3-D Secure is the card industry’s protocol that lets a card issuer check that the person paying online is the genuine cardholder, either in the background or by asking them to confirm, for example with a one-time passcode or biometrics. The current version, EMV 3-D Secure, is managed by EMVCo.

ABTA is the UK’s largest travel trade association, representing travel agents and tour operators. It sets a Code of Conduct for its members and is one of the approved bodies for protecting package holidays without flights.

ABTOT, the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust, is a government-approved body that runs a bonding scheme for package organisers, so they can protect their customers’ money against their own insolvency.

An Accredited Body is an ATOL holder that the CAA has also accredited so that other businesses, its members, can sell ATOL-protected flights and holidays under its licence instead of holding their own ATOL.

Advance passenger information (API) is the travel document data, such as name, date of birth, nationality and passport details, that airlines, ferry and cruise operators and international rail operators must send to the Home Office for journeys to or from the UK when an immigration officer requires it.

An agency debit memo (ADM) is a charge an airline raises against a travel agent through IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) to collect money it says is owed on a ticket, refund, exchange or EMD the agent issued, for example an under-collected fare or a breach of the airline’s booking rules.

An agent for an ATOL holder sells flights or flight-inclusive packages on behalf of a named ATOL holder, under a written agency agreement, so it does not need its own ATOL.

The Air Travel Trust is the fund behind the ATOL scheme. Administered by the CAA, it pays to bring customers of a failed ATOL holder home or let them finish their trip, and refunds customers who have not yet travelled.

An allocation, or allotment, is a block of hotel rooms or airline seats that a supplier holds for a tour operator or wholesaler at contracted rates. Unsold units go back to the supplier on the release date.

Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) is a way of settling a consumer dispute without going to court, through an independent third party such as a mediator, arbitrator or ombudsman. Since 6 April 2026, ADR for UK consumer contract disputes has been regulated under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

Ancillaries are products and fees sold on top of the main fare or holiday. For airlines they include checked bags, seat selection, priority boarding and onboard food. For travel retailers they include extras such as airport parking, lounges, transfers, car hire and insurance.

An API, or application programming interface, is a defined way for one computer system to ask another for information or ask it to do something, without a person in between. In travel, supplier APIs let a booking engine search, price, book and cancel automatically.

An appointed representative (AR) is a business that carries on certain FCA-regulated activities, such as arranging insurance, without its own authorisation, under a contract with an authorised firm (its principal) that has accepted responsibility for it in writing. The principal is responsible for what the AR does in that business.

ATOL is the UK’s financial protection scheme for package holidays with flights and some flight-only bookings, run by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The ATOL Certificate is the document a customer must receive as soon as they pay anything, even a deposit, for an ATOL-protected booking. It shows what is protected, who is protected and which ATOL holder protects them.

The ATOL Protection Contribution (APC) is the fixed amount every ATOL holder pays to the Air Travel Trust, through the CAA, for each passenger in its ATOL-protected bookings. It has been £2.50 per passenger since 1 October 2009.

ATPCO, formally the Airline Tariff Publishing Company, is an airline-owned company based in Virginia in the US. It collects fares, fare rules and related data from airlines and distributes them to the systems and sales channels that price and sell flights.

A back office is a travel business’s financial and administrative system, covering invoicing, receipts, supplier payments, reconciliation and reporting.

A bed bank is a business-to-business accommodation wholesaler that contracts or gathers hotel rooms, usually at net rates, and sells them to the travel trade rather than to travellers.

Best available rate (BAR) is a hotel’s standard public room rate for given dates: the price anyone can book without a loyalty, corporate, group or other restricted deal. Each hotel group defines it in its own terms.

Board basis, or meal plan, is the level of meals included with accommodation, from room only to all inclusive.

A booking class, or reservations booking designator (RBD), is the code, usually a single letter, that an airline uses to control the seats it sells and to apply its fares. Each cabin normally has several booking classes.

A booking engine is software that lets customers or trade users search live availability and prices, choose, pay and receive a confirmed booking, usually on a travel company’s own website.

A booking fee is a charge for making or processing a booking, on top of the price of the travel itself. If customers cannot book without paying it, UK consumer law treats it as part of the total price that adverts and listings must show.

A card acquirer, also called a merchant acquirer or acquiring bank, is the payment firm that contracts with a business to accept and process its card payments and pays the money into the business’s account, less its fees.

A card surcharge is an extra fee charged because a customer pays by a particular method. Since 13 January 2018, UK businesses have not been allowed to surcharge payments by consumer cards and most other consumer payment methods.

A channel manager is software that hotels and other accommodation providers use to keep their rates and availability up to date on many sales channels at once, such as online travel agents and wholesalers, from one place. It is a trade term with no official definition.

