irish mark

So looking at the EY mileage chart/calculator and trying to compare that to the terms on the booking site itself i.e. business saver/value and freedom

I guess business saver is W or D?

so what is business value and business freedom; C and J or D and C? this makes a big difference in terms of mileage earning and at times there isn't a huge jump in between fares

same question for first...r/a/f when there is only First saver and first freedom

can anyone shed some light on this?

thanks ^

ft101

I would guess at "R" being "Residence" for the A380.

LyingFlat

If you have a look at the GDS (through Expert Flyer or the like), R is First. P is The Residence. AUH-LHR 5th Feb shows P2 F7 A7 R4 J7 C7 D7 W7 Z7

ft101

Bad guess then.

I should have known logic would have no part to play.

LyingFlat

Never does in the airline business !

irish mark

My question is though when you go to book first/business etc you can book different fares i.e. saver/value and freedom in business alone. When it comes to mileage earning (on the mileage calculator) in business EY refers to W/D/J etc and the % miles you earn but they don't match both up (ie that business saver =w= a certain % miles)...

Id like to know which is which so I know if I book a certain fare that I'll definitely get a specific amount of miles; some are fairly obvious but others not so much. It seems an obvious question and possibly I'm missing an obvious answer.

kshastry

What about Z fares? They seem not to earn anything except in EY's own program. Has anybody got Z credited to either AA or 9W with success? Thanks.

irishguy28

Don't get "hung up" on the names. They are generally rather meaningless when it comes to mileage earning, as you say.

You can always check which fare code each of your flights will book into prior to actually purchasing them. When you've made your selections, click on the Fare Rules link. This brings up a pop-up and you can see the fare basis code - the first letter will be the fare code for all flights on the illustrated sector. Be warned, though, that for return or multi-stop tickets, each direction is presented on a separate tab, so be sure to click on each tab in turn to check the fare code for each flight - your DUB-AUH-MEL (for example) might be in one fare code, but the return MEL-AUH-DUB may be in a different fare class with different earning rates.

Of course, if you book using a travel agent, you can always ask them (and even request that they book into certain specific fare classes, which you generally cannot do on the website). Also, many online travel agents also allow you to discover the actual fare class of each flight prior to purchasing - and you will notice that no-one outside of Etihad themselves bothers referring to fares using these generic, catch-all, and unspecific terms.

In short - you are looking for a nice, brief guide along the lines of "Economy Saver - Always earns 50%; Economy Discount - always earns 75%; Economy Full Flex - always earns 100%; Business Saver - always earns 125%..." etc etc. THE VALUES GIVEN ARE NOT REAL. I do not think that there is ALWAYS a fixed, deterministic correlation between the generic "name" and the earning potential. Always check the fare rules of the ticket you are interested in before buying - do not merely rely on the "names".

I have seen, in the past, some Economy Promo fares that are issued in non-earning fare codes. The thing that ultimately counts is the fare code of the flights you book. Not whatever name they have decided to group it into. Discount/Special/Promo names should raise alarm bells though - expect low, or non, earning fare codes. BUT YOU HAVE TO CHECK, the name is not enough to determine this.

irish mark

Got You; did a mock flight and got it. FYI know what you said about names and fare codes but on dub to bkk over several dates both business saver and business value has the same fare codes i.e. W or D. It was only business freedom that earned more miles.

LwoodY2K

A different fare code question: What is S?

(EY is reporting a flight I took as S when I'm crediting to KE which gives 0 miles for that, but I'm fairly sure that's not what I booked)

irishguy28

S is a non-mileage earning class.

The economy class codes that earn on Etihad, as you will see from their website, are:

Economy Class E, U, V, L, Q, G - 50%
Economy Class M, K - 75%
Economy Class H, B, Y - 100%

Anything else won't earn you any miles.

It's highly unlikely that any of their partners would credit miles for classes that Etihad themselves don't credit for.

The Korean website shows that the following Etihad economy class codes do not earn anything: E,I,N,O,U,S,T,V,X,Z (note that, until 27.10.2013, X was a 150% earning business class fare, and E was a 100% earning economy class fare)

LwoodY2K

I understand that statement. But do you know what underlying flown cabin S generally refers to? The flight in question was not in economy and so it's not an issue of buying a super discounted Y fare or whatever.
I'm aiming to find out what cabin S is associated with so that I know if I need to contact EY to get it corrected or if I need to do something else.

irishguy28

From whom did you buy the ticket? Was it unusually cheap, or did it require the [part] conversion of some form of loyalty points or the intervention of some form of third party to obtain the ticket? You should probably query them. Or was the ticket given as a prize or some kind of compensation?

I have, in the past, seen (Economy) super promo fares that clearly book into non-mileage earning fare classes offered on Etihad's own site. I cannot verify that similar offers in business cabins are not made.

If you bought this using miles/cash from some sort of consolidator or online agency, you may have been travelling on some kind of award ticket, group travel ticket, or some other kind of ticket ineligible for mileage earning, regardless of which cabin you travelled in.

Korean Airlines certainly considers S to be a non-earning ticket. As does UIA:

S is never shown when I query availability on EY flights on ExpertFlyer, so it is some non-standard code that does not seem to be generally available for "normal" sale. The clue is surely in how you acquired the ticket. The fare class should be derivable from your e-Ticket. What does the confirmation you received at the time of booking say?

LausanneBoy

To answer OP's original question:

W, D & Z are Biz Saver/Value (earns equal mileage) = 130%

C & J are Biz Freedom = 175%

R is F Saver = 180%

A & F are F Freedom = 250%

P is Residence = 400%

irish mark

thanks...^