Confused by some of the travel lingo you're hearing? Baffled by acronyms like RTWs? Don't worry, we've created this guide to help to make things clearer.

Here's a better suggestion, call us and ask us.

Airport codes: Three letter codes used to identify airports (ex. YVR is Vancouver, Canada, EWR is Newark, New Jersey, etc.).

Airport transfer: A transport service to and/or from an airport to hotel.

Base fare: The price of a ticket before any taxes have been added.

Blackout Dates / Blackout Periods: The dates on which certain fares or certain types of tickets are not permitted. Blackout dates can also extend to issues like baggage or cargo restrictions and often apply during peak travel periods or over holiday travel periods.

Boarding pass: A receipt with a seat number, now issued only at check-in at the airport. A ticket is not valid unless a boarding pass has been issued.

Bulkhead seats: The seats on an airplane that are immediately behind the bulkhead and usually have limited storage and may have either more leg room or sometimes less leg room.

Bumping: Passengers that are denied a seat on the flight they originally booked on due to a flight being oversold. They will then be 'bumped' to another flight.

Carry-on: Luggage that is permitted to be brought on to the aircraft by the passenger.

Cancellation penalty: The monetary penalty due when travel plans are cancelled.

Codeshare: An agreement between airlines to sell space on each other's flights. The flights will have both the operating carrier's flight number (the airline that is using its aircraft for the flight), and the codesharing flight number (the partner airline in the agreement sells space on the flight as if it were its own, and has its own flight number).

Commercial airline: An airline that transports passengers.

Connection: The additional flight(s) required to get from the airport of origin to the final arrival airport.

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Double occupancy: The way in which almost all tour packages are quoted based on two people traveling together.

ETA: The abbreviated form of Estimated Time of Arrival, used in computer reservations systems, airports, and by the travel industry.

e-tickets: Also known as Electronic Tickets. A ticket that is not physically printed on ticket stock and is instead stored in the computer reservation system of an airline.

Fare basis: Representing a specific fare and class of service with letters, numbers, or a combination of both. For example, the letter Y on its own represents full fare economy.

FIT (foreign independent tour): A travel package put together by a travel agent from separate components.

Fuel surcharge: A fee added to a ticket by an airline to cover the increased cost of fuel. Usually lumped onto the cost of a ticket as if it were a tax.

Guaranteed departure: Many tours require a minimum number of participants for the tour to run. Once those minimum numbers have booked then the tour is a guaranteed departure. If the tour does not reach the minimum numbers then it may be cancelled.

Guaranteed share: Promise that a companion will be found for a single passenger, at a special rate.

High season: The time of year when a destination gets the greatest crowds & rates tend to increase.

Hostel: An inexpensive accommodation, usually dormitory style, popular with students.

Illegal connection: Connections that do not adhere to the minimum connection time and are not legal connections because it is deemed that there is not enough time to connect.

Inbound: The return flight portion of a ticket.

Land only: Prices you see in the brochure are for the land costs only and do not include international airfare.

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Local payment: It is a portion of the tour cost paid to your group leader at the start of your tour rather than being paid in advance. This Local Payment is put towards local expenses, such as arranging internal flights, and reduces the need to transfer funds.

Low season: The times of year when prices of tickets decline because it is a less popular time of year to travel to a destination.

Minimum connection time: The legal minimum time necessary to change planes at a given airport. If this is ignored, the connection is called an illegal connection.

Non-transferable: The only person who can use the ticket is the one who has his/her name on the ticket.

Off-line connection: A connection that not only involves a change of planes, but a change of airlines as well.

Open jaw: A flight itinerary where the departure city is different on the way out than the return. Or alternatively, the destination city that a passenger arrives in is different than the one that is departed from on the return portion of a flight itinerary.

Open ticket: A ticket with no date specified and the passenger books a flight when ready to travel. These are usually full fare tickets, as opposed to a discounted, restricted fare.

Operator: A company providing transportation or travel related services.

Overbook/oversell: When an airline takes more reservations for a flight than it has seats on an aircraft. This is based upon the assumption that there will be passengers who will not show up for their flights. Thus, it is assumed, there will be enough space on the flight for the overbookings.

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PPDO: Per person, double occupancy.

Published fare: A fare that is available for purchase to anyone.

Record locator: A combination of letters, numbers, or both forming a unique code which identifies a passenger's booking.

Red eye: An overnight flight that arrives early the following morning.

Routing: The sequence of airports used (whether it be connections or destinations) in order to build an airfare.

Run-of-house (ROH): Refers to a type or class of hotel room which is assigned at the discretion of the hotel upon your arrival.

Segment: As with Leg, it is a single portion of a flight itinerary.

Short haul: Shorter flights, both in terms of distance and duration.

Shoulder season: The travel season that falls between low and high seasons, offering fares that also fall somewhere between low and high seasons.

Single supplement: Most small group adventure tours do not charge a single supplement and will match singles together. There are sometimes options to pay an extra single supplement charge to have a single room.

Soft adventure: An outdoor travel experience that is not especially physically demanding.

Standby: The procedure of waiting for a seat to open up on a flight on which a passenger is not booked/confirmed.

Stopover: A planned stop of at least one night (or more than 4 hours domestically), and then continuing the next part of a flight itinerary.

Trip dossier: This is a document with the detailed itinerary of the tour as well as other important information regarding the country you are visiting.

Visa: Usually a stamp in a passport allowing entry into a country for a specific purpose and a finite amount of time.

Zulu time: Also known as UTC (Universal Time Coordinated), was GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) - Zulu time is the standard time used for flight operations globally.

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