An important aspect is that dual fares is not the same as having different fare code and fare class. For instance:



So this is a Z fare, booked in J class. Not sure if that S at position 2 equals the dual fare feature or if it indicates direction - as S is a PE fare, and the primary fare is a business one. Would they somehow connect business and PE availability this way? Meaning that if S is unavailable in PE I would not be able to rebook this fare in Business?

Interesting link, thanks!

I'm sorry, but I'm not in the airline industry and I don't understand what's going on. What is a dual fare? Is this about being W intercontinental but J intracontinental/domestic because there is no W there? I can understand the words in "Dual inventory fares means you have to have inventory in both classes, for revenue control. Otherwise you would be bumped to a more expensive fare in the same primary booking class." but I cannot understand the sentences! Ditto "for P it's easy to say connector is in full J any time".

No, that is not the same thing at all. Dual inventory fares are as described in HDDL's post #9: your fare is booked in a higher class (typically business) but the fare is a kind of notional add-on to an underlying lower class fare (typically eco). The idea is close to having an eco ticket which is instantaneously upgraded to a business ticket at booking time, with the consequence that you need availability in both the inventory for the corresponding underlying economy class and in the business class fare inventory in which you are booked.

Apologies for resurrecting this dormant thread, but I need some help.

I'm looking to buy a first class ticket SYD-SIN-CDG-HEL-CDG-SIN on AFKL.

For the SYD-SIN leg, it would be on QF1 as an AF codeshare AF9699.

However when I price it out and look at the itinerary, it shows the QF SYD-SIN as business class, however the fare code is PGS0AFNN <--(that's a zero, not an "oh"), which I think should be first class all the way (except for, obviously, the short-haul intra-Europe routes). Considering how AF's IT is, I'm suspecting that the SYD-SIN leg is actually in first (and it shows in FC when I look up the flight on Kayak, but Kayak has its own problems as well).

Does anyone know what class QF1/AF9699 will book into? I called AF and they suggested I buy the ticket and find out and refund it if it's not FC the whole way, but I don't feel like experimenting with that much money.

"I called AF and they suggested I buy the ticket and find out and refund it if it's not FC the whole way, ."

Absolutely ridiculous that AF is giving a potential P customer looking to buy a ticket of probably 10k or so an answer like this. Any airline agent should be able to see in which booking class you are going to book, and know if Quantas is offering FC on their leg or if it is only J. Since you buy an AF ticket you should in any case get miles and XP for the Quantas leg. Maybe ITA matrix will show? https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search

I put in the itinerary in ITA matrix and that suggests you get with fare code Air France (AF) PGS0AFNN SYD to HEL a J seat on Quantas.....for a whopping 30k AUS$. I never would pay that kind of money for the privilige to be in P instead of J, but each his/her choice.....

Most websites - including AF's own - have issues displaying the correct class for itineraries where for one way multiple classes are combined. It is normal that the fare is the same for all segments, however unfortunately that doesn't say much. From what I understand that only means that there is at least one segment in that class (First in your case), and most likely that's going to be the longest segment (SIN-CDG).

In this specific case it could go both ways. I've seen AF show a segment in a lower class than what it turned out to be (e.g. booking business it shows economy, but it is then in fact booked into business). But I've also seen Economy segments on a business itinerary which were actually booked into Economy due to a certain fare bucket not being available (Even though there were still seats in that cabin).

How are you trying to price this out? If via the AF website you could proceed through the process, and after inputting the passenger details it will show a PNR number at the bottom of the page. You can open that PNR (for example on the saudia website) and it should show more details. You can then still abandon the booking if you wish. Though I do have to agree with atflyer that this is - kind of - ridiculous and the la Premiere service center should be able to do this for you. If you did not do that initially I would suggest calling France rather than a local number.