Glossary

2-Letter Code: A code consisting of two letters, often used to identify countries or airlines.

2FA: Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) is a security method designed to better protect access to online accounts or systems. It requires users to provide two different authentication factors to confirm their identity.

24/7 Emergency Hotline: A telephone service available around the clock, seven days a week, for emergencies.

3-Letter Code: A code made up of three letters, typically used for airports.

A1 Certificate: A document that confirms a worker's social security coverage when posted abroad.

Adoption Rate: The rate at which a change or a new system is adopted by users.

Advanced Passenger Information System (APIS): A system for collecting and transmitting passenger information to authorities.

A.I.D.A Card: outdated for virtual AirPlus card.

AirPlus: Provider of payment solutions.

Amadeus: A global reservation system for the travel industry.

Ancillary Fee: Additional fees for services beyond the basic fee.

Ancillary Services: Additional services offered by an airline, such as meals, seat reservations.

API (Application Programming Interface): An interface that allows software applications to communicate with each other.

Atlatos Profi Traveller: Atlatos' user interface for corporate clients.

Atlatos Online Agent: Atlatos' user interface for primarily travel agencies to manage multiple Atlatos Profi Traveller systems.

ATX+: The ATX file format is an XML file format developed by AirPlus for transmitting travel data and invoice information related to business travel. ATX files allow companies to import their travel data into the AirPlus system and use this data for billing and managing business travel. To match booking data with billing data, it is necessary to activate the billing unit AE as an additional data field at AirPlus. Atlatos provides a unique 17-digit ID for the billing unit, which can be used to reconcile the billing data with the booking data. For Atlatos Matching, the ATX+ format is important, not the regular ATX.

Baggage Fee: A fee charged for transporting luggage.

Bahn Internet Booking Engine (BIBE): The BIBE is an internet booking tool of Deutsche Bahn. The user interface is designed analogously to bahn.de and is maintained by Deutsche Bahn. The third-party system provider integrates the BIBE into its systems. The customer conducts the booking of services via the application mask of the third-party system.

Best Available Rate (BAR): The lowest available rate for a hotel room that can be booked at a given time.

Billing Settlement Plan (BSP): A system developed by IATA to facilitate the sale and settlement of airline tickets between airlines and travel agencies.

Booking.com: Online accommodation provider.

Booker: Typically has the right to book for oneself and selected other people.

Booking Classes: Different categories for flight tickets that vary in price, flexibility, and other conditions.

Branch: Company location.

BW Bank: Provider of the CorporateWorld MasterCard.

Card Verification Code (CVC): (also known as Card Verification Value (CVV), Card Verification Number (CVN), Card Security Code (CSC), Card Code Verification (CCV), Card Verification Number (KPN), or Security Code) A security code on credit cards required for online transactions.

Central Company Credit Card: (also known as Company Card, (central) Travel Agency Card, Ghost Card, Lodged-Card, or Business Travel Account) A company's central billing account, which is used based on a virtual credit card.

Codesharing: An agreement between airlines where one airline sells seats on a flight operated by another airline.

Col / Collect: Pickup of a rental car (e.g., by the company) by a car rental company.

Collision Damage Waiver (CDW): Liability waiver for damage (may also include loss).

Company Rate or Corporate Rate: Discounted price for corporate customers.

Corporate Card (also known as Walking Card): A credit card provided by companies for business expenses.

Corporate Rates Club (CRC): Hotel booking platform.

CO2 Compensation: A compensation for CO2 emissions, e.g., through the purchase of CO2 certificates or planting trees.

CO2 Footprint (Carbon Footprint): The CO2 footprint is the result of an emissions calculation or CO2 balance. It indicates the amount of greenhouse gases released by an activity, process, or action.

Computer Reservation System (CRS): Electronic reservation system of a service provider.

Contingent: Number of rooms, etc., exclusively blocked by a particular provider.

Crisis Management: Strategies and measures for managing crisis situations.

Customer Loyalty Program: (also known as Bonus Program, Bonus Miles) A tool that promises benefits to participants for frequent use of the program provider. In particular, service companies such as airlines and Deutsche Bahn want to use this method to draw attention to their products and bind business or private customers to their company in the long term.

Date of issue: The date of issue, e.g., of a ticket or document.

Del / Deliver: Delivery of a rental car (e.g., to the company) by a car rental company.

Departments: Groups within a branch at Atlatos.

DERHotel: Hotel platform.

Deutsche Bahn (DB): Railway provider for Germany.

Direct Connect: A direct connection between travel providers and booking systems that bypasses the GDS.

Distribution Cost Charge (DCC): A fee incurred for using certain distribution systems.

Door-to-Door: A service that brings customers from their front door to the destination and back.

