A PNR number is the code of a flight booking: six characters, letters or letters and digits, such as LQXMRB. It is created the moment seats are reserved, before anyone pays for a ticket, and together with your surname it lets you look the booking up online. Below is a PNR number example as it appears on a confirmation, the difference from the 13-digit ticket number, and where to check the code.
A PNR number example
Here is how the top of a reservation looks before the ticket is paid. The data is made up, the layout is the usual one:
| Booking reference (PNR) | LQXMRB |
| Passenger | SMITH/JOHN MR |
| Flight | TK 1587, Istanbul to Frankfurt, 3 February 2027 |
| Ticket number | None yet: the fare has not been paid |
The label next to the code changes from one company to the next. Emirates prints "Booking reference", Delta's My Trips asks for a "Confirmation #", Travelport's help pages say "record locator" and Sabre's itinerary page wants a "Reservation Code". All of them mean the same six characters. Emirates describes its code as "the six character alphanumeric code that appears after the 'BOOKING REFERENCE' field" (Emirates help), and the search form of Travelport's ViewTrip rejects a reservation number that isn't 6 characters long.
What the record behind the code holds
PNR stands for passenger name record. EU law defines it as "a record of each passenger's travel requirements" with the information the airlines need to process the reservation (Directive (EU) 2016/681, Article 3). The six characters are only the record's address. Annex I of the same directive lists what the record can hold, and item 1 is the "PNR record locator" itself (Annex I). Further down the list:
- the names of the travellers on the booking and their contact details;
- the full itinerary and the travel dates;
- the travel agency, if an agent made the booking;
- ticketing information, "including ticket number, date of ticket issuance", and every later change to the record.
One code can cover several people and several flights. The directive even has a field for the "number and other names of travellers on the PNR".
PNR number vs ticket number
These two get mixed up all the time. They can sit on the same confirmation, but they appear at different moments.
| PNR (booking code) | Ticket number | |
|---|---|---|
| Looks like | 6 characters: letters, or letters and digits, e.g. LQXMRB | 13 digits; the first three name the airline |
| Appears | When the seats are reserved | When the fare is paid and the ticket is issued |
| Gives you | A booking you can look up and manage | The right to fly |
Emirates says its ticket number "is a 13 character number" and that Emirates tickets "normally start with 176". Delta's receipt request form asks for the "13-digit document number beginning with 006" (Delta, other helpful information).
A reservation made for a visa application has a PNR and no ticket number. That is simply what an unpaid booking looks like: the seats are held until the airline's ticketing deadline, and no fare is paid. Our guide to the temporary flight reservation explains that deadline.
Why one booking can have two codes
Book through a travel agent and you may end up with two six-character codes: one from the agent's booking system, one from the airline. Emirates warns about exactly this: "An eticket from a travel agent will also contain another six-character booking reference", and it accepts that one for online check-in on its website as well.
Booking systems have short codes of their own. Travelport's help pages write "Travelport+ (1G)" and "Apollo (1V)", so 1G next to a code names the system that holds the record, not the airline (Travelport, ViewTrip). If you paste an Amadeus or Sabre booking into our PNR converter, the airline's own code, when the text contains it, can be shown on a separate line, "Airline reference".
How to check a PNR online
- Start with the airline. Open Manage Booking or My Trips on the website of the airline named on the booking. Ethiopian Airlines asks for the last name and the booking reference (Ethiopian, manage booking); Delta asks for first name, last name and confirmation number.
- Booked through an agent? Try the booking system's own site.
- Sabre: virtuallythere.com leads to Sabre's "Check Your Itinerary" page, which takes the reservation code and the passenger's last name.
- Travelport: on viewtrip.travelport.com "the passenger may use their Travelport+ record locator and their surname to retrieve the itinerary" (Travelport help). Worldspan bookings need "a valid Worldspan record locator and the traveler's last name" (Travelport help, Worldspan).
- Amadeus: checkmytrip.com. When we checked on 3 November 2026, the site read "CheckMyTrip is currently unavailable" and sent travellers to their travel agency or airline.
- Type the surname as it is on the booking. Copy it from the confirmation, in Latin letters, without the title.
If the code works, you see the flights, the dates and the names. In an agent's booking text each flight also carries a status code. In Travelport's list, HK means "Holds Confirmed", HL "Have Waitlisted", PN "Pending need – awaiting confirmation" and UC "Unable Segment Closed" (Travelport, air reserved segment). Our PNR converter prints the common ones as words: "Confirmed" for HK, "Waitlisted" for HL.
If the code finds nothing
We send booking codes to customers every day. When a code finds nothing, the usual reasons are these:
- The deadline has passed. An unpaid reservation is cancelled when the airline's ticketing time limit runs out. In our experience holds last from about 15 minutes to several weeks, sometimes a month, and the departure date matters most: for a flight tomorrow, don't expect the booking to last even a day; for a flight two months away, it may stay for weeks. These are likelihoods, not promises. The airline decides.
- The code and the site don't match. You typed the agent's code into the airline's site, or the other way round. Try the other code, or the booking system's site.
- The airline's site shows only ticketed bookings. If it won't open a reservation without a ticket, Sabre's and Travelport's sites above are the next place to look.
- The code comes from a sample ticket. A sample ticket is a document laid out like a ticket, with no booking behind it: if it shows a code, no airline system knows it. It is for travel plans, drafts and mock-ups, not for anyone who checks the booking.
PNR numbers in a visa application
When a checklist asks for a flight reservation, the PNR is what makes it one: a consulate, a visa centre or an airline can type it in and see your name and dates. Our guide to flight reservations for visa applications covers what consulates usually accept, and the article on whether you need a flight ticket for a visa answers the question of buying one.
- Book close to the day you need it. A code made a week before the appointment may find nothing by the time someone looks.
- Keep every document on the same trip. The reservation, the hotel confirmation and the cover letter should show the same dates.
- Check what your destination asks for. Our visa requirements check shows whether your passport needs a visa there.
- Need a code in your name? A flight reservation from KeyFlight books the flight in your name and sends you the PNR, usually in about 5 minutes. If the automatic booking doesn't go through, it is made by hand within 24 hours.
Questions people ask
Is a PNR the same as a booking reference?
Yes. Booking reference, booking code, record locator, confirmation number and reservation code are names for the same six-character code.
Where do I find my PNR number?
On the booking confirmation email and on the e-ticket. Ethiopian Airlines, for example, says "You can find your booking reference or PNR on your e-ticket."
How long is a PNR number valid?
Without a ticket, until the airline's ticketing deadline; see how long the airline holds a reservation. Once the ticket is issued, the same code is what you use to manage the trip: Emirates takes it for online check-in.
Can I fly with a PNR alone?
No. To check in and board you need a ticket, and the ticket number appears only after the fare is paid.
