'N' and 'U' fare classes
 

What are N and U classes on CO? I know the list says 'discounted coach' but CO *just* updated their website again when you try to book flights. It says...

Eligible for OnePass Mileage Upgrades *
(Y, H, K, N, or B Fare Classes)

Eligible for Most OnePass Promotions **
(Y, H, K, N, B, V, or U Fare Classes)

Yeah, I noticed those N and U fare classes too. New to me...

NU to me too! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

UNknown to me http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Up-gradeable and Non-upgradeable ?

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"The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You"

[This message has been edited by JAWS_II (edited 11-09-2003).]

btw...N & U do not show up in the new 2004 program changes on the CO website as earning miles/segments. I'm sure they do?!

Well, N fare just became effective on Nov 1st I think and I believe it is considered a sub-fare used for discounted local fares which is a published fare used for direct service on a single carrier.

U fare should also be the same thing, and as it is also a sub-fare, it will not be "visible" in your bucket display.

Does that help?

CO officially unveiled the new fare classes today for 2004 flights:

N, U, I, W, and X

Priority Orders:
First/BusinessFirst: J,C,A,D,Z
Full Coach: Y
Discounted Coach: H, K, N, B, V, U
Restricted Discount Coach: Q, I, S, W, T, X, L

http://www.continental.com/onepass/n...0031107_01.asp

Great...as if remembering YHKBVQSTL wasn't hard enough, now we have to remember YHKNBVUQISWTXL?

Simplifying travel is apparently not on the list of CO priorities, is it?

And I love how they have nearly doubled the number of ineligible fare classes (from QSTL to QISWTXL).

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Has YOUR airline screwed you over lately?

They still ain't got it right, how the heck are you supposed to spell http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starsmilie.gif You been enhanced! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starsmilie.gif with YHKNBVUQISWTXL?

From the website cited, "The addition of new fare classes does not change the pricing of fares, but allows Continental to differentiate nonstop and connecting flights."

Somehow, that sounds ominous. So maybe the implication is nonstops will cost more than connections on a more widespread basis than current fare rule routings. That would be quite an enhancement.

Maybe it's the other way around sobay_terp.
One problem that the network carriers have is that the cost of transporting a passenger is based on the actual distance the planes have to fly.

Example: If WN flies PHX-BWI nonstop it's 1999 miles, CO will take you PHX-IAH-BWI at 2244 miles.

If fares and operating costs were the same (they ain't) who's got the advantage?

"legacy carriers make their business far too complex and don't fully appreciate the costs of that complexity." - Wall Street airline analyst, per the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 12, 2003.

As they add layer upon layer of mind-numbing rules and restrictions, they continue to wonder why Southwest, Jet Blue, etc. eat their lunch...

Hence the new fare classes can be called 'Vengeance fares'. These will be used to punish low-fare airline entrants in CO nonstop markets, such as CrazyClown's favorite $1800 route, SFO-EWR. The fare classes will be used to sell tickets on capacity-saturating extra flights that CO will try to drive out the competitor with.

We'll see what CO will do when FL attacks CLE and B6 starts going into IAH http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

May the Blue Southwestern Spirit be with ATA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

I wonder why they need N and U if they are (as suggested above) to "differentiate nonstop and connecting flights." For a couple of months they've had EWR->SFO flights with a really low fare that competes with ATA. Any attempt to connect somewhere on an EWR->SFO trip results in a signifiantly higher fare. It seems to me that they have this already.

Making things more complex will NOT reduce their costs.