E-Invoicing: = Digital invoice, simplifies internal processes, as E-Invoices can be electronically assigned to the respective travel expense report. Carries a "qualified electronic signature."

eHotel: Hotel reservation service provider.

Electronic Miscellaneous Document (EMD): Mandatory IATA standard document type since January 2014. Has replaced other IATA billing documents such as Virtual MCO.

Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA): Electronic travel authorization system for users of visa-free entry. Currently limited to the USA.

Electronic ticketing: (also known as Electronic Ticket, ticketless flying) Ticketless flying. The passenger does not receive a printed flight ticket, but the travel data is stored as a Passenger Name Record (PNR) like a regular ticket. Boarding pass and luggage tag are available as usual.

End-to-End: A process that covers all stages from beginning to end.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP): Refers to the corporate task of planning and controlling the use of resources such as capital, equipment, or personnel as efficiently as possible for operational processes. The process is often supported by complex ERP software (also financial accounting systems).

Europcar: Car rental company.

Expense Types: Expense types are categories or types of expenses used in the settlement of travel and entertainment costs. These can be defined individually at Atlatos, and the accounting account to be charged can be specified.

Fare: = Tariff, determines the price and the Fare Rules the conditions of a booking.

Fulfillment: = Execution, operational implementation and processing of business travel bookings according to the specifications of the travel management of a company while complying with travel policies. Usually the task of the travel agency.

Full Content: The neutral access to all fares across all GDS.

GDS (Global Distribution System): A computer network that allows travel agencies access to bookings for flights, hotels, and car rentals.

GoBD: = Principles for the proper management and storage of books, records, and documents in electronic form as well as for data access. It is an administrative instruction of the Federal Ministry of Finance.

Guaranteed payment / room reservation: Usually a hotel room reservation secured by credit card, for which the price is due even if the guest does not show up. The room is kept available, even if it could be rented out otherwise.

Hertz: Car rental company.

Hotel Portals: Intermediary portals such as HRS, booking.com, or ehotel, through which companies book their hotels. Corporate accounts can be set up here, into which companies can integrate their own corporate rates, which can be displayed via the OBE.

HRS: Hotel portal.

Hub: Hub of an airline.

IATA Airline: An airline that is a member of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator: The ICAO has developed a method for calculating the carbon dioxide emissions of air travel, which can be used in offset programs.

Indicator in master data import: The field indicator controls whether the employee is deleted, inactive, or active.

Instant Ticketing: Generation of travel documents immediately after booking to ensure fare regulations.

Interlining / Interline Agreement: Agreements between airlines on the mutual recognition of transport documents (flight tickets) and their billing.

International Air Transport Association (IATA): Global association of airlines.

Invoicing = Billing.

Large Account Discount (GKR): Abbreviation predominantly used by Deutsche Bahn for its corporate customer program "bahn.business" (formerly: bahn.corporate). Companies receive a volume discount based on revenue levels.

Last Room Availability (LRA): A rate at which a hotel room can be booked up to the last available room at a specific price.

Late arrival: Arrival of the hotel guest after the "normal" time (usually after 6 PM).

Late Check-out: The option to check out of a hotel later than the usual check-out time.

Low-cost carrier / Low fare carrier: Actually refers to airlines with cheap fares, commonly referred to as budget airlines in general parlance.

Management Fee: A fee charged for management services.

Master Data Import: Master data set of the employees of a company, which is transferred from the HR system to Atlatos. The master data typically includes at least names, email addresses, and branch or department affiliation.

Meeting, Incentive, Convention, Event (MICE): A sector of the tourism industry specializing in business events and travel.

Mid- and Back-Office Systems: Systems that support internal business processes, e.g., accounting, human resources.

Minimum Connecting Time: The minimum time a traveler needs to transfer. If this time is undershot during booking, the onward transport guarantee is forfeited.

Miscellaneous Charge Order (MCO): "Voucher" in air travel e.g., for excess baggage, overbooking fees, etc.

Midoco: A provider of business process management solutions for the travel industry.

New Distribution Capability (NDC): An IATA standard that aims to improve the distribution of air travel.

Non-IATA Airline: An airline that is not a member of the IATA.

No-show: Registered but not appearing customer who also did not cancel.

Offline Booking: A booking not made through an online system.

Online Booking Engine (OBE): (also known as Online Booking Tool (OBT), Self Booking Tool, Internet Booking Engine) Platform for independent online bookings of travel services. It is usually a licensed or fee-based solution from third-party providers via intra-, extra-, or internet. Allows companies to actively control purchasing and integrate travel policies and/or approval procedures.

Online Booking: Booking made by the booker independently via the OBE.

