Definitions

AAoA: Average Age of Accounts – refers to the average age of all accounts on your credit report.

AF: Annual Fee – yearly service fee some credit cards charge.

Companion Pass: Southwest’s great reward that gives you a free companion ticket every time you book a flight, either with miles or cash, so long as you’ve earned 110,000 Southwest miles in a calendar year. Note that it lasts for the remainder of the calendar year in which you earned the pass, plus the entire following year.

CP: Southwest Airlines Companion Pass

CSP: Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card

CSR: customer service representative. Typically someone you talk to at a bank, credit card company, or airline.

Direct Flight:  Flight goes from your origin to destination without switching planes but can include a stop. For example NZ has in the past operated LAX-RAR-AKL all on the same plane, which is technically a “direct” flight but not non-stop. All non-stop flights are direct, but not all direct flights are non-stop.

F: common airline fare code for First Class tickets

FAKO: Generally use to refer to “fake” or at least non-FICO credit scores, particularly those from CreditSesame and CreditKarma.

FICO: Used to be known as the Fair Isaac Co., FICO generally refers to a credit score that is developed by FICO, a predictive analytics company. FICO scores are widely used throughout the banking and finance industry when evaluating the creditworthiness of a borrower.

HUCA: “Hang up, call again” which refers to calling the reconsideration line, not getting anywhere with the representative, and then hanging up and calling again for someone else.

J: common airline fare code for Business Class tickets

Layover:  typically any stop or connection between 30 minutes and 23 hours.

MPE: Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Card

MR: American Express Membership Rewards; earned with Amex’s non co-branded cards such as the Platinum, Gold, and Green cards.

Nonstop Flight:  A flight that flies from A to B with no stops.

One-way: a flight that begins in one city and ends in another, e.g. LAX-JFK.

Open-jaw: a ticket in which the origin or destination are not the same. For example you could fly LAX-HKG-SFO or JFK-LHR, CDG-JFK.

PC: Product Change

Product Change: converting one credit card to another, which is often done to avoid paying annual fees while retaining miles or points tied to the account, e.g. Amex PRG to Amex Everyday to avoid fee and retain Membership Rewards

PRG: American Express Preferred Rewards Gold Card

Round-trip Flight: a flight that begins and ends in the same place, e.g. LAX-JFK-LAX.

SPG: Starwood Preferred Guest

Stopover:  any stop on an internationally itinerary over 24 hours (4 hours for domestic flights).

TYP: Citi ThankYou Points earned with Citi’s non co-branded cards.

UR: Chase Ultimate Rewards. Points earned with Chase Sapphire Preferred, Freedom, and Ink+ Business cards.

YMMV: “Your Mileage May Vary” which means that your results may be different from those indicated by the person or post you’re reading.

IATA Airline Codes (International Air Transport Association):

AA: American Airlines

AS: Alaska Airlines

BA: British Airways

CX: Cathay Pacific

DL: Delta Air Lines

EK: Emirates

NZ: Air New Zealand

QF: Qantas

SW: Southwest Airlines (alternate 2-letter code)

SQ: Singapore Airlines

TG: Thai Airways

UA: United Airlines

VX: Virgin America

WN: Southwest Airlines

 

Airport Codes (IATA 3-Letter Codes)