Hot answers tagged terminology
29
It's the two-letters code of the state.
MO is Missouri.
List of U.S. state abbreviations - Wikipedia
You can learn them with this geographical game of States of USA or text game of states abbreviations.
24
Vatican City is recognized as a country. For example the CIA's World Factbook and UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office both refer to it as a country.
What I suggest: count it as a country, but raise your target to 51. Win-win. :-)
20
(Full resolution)
Traditional Islamic law is known as Sharia. By and large, countries following it or having a dual system of civil law as well as Sharia is depicted in this map. As a traveller, this is something you need to watch out for as a country you're visiting may have laws not commonly found in civil law found in most other countries. What makes ...
19
We recently caught the ferry from the UK to Europe and needed to have these stickers (for the other way around).
We bought them before hand from UK car shop Halfords where they just call them "headlamp converters".
We also found find that everything needed for driving in other countries was sold on the ferry. They sold the headlamp converters, the country ...
19
An acronym for 'Secondary Security Screening Selection' or 'Secondary Security Screening Selectee' which is an airport security measure in the United States and Canada which selects passengers for additional inspection
Though there is no published criteria how passengers are selected for SSSS, Wiki page lists few probable ones.
15
Although in everyday usage they are interchangeable, they refer to two entirely different concepts:
direct flight denotes any routing between two points with a single flight number, with one or more stops along the way. For example, United 803 flies IAD-BKK via NRT.
nonstop flight denotes air travel between two points with no scheduled intermediate stops. ...
15
Vatican City is generally recognized as a country by most authorities, and has international recognition as such. It may not be a very big country (indeed, it is smaller than the US Pentagon), but it is a country nonetheless.
If your goal is purely on the number of countries reached, then you should definitely count it as one (and you should also visit San ...
14
There are two issues here: what people mean, and what airlines mean.
Airlines vary, but generally they mean layover to mean you changing planes for their reasons. They don't fly from London to Venice, for example, so they fly you London to Frankfurt then Frankfurt to Venice. You might have an hour or two in the airport to change planes. They mean stopover ...
14
Usually it's a refuelling stop, and you just sit on the plane. You don't go into the terminal, the plane isn't cleaned, and you're soon on your way again. As an added bonus, the airline isn't charged for using the terminal, so the tickets are sometimes cheaper as a result.
Edit
After some reading of forums, the whole leaving the plane thing is possible ...
13
Yes, it's only relevant in the US, although in the EU the equivalent (more or less) rule is EU Regulation 261/2004. Technically it no longer exists.
From the FAA's FAQ:
The term "Rule 240" refers to a rule that existed before airline deregulation. There is no longer an actual Rule 240. The term, as it is now used, refers to each airline´s "conditions of ...
13
Aircraft are scheduled by some airlines based on "tail numbers", which is the registration of the aircraft, which is displayed on the aircraft either on or (normally) below/slightly in front of the tail. For larger planes in the US, these numbers start with the letter "N", and then are normally followed with 3 numbers and 2 letters. eg, N182UA.
A "Tail ...
13
The FAA has guidelines for pilot weather reports which cite a "U.S. Standard Turbulence Criteria Table" (which I could not find online):
Light. Loose objects in aircraft remain at rest.
Moderate. Unsecured objects are dislodged. Occupants feel definite strains against seat belts and shoulder straps.
Severe. Occupants thrown violently against seat ...
12
There are 192 members by the UN (193 if you count the Vatican, which is an observer without voting rights). There are 196 that qualify as 'independent countries'. List of countries by capital. Arguments via about.com
This is debatable. For instance, I would say Taiwan is a country... many people would disagree with me.
Scotland and Wales I would not count ...
12
The airline industry pretty much lives on the concept of "Publish Fares". These are fares that are available through all sales channels - through the airlines website, through travel agents, through third-party websites, and everywhere else. This means that the same fare is available to business travelers (who are likely willing/able to pay more for a ...
12
There's a good description of the difference between the two on the National Parks website
The full version is at the link above, but in short :
National parks emphasize strict preservation of pristine areas. They
focus on protecting natural and historic resources "unimpaired for
future generations." Park rangers work for the National Park Service
...