A chargeback is a dispute process under the card schemes’ rules, by which a customer’s card issuer reverses a card payment and reclaims the money from the business’s bank, for example when paid-for services were not provided.

A codeshare is an arrangement under which an airline sells seats under its own flight number on a flight that another airline operates. The airline whose number is on the ticket is the marketing carrier, and the airline flying the aircraft is the operating carrier.

Commission is the payment a supplier makes to a travel agent for selling its product, usually a percentage of the selling price.

A consolidator is a flights wholesaler that sells airline seats and fares, especially negotiated, private and group fares, to other travel businesses, usually issuing the tickets itself.

In the UK travel trade, a consortium is a membership group of independently owned travel agencies that pools its members’ sales to negotiate better terms with preferred suppliers and provides shared services, while each member keeps its own ownership and usually its own brand.

A cooling-off period is a set time after a contract is made in which a consumer can cancel without giving a reason. UK law excludes package holidays and passenger transport from the 14-day right to cancel, along with accommodation, car hire and leisure services booked for specific dates.

CRM, short for customer relationship management, is business software for managing customer information and dealings with customers in one place. Because its records are usually personal data, using it is subject to UK data protection law and, for marketing emails and texts, to PECR.

Denied boarding is an airline’s refusal, without reasonable grounds such as health, safety or inadequate travel documents, to carry a passenger who holds a confirmed reservation and has checked in on time, for example because the flight is overbooked. Under UK261, passengers bumped against their will get fixed compensation, care and a choice of a refund or another flight.

In UK package holiday practice, the deposit is the part payment taken at booking to secure the holiday, and the balance is the rest of the price, due by a date set in the booking conditions.

Direct contracting is when a tour operator or travel agent negotiates rates and terms directly with a supplier, such as a hotel, instead of buying the same product through a wholesaler or a DMC. It is a trade term for how a business sources what it sells.

A DMC, or destination management company, is a business based in or specialising in a destination that uses its local knowledge, contracts and staff to design and deliver services there, such as transfers, excursions, guides, hotel contracting and events. It mainly sells to other businesses, such as tour operators, travel agents and event organisers, rather than to travellers.

Drip pricing is showing a headline price and then adding compulsory charges later in the booking process. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has made it unlawful in itself for UK consumer sales. Before then it could already break consumer law if it misled customers.

A durable medium is any form in which information is sent to a person so that they can store it, look at it again for as long as they need to and reproduce it unchanged, such as paper, an email or a PDF attachment.

Dynamic currency conversion lets a customer paying by card in a foreign currency choose, at the point of sale, to be charged in their own card’s currency at an exchange rate offered by the business’s card acquirer, instead of letting their card issuer convert the payment.

Dynamic packaging means building a holiday from separately sourced parts, such as flights, hotels and transfers, chosen to the customer’s requirements and sold at one total price.

An e-money institution is a non-bank firm, authorised or registered by the FCA, that issues electronic money and may also provide payment services. It must safeguard customers’ money rather than lend it, and that money is not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

An e-ticket is an airline ticket issued in electronic form instead of on paper. It is the passenger’s entitlement to travel and is a separate record from the booking, or PNR.

An electronic travel authorisation (ETA) is the UK’s digital permission to travel for visitors who do not need a visa, such as many travellers from Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia. It costs £20, is linked to the passport and lasts two years or until that passport expires, whichever is sooner.

An EMD (electronic miscellaneous document) is IATA’s standard electronic document for optional extras and other airline charges outside the ticket, such as extra bags or seats. An EMD-A is linked to an e-ticket, while an EMD-S stands alone.

The Entry/Exit System (EES) is the EU’s digital register of non-EU nationals, including British passport holders, crossing the external borders of 29 European countries for short stays. It has replaced passport stamping and records each entry and exit with passport details and biometric data such as a facial image and fingerprints.

An escorted tour is a group holiday following a set itinerary, usually visiting several places, with a tour manager travelling with the group to look after the arrangements.

ETIAS (European Travel Information and Authorisation System) is a planned EU travel authorisation that visa-exempt non-EU nationals, including UK nationals, will need before short stays in 30 European countries. It was not in operation on 5 October 2026 and the EU had not announced a start date.

A fam trip, short for familiarisation trip, is a hosted visit that lets travel sellers such as agents, tour operator staff and buyers experience a destination or product first hand. Tourism boards and suppliers organise them, and the trade also calls them educationals.

A fare basis, or fare basis code, is the code that identifies the fare a flight ticket was priced at. It is recorded against each flight on the ticket, and its first letter is usually the booking class.

Fare rules are the conditions an airline attaches to a fare, such as who can buy it, how far ahead it must be booked and ticketed, how long the traveller must or may stay and what changes and refunds cost. Every ticket sold at that fare is subject to them.