Open Jaw: = Open-jaw flight, routing e.g., from A to B to C to A, but no flight between B and C, instead other transportation means.

Optional Payment Charge (OPC): Fee charged for certain payment methods by a service provider / service carrier. For example, a fee for payment by credit card.

OCR: optical character recognition, text recognition for e.g., photographed receipts.

Passenger Name Record (PNR): = Passenger data record, a booking reference in the travel industry that contains all information about a specific booking.

PAX: Passenger.

Pay-as-you-fly (PAF): A payment system where customers only pay for the flights they actually use.

Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI or PCDI-DSS): A security standard for companies that process credit card transactions.

Personal Accident Insurance (PAI): = Passenger accident insurance, covers personal injuries suffered by passengers in the rental vehicle. In most countries, such passenger insurance can be taken out separately. However, this insurance is recommended for persons who are not close to each other, e.g., business partners.

Pre-Paid / Deposit Rates: Particularly favorable daily rates may be linked to restrictions, such as minimum stay duration, or are partly no longer cancellable free of charge.

Premier Inn: Hotel chain.

Profile Synchronization: The process of synchronizing user profiles across different systems.

PSD2: stands for "Payment Services Directive 2" and is an EU directive regulating payment services in Europe. It aims to make payments secure using, for example, 2FA.

Refund Rebel: A company specializing in compensation claims for train travel and handles corresponding refunds automatically.

Reason Code: Predefined reasons for non-compliance with the travel policy, which the traveler / travel agency can select/indicate during booking.

Refund: Refund of amounts paid to the service provider minus any cancellation or processing fees. It depends on the booked fares and unused services. The refund does not apply to service fees.

Service Level Agreement (SLA): A contract between a service provider and a customer that specifies the quality of the service.

Service Classes: The service classes First, Business, Economy, and their variations such as "Economy Plus" or "Premium Economy" define the services that the traveler can expect (seat spacing, meals on board, etc.). For pricing, there are booking classes within the various service classes. These define the possible restrictions for rebookings, cancellations, etc.

SenseXpense: Service provider for travel expense accounting.

Sixt: Car rental company.

Single Sign-On (SSO): roughly translates to single sign-on, the user usually logs in once in their intranet and can access various applications, as they are thus uniquely identified with the applications.

SoftConEx: System provider with a focus on flights.

Starcar: Car rental provider.

Tax Key: here, the designation of the tax rate and the corresponding sales tax rate are defined.

Transportation Classes: Different service classes in transportation, e.g., Economy, Business, First Class in airlines.

Traveler: User who can only see and possibly book their own trips.

Travel Expense Report (RKA or Reisekostenabrechnung): Each individual transaction with a start and end date: Typically, each travel expense report is assigned a unique, once-only number. This simultaneously represents the transaction. Regardless of whether the travel expense report is submitted as an individual or collective settlement, thus the number of business trips can be determined based on the unique transaction number per trip.

Travel Policy: (also known as Travel Regulation, Travel Policy) Company-specific guidelines for business travel, with typical components that can vary in scope and content:

Definitions and terminological determinations, especially on wage and income tax-relevant topics.
Specifications on the scope of application.
Process of approval procedures, booking processes, and settlements of travels or travel expenses.
Regulations on the choice of transport means, classes, and service providers as well as the categories of accommodation.
Preceding approval procedure. Depending on the implementation and thus incurred efforts on the part of the travel agency, the processing is associated with different costs.

Travel Agency: Organizational unit where travel bookings are made.

Travel Agency Card: (also known as Company Account) Flights, train, and car rentals are paid for with this card. It runs through a company account.

Team Booking: via this function, bookings can be made for other travelers.

tfMerchant: TravelFusion Merchant: this option allows TravelFusion to either charge the entire transaction or just the booking fee.

Ticketing: Creation of travel documents (Fulfillment).

Transaction Fee: = Transaction fee, the agreed amount that a travel agency receives for (each) transaction required to achieve a booking (cancellation or rebooking). A transaction fee serves, among other things, to cover the operating costs of a travel agency.

TravelFusion: A technology provider that aggregates, for example, low-cost carriers into a single interface for booking.

TravelManager: User with departmental or branch-overarching rights.

Umbrella: Profile synchronization tool.

Username: The unique ID of an employee in a company, which is also used as the primary key in Atlatos Profi Traveller. It is recommended to use the email address or the employee's personnel number. If the personnel number is unique, it is advantageous, as no change of username is required in case of a name change. If no Single Sign-On procedure is used, entering the username during login is necessary. If employees in the company rarely know their personnel number, the email address is preferred.

Visa: Payment service provider.

Work Performed Abroad: A professional activity that takes place outside the regular workplace.

Ypsilon: Profile synchronization tool.