Originally Posted by
jfolliard
just trying to learn what code a couple of my flights are and learn what the letters mean .... and all that stuff .... fun monitoring this forum but I get lost when folks start throwing the letters around.
The easiest way to tell the code for your flights is on the "confirmation letter" e-mail you get from Alaska Airlines. In the itinerary, towards the right, under a heading called class it will say "X" Coach The X is your fare code/class.
As for what the letters mean...well, basically each airline has several fare codes (some have many more than AS). The airline allocates seats (or inventory) among the fare codes; this is subject to change as revenue management monitors how a flight is selling, or considers dates and current events (i.e. Alaska might choose to never allocate any discount economy or saver award inventory or allocate very little between Anchorage and Hawaii the weekend before and after spring break). The fare code corresponds to the cabin (first, business, coach), and within each cabin there are various codes to delineate flexibility and fare rules (cancel-able, changeable, refundable, and for how much of a fee), upgrade-ability, mileage earning, advanced purchase rules, and generally speaking price.
Therefore, on Alaska Airlines:
F - first class cabin, refundable, changeable, no advanced purchase requirement, 150% mileage earning, expensive
T - coach cabin, non-refundable, changeable with a fee, 14 or 21 advanced purchase requirement, 100% mileage earning, ineligible for first class upgrades, cheap
An example from American Airlines from North America to Latin America
O - coach cabin, non-refundable, changeable with a high fee, 14-21 day advanced purchase requirement, no upgrades, cheap, no mileage earning.
And these are just examples; I might be wrong about the specifics of some of these fare "buckets"...and technically, everything I'm attributing to them is inaccurate; meaning refund, change, upgrade, mileage earning rules are actually embedded elsewhere in the full fare basis code (i.e. LHASZN4 for one of my upcoming itineraries, where L is the fare class/bucket), but generally speaking higher buckets represent greater flexibility, upgrade-ability, etc.
I'll bet you wished you never asked...I know part of me does. And sorry in advance for the incomplete explanation, inaccuracies, and over-generalization...