So first I get told that changing a Y fare I had booked from EWR to Nassau was some kind of weird Y that meant I couldn't change it without a fee and definitely couldn't get it refunded. How are you meant to know it is a Yb, Y3.5 or Y whatever anyway?
Secondly I booked an 'I' fare EWR to Chicago and back. I got the 2 points as expected but they only gave me 50% the EQM miles even though I booked it on CO.com with a CO Chase credit card!


I am a Gold

Am I getting picked on?

Adrian

1. When you purchase your ticket you click to view the rules associated with your ticket and it will tell you what they are (change fees etc etc) as well as the fare class and basis cide.

2. Call Continental's Onepass, it was most likely just a glitch - they can fix it for you.

-Vincent

But what happens when you can't (or don't see) the rules with a fare code. I was attempting to book a trip to NAP on my corporate travel site. EWR-FCO-NAP-MXP-EWR on AZ in coach. The fare came up to 1063, not bad -- but I wanted to make sure I'd get the full 100% EQM on CO. I called my travel dept and they told me it was an 'S' fare. I called AZ to ask if I would get my CO EQM for this fare, they thought I would, but told me to call CO and check. The OP agent was pretty direct "No, you'll get no miles" as they didn't know what an S fare was As luck would have it, when I called CO back about 40min later.... you guessed it, I got the same agent. Perhaps I should try tomorrow

Continental.com is your friend. The way I read it you will get no OnePass miles at all for an AZ ticket in S class.

You appear to be confusing a booking class with a fare. There can be multiple fares, that all book into the same booking class. The fare rules (incl. penalties) are associated with each fare, not booking class.

For