What is a PNR? Passenger name records explained for travel agents

A PNR (passenger name record) is the reservation record behind a booking. It holds who is traveling, the itinerary, contact details and ticketing status, filed under a six-character code called the record locator. EU law defines it as the record of each passenger's travel requirements that airlines need to process and control a reservation.

Here is what a PNR holds, who creates it, and who else sees it.

What is a PNR?

A PNR is the booking file for one trip. The EU PNR Directive defines it as a record of each passenger's travel requirements which contains information necessary to enable reservations to be processed and controlled by the airlines involved (Article 3).

Amadeus describes the same thing from the agent's side: a unique identifier used by travel providers and travel agents to manage personal and booking information for a single trip.

What is in a PNR?

Every PNR has a few required parts, called elements. Amadeus lists five mandatory elements:

1. Name. First name, surname and title for each passenger.
2. Itinerary. At least one segment, such as a flight.
3. Contact. The passenger's phone and email, or the contact details of the agent who booked.
4. Ticketing. The status of the ticket.
5. Reference. Who created the PNR and who changed it later.

Optional elements include special service requests, handling for unaccompanied minors, frequent flyer details and agent remarks. Form of payment is optional to create a PNR but necessary to issue a flight ticket.

The EU directive's list of data airlines may pass to governments runs to 19 categories (Annex I). It includes payment information, general remarks, all historical changes, and a line for the travel agency/travel agent. Your agency's name travels with the booking.

SSRs, OSIs, remarks and the ticketing time limit

Some PNR fields talk to the airline. Others stay inside your agency. Travelport's Smartpoint quick reference guide splits them this way:

Travelport lists passenger phone and email and the ticket time limit among the details you add to every booking file. Airlines can also push their own deadline into the PNR. Finnair, for example, sends non-Amadeus GDS users an SSR ADTK element. If no ticket is issued in time, segments are cancelled and PNR is queued to booking office.

Contact details matter more than they look. Air Mauritius reminded agents in May 2025 that, under IATA Resolution 830d, travel agencies must enter the passenger's phone contact details in the Passenger Name Record (PNR), with the passenger's consent. Without them, the airline can't reach your traveler about a delay.

Who creates a PNR: the travel agent or the airline?

Both, depending on the channel. Amadeus says all PNRs must be created on a Computer Reservation System (CRS). A direct airline booking is created in the airline's own CRS. An agent booking often goes through a global distribution system (GDS) that allows travel agencies, websites, and other companies to access and make bookings on an airline's CRS.

That is why one agent booking can carry two codes. Travelport says most airlines return a vendor locator, the airline's booking reference in the airline's reservations system. It is not the same as the Travelport+ record locator. The agent works in the GDS record. The airline works in its own.

What is a record locator?

The record locator is the PNR's short address. Amadeus calls it a 6-character code that also goes by booking code or confirmation code. Travelport assigns its locator the first time you end transaction a booking file. After that, the code does not change regardless of how many times you retrieve, modify, or ignore a record.

PNR vs record locator vs ticket number

Amadeus is clear on the last column: a PNR is the internal booking record, while a ticket is the document that confirms a traveler's seat.

What changes a PNR after booking?

The record locator stays put. What sits behind it keeps moving. Three things change a PNR most often.

You change it. Adding a segment, a seat or a request updates the same record. Splitting one traveler out creates a new one (see below).

The airline changes it. Schedule changes, cancellations and waitlist moves change a segment's status code. Air Canada queues these changes to your CRS. They must be actioned within 14 days of the schedule change notification, or 48 hours before departure if that comes first. That covers segments with status codes UN, NO, HX, WK, WL, WN or TK.

The clock changes it. Miss the ticketing time limit and the airline may cancel the unticketed segments, as Finnair's rule above shows.

Names are the exception. Air Canada says name changes are not permitted. It allows corrections only when names are misspelled, or to reflect legal documents. Other airlines set their own rules, so check before you promise a fix.

Can you split a PNR?

Yes, when one traveler in a shared booking changes plans. Travelport calls this a divide: you can divide passengers from a booking file to then modify or cancel their booking. A few rules apply in its system:

• The booking must contain valid air segments, and car and hotel segments stay with the original.
• A stored fare will be automatically deleted with the divide transaction.

