Low-level award seats, low-price paid seats - same or different buckets?
 

It's clear that there are a limited number of award seats (on any given flight) available at the lowest level (costs fewest points).
It's also clear that there are a limited number of paid seats (on any given flight) available at the lowest price (costs fewest dollars).
Once these "low cost" seats get snapped up, additional seats are available, but at higher costs (both higher in points, and at higher purchase price).

My question is: are these seats (low miles price and low dollar price) all from the same bucket, or are there two separate buckets from which the seats come (one bucket for award seats, one bucket for paid seats)?

I'm looking at a flight that appears to have 2 award seats available (until someone takes them). The same flight appears to only have 2 paid seats available at the lowest price (for purchase).
I need 4 seats on this flight. Ideally, I'd first book 2 as award seats (at the lowest award price), then turn around and book 2 more as paid seats, at the lowest cost purchase price.

Once I grab the 2 award seats, does that mean the 2 lowest-price (for purchase) seats would also be gone - in other words, if I book the 2 "cheap seats" as an award, would that result in zero "cheap seats" available to purchase at the lowest price?

I'm assuming that the low-level award seats are in one bucket, and the low-price paid seats for purchase come from a separate bucket, so "using up" the low-level award seats would have no impact on the number of available seats in the paid low-price bucket.

Correct? Thanks.

I don't think there's a consistent answer to this. I may depend on the cabin, and it may depend on the specific flight.

Technically they come from separate buckets, but Alaska could be (without telling us when) "linking" two buckets in some way behind the scenes.

For a more obvious example, if they have both outright award seats up front and upgrade awards for moving up front available at a given moment, using up one may decrease the amount on the other, even though they are certainly separate buckets (you can tell they are separate buckets because sometimes only one or the other of those is available).

But there are way more levels of paid prices (especially in economy) with way more rules (such as 14- or 21- day advance purchase, etc), which is completely different from how awards work. So there is not even a concept of "low price" awards in the same sense as "low price" tickets, but the "low price" of awards may be one of just two or three prices, but the "low price" of paid tickets may be one of a dozen or so different prices.

So if there are any relationships at all, they have to be complicated, and not simple like you proposed.

The way AS explained things when they introduced varying award pricing levels, there is still only one saver economy award bucket--W--but how that bucket is priced is determined by whether the lowest paid economy bucket is available. So if you grab the last two R fares, you should still see W availability, but it won't price out at a below-12.5k tier anymore on shorter routes. I'd assume that that link is one-way and limited to pricing, and purchasing two W fares shouldn't have any immediate effect on R availability, but I'm not comfortable instructing anyone else to make that bet.

Sounds pretty opaque.

Fortunately for me, the booking window for the flights I want is still a couple weeks out, so I have time to try to clarify things a bit. I guess the best way to know would be a simple test: on a day when I see availability for both the cheap award seats and the cheap paid seats, I can try buying the two cheap seats, and then immediately check to see if the low-level award seats disappear (I assume the inventory management updates in real time for that). If the low level award seats don't disappear, then I can conclude that they're coming from two separate buckets (or for all intents and purposes, that's how it'll work for me). If the cheap award seats vanish as soon as I buy the cheap purchased seats, then I'm going to need to come up with a Plan B.

As long as I don't pick "Saver fares" for the purchased seats (I never would anyway), I figure they're fully refundable within 24 hours and it's safe to do the test. Ah, experimentation...

I will report back with the results in case anyone's curious.

Unless, like all non-refundable fares, it is booked within 24 hours of departure.

James

Did AS explain this? I missed that. Do you have a link? I'd like to read their explanation.

I'm having trouble finding Alaska' announcement of the 5k and other award levels, and I'm realizing that I don't remember if AS actually announced this link or if FTers just discovered it while hunting for the lower award rates. But there's a definite link between low award pricing and R inventory.

Slightly off-topic, but the inventory levels also apply to the front of the cabin. I've booked I class individually 3x in the last week for separate travelers when only showing (1) I seat available, and within 2-3 minutes gone back to the same flights and snagged I class again for a new PNR.

When going through expertflyer or KVS + AS site you can see it clearly. For example the under 700 mile award

5k = W + R
7.5k = W +G
10k W + T
12.5k W + any other fare class

Whether the selling of W or R/G/T will trigger release of additional space is the biggest unknown.

In case anyone was wondering, and for future reference...So I did a dummy booking to determine how this actually works. I found flights were there were just 2 award seats available at the low level, and where there were just 2 paid seats available at the low price level on the same flights. I booked 2 paid seats (completed the process including confirming and paying). Then I checked and the 2 low level award seats still show as available (I did not book them, but I assume the availability would update in real-time once seats are purchased). So, at least for the route I tested, I found answers to my questions below:

Nope, at least if done in the order of booking paid seats, then searching for award inventory.

In my test, taking the two cheap paid seats first did not wipe out the availability of the two cheap award seats - it seems that they do come out of separate buckets, at least in this simple case. Now, it's quite possibe there may be other variables in play with a different test case, but for this simple one, the results seem clear enough for my purposes.

Now that I have a workable plan to book 2 award seats plus 2 paid seats (all at the lowest and cheapest levels), I have a separate question about getting baggage fees waived for all 4 travelers (when 2 of us qualify), but I'll post that in a separate thread...

Cheers.

If two qualify for bag fee waivers, make sure one is in each reservation and it will extend to the ones that don't.

James

Yeah, that's what I was thinking, but I think there's an additional fly in the ointment on that (wanting to earn miles for the paid seats) -- see the separate thread Combining PNRs to waive bag fees? (just to keep the threads from drifting too far ;))

One thing you could try is to use 2 different browsers or 2 different devices to book 2 different blocks of tickets. Put each in the cart before checking out, then be prepared to cancel within 24 hours if need be. We have done this for our family of 5 and not had a problem that I recall. We have done various combinations of awards and cash (including companion fares).

AS' systems tend to have a lag, as some appear to be caching data. So I'd describe the test as inconclusive until both tickets are issued. Even then, it would be a YMMV situation.

But generally W≠Revenue buckets. But it is linked to some "saver" awards under 12.5K as others have outlined. How much is the award for?