Originally Posted by
CO Insider
...In these cases, we'll open up all main cabin fare classes at the 12-hour mark, enabling confirmed same-day changes regardless of fare class. On the other hand, when the main cabin is booked at or above capacity, the flight will be unavailable in most or all main cabin fare classes. ...
Thanks Scott!
This makes perfect sense - I agree the details of such an arrangement are hard to convey to the average customer, even though it makes sense to us here. Of course, not having access to the PBT makes it hard to gauge whether the flight will open up or not, but at least now I understand the policy and know how to interpret the seat availability data I can see.
The trick will be getting the staff to understand the distinction between 'SDC is not available except for full fare customers due to current flight booking load' and 'SDC is not available to you because your fare class is sold out'.