Ticketing Courses

If you need to book air tickets, bus tickets or rail tickets, all you do is pick up your phone and call the customer services or login to the website and book the tickets online. However, have you ever wondered as to who the people are that provide such a wide range of information and services? The people behind the screens, behind the telephone lines and behind the pool of information are qualified ticket agents. A ticket agent is a professional working in the ticket department of airports, bus stations, train stations and other transit centres. Selling tickets and providing customers with all the required information including the availability of seats, schedules etc are the work of ticket agents. Below mentioned are some of the ticket agent courses that will prepare you to build a profession in this field.

Career As Ticket Agent

Course Details

Eligibility
In order to take up a course of a ticket agent, the candidate needs to have successfully completed his/her schooling preferably with commerce or management as electives. A diploma in any field of study can also be accepted as qualifying criteria. Some aviation employers however prefer their employees to be proficient in management or business subjects. Good knowledge of computers and some experience in the field coupled with good typing skills will work in favour of the candidates at time of recruitment.

Details Of The Course Curriculum
The profession as a ticket agent requires no bigger degree than a higher secondary education certificate or a diploma degree. The ticket agents get to learn about the profession and gain skills through formal company on-job training programs that last for a few weeks. The trainees are taught how to handle a company’s computers and work on the company’s website. They are trained in obtaining information on schedules, fares, availability of seats, to make reservations etc with the help of a computer. The trainees are also made familiar to the code designations, regulations and safety procedures of the particular company or airlines. The agents are put to work directly under a supervisor after completing the classroom training. The ticket agents who work for automobile clubs, bus lines and railroads are also trained on the job with the help of short-in-house classes. However, there are few certificate and diploma courses offered by various institutes:

Diploma In Air Fares And Ticketing

Course Contents

• Checking airline timetables & seat availability
• Selling/wait listing/amending/cancelling flights
• Creating booking files including special meals & seat requirement
• PNR data change and delete
• PNR mandatory fields
• PNR optional fields
• Building a complete PNR
• Car Booking (Car Master)
• Changing segment status
• Encode/decode cities
• Fare quote
• Flight service information
• Hotel Booking
• Itinerary pricing
• Sing-on
• Sign-off
• Fair Build
• Manual Fair Construction
• Refunds
• Exchange Of Tickets
• E-ticketing 

IATA Fares and Ticketing I & II
The IATA ticketing course is an online program that is designed especially for students who are willing to enter the travel agency profession, for industry professionals already familiar with the computer reservation system and who want to learn about the IATA fares and ticketing. The course trains the students the mechanisms to calculate international mileage based airfares and issue tickets using CRS. The key areas of learning provided by this online course are:

• Interpret international airfare information including sources of fare information
• IATA codes
• Fare types and classes
• IATA areas and sub-areas
• Global indicators
• IATA mileage terminology and definitions
• Airfare construction, fare checks and itinerary pricing, e-ticket issuance and general airfare rules
• Construct and cost international airfares and itineraries
• Record customer quotations and administer client files
• Construct Mixed class airfares
• Add-ons
• Apply Minimum Checks
• Pre-paid ticket advices
• Indirect travel limitation rules
• Round the World Journeys
• Construct fares for Open Jaw journeys
• Apply the Pricing Unit Concept
• Administer clients BFs/PNRs

Fares And Ticketing Courses
The course curriculum includes the following subjects of study:

• Interpreting all types of tickets manual tickets, electronic tickets, automated OPTAT/TAT and APD tickets
• Defining IATA geographic areas, Global indicators and airline coding system
• Identifying the lowest applicable fare using normal and special fare types
• Constructing fares using the fundamental principles of the mileage system
• Pricing unit principles, including one way and return Sub-journey checks
• Calculating fares applying HIPs CTM and Backhaul checks, including exceptions and secondary level fares
• Constructing normal and special ares with surface sectors, normal open-jaws, side trips and stopover charges
• Assess multi-sector fares for itineraries containing mixed classes

Skills Required
The ticket agents need to deal directly with the public, therefore they need to carry a pleasant personality and a professional appearance all the time. Ticketing agents should have a clear voice and should be fluent in spoken English, as the job profile calls for the use of telephones and public address systems. A basic knowledge of computers, good typing speed and fluency in a foreign language will add to the growth and development of the ticketing agents. Ticketing professionals should also have an ability to work in a team and should maintain a very level temperament. Patience and tolerance are the qualities that are a must for a ticket agent when dealing with customers.

Career Prospect
It is not only the management or business graduates that make it big in the professional field. Candidates with small professional courses like that as a ticket agent can also make it big in the travel and tourism industry if they have the ability and the mind to grow and develop. Candidates pursuing a course in ticketing can find work with any travel agency, airline or at bus and railway stations. After gaining enough experience as ticket agents, one can also opt for working as tour managers. One can also work with automobile clubs, hotels and other lodging places, railroad companies and other small and big transport companies. A qualified ticketing professional can also be lucky enough to work at metropolitan airports, downtown ticket offices, large reservation centres, regional airports etc.

• School of Tourism & Hotel Management - Bundelkhand University (Uttar Pradesh) India
• Centre for Tourism and Travel Management Studies (Madhya Pradesh), India
• Centre for Tourism Studies (Pondicherry University)
• Institute of Tourism Studies (Uttar Pradesh), India
• Kerala Institute of Tourism & Travel Studies (Kerala), India
• Kuoni Academy of Travel (Mumbai), India
• Skyline Institute of Travel & Tourism - New Delhi
• London School of Management
• KCPI Diploma courses
• Kuoni Academy
• Trade Wings Institute of Management Ltd., Mumbai
• Institute of Travel and Tourism, 113 Victoria Street, ST. Albans, Herts
• The Travel Training Company, The Cornerstone, The Broadway, Working,
• The Institute of Certified Travel Agents, 48 Linden Street, Wellesley
• Hayton College of Travel and Tourism
• British Institute Of Air Hostess Training
• International Travel College of New Zealand