AA release of discount fare bucket timing
Jul 8, 2023, 9:50 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jan 2000
Programs: Free agent
Posts: 1,296
AA release of discount fare bucket timing
I am looking to book a discounted economy fare on a US-Tokyo flight operated by JAL with an AA Codeshare at 330 days out. AA’s booking calendar goes out to 330 days, but at 326-330 days the only fares according to EF are full are in each cabin, it shows F7 J7 Y7 and is zeroed out in every other fare bucket. Everything up until 326 days out shows plenty of discount fare buckets available.
There might be no logic to this, but all direct flights on those days (AA operated and AA codeshare with JAL) follow that FJY7 and everything else zeros.
Does AA typically release those buckets at XXX days, or is it some other type of faring dump that’s not daily?
There might be no logic to this, but all direct flights on those days (AA operated and AA codeshare with JAL) follow that FJY7 and everything else zeros.
Does AA typically release those buckets at XXX days, or is it some other type of faring dump that’s not daily?
Jul 8, 2023, 10:51 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: STL
Programs: AA Lifetime Platinum
Posts: 504
Cash are always sky high for the first few days the schedule opens up, then they settle down to something more normal a few days later. Otherwise AA will set fares at the levels they think they can attain and adjust over time as demand picks up or drops off. Look again in a couple of days and you should see a huge difference, and keep monitoring as time passes. You could find the fare drops, if so and you have a non refundable ticket, cancel, rebook and take a flight credit for the difference.
Jul 9, 2023, 12:29 am
#4
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Shanghai
Posts: 42,041
I agree with you in the general sense, of course, but looking for long dated Asia fares now is an especially silly proposition because capacity still has a ways to go before it gets back to 2019 levels. And, you can't just look at Japan in isolation because additional flights to HK, Korea, China, and Taiwan will relieve pressure on Japan fares.
Jul 9, 2023, 5:28 am
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,063
I am looking to book a discounted economy fare on a US-Tokyo flight operated by JAL with an AA Codeshare at 330 days out. AA’s booking calendar goes out to 330 days, but at 326-330 days the only fares according to EF are full are in each cabin, it shows F7 J7 Y7 and is zeroed out in every other fare bucket. Everything up until 326 days out shows plenty of discount fare buckets available.
There might be no logic to this, but all direct flights on those days (AA operated and AA codeshare with JAL) follow that FJY7 and everything else zeros.
Does AA typically release those buckets at XXX days, or is it some other type of faring dump that’s not daily?
There might be no logic to this, but all direct flights on those days (AA operated and AA codeshare with JAL) follow that FJY7 and everything else zeros.
Does AA typically release those buckets at XXX days, or is it some other type of faring dump that’s not daily?
Last edited by xliioper; Jul 9, 2023 at 5:53 am
Jul 9, 2023, 5:37 am
#6
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,063
I know this seems like semantics, but the cheaper fare filings are still there, it's just that there isn't bucket availability on flights to purchase them. Much of the up/down in pricing is not due to loading new fares, but rather due to changing fare bucket inventory on flights. Once you know the lowest fare filings on a route (you can use ExpertFlyer for this, but you can often generally divine them from Google Flights calendar view) and if you find flights with bucket inventory for that fare class, you can be reasonably confident you are getting a decent deal.