Yesterday I was window shopping for some airline tickets as I like to do and noticed that many of the fares I was pricing were coming up in Q class. After consulting with
keithguy, it appears that the cheapest fares for continental US are now in Q class as opposed to L or N. Example:
Code:
From: Tampa, FL (TPA-All Airports)
To: Burbank, CA (BUR-Bob Hope Airport)
Fare Basis Code: QR7QC25N
TPABUR-AA 5APR04 *RULE DISPLAY* TARIFF 0011 RULE 2435
-FARE BASIS USD TAX TOTAL PTC FT
QR7QC25N R 146.98 11.02 158.00 ADT NL
QR7QC25N/IN00 R 0.00 0.00 0.00 INF NL
QR7QC25N/INF50 R 73.49 5.51 79.00 INS NL
LR26DCH R 528.37 39.63 568.00 CNN NL
BOOKING CODES L Q
FIRST TRAVEL - 2APR04 TRAVEL COMPLETE -15JUN04
Today I was going to buy a BOS-LAX ticket for an AABOS run and wanted to apply a Citibank $25 off cert to the fare and had an interesting discussion with the CSR. The cert only allows for booking in H/K/M/Q/V/N and now that the cheapest BOS-LAX fares were in Q, including the one I put on hold, I thought I would be able to book it. She stated that my booking was in L and they were changing the fare classes around, apparently L was to become Q and vice versa. At any rate I insisted that my certificate should be good or else a new one would have to be issued, prohibiting Q and allowing L. Anyway, they were going to override it but turns out my BOS-LAX itin was not one of the discountable fares (webfare).
Anyway, there are some consequences if Q and L swap places.
1) L fares currently yield 50% Q-pts and Q yields 100% Q-pts. If one was hoping to qualify for elite status by points, one could buy a few Q class transcons now and top of his account on the cheapest fares earning 100% Q-pts. GLD/PLT Challenges could also be completed very easily.
2) These coupons (Citibank dollars off certs, companion certs) prohibiting L might have to be reissued.
3) Many domestic US48 itineraries currently price out at the cheapest fare levels, presumably due to the abundance of L class.
It doesn't appear like they've completed these changes (don't see anything different with regarding to HI/AK/int'l fares) and I suppose that AAdvantage can change the Q-pt earnings at anytime.