ARNK stands for Arrival Unknown. It is a placeholder code used in airline reservation systems to indicate a gap in a passenger's flight itinerary where they will travel overland or on a separate ticket. Travel agents insert this segment to prevent the booking system from automatically cancelling the rest of the itinerary due to a perceived missed connection.
Heard on the job
I booked him into Heathrow and out of Gatwick, so you need to drop an ARNK in there so the system doesn't void his return leg.
Insider tip
In Sabre and Amadeus, failing to add an ARNK between non-sequential airports will often cause the pricing engine to error out.
Also heard as
- surface sector