IanWorthington

Anyone know for sure which booking class Base Plus corresponds to? I'd done some checks a while back which led me to believe it was V but I'm now seeing big disparities between Base Plus fares on lan.com and fares on itc matrix.

andreadbc

Base, Base Plus, etc is determined by the fourth and fifth position of the complete fare code... it might correspond to more than one initial letter...

link (for Base Plus you have to check for "LE")

IanWorthington

Aye, I've got that, but is there some more subtlety? Searching V on ita matrix indeed gives me xxxLExxx rules, but when I go the the lan.com site there's nothing anywhere close to those prices.

f0zzyNUE

for international routes:
X, O, Q, N, S - are usually base (SP)
V, L, M - are usually base plus (LE)
K,H - are usually flexible (FX)
B, Y - are fully flexible (FF)

on domestic routes the assignment can be different

f0zzyNUE

sometimes V may be sold out - therefore LAN.com displays L or M (more expensive) base plus fares. you can play around with the point of sale (US, europe, ...) to get different availability and prices on the same flights. sometimes using expedia.com or orbitz.com helps as well rather than sticking with buggy LAN.com

IanWorthington

Ah, that might be it, thanks.

lan.com is really shite, but is the only game in town when you need Base Plus fares to get 100% miles when flying in SA.

But f*** me, I'm not sure I have the patience to deal with it. Case in point:

Selecting this flight and BP



on every date I've tried gives a "Pricing error". Outbound at $319 is fine, but this return always seems to break it.

Maybe amadeus is not updating lan.com with current pricing and availability any better than it is ita/matrix?

i

bingocallerb22

Sounds like you are on that fun learning curve. But maybe you are being a bit harsh with constant negativity about the LAN web site? Most airlines do not allow you to search by fare class, they use cutie names like Tango or, yes, even Base Plus.

In answer to your specific question, no it has nothing to do with updating. (BTW, LAN no longer uses Amadeus, uses Sabre).

I second the great advice of f0zzyNUE.

IanWorthington

Didn't realise they've moved from 1A, thanks. I see they're still listed as a user though so maybe they retain some services there?

If not being able to search by fare class was the only failing I'd probably give them a pass. I might even be persuaded, reluctantly, though thinking it was rather poor business practice, to give them a pass if all other fare search engines apart from theirs carried bad pricing and availability data. But I draw a line when a punter who's comitted to buying from them can waste so many hours on lan.com and phone calls chasing down flights that are listed (on lan.com) as available but don't price that they walk away in disgust and decide to get the rest of their status miles on AA instead.

I had a conversation with a cabby here in Bogotá the other week: he insisted that getting attacked, robbed, and stabbed was just bau and one had to accept it. I maintain that if you accept it then you never improve. That would be why, I suspect, the majority of FFs prefer to use tools such as ita/matrix. LAN though seems to be the airline equivalent of my cabby.

i

NB. My 20+ years of airline IT experience suggests it still looks very much like an updating, or lack thereof, error to me, and seems to be consistent with comments in the matrix product forum. But if you've got solid evidence the problem is elsewhere I'm more than happy to defer to you.