Newbie question: Fare Class Code Tutorial?
 

Hi!

I am relatively new to travel hacking, and have been trying to figure out how to know what fare class code to search for, in terms of economy or (of more interest to me) business class bookings using partner miles.

I am posting this here, as (aside from United) AA metal might be the most interesting for me. With no way to transfer Amex or Chase points to AA, partner booking is the way :)

From what I've read so far, it seems that fare class "I" seems to be the one to search for in terms of business class fares available for partner airline booking-- is this correct for AA? I've been told to look for Saaver fares (are those "I"?).

As a followup, I'd also like to ask if this site (or any other travel site, if not FT) has a primer on fare classes? I am out of my element here :)

Thanks in advance for any advice!
-k

You mention AA several times but posted this in the Alaska Airlines forum. Are you trying to use Alaska miles to book AA?

Booking with miles generally wont earn you anything (unless you're booked with Delta).

If you book AA cash fare and want to credit to AS here's the earning table: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rican-airlines
If you book AS cash fare and want to credit to AA here's the earning table: https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...a-airlines.jsp

Given they're a newbie, I'm assuming they don't realize AA = American and AS = Alaska.

Basically fare classes = what bucket your ticket is booked in and how the airline manages inventory/pricing. While there's probably a bunch of intros to what that really means out there, I find this chart to be most helpful at understanding how they actually work/earn miles or bonuses, and what cabin they book into. It may not be perfect in terms of the data/order for upgrade priority, etc, but it gets pretty close. I find sorting by rank gives the best view to understand how they function and pretty close (in my experience) to showing most expensive > least expensive in terms of fare paid.

Thank you!

Yes! In my zeal to post this, I put it into AS forum by mistake, as my example was AA. But, I will say this: I was looking on AS website and found a business class ticket on Aer Lingus from EWR to DUB, by searching using normal search methods (meaning flight search, flexible days on the alaskaair site vs using expert flyer for a specific fare class-- this latter search is the one I am trying to figure out)

I've stumbled upon this chart before--thank you!. What I am not clear on is which of these (in this case blue highlighted) fare classes would indicate you can book this fare class via a partner/they're "available"-- I *think* its "I"...Are these fare classes 'standard' across all airlines (are they IATA standards or something like that?)

I don't think there's a resource like this that will tell you specifically which fare classes can be booked from partners. You might try to search using ITA matrix if you're looking for specific fare class availability. In terms of standardization across airlines, there's some general trends/similarities (especially w/ partners and alliances or at high level - Y is typically highest economy class, J is typically business, etc) but definitely not standard on a granular level.