PNR and booking reference: what those six characters mean

PNR stands for Passenger Name Record: the record of a booking held in an airline’s or travel agent’s reservation system. In everyday use, “PNR” also means the short code that identifies that record, which airlines usually call the booking reference and some (especially in North America) call the record locator or confirmation number.

British Airways describes its booking reference as six characters made up of letters and numbers, and that’s the common pattern across airlines. You use it, together with your surname, to look up the booking, manage it and check in online.

What the record contains

The code is short; the record behind it isn’t. A PNR typically holds:

• passenger names, as entered at booking;
• the flights (segments) and their status: held, confirmed, waitlisted, cancelled;
• contact details;
• ticketing information, including the 13-digit ticket number once issued;
• extras such as seat requests, meal preferences and special assistance.

Several passengers can share one PNR, and one PNR can cover a whole trip with several flights.

The code itself

Six characters is the usual length, but the exact rules vary by airline and system:

• Qatar Airways’ help pages say its references use the letters A–Z and the digits 1–9, so you won’t see a zero.
• Emirates notes that its own references begin with particular letters. That’s an Emirates pattern, not a universal one.
• If a reference seems not to work, check for look-alike characters: 0 and O, 1 and I, 5 and S.

The code identifies a booking; it doesn’t encode your name, route or dates. Two bookings can’t be told apart from their codes alone.

Booking reference vs ticket number

	Booking reference (PNR)	Ticket number
Format	Usually 6 letters and numbers	13 digits
Identifies	The booking	The paid, issued ticket
Exists when	As soon as the booking is created	Only after payment and ticketing
Per	Booking (can cover several people)	Passenger (sometimes several per passenger on long trips)
First characters mean	Nothing in particular	The issuing airline (001 for American, 157 for Qatar Airways, 176 for Emirates)

If you have a reference but no ticket number, the booking probably hasn’t been ticketed. Our guide to reservations vs tickets explains what that means. You can match a ticket’s three-digit prefix or a flight’s two-character code to an airline with the airline code finder.

Why you might have two references

If you booked through a travel agent or booking site, you may see two different six-character codes: one from the agent’s system and one from the airline’s. Emirates says travel-agent tickets carry this second reference. Both point to the same trip, but the airline’s website only recognises the airline’s code. Look for wording like “airline reference” or “airline confirmation”.

Codeshare flights can add a third: if a partner airline operates one of your flights, it may hold your booking under its own reference too.

Where to find yours

• Confirmation email: usually near the top, labelled booking reference, PNR, reservation code or confirmation number.
• E-ticket receipt: alongside the ticket number.
• Airline app or account: under your upcoming trips.
• Boarding pass: often printed on it.

See how these fields sit on a page in our annotated sample itinerary.

Keep it private

Your booking reference plus your surname is often all someone needs to view or change your booking. That’s also why a held reservation submitted for a visa can be checked: see flight reservations for visas. Avoid posting confirmation emails or boarding passes online, and be careful who you forward them to.

Questions people ask

Is a PNR the same as a booking reference?

In everyday use, yes. Strictly, the PNR is the record and the booking reference is the code that identifies it.

Is the PNR the same as the ticket number?

No. The PNR identifies the booking and can exist without payment. The ticket number is 13 digits and only exists once a ticket is issued.

Can a planning sample have a PNR?

No. A booking reference only exists when a reservation system creates a booking. That’s why Your Flight Help samples never show one.