When I look at the special offers I receive or see on the web, invariably they are good on a whole string of fare types: a,b, y, x and so on.

Can anyone tell me what those lettters are and what relevance they have?

I don't know the details on Continental (since they don't fly their own metal to CHA, just codeshare on NW commuters), but as a general rule, A and F are used to designate first class (one is award seats and one revenue seats); C and J designate business in the same way. (Which letter means what varies.) Other letters are normally coach, with Y being the full coach walkup fare, B usually a little more restricted (eg 3-day advance), and the rest follow randomly.

As noted above, the letters denote the general type of fare, first class, business class, coach class and are further refined to mean type of first, type of business, type of coach. The letter may be unique to an airline or partnership, (e.g. W on UA, T on CO, etc.) Some letters are common (e.g. Y). (Following on above post, A on CO is First Class revenue, F on CO is First Class upgrade).

If you have a specific set of letters and airline in mind, someone can give specific answers. You mentioned special offers. If you are referring to mileage bonus offers, some are restricted to specific fares and often exclude the most discounted fares.

Travelocity has a very comprehensive Fare Basis description feature that shows the details and rules of each fare. Each fare description begins with the type of fare letter (like T, Q, V, W, etc) and has more characters denoting the specific fare rule.

[This message has been edited by Warrenlm (edited 06-11-2000).]

[This message has been edited by Warrenlm (edited 06-11-2000).]

Thank you and sorry for neglecting to mention the airlines in mind. I have been looking at promos from both United and USAir, and those promos got me wondering.