Originally Posted by
izzik
Availability and what is available for purchase are two separate things. Airlines may choose to block inventory for yield management purposes, for example, which is impossible for Expertflyer to verify. Stop making the false connection that what you see in EF equals what is available for your RTW ticket. We all recognize that these tickets can deliver value that outpaces buying point to point tickets. Why would the airline allow all of the available inventory to go to these discounted fare products? There are many types of discounts in play for airlines and they have to figure out what maximizes their revenue and fills their planes.
That doesn't make any sense to me. If an airline doesn't want to make D class fares available to a paid D class ticket in an alliance don't put them into the D "discounted fare" bucket - the extension of what you say is that ultimately all oneworld airlines could say that no D class seat in their inventory is available to be used for a DONEx ticket. Cathay and others are not playing fair in the alliance here and I suspect talking to the AA desk that it is being pushed up chain as a significant concern by at least the AA RTW desk.