S & L Booking Classes
 

So it seems like CO has recently (March 31) loaded fares that are booked in 'S' and 'L' booking classes.

These appear to be used on deeply discounted sale fares.

For example,
SEA-BNA CO
$148 Fare basis: L71BSN
$198 Fare basis: TO141BSN

SEA-CHI CO
$158 Fare basis: LOE21BSN
$198 Fare basis: TO14EBSN
$218 Fare basis: SPE21BSN

As for how these new fare classes affect inventory, take for example
SEA-BNA, CO, Apr 17:
CO 5222 SEA 2235 DTW 0545 757 0
A9 D9 F9 Y9 H9 K9 B9 V9 Q9 T9 S9 L9
CO 6747 DTW 0710 BNA 0750 D9S 0
AL DL FL YL HL KL BL VL QL TL S4 L9

Notice how only S and L classes are available on the DTW-BNA codeshare.

It seems like CO is offering deeply discounted inventory on codeshare flights operated by NW, while pushing more expensive (presumably) inventory to non-codeshare flights.

CO 15 EWR 1140 HNL 1740 764 0
J9 D4 Z4 Y9 H9 K9 B9 V9 Q9 T4 S4 L9

Not to shoot down your idea, but I just found those last week looking at EWR-HNL segments.

Don't forget that if they become more common then we will hear that L, S, Q, T, & V fares excluded from promotions and upgrades.

But was/is there a EWR-HNL fare booked in S or L class?

Maybe they're Delta's LoSer fares getting ready to be loaded into the system...

That has to be it. I'm seeing S and L fares on lots of CO flights -- and the availability numbers seem to match those of Q and T fares, Q with S and T with L. The matching may be coincidence though.

Similarly, Delta is showing Q and T fares. I'm not too familiar with Delta booking categories. Are those new as well?

No they are not new. Delta's T class fares are generally the most deeply discounted while Q class fares are generally mid-tier discounted economy fares.

Check this out:
They've updated the buckets on the upgrade pages to include S and L.

I wonder if you get credit under current "non Q/T" promos if similar el-cheapo fares are available via S/L buckets...

It appears there are some kinks to work out at Continental.com regarding S fares. An itinerary that I just purchased shows the following:



Of course, I could only get a seat assignment in coach.

This change sucks for me because this is an "Economy Unrestricted" fare on a Continental-operated flight. Now it appears I'll have to get behind all the other fare classes but T for my upgrade, when just last week the fare was $10 less each way and classified as a V.

Continental may have updated their policy/website, but at Northwest:

So technically, one should be able to use WorldPerks miles to upgrade L and S fares... for now.

Greetings,

From an old Delta flyer it is LUser fares that we use to refer to. L and U being the deeply discounted fare classes. They added a T disount fare but that doesn't fit with LUser so now maybe we call em "TUL hell freezes over fares" ?

I thought they were called insULT fares?

- HF

I couldn't find anything regarding the new 'S' and 'L' fare classes when doing a search. When I called CO reservations, I was able to get the new pecking order from a res agent as follows:

V Q S T L

Hope this helps!

I guess we've been HoKeY'ed domestically http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

Oops, Non-elites have been HoKeY'ed, which I will be after this year.

(edited to add oops)

[This message has been edited by iwantanupgrade (edited 04-30-2003).]

Do these S L fares qualify for elite upgrades?

Yes.

I am curious as to why they needed these two additional fare classes to begin with. With recent changes to OP I wonder if CO has something more sinster coming down the line (ie. fares that don't acrue mileage). Hopefully not.

One thing that is good with these new fare classes is that the coupons from the prestige pack only exclude Q&T but not S&L.

Keba