Airline boarding passes generally is a thriller of acronyms, however one code may imply the distinction between getting on a flight or being left behind.

That unfortunate code is “GTE,” “gate,” or “see agent,” which signifies the dearth of a seat task. In some circumstances, it may imply the plane is definitely oversold and vacationers threat being bumped from the flight, in line with journey blogger Dan Miller, who skilled the dreaded “see agent” on his personal boarding move earlier this 12 months, detailing the expertise on his weblog Factors with a Crew. Nevertheless it may additionally imply the airline merely must confirm your passport or visa if you happen to’re flying internationally.

Luckily for Miller, his seat was assigned earlier than even reaching the airport, however he nonetheless recommends vacationers “go away further time to go to the airport and discuss with the gate agent earlier than your flight.”

Some passengers have not been as fortunate.

In 2019, Air Canada gate brokers admitted to CBC Information that they had knowingly checked in passengers with baggage even on oversold flights.

“I say to the brand new employed brokers, ‘You possibly can’t put up with confrontation all day lengthy. If somebody has ‘GTE’ [for “gate”] on their boarding move, it means they do not have a seat,” one longtime Air Canada ticket agent stated on the time. “However if you happen to clarify that to them, they will get upset. So simply ship them to the gate’… I prepare folks to dupe passengers.”

Air Canada confirmed the which means of GTE in a put up on X in 2019, including “within the uncommon occasion the place a flight is overbooked, we are going to ask for volunteers first.”

Vacationers must also fastidiously assessment check-in occasions since they will really differ from airport to airport. American Airways, for instance, requires passengers to test in no less than 75 minutes earlier than their departure for flights leaving from Amsterdam, Aruba, Athens, Barcelona, Buenos Aires, and past, however requires vacationers departing from a number of Caribbean islands like St. Croix, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and St. Kitts and Nevis to test in no less than 90 minutes earlier than their flight, in line with the provider. Inside america, American stated 45 minutes will do the trick.

Past seat task, vacationers ought to assessment the opposite info on their boarding move for irregularities. The dreaded SSSS code, for instance, may point out a passenger is topic to further safety screening. And SEQ (or sequence quantity) signifies the order through which passengers can test in for a flight, which in some uncommon circumstances may end in them not having the ability to board.

For added safety, vacationers must also bear in mind to by no means put up a photograph of their boarding move on social media to keep away from scammers and thieves having the ability to extract important private info from them.