<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by JohnnyP:
David,
That's great information! Where's a good place to find out the price-rankings of all the fare "types". Ie: is a W-fare less than an M-fare? etc. etc.</font>
Usually, W is less than M. There are several posts you can search for that describe the different fare classes in this forum.
I think the best place for fare class/price information is on expedia. From the flights menu, choose the "airline fare list" from the menu on the left hand side of the page. You have to fill in a city pair and then it lists all the available fare codes and prices with links for the rules in price order. (I wish there was a way to limit the display by airline but there isn't.) On that screen you will see fare codes such as VXR21N, which is a V class fare.
There have been other posts here and probably in General Traveltalk that explain how to decipher those codes. I think in this case 21 means 21-day advance purchase and the N means non-refundable. Not sure what the XR letters mean.
-David