FCDO travel advice is the UK government’s guidance on the risks British nationals face abroad, published on GOV.UK by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for 226 countries and territories. It covers safety, health and entry requirements and can formally advise against all travel or all but essential travel.

In ATOL terms, flight-only means a flight sold on its own rather than as part of a package. It is ATOL protected only when it is sold under an ATOL, in which case the customer must get a Flight-Only ATOL Certificate.

A fly-cruise is a cruise holiday that includes flights to the port where the ship departs, and usually home from the port where it ends, sold as one package. An ex-UK or no-fly cruise starts and ends at a UK port, so no flights are needed.

Free sale is an arrangement under which a hotel or other supplier lets a tour operator or wholesaler confirm bookings to customers straight away, without limits, until the supplier says otherwise, for example by closing out dates or issuing a stop sale. It is trade usage, so the details depend on the contract.

A global distribution system (GDS) is a computerised reservation network that lets travel sellers search, book and, if accredited, ticket the products of many suppliers, above all airlines.

A gross rate is the full selling price a supplier sets for the customer. When it is commissionable, the supplier pays the selling agent an agreed commission on it.

A group booking is a single reservation of seats or rooms for a number of people travelling together, made under a supplier’s group terms rather than as individual bookings. The minimum size that counts as a group is set by each supplier.

A holiday surcharge is a rise in a package holiday’s price after booking. Under the Package Travel Regulations 2018 the contract must reserve the right, the rise must come from changes in fuel or power costs for passenger transport, third-party taxes and fees or exchange rates and the traveller must be told at least 20 days before the package starts.

A homeworking travel agent is a travel professional, usually self-employed, who runs a travel-selling business from home, often through a homeworking company that provides trading arrangements, supplier agreements and booking technology.

IATA accreditation lets a travel agency sell and issue tickets for airlines that give it ticketing authority. BSP, IATA’s Billing and Settlement Plan, is the system accredited agents use to report those sales and pay for them.

An interline agreement is a commercial agreement that lets an airline sell and ticket flights operated by another airline, so a journey on several airlines can be booked on one ticket. IATA’s Multilateral Interline Traffic Agreement (MITA) is the industry’s standard framework for them.

The lead passenger, or lead name, is the person who deals with the travel company for everyone on a booking. The role is set by each company’s booking terms; the Package Travel Regulations do not use the term.

A linked travel arrangement is a lighter category under the Package Travel Regulations, for travel services bought separately for the same trip with help from a business. It is being abolished for bookings made from 6 April 2027.

The look-to-book ratio is the number of searches or price requests a seller sends to a supplier’s system for each booking that results, such as 500 to 1. It is trade usage rather than a defined term, and each supplier sets its own definition and limit.

A low-cost carrier is an airline with a lower cost base than comparable airlines that offers low fares. The typical model is short-haul, point-to-point flying with paid extras and a high share of sales made directly online.

A mark-up is the amount a travel business adds to its net cost to arrive at the selling price, expressed as a sum or as a percentage of cost.

MICE stands for meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, the business events side of travel and tourism. It is also called business tourism or business events, and the E is sometimes read as events.

A mid office is the software that manages bookings once they have been made, sitting between the front office, where bookings are made, and the back office, where they are accounted for.

NDC (New Distribution Capability) is an IATA data standard that lets airlines send their own offers, fares and extras to travel sellers and take orders back, rather than relying only on GDSs to build offers from the fares and schedules the airline has filed.

A net rate is the price a supplier charges a travel business with no commission built in. The seller adds its own mark-up to set the price the customer pays.

A non-refundable rate is a price, usually lower than a flexible rate and paid in full when booked, that is not refunded if the customer cancels or does not turn up.

An opaque rate is a supplier’s price, usually a hotel’s, that may only be sold in a way that hides it. In UK trade use it mostly means a packaging rate: a discounted net rate that can only be sold combined with another service, such as a flight, at one total price.

Open banking payments, often called pay by bank, let a customer pay straight from their bank account through a regulated payment initiation service, approving the payment with their own bank instead of entering card details.

An open jaw is a return air itinerary in which the traveller does not fly back from the place they flew to, or does not fly back to where they started, with the gap covered by other means of travel.

An OTA, or online travel agent, is a business that sells travel to consumers mainly through its own website or app, usually offering many suppliers’ hotels, flights, car hire and packages and earning commission or a margin.

Override commission, or an override, is commission a supplier pays a travel agent, agency group or consortium on top of its standard base rate, usually as a reward for reaching sales targets or for being a preferred partner.

In UK law, a package is two or more different types of travel service for the same trip, such as a flight and a hotel, combined in one of the ways set out in the Package Travel Regulations 2018.

