Career guide

Careers: what the jobs are, and how to get one

Every travel and aviation job title, what the role really does day to day, the skills hiring managers check, what to study, and the interview questions that actually come up — with official sources only.

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Job titles

Travel agency

Reservations & Ticketing Agent

Also posted as: Reservation Agent, Ticketing Agent, GDS Agent

You build bookings from scratch, price them, issue the ticket and handle changes. Most of your day lives inside the GDS.

Entry level — the usual first job

Travel agency

Travel Consultant (Retail / Leisure)

Also posted as: Travel Advisor, Travel Sales Executive, Holidays Consultant

You sell the trip, not just the seat: flights, hotel, transfers, insurance — and you close the sale.

Entry level with a sales edge

Corporate travel

Corporate / Business Travel Consultant

Also posted as: Business Travel Consultant, TMC Agent, Implant Agent

You serve companies under a travel policy: fast turnaround, cost control, and lots of last-minute changes.

1–2 years experience preferred

Airline

Airline Reservations / Contact Centre Agent

Also posted as: Call Centre Agent, Customer Service Agent (Reservations)

You work for the airline itself: sell its own inventory, service tickets, and follow the airline's rules exactly.

Entry level — airline side

Airport

Airport Check-in / Ground Services Agent

Also posted as: Passenger Services Agent, Check-in Agent, Gate Agent

You are the airport face of the airline: check-in, documents, baggage, boarding and disruptions.

Entry level — shift work

Back office

Fares & Ticketing Specialist (Rate Desk)

Also posted as: Pricing Specialist, Rate Desk Agent, Ticketing Supervisor

The person everyone escalates to. You build complex fares, fix pricing that the system refuses, and control refunds and ADMs.

Experienced — a promotion target

Travel agency

Groups & Series Desk Agent

Also posted as: Group Booking Coordinator

You negotiate and manage bookings of ten passengers or more, with deposits, name deadlines and material fares.

1+ year experience

Back office

Refunds & Back-Office / Revenue Integrity

Also posted as: Back Office Executive, Reconciliation Agent, BSP Officer

No customers on the phone — you reconcile sales, process refunds, and keep the agency clean with the airlines and BSP.

Back office

A 4-week plan that makes you hireable

Week 1 — the language of the industry

Airline and airport codes: 20 a day until 100 stick
Read a PNR out loud and name every element
Learn availability and sell entries in one system only
Do 5 full bookings in the terminal, no notes

Week 2 — pricing and ticketing

Pricing entries and reading the fare display
Fare rules: penalties, validity, baggage
Issue, then void the same day
Do 10 bookings with pricing and issue

Week 3 — changes, refunds, disruption

Reissue with and without a fare difference
Refund rules and what is never refundable
Schedule change and involuntary reroute handling
Take the adaptive exam at your level

Week 4 — the job hunt itself

Rewrite the CV using the tips on this page
Learn a second system's equivalent entries
Rehearse the interview questions of your target role out loud
Apply to 15 openings and track every reply

Practise in the terminal Take the exam and get a certificate

Your CV

Put the systems you know in the first three lines: Amadeus, Sabre, Travelport+ — recruiters search for those words.
Write what you can do, not what you attended: 'Build, price, issue, void, refund and reissue tickets in Amadeus.'
Add real numbers: bookings per day, languages, average response time, accuracy.
Attach a certificate. Any verified proof beats a paragraph of claims.
One page. No photo unless the airline asks for it. PDF only, named FirstName-LastName-CV.pdf.
Keep an English version even if you apply in Arabic — most airline systems are English-only.

The interview

Expect a live system test
Most agency and airline interviews put you in front of a terminal or ask you to dictate the entries. Say the entry, then say what it does — that is what they score.
Never guess a fare rule
If you do not know, say where you would read it. 'I would check the penalty category in the fare rules before answering' scores higher than a wrong confident answer.
Bring one story about a mistake
Every interviewer asks it. Pick a real error, show the fix, show what you changed afterwards so it never repeats.
Ask about shifts and tools before they ask you
Which GDS do you use? Is the role shift-based? Who handles refunds? These questions read as experience, not doubt.

Official sources

First-party links only. GDS LAB is independent and not affiliated with any of them.

IATA Training

The industry body's own course and diploma catalogue for travel, ticketing and airport roles.

IATA — Foundation in Travel and Tourism with Amadeus

Entry diploma combining travel fundamentals with hands-on Amadeus practice.

IATA — GDS Fares & Ticketing (Travelport+)

Pricing journeys in a simulated Travelport+ environment.

IATA — Passenger Fares and Ticketing (Basic)

The classic fare-construction course behind most rate-desk jobs.

Amadeus Learning

Amadeus' own course catalogue and certifications for reservation and ticketing users.

Amadeus Service Hub

First-party help articles, entry references and release notes for agents.

Sabre agency training

Sabre's own training paths for agency users.

Travelport training

Travelport+ product and training resources from the vendor.

ICAO — machine readable travel documents

The document-checking standard behind airport check-in rules.