11
"Open jaw" is very much a common travel industry term, and in fact you'll find it specifically mentioned in the fare rules for many fares. Any travel agent you talk to will also be familiar with this term.
There's three different types of "open jaw" itineraries.
The first is where your trip starts and ends at the same airport, but the destination on the ...
11
I have had SSSS once. I extended my stay - I was supposed to fly home let's say Thursday night, but Thursday morning I changed my tickets so I would fly home Friday night. When I checked in I was specifically told by the checkin agent that the change was the reason for the SSSS - I was taking a flight I had booked the previous day. She, and everyone else ...
11
Are all countries between the "near east" and the "far east" then
"middle eastern" countries?
I always thought Middle East and Near East are mostly synonyms. (For me, this is probably influenced by the fact that the Finnish word for Middle East is Lähi-itä, literally Near East.)
Even if we stick to English terms, Wikipedia tends to agree (emphasis ...
11
I imagine it would depend almost entirely on the wording in the PDS. If the insurer uses a term like "war zone" they should be defining it somewhere. Otherwise, contact them for clarification on the specific regions you're travelling too.
That said, none of the insurers I've looked at use the term. They only talk about harm caused by war or military ...
11
From the perspective of a traveler, there is almost zero difference.
Both embassies and consulates are representative departments of a foreign country/government within another country.
Technically, an Embassy is where an "Ambassador" is based. As there can only be one Ambassador for a specific country, there can only be (at most) one Embassy. As the ...
11
Man, these answers are confused. Which is understandable, because this is complex, but quoting Wikipedia isn't going to do it. Here's my understanding, based on holding a diplomatic passport for 18 years and seeing all this first hand & up close.
So on a purely practical level, Doc's got it right: embassies and consulates are pretty much ...
10
With very few exceptions, reconfirmation no longer exists.
Historically, in the days of paper tickets (remember those?), reconfirmation existed as a way of both the airline and the passenger being able to confirm that the tickets were all correctly issued and paid for, thus reducing the chances of problems occurring with a passenger turning up at the ...
10
Vatican City is definitely a country. It is recognized as such in 1929 by a treaty with Italy. It is not a revival of the Papal States.
Size doesn't matter for being a country (there is another small country in Italy: San Marino). When you have visited Vatican City, you can say that you have been in the smallest country in the world.
It might be the most ...
9
I can answer about the Middle East & North Africa only (the politically so-called "Arab World")
Egypt and Tunisia are not Muslim Countries since Islamic law is only one of the sources of legislation, not the only one, and used only in specific cases.
Muslim Countries are ones like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait...etc (religious states) whose law is only ...
9
Given this is a travel forum, the airline terminology is the best one.
A layover refers to a break between two flights taking you to your destination. Normally this would be short (a few hours), but the definition will vary depending on the airline and the route.
A stopover is where you actually break your your journey at a point that isn't the destination ...
9
From the FAQ of that tour operator:
What trips may have a kitty and what is it?
On some of our Overland and Basix trips we operate a 'kitty' system
for our travellers. The kitty is a cash contribution to a central fund
and overseen by the travellers and the crew. It helps fund
accommodation, camp meals or activities for the entire group.
...
9
This is a US term meaning that seats are not pre-booked but grabbed on a first-come first-served basis.
The term originated with Southwest Airlines, which was the first airline to eschew seat assignments at booking or confirmation time (or at least the first well-known airline in the US). Here's an early use of the term from 2001:
The "cattle-call" ...
8
GoSim's "Global Number" is just a term for the UK (+44) number they allocate to your phone. When you are in any of a relatively large number of countries, you don't pay to receive a call when someone calls your "Global Number".
The reason they can do this because the number they allocate you is a UK "non-geographic" number, which charge a premium to the ...
8
Here you go: Wikipedia to the rescue!
A direct flight in the aviation industry is any flight between two points by an airline with no change in flight numbers, which may include a stop over at an intermediate point. The stop over may either be to get new passengers (or allow some to disembark) or a mere technical stop over (i.e. for refuelling purposes ...
8
I am using the Globetrotterslogbook to keep track of where I have been. Nice feature is that they also distinguish dependencies and overseas territories, making it possible to even track the journey dreamed about in the "most remote exclave" question
Only top voted, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible
