Global Distribution System (GDS)
Quick answer
The wholesale booking infrastructure TMCs and OBTs use to search and ticket flights, and to a lesser extent hotels and rail, across hundreds of suppliers in one feed.
Our full guide to Global Distribution System is on its way. In the meantime, explore the related terms below or browse the full corporate travel glossary.
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A specialist agency that books and manages corporate travel on a company's behalf — handles bookings, after-hours support, supplier deals, reporting and duty of care.
The self-service booking website travellers use to book flights, hotels, cars and rail inside policy — usually integrated with the TMC, the expense tool and the approval workflow.
The combined spend category covering pre-trip bookings (air, hotel, car, rail) and post-trip expenses (meals, taxis, incidentals reclaimed via expense report).
The booking record an airline or GDS holds for a trip — traveller name, flight segments, ticket numbers, contact details and special requests — and the source of truth the airline operates against.
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