Medium Large Transport
Communication Breakdown; Training / Qualification
Deviation - Track / Heading All Types; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Clearance; Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Air Traffic Control Issued Advisory / Alert; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Returned To Clearance
Human Factors
I was under the impression that the PDC stated ZZZ [our Destination airport] after SEWTO. I now know that the '//' symbol represents the rest of the route as filed. Upon receiving the PDC in ORD the First Officer and I reviewed it. It stated a slight reroute. 'ORD8-MOBLE-ADIME-SEWTO://ZZZ. We both understood that after SEWTO we were supposed to proceed direct to ZZZ. In flight at FL210 we passed SEWTO; ATC inquired about our routing stating that we should be flying the route 'SEWTO-FWA-ROD-ZZZ' which is what we were filed for. After I told the controller that we had some confusion on the PDC he then cleared us to 'ROD-ZZZ.' The flight continued without incident.When coming across symbolism on the PDC that I do not see often I am going to give Clearance Delivery a call and verify our routing and clear any confusion.
Air Carrier Captain reports misunderstanding a PDC symbol; thinking that '//' means direct when it actually means the rest of the route as filed. This leads to a track deviation which is corrected by ATC.