Originally Posted by
eponymous_coward
AS availability for low is based in part on the fare filed in the market. If there are cheap fare classes in a market, you get cheap mileage. If there aren't cheap fare classes filed, there aren't (as well as "um, we don't want to let someone connect on a cheap fare and soak up two tickets we can sell"). Alaska isn't going to give you 5k fares for $500 one way fares (might not even give you 5k fares for $100 if they haven't filed their lowest fare classes). "But the flight is only 200 miles, why isn't there a 5k fare?" is not how this works.
PS: the advance fare for BLI-LAS is cheaper than BLI-PDX in cash. The advance fare for BLI-PDX is more expensive than SEA-PDX. This might have something to do with pricing as well.
Originally Posted by
CDKing
I'm not sure about everything eponymous_coward said, but I did doubt him about these awards not being guaranteed and Missy confirmed he is correct about it being even more limited than saver. When it says "5,000 - 20,000" the - is means through. Well its a little off. Its 5-12.5K each way for saver Y. 20k is the former mid tier choice award. Full fare is 30K (instant upgrade eligible if MVP or higher)
I know over at DL there are subclasses of awards. For example, economy is N, NL, ND, NS, and NK. It seems something similar might be in place here with various subclasses of W at 5K, 7.5K, 10K, 12.5K.
One problem is, this makes it very challenging to set alerts, etc with EF. Finding W space is no longer the issue. I'm looking at PDX - BZN and seeing limited 5K space (like a couple days in Aug); but the day I want is 10K, still W. The lowest purchase price of a 5K day and the 10K day is the same. But according to EF, the 5K day does have some lower fare classes available than the 10K day.
Hard to say if it is an algorithm based on purchase fare classes (i.e. if R, G, or T is available, the lowest award level is available), or if it's based on overall loads. From what I'm seeing it may be the latter.
Hopefully the collective brain of FT can figure it out
