IATA Foundation Course

Acquire essential knowledge and skills to work in the travel and tourism industry and become an effective travel professional. Provide advice on flight, accommodation and tour products, and how to ensure travellers fulfil necessary travel requirements. Improve your customer service and sales skills in order to better advise travel customers about when and where to travel based on their needs. Learn to use a global distribution system to create and manage reservations. 

Objectives

Upon completion of this course you will be able to: 

• Advise customers on passport and visa requirements, as well as on travel insurance options.
• Promote services and facilities available to airline passengers during their travel.
• Interpret standard industry codes to plan and reserve travel itineraries.
• Sell rail travel, car rental, hotel accommodation, cruises and pre-packaged tour products
• Provide good customer service and retain customer loyalty 
• Use the Global Distribution System to make and maintain reservations and issue travel documents 

Course format

This course requires approximately 200 hours of study to be completed in 12 months from the purchase date (enrollment validity). After the enrollment validity expires, the users will not have access to the course content and will not be able to take the exam.  You’ll need an Internet connection and Google Chrome browser to access the online modules.  

Exam information

• Exam Method: Online exam with remote supervision
• Exam Format: Multiple Choice questions
• Closed Textbook; Foldout Maps are not permitted
• Number of questions: 80
• Time Allowance: 2 hours
• Passing Grade: 60%
• Distinction Grade: 85%
• Number of exam attempts: 2 

Table of contents

• Overview of the travel and tourism industry
• International and regional travel and tourism organizations
• Roles and responsibilities of travel agents
• Geography in travel planning
• Marketing and selling travel
• Three-letter city codes
• Planning travel itineraries
• Travel formalities
• Taxes, customs and currencies
• Travel insurance
• Auxiliary services and information supplied by travel agents
• Air transport essentials
• Airline products and services for passengers
• Industry codes, terms and definitions
• Introduction to rail products and services
• Land transport: car rental and campers
• Water transport: ferries and cruises
• Pre-packaged tour products
• Types of tours and tour components
• Reservation and accounting procedures
• Booking conditions and limitations of liability
• Customer service and communication
• Fundamentals in airfares and ticketing: Passenger Air Tariff (PAT), Taxes, fees and charges, Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP)
• Introduction to travel technology
• Electronic booking tools (GDS functionality training): Flight schedules and availability, Completing reservations, Airfare displays, Hotel and car reservations, Timatic 

• Travel Agents
• Airline reservation agents
• Tour operators
• Call center agents 
•  Key topics
• The travel and tourism industry and the working environment for travel professionals
• Geography and industry codes
• Travel documents and the airline passenger experience
• Air transport products and services
• Rail, hotel, car rental, cruise and tour products
• Customer service principles
• Airfares and ticketing
• The Amadeus/Galileo/Sabre system functionality 

Self-study

The Covid period has taught us how comfortable it can be to work from home and we are happy to build on this momentum. So no travelling, taking leave or endless evenings attending classes: the IATA course is offered to you completely online. This allows you to learn the course at your own pace and rhythm, wherever and whenever you want. No group lessons are organised, either physically or online. For any practical questions, you can of course always contact us.  Good to know: the courses are very clearly structured, which makes self-study much easier. After each theoretical chapter, you immediately get the chance to put this into practice by simulating your chosen GDS. All learning material is described in great detail and each chapter ends with numerous repetitions.

Start

You start whenever you wish and choose your own exam time. Note: from the moment you are enrolled, you have one year for all this. Keep that deadline in mind!

Exam

IATA provides 6 exam moments per year specifically: in January, March, May, July, September and November. Usually, the exam is scheduled in the last week of these months and always takes place digitally. This can be done at our Mechelen campus or from home.

Cost price

The cost price varies per course. Under 'how to register' you will find the link to register online. When you do this, you will get the overview of the prices of the different courses.
Thomas More students and Thomas More alumni (max 2 years after graduation) enjoy a discount. This has already been taken into account in the registration link.  Each time, you can opt for an e-book or for a printed version, in which case shipping costs will be charged. The price also includes 2 exam moments each time.