Glossary
Definitions and explainers for the terms used across airline distribution, supplier connectivity and modern travel software.
A
Agency credit & wallet
Financial controls in B2B distribution: per‑agency credit limits, deposits and prepaid wallets that fund bookings and are reconciled in real time.
Read definitionAllotment
A negotiated block of inventory — airline seats or hotel rooms — held for a period with release dates and penalties. Allotments are common in groups and contracted rates.
Read definitionAncillaries
Optional extras sold with the core product, such as bags, seats and meals for flights, or breakfast and parking for hotels.
Read definition
D
DMC (Destination Management Company)
A local ground operator that provides tours, transfers and on‑the‑ground services. DMCs often supply contracted rates to agencies and consolidators.
Read definitionDuty of care
An employer’s responsibility to keep travellers safe and informed. In travel this includes visibility of who is travelling where and prompt handling of disruptions.
Read definition
L
LCC (Low‑Cost Carrier)
Airlines that typically distribute through direct web APIs instead of traditional GDS channels. LCCs often have different fare rules, ancillaries and servicing patterns compared to legacy carriers.
Read definitionLook‑to‑book
The ratio of searches (looks) to bookings. It is a measure of search efficiency and conversion and drives cost and capacity planning.
Read definition
M
Markup
An amount added to net or public prices to achieve margin. Markups are often set by supplier, product, market, agency tier and currency, with effective dates.
Read definitionMid‑office
The operational and finance layer between booking and accounting: invoicing, BSP matching, supplier reconciliation, statements, taxes and ledgers.
Read definition
N
NDC (New Distribution Capability)
IATA’s standard for airline distribution over modern APIs. NDC exposes rich content, branded fares and ancillaries directly from airlines, replacing parts of the legacy GDS EDIFACT model and enabling airline‑controlled pricing and retailing.
Read definitionNet fare
A fare sold net of commission. The seller adds markup or service fees to achieve margin, rather than earning commission from the supplier.
Read definition
O
Order management (NDC)
The lifecycle of an airline order in NDC: create, pay, ticket, change, refund and handle involuntary schedule changes, using the airline’s order as the source of truth.
Read definitionOTA (Online Travel Agency)
A consumer‑facing travel retailer that sells flights, hotels and other products online under its own brand and marketing.
Read definition
P
PNR (Passenger Name Record)
A record in a reservation system that holds itinerary and passenger details. In NDC the airline order becomes the authoritative record, but PNRs still exist in many flows.
Read definitionPrivate fare
A negotiated or restricted fare not publicly available, such as consolidator, corporate or series fares, loaded under a contract and shown to eligible sellers.
Read definitionProperty mapping
The process of matching hotel property records and content across suppliers so the same hotel does not appear multiple times with conflicting data.
Read definition
S
Schema drift
Unannounced or evolving changes in a supplier’s API responses that break fragile mappings: new enum values, missing fields, type changes or altered pagination.
Read definitionSelf‑booking tool (SBT)
A corporate booking interface where employees book travel within policy, with approvals and cost‑centre accounting built in.
Read definitionSub‑agent
A downstream agency in a distribution network that buys from a master agency or consolidator under agreed markups, credit limits and branding.
Read definitionSupplier extranet
A portal for airlines, hotels and ground partners to load and manage their own fares, rates, allotments and stop‑sales without developer involvement.
Read definition