new one, either at the passenger’s request (voluntary) or because the airline disrupted the trip (involuntary). The two paths use different fare rules, different endorsements, and different ADM (Agency Debit Memo) exposure. Voluntary rebookings follow the

Tarmac delay compensation refers to the passenger-care and financial rules that apply when a flight sits on the ground with the door closed past a defined limit. In the US, DOT rules require carriers to give passengers a chance to deplane after a set number of hours on the tarmac, and to

The tarmac delay rule is the US Department of Transportation regulation (14 CFR §259) that caps how long an airline can keep passengers on board a taxied aircraft (3 hours for domestic, 4 hours for international flights) before it must return to the gate. The rule applies to US carriers

A tour operator CRM tracks inquiries, quotes, group bookings, and traveler history so agents can sell trips and handle amendments without re-typing details every time. It differs from a general CRM because it holds itinerary structure, passenger manifests, and supplier references alongside the usual contact and deal fields. Repeat travelers, agent accounts

A travel agency CRM is a customer relationship management system built for travel agencies that stores traveler profiles, trip history, preferences, and communication logs across every booking the agency handles. Repeat business is the economic engine of most agencies, so the CRM sits at the center of both sales and

A travel chatbot is a conversational agent that answers traveler questions about a booking, a refund, a schedule change, or a policy on chat, WhatsApp, or a web widget. The good travel chatbots are booking-aware: they know the PNR, the traveler, and the fare rules before they respond. The weak

Travel customer service software runs the desk that answers traveler and agent questions across channels, with booking context attached to every ticket. It differs from a general customer service platform by treating the booking (not the contact) as the unit of work. When a traveler emails about a rebooking, the ticket loads the PNR,

Travel customer support software resolves issues that come in after a booking: amendments, refunds, no-shows, disruption, and supplier back-and-forth. Its job is different from sales tools because the traveler already owns a reservation and now needs the operator to act on it. The software links the ticket to the booking record so

A travel help desk is the team and system that resolves issues raised by travelers, agents, and suppliers amendments, cancellations, refunds, disruption, and escalations. Every OTA, tour operator, DMC, and TMC runs one, though names differ (support desk, ops desk, service desk, reservations desk). The work is booking-centric, not contact-centric, which

The travel merchant of record (MOR) is the entity that appears on the passenger’s card statement and carries contractual liability for the transaction. On a travel booking the MOR is not always obvious. It might be the airline, the OTA, the wholesaler, or a payment facilitator, depending on how the funds flowed. That single

A travel payment gateway is the payment service that captures, authenticates, and settles card or alt-pay transactions on a travel booking. Travel-specific gateways handle multi-currency pricing, 3D Secure step-up, dynamic descriptors, fraud rules tuned to fare-hunter behaviour, and split settlement across airline, hotel, and agency components. Support teams see the volume

Travel risk management software combines risk data, traveler tracking, alerts, and response workflows so travel teams can prevent and manage in-trip incidents. It sits at the intersection of corporate travel and corporate security, giving both teams a single view of who is where and what is happening around them. Buyers

Travel support software is the umbrella term for platforms that run post-booking support: ticketing, booking data, supplier coordination, and SLA tracking. It covers help desks, ops desks, service desks, and reservations desks, whatever the internal name is. Buyers hit this term when they have outgrown a shared inbox and need queues, ownership,

Traveler tracking software shows travel and security teams where employees are during trips, so they can reach and help anyone caught in an incident. It reads booking data (usually from the TMC or GDS) to plot itineraries, hotel stays, and rental cars on a map or list. When an event happens,

Virtual card travel payments are single-use, exact-amount card numbers that an agency, OTA, or TMC issues to pay a supplier (hotel, DMC, ground handler) for a specific booking. Each virtual card is generated with a fixed amount, a valid-through window, and a merchant category lock, and it is tied to