Kgmm77

Dr. HFH

Exactly. With A fares, airlines were able to limit the number of OneWorld Explorer and other similarly heavily discounted seats which were available in the F cabin. With the elimination of these different fares classes, if they allowed F seats to be sold on AONEx fares in the only existing F fare bucket, they would be looking at the possibility that they might sell every F seat on a popular flight for a small fraction of the full F fare, even without considering the cost of the occasional errors like RGN, CAI and SEZ. Moreover, if they were to allow AONEx fares to be sold in the F bucket, that would require rewriting the relevant sections of the OWE rules, which would require the agreement of all other airlines. Without going too far down the speculation road, this approach could spread to other airlines as well, effectively eliminating (or at least substantially reducing) the value of first class OWE fares.


Yes, they can, but the question is whether they will. I can't help but wonder whether this is a way for BA to eliminate its exposure to future problems like RGN, CAI, and, most recently, SEZ type problems.

anabolism

Couldn't that be done using prices? E.g., if cheap CW fares are sold out on a flight, have that trigger an increase in the cost of cheap F fares (or a reduction in A availability)?

Well, fine, but how does dropping an inventory bucket help?

So Axxx fares will now book into F, but how is that better for BA RM?

Would they continue treating F as a higher earning category under this scheme, or might they switch to using the fare basis code or something? BA doesn't seem like an airline that would want to award extra points.

Yes, and let's hope that happens, but that also means that availability is not restricted; if there are open F seats, an A fare can be booked. That seems a surprising move for an airline.

Globaliser

Remember that's only being dropped from what the public can see using conventional tools (I'm waiting for the first appearance of the word "legacy" in this context). If BA is increasing the number of booking classes to something like 45, I think that we can expect to see any number of changes of practice from what we've been used to seeing in the past.

Blumie

Calchas

The purpose of this is to expand the number of classes available. After this change, BA will have six different first class buckets for the purposes of regulating capacity, but all fares will book into F.

Only requires a change to the booking exceptions table. Other carriers have exceptions for specific routes already.

Forgive me but that sounds preposterous. If BA was really worried about that, which can only account for a tiny fraction of first class seats sold every year, it would stop participating in the AONEx products, instead of redesigning its entire fare ladder in every cabin.

In reality I suspect this change was made without even considering the AONEx family.

Calchas

I suspect, eventually:
* “A” becomes primarily a Club World bucket (business class).
* There will exist A- fares for business class use.
* There will exist A- fares for first class use (and C- fares and D- fares and R- fares too for first class use)
* Use of a first class A fare will require inventory in both F and A buckets. Similar to instant upgrade fares common in North America.

There is a change over period with no A availability to prevent confusion about whether “A” means J or F.

onobond

So, after separating the F cabin from A bucket seats (AXIT), there will follow a transitional period with more confusing fares?

anabolism

I haven't seen that. Can you give an example?

Sixth Freedom

I like that - it sounds quite plausible. There may be advantages in day-to-day flight management doing it that way rather than with A in the regular first class cabin (although I am not quite sure exactly how spell these benefits out yet my gut is telling me they are there).

Mixbury

The dictionary definition will suffice.

halfcape

I am just about to book and pay for a trip from BOS to LHR in first class and I was planning on paying the lowest fare possible; does this change mean that I should book before the 10th? Sorry if it sounds like a dumb question, but I don't want to book on the 11th and pay more than I would have paid on the 9th!

Blumie

Without necessarily agreeing with the post you were responding to, I'd be surprised if BA didn't think about the impact of this change on the AONEx product. It's certainly possible, but I'd be surprised. Also, I'd be surprised if the OneWorld agreements allow a member to simply opt-out of one of the OneWorld products. Again, I could be wrong, but I'd be surprised.

I can't. Clearly user error. (And in verifying that it was user error, I see that TYO is a good place to start an AONEx itinerary. Anything cheaper nowadays?)

Anonba

This is related to introducing additional price points on longhaul flights. So A class and S and Q class are repurposed for a trial of additional price points on these routes. Its similiar to dual inventory fares in wtp and club currently.
Additional price points were introduced earlier this year on shorthaul where BA added WETP ‘trigger’ classes. Note that your flight would never book into this class but rather the availability of these ‘trigger’ classes affects the price available. So you may have say O booking class available but its price now varies because of WETP availability. If you look at fare basis the WETP trigger class would show as the second letter. So a OVOR fare basis could also be OPVOR OTVOR OEVOR or OWVOR.

It seems like A S and Q will become ‘trigger’ classes on longhaul.

rjn21

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