Originally Posted by
rucksack
As for why the ‘O’ fares in the first place, it’s probably a reaction to competitors fares. I don’t know how fares are regulated ex-EU, but if it’s like it is in the US, the additional fare class may be a move to give more flexibility in pricing and avoid having to refile Z fares.
Nope, it has just replaced Z. A return trip AMS to one of the carribean islands, restricted and advance sale would be Z last year, now it's O for the same type of fare with similar rules.
Now, for AMS-CUR:
O (O3LSNL) is 75 day advance, non-refundable and non-changeabale. combineability only with Z - base fare EUR 671 per sector
Z (ZSFNL) is 7 day advance, non refundable and 300 euro change fee, combineable with all fares. - base fare EUR 1211 per sector
I (IFFNL) is 5 day advance, refundable and changeable (free), combineable with all fares - base fare 1464 per sector
D (DFFNL) is unrestricted, refundable and changeable (free), combineable with all fares - base fare EUR 1839 per sector
C (CFFNL) is unrestricted, refundable and changeable (free), combineable with all fares - base fare EUR 2589 per sector
J (JFFNL) is almost equivalent to C - base fare EUR 3836 per sector
It all just shifted one class down. Z used to be the 75 day advance reservations fare. The weird thing is the combineability rule for O. If you do an open-jaw with an O fare, the other segment has to be in Z. Might this be an unintentional copy-paste error? Also, the published fares for D, J and C are (almost) equivalent, so the only reason for two different classes here would be to differentiate in price based on inventory, which does not seem a logical thing to do with fully flexible and refundable fares.