I know of so many occupations that develop their own lingo and the travel industry is no exception. Maybe these words, often acronyms, help us communicate within our chosen careers; however, when we inflict this type of communication on the unsuspecting public, we’ve left our good manners behind, and, flaunting our egoes, we open the door to misinterpretation and misunderstanding.

Here are some examples:

Travel Advisor: Do you want a cruise with air?

Customer: Do I need to supply my own oxygen?—or—Aren’t most ships air-conditioned these days?

Travel Advisor—using an airline software program to reserve seats on airplanes: Let’s see here. Okay, you want to fly into San Francisco and return from Los Angeles. I’ll have to enter an ‘arnk’. (pronounced “arrunk”).

Customer thinks–Arnk? Are they dangerous? Do you enter alone?

[An itinerary containing an ARNK (arrival unknown, pronounced 'arunk') segment is one in which the traveler arrives at destination A but departs out of destination B. Since the arrival to destination B is unknown, hence the name arrival unknown. Without an ARNK, the computer software would respond with an error message]

Let’s go back to cruising one more time—Travel Advisor: Do you want an inside stateroom?

Customer: Yes, I want to be inside the ship and not sleep outside.

Last example is the travel advisor who tells you he specializes in F.I.T.s does not specialize in travel for the exercise buffs; rather, he focuses on Foreign Independent Tours (now also referred to as Fully Independent Tours).

I could go on and on but I think you get the point. As Professor Henry Higgins asked, “Why can’t the English learn to speak?”

Bye for now. I’m off to boot my computer and then ace a serve or two.