Bargain flights so chuffed £207 return!

[juless77]

Originally Posted by unixgirl

It's a website where price glitches and bargains are posted.
This is the link to what OP possibly grabbed.
secretflying/posts/er...135-roundtrip/
Fingers crossed OP get's their flights.

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Thankyou

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by CosmicGirl

I wouldn't take the comments on that site too seriously. For some reason that site is always full of panicking people when others have no issue whatsoever. I am positive that 90% of the people in the comments booked on some dodgy site to save €5 and hours later that TA cannot get the booking through. The vast majority of them don't know the difference between a PNR (alphanumeric airline locator) and a ticket number (13 numbers), so they assume that having received the PNR means that it is ticketed, but that is not the case.
As of right now, there are plenty of bookings that are intact, including my own (not to MCO).

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BIB: I haven't got a clue what you mean!

[CosmicGirl]

Originally Posted by Andybear

BIB: I haven't got a clue what you mean!

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And I don't know what BIB means!


Sorry to go a bit off-topic with this post, but it could be useful for readers of this thread who are looking for glitches.

Any travel agent can make a reservation with an airline, at which point the reservation of a (non-specific) seat on the plane in the passenger's name is in the airline's system. For this reservation a PNR is used as a reference. This PNR consists of 6 alphanumeric characters.

Travel agents may assign their own booking reference, which comes from the GDS, and if multiple airlines are involved they may all assign their own PNR as well. A GDS is a Global Distribution system, which is a system that links reservation systems of multiple airlines (most, except the Ryanairs of the world who refuse to pay for this). A handful of companies offer a GDS service and travel agents, online as well as offline, book airline tickets in one of the GDSs they work with.

This is less likely in the UK, but I have previously flown from Amsterdam to London on BA to then connect onto Virgin. Bookings like these are only possible with a travel agent because BA and Virgin obviously don't like each other, but they do have an interline agreement to "catch" bookings from passengers who may otherwise not fly either airline at all. In a case like this you would likely get 2 or 3 different booking references:
1. the TA's booking ref (optional);
2. BA's PNR in their system;
3. Virgin's PNR in their system.

Now when these PNRs are in the airlines' reservation systems a seat may be reserved, but it hasn't been paid for and the price is not set in stone. It is not until the travel agent pays the issuing airline and that airline agrees on the price that the flight will be ticketed and an e-ticket number consisting of 13 numbers will be issued.
If too much time passes between creation of the PNR and asking the airline to confirm the fare and issue the ticket then it is possible for the price to have changed and the ticket can no longer be issued for the price that you were initially shown. For this reason it is better to book with a reputable TA or an airline, who will typically issue a ticket much faster.

So in essence: a PNR is for a particular reservation, but without an associated e-ticket number (meaning it was paid for) the PNR will not get you on board a flight.

In this particular Air Canada situation even passengers who did receive e-ticket numbers like myself may receive a cancellation notice, because they entered the contract in bad faith. They knew the price must have been a mistake when they booked because it was far lower than any other offer for a similar trip. It depends on the airline, but sometimes they choose to take the hit to avoid bad PR, other times they will cancel all tickets because the losses are too high.

[skelfbsfb]

Hope they honour the price you paid.

[xXxSammi88xXx]

I have the e ticket with the 13 numbers. If i had known it was a glitch i probably wouldn't have bothered to be honest as i dont like the uncertainty. No cancellation email yet and booking still showing on air canada. Do they have a time limit in which to contact you? As if it is honoured i need to book a villa etc so cant really leave it last minute on the off chance

[Ciano]

Originally Posted by xXxSammi88xXx

I have the e ticket with the 13 numbers. If i had known it was a glitch i probably wouldn't have bothered to be honest as i dont like the uncertainty. No cancellation email yet and booking still showing on air canada. Do they have a time limit in which to contact you? As if it is honoured i need to book a villa etc so cant really leave it last minute on the off chance

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Would you not ring them? Best to know for sure so you can get planning one way or the other!

[CosmicGirl]

Originally Posted by xXxSammi88xXx

I have the e ticket with the 13 numbers. If i had known it was a glitch i probably wouldn't have bothered to be honest as i dont like the uncertainty. No cancellation email yet and booking still showing on air canada. Do they have a time limit in which to contact you? As if it is honoured i need to book a villa etc so cant really leave it last minute on the off chance

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There is no set time limit. The longest time it took an airline to cancel glitch tickets that I'm aware of was about 10 days. I would wait 2 weeks to book anything to be safe, but I'm following this on an aviation board so I'll be sure to let you know if there is any official news.

[CosmicGirl]

Originally Posted by Ciano

Would you not ring them? Best to know for sure so you can get planning one way or the other!

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It is best to draw as little attention as possible to glitch tickets. The fewer people look at your booking, the less chance you have of someone deciding to cancel it.

ETA: The #1 rule of glitches is don't call the airline or the TA, not even to get seats assigned. Even if they officially decide to cancel all of these tickets, there are usually still a few that slip through the cracks.

[Andybear]

Originally Posted by CosmicGirl

And I don't know what BIB means!


Sorry to go a bit off-topic with this post, but it could be useful for readers of this thread who are looking for glitches.

Any travel agent can make a reservation with an airline, at which point the reservation of a (non-specific) seat on the plane in the passenger's name is in the airline's system. For this reservation a PNR is used as a reference. This PNR consists of 6 alphanumeric characters.

Travel agents may assign their own booking reference, which comes from the GDS, and if multiple airlines are involved they may all assign their own PNR as well. A GDS is a Global Distribution system, which is a system that links reservation systems of multiple airlines (most, except the Ryanairs of the world who refuse to pay for this). A handful of companies offer a GDS service and travel agents, online as well as offline, book airline tickets in one of the GDSs they work with.

This is less likely in the UK, but I have previously flown from Amsterdam to London on BA to then connect onto Virgin. Bookings like these are only possible with a travel agent because BA and Virgin obviously don't like each other, but they do have an interline agreement to "catch" bookings from passengers who may otherwise not fly either airline at all. In a case like this you would likely get 2 or 3 different booking references:
1. the TA's booking ref (optional);
2. BA's PNR in their system;
3. Virgin's PNR in their system.

Now when these PNRs are in the airlines' reservation systems a seat may be reserved, but it hasn't been paid for and the price is not set in stone. It is not until the travel agent pays the issuing airline and that airline agrees on the price that the flight will be ticketed and an e-ticket number consisting of 13 numbers will be issued.
If too much time passes between creation of the PNR and asking the airline to confirm the fare and issue the ticket then it is possible for the price to have changed and the ticket can no longer be issued for the price that you were initially shown. For this reason it is better to book with a reputable TA or an airline, who will typically issue a ticket much faster.

So in essence: a PNR is for a particular reservation, but without an associated e-ticket number (meaning it was paid for) the PNR will not get you on board a flight.

In this particular Air Canada situation even passengers who did receive e-ticket numbers like myself may receive a cancellation notice, because they entered the contract in bad faith. They knew the price must have been a mistake when they booked because it was far lower than any other offer for a similar trip. It depends on the airline, but sometimes they choose to take the hit to avoid bad PR, other times they will cancel all tickets because the losses are too high.

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Thank you. BIB means Bit In Bold - it's something that's used on all the other (non-Disney) forums I go on when people want to comment on a small bit of a post - they bolden the bit they want to comment on and then say BIB followed by their response

[CosmicGirl]

Originally Posted by Andybear

Thank you. BIB means Bit In Bold - it's something that's used on all the other (non-Disney) forums I go on when people want to comment on a small bit of a post - they bolden the bit they want to comment on and then say BIB followed by their response

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Thank you