A passenger with reduced mobility (PRM) is anyone whose mobility when using transport is reduced by disability or age and whose situation needs the service to be adapted to them. UK law gives PRMs a right to free assistance when flying from a UK airport, or to one on a UK or EU airline.

A payment gateway is the software that takes a customer’s card details at an online checkout or through a payment link and turns them into a payment request the business’s card acquirer can process. It is a technical service, separate from the acquiring that moves the money, although some providers offer both.

PCI DSS, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is the security standard every business that stores, processes or transmits card data must meet under its card acceptance agreements. It is an industry standard rather than UK law.

A PNR (passenger name record) is the reservation record created in an airline or GDS system for a passenger’s journey. It is found using a record locator, usually six letters and numbers.

Rate parity means a supplier, usually a hotel, offering the same price on every sales channel, either as its own policy or because a contract with an online travel agent requires it.

A receptive tour operator is a company based in a destination that arranges travel there for visitors from abroad, selling mainly to tour operators, wholesalers and travel agents in other countries. It is a trade term, and UK tourism bodies such as VisitBritain and Visit Wales say inbound tour operator, incoming tour operator or ground handler.

A rooming list is the list a group organiser sends a hotel before arrival, setting out the guests in the group and their room requirements. Each hotel sets its own deadline for it in its group terms.

SAFI, or Scheduled Airline Failure Insurance, is insurance that covers losses when a scheduled airline goes out of business, such as the cost of unused tickets or of new flights home. It is an insurance product and is separate from ATOL, which is not insurance.

The Schengen 90/180-day rule limits short stays by non-EU nationals, including British citizens, to 90 days in any rolling 180-day period across the 29 Schengen countries combined. The days of entry and exit both count.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 makes a credit card issuer, or other lender, jointly and severally liable with the supplier when the supplier misrepresents or breaks a contract paid for on credit, for any single item with a cash price of more than £100 and up to £30,000. The customer can claim the full amount from either.

A special service request (SSR) is a standard code added to a passenger’s airline booking to ask for a service or pass on information, such as WCHR for wheelchair assistance, VGML for a vegetarian vegan meal or CTCE for the passenger’s email address.

A standard information form is one of the fixed-wording statements set out in the Package Travel Regulations that a business must give a traveller before they book a package, telling them it is a package and summarising their key rights and protection. Until 6 April 2027 there are also forms for linked travel arrangements, which tell travellers their booking is not a package.

A stop sale is a notice from a hotel or other supplier telling the tour operators and agents who sell its product to stop selling it, usually for particular dates. It is trade usage rather than a legal term, so its effect depends on the contract.

Strong Customer Authentication is the legal requirement for banks and other payment providers to check two or more independent factors when a customer starts an electronic payment, from something the customer knows, has or is, unless an exemption applies. For card payments, the card issuer applies it.

A tailor-made holiday is a trip designed around one customer’s requirements, from destinations and dates to hotels, transport and activities, rather than chosen from fixed departures. Under the Package Travel Regulations it is usually a package, and the business that puts it together is usually the organiser.

A termination fee is the Package Travel Regulations’ term for what an organiser can charge when a traveller cancels a package before it starts. It must be appropriate and justifiable, and the trade usually calls it a cancellation charge.

A ticketing time limit (TTL) is the deadline by which a reserved airline booking must be ticketed, or for NDC orders paid. If it passes without a ticket being issued, the airline cancels the reserved seats.

The Tour Operators’ Margin Scheme (TOMS) is the compulsory UK VAT scheme for businesses that buy in travel and resell it in their own name. VAT is due on the margin rather than the full price.

A tour operator puts holidays together and sells them, while a travel agent sells other companies’ travel products. Under the Package Travel Regulations, what counts is the role you play in each booking: organiser or retailer.

Transfers are the ground transport between the arrival airport, port or station and the accommodation, and back again, either shared or private.

A trust account holds customers’ money with an independent trustee, separate from the travel company’s own money, until the holiday has been provided. It is one of the ways to protect package holidays without flights.

A twin-centre holiday combines stays in two destinations in one trip, such as a city and a beach. A multi-centre holiday combines two or more, and many UK retailers use multi-centre as the umbrella term.

UK261 is the common name for Regulation (EC) No 261/2004 as it applies in UK law. It gives air passengers minimum rights to care, a refund or re-routing and, in many cases, fixed compensation of up to £520 when they are denied boarding or their flight is cancelled or delayed.

Unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances is the Package Travel Regulations’ term for a situation beyond the control of the party relying on it, whose consequences could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.

White label describes a product built and run by one company but sold under another company’s brand. In travel, it usually means a ready-made booking website or engine that a travel business brands as its own.

A travel wholesaler is a business-to-business supplier that buys, contracts or brings together travel products, such as hotel rooms, flights, transfers or complete packages, and sells them to other travel businesses rather than to the public.