FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - How often do airline booking record locators get "recycled"?

Nov 15, 2015 | 8:54 am

#6

t325

Join Date: Jun 2006

Location: STL

Posts: 1,574

Quote:

Originally Posted by Efrem

PNRs are airline-specific. Two airlines can have PNRs of 123ABC with no risk of confusion. To get a unique trip identifier, you need to use the combination of airline code and PNR. That raises the number of possible combinations a great deal. While large airlines obviously use more of their possible codes than smaller ones, even they only use a small fraction of the available combinations in the course of 12 months.

I always thought that PNRs couldn't be re-used within the GDS like Sabre or Amadeus and that's how sites like CheckMyTrip work. All they need is a PNR and last name, no airline. Is there a global database they use, or do they just check every airline until they find a match?

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