Separate PNRs can also happen by default. Amadeus notes that a connection on two airlines without an agreement may produce a different PNR for each segment.

Who else sees PNR data?

Governments. In the US, airlines flying to, from or through the country must give CBP electronic access to PNR data under 49 U.S.C. § 44909(c)(3). CBP uses it strictly for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating, and prosecuting terrorist offenses and certain transnational crimes. PNR is depersonalized after the first six months, and total retention in CBP's targeting system does not exceed fifteen years.

In the EU, Directive (EU) 2016/681 makes airlines transfer PNR data for extra-EU flights for use against terrorist offences and serious crime. Airlines send it 24 to 48 hours before the scheduled flight departure time and again right after boarding closes. Member states keep it for a period of five years and mask names and contact details after six months.

The EU's top court narrowed that in June 2022. It ruled that the directive precludes national legislation which provides for a general retention period of five years for all passengers alike. Keeping everyone's data for the initial six-month period is fine. After that, retention needs objective evidence of a risk linked to the passenger.

Travelers can ask for their own record. CBP says anyone, regardless of citizenship, can request it under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This is a summary, not legal advice.

Why PNRs matter to travel advisors

Get the name right at booking. Under TSA's Secure Flight rule, airlines request each passenger's full name, sex, date of birth, and Redress Number. TSA defines full name as the name as it appears on a verifying identity document. Airlines must make sure each third party that accepts a reservation on their behalf complies.

What this means for agencies (practical guidance):

• Send travelers the airline's locator as well as your own, since the airline's systems work from its own booking reference.
• Write remarks as if a border officer will read them. General remarks are on the EU list of data passed to governments.

Common PNR mistakes that cost agencies money

Airlines bill agencies for bad bookings with an agency debit memo (ADM), an invoice for a rule breach. Air Canada's CRS booking and ticketing policy is a clear public example. Other airlines publish their own.

1. Duplicate bookings. Air Canada says you may not create active or passive duplicate bookings. Check for an existing PNR before you book the same traveler again.
2. Rebooking to stretch the time limit. Air Canada calls multiple bookings/cancellations of the same segment for the same passenger to extend a ticket time limit inappropriate.
3. Placeholder names. Holding seats under made-up names to block space counts as a fictitious booking. Air Canada charges $15 CAD/USD per passenger per segment for them.
4. Ignored schedule-change queues. Air Canada charges $50 CAD/USD per passenger for each TK segment not actioned in time.
5. Wrong names. Because name changes usually aren't allowed, a wrong name can mean a new booking at today's fare (practical guidance).

Air Canada also adds $10 CAD/USD per passenger per TTL/DUP/PASS segment for time-limit, duplicate and passive-segment breaches, on top of a $50 administration fee per debit memo.

Related terms

• What is a GDS?
• Travel booking APIs explained
• CRM for travel agents
• How to sell flights without an IATA code
• How to start a travel agency

How Tripdash handles bookings

Tripdash Bookings lets you book flights, hotels, activities, rides and restaurants in one search, with no IATA code required. See how Tripdash Bookings works.

Sources

1. European Parliament and Council. Directive (EU) 2016/681 on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data, April 27, 2016. Articles 1, 3, 8 and 12, Annex I.
2. U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Passenger Name Record (PNR), last modified January 23, 2025.
3. Transportation Security Administration. 49 CFR 1560.101, Request for and transmission of information to TSA, eCFR, current as of October 2026.
4. Transportation Security Administration. 49 CFR 1560.3, Terms used in this part, eCFR, current as of October 2026.
5. Amadeus. Passenger Name Record: PNR, travel glossary, checked October 2026.
6. Travelport. Retrieve a booking file, Smartpoint Cloud help, checked October 2026.
7. Travelport. Divide a booking, Smartpoint Cloud help, checked October 2026.
8. Travelport. Quick Reference Guide, Smartpoint help, checked October 22, 2026.
9. Air Canada. Computer Reservation Systems (CRS) booking and ticketing policy for travel agents, checked October 22, 2026.
10. Finnair. Finnair will be introducing a new ticketing time limit notification format, effective December 9, 2019.
11. Air Mauritius. Passengers must ensure that their travel agencies record their contact details in the PNR, May 28, 2025.
12. Court of Justice of the European Union. Press release No 105/22, Judgment in Case C-817/19 Ligue des droits humains, June 21, 2022.