Originally Posted by
jsloan
I've explained it multiple times. The fact that there is no inventory doesn't mean that there is no price. All they need is a system that tells them what the price would be if there were inventory, and it works.
This is exactly how cash airfare works today. Inventory and fares are separate. You could have a P fare, but no P inventory; you can't buy the flight at that price, but, in theory, you could waitlist for it. By policy, it's not allowed, but the mechanism is well-defined; it would work if they allowed it.
Just wanted to mention again my experience to support jsloan’s answer:
When I called to waitlist my itinerary to New Zealand post Nov 15, in 2 different calls they gave me 2 different prices for a One Way Saver Award from the US to Auckland, 80,000 and 85,000, and it changed in a matter of minutes.
One may think of the price of the I fare perhaps as currency exchange rates or stock prices that vary during the day, except that perhaps there will be limits to how much they can go up or down, such as the cost of a one way saver award to NZ to always fall between 70,000 and 90,000 miles. You are waitlisting and paying for the I fare class in advance, so even if the price of the award goes down in the system you already paid for the I fare waitlist (with no possibility of a price match/adjustment). Now what you’re waiting for is availability of the I fare class in your flight, regardless of what the cost of the I fare is at that moment.
Hopefully my explanation is not too confusing.