Originally Posted by
Fizzer
Just asking for clarification here. We recently purchased flights YQR-YVR-OGG. These were selected as Comfort Class, accruing 115% miles and costing more than Flex, which we usually purchase when with AC. However, we are UA MP members and are trying to calculate fare class. Our booking says Cabin class S and L which appear to be deeply discounted Economy fares, with a lower earning capacity with UA than the original Flex fares would have been. I cannot get my head around AC's fare classes and ticket classes at all. Can anybody cast light on this?
The brand is encoded into the fare basis code, in the last two letters. For example
You can see here L as all of L3XR6TG,
L3XR6FL, L3XR6CO, etc. Tango (today called Standard), Flex, Comfort. No longer is there a single dimension of fare classes getting "better", but 2 dimensions where you need to move up both to get different things.
AC saying 115% is for Altitude Qualifying Miles, and Aeroplan spendable miles.... UA probably only looks at the fare class, not brand, for miles, in which case you are probably boned.
Cross program accruals are one of the especially bad parts of their implementation of the branded classes.