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Glossary for the airline industry

From A-Z, this glossary covers definitions and explanations for common airline industry terminology.

directionality

A tag used on the Record 1 or 2 to indicate that that Record 3 provision applies in a certain direction only.

Directionality tag 1

A tag used on the Record 1 or 2 to indicate that the Record 3 provision applies from Location 1 to Location 2.

Directionality tag 2

A tag used on the Record 1 or 2 to indicate that the Record 3 provision applies from Location 2 to Location 1.

Directionality tag 3

A tag used on the Record 1 or 2 to indicate that the Record 3 provision applies for travel originating in Location 1.

Directionality tag 4

A tag used on the Record 1 or 2 to indicate that the Record 3 provision applies for travel originating in Location 2.

discounted passenger

The passenger travelling at a discounted fare that requires another full-fare passenger. Also referred to as accompanied passenger.

DISH

Data Interchange Standards Handbook, the definitive guide of file standards and specifications for the BSP HOT file.

DOT

Department of Transportation. A division of the US federal government that has governed and regulated the Airline Industry since absorbing the CAB on 1 January 1985. It regulates all international and US/CA fares and cargo rates.

DPE

Dynamic pricing engine.

DPE generated pricing

A type of adjusted pricing where the DPE determines the optimal price at time of shopping/pricing and adjusts a pre-distributed price.

DPE predetermined pricing

A type of adjusted pricing where the DPE determines the optimal price from a set of predefined (pre-distributed) prices. Airlines predefine and distribute all possible price points up front. These prices are only available when received in an applicable response from the airline’s DPE.

dual RBD

A type of optimized pricing where airlines can increase possible price points from 26 to 182 by requiring inventory in two different reservation booking designators (RBDs).

dynamic bundle

A bundle of atomic products that is created (grouped together) at the time of shopping.

dynamic fare adjustment

A subset of dynamic price adjustment, this change adjusts only the fare (not the total price including taxes and fees) according to certain criteria.

dynamic offer

The information presented to a customer before a sale (including the fare product, price, attributes, ancillaries, and other data) that was dynamically assembled and priced using dynamic pricing methods (optimized, adjusted, or continuous pricing).

dynamic price adjustment

A dynamic pricing method where the system selects a price from a pre-defined menu of possible price points. Then, for certain customers or in certain situations, this price is adjusted through either a discount or an increment. All adjustments are made in reference to a price from the fixed menu, and some customers are shown an unadjusted price.

dynamic pricing

The methodology that is used in the airline industry to set the price that most closely matches the marketplace conditions at the time of the product offer.

dynamic pricing engine

An airline or vendor-supplied tool to calculate dynamic price adjustments (increments or discounts) based on the airline’s independent business logic and datasets.