When you book an airline ticket, you’re issued a PNR (passenger name record), sometimes referred to as a record locator or confirmation code. This is typically a six digit code that consist either exclusively of letters, or of a combination of letters and numbers.
Continue reading: The Funniest Airline PNR I’ve Ever Had
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Thanks for sharing. Some might complain that it’s a slow day that you make a post about this, but I got a good laugh and appreciate this type of content.
Someone had the same PNR as my last name, and it caused some confusions.
My last name is Gruell, and once I flew out of JFK to AMS, and the Delta check-in agent totally lost it, because she typed my name in the PNR field, and apparently there was a match! She didn't understand why I was at the airport, because 'my' flight was departing from BOS, the next week, and the destination is San Diego. I was shocked, and had no idea what could have gone wrong. It took 2-3 minutes, she even called for the station manager, then they found the mistake, that my last name was typed in as a PNR.
I worked for Navitaire for many years and early in my career (2002) we got a complaint from then-client JetBlue about a RECLOC reading "URDEAD".
At that time the offensive and potentially offensive words were entered manually into the back-coding of the system and I remember the scramble to revamp some things internally....
We had a pax named Pamela Chu.
The boarding pass places the last name first. It spells out a profane word in Spanish.
Not PNR, but I've had order confirmations or captchas of:
2FKMAN
GAYJO
SEXJK
I have a "must complete a captcha" alarm clock to wake me up. I screenshot some of the funny ones.
One that had slipped thru the cracks of the SABRE algorithm was “NAZZIS”, which by a miracle of odds our airline issued to a sweet little old lady - who was a Holocaust survivor. We had Sabre put it on the banned list the next day.
Maybe not funny but the day we took delivery of our Audi RS3 we ordered McDonald’s on their app and the code for pickup was RS33
I booked a Ferry from Dar to Zanzibar once and the identifier they generated for me was DIES, which did not make me feel good.
My company assigns Active Directory usernames based on last name and initial. A new hire with the last name Chin and a first name starting with K was rightly angry when his Active Directory username was given to him. This is what happens when you offshore your access management team. A local admin would have seen this and used our alternate format.
Long ago when I ran some student travel agency branches, we used to ask our new hires to look up city availability between Fresno and Fukuoka. Always good for a chuckle!
Take a few letters out of COCK SACK and you get COCSAC. I still have the printout!
I had MILERS on an award ticket once. Sadly, in the end the itinerary didn't work for me and I eventually had to cancel it.
I always wanted a phone number that spelled something. Decades ago, my new landline spelled out 4GAYSEX. This newly single heterosexual never gave that version out.
I once received a 6 letter confirmation @ a travel agency years ago and the reservation agent bust out laughing when she shared it
#SHYASS
I love the blog, but this is the first time it’s made me laugh out loud. Thanks for sharing.
If anyone gets TIMDUN on their Delta ticket, I'd go buy a Powerball right away.
I recently had Q2POOP on Qatar and then when I tried to get seats it replied "Unsanitary command"
You should tell your friend she missed one. Had a very andry passenger on the planr who wanted the name of the gate agent as he saw on his ticket the PNR of RETARD. He was PISSED ! (Hope your friend got that 6 letter combo) No explaining of the random assigning of a PNR code would calm him down. Didn't know the gate agents name so gave him the general customer portal to file a complaint.
I had MADMAN for a client on AA once. So far nothing in my 25 years in the travel business has topped that.
You could have sold that to an organization willing to pay top dollar. That was a missed opportunity.
Well there is a PC12 registered OH-FUK on the Finnish register which is a regular visitor to the UK.Not a PNR but still funny.
When I worked at TWA reservations. There was an entry where we could change a record locator. I forgot the word it spelled. But we had to change it.
My favorite ever was on American last winter, "UADLSY" (United, Delta, Sun country)... But no "AA"
My son’s girlfriend just got “NEEDBJ” as her United Airlines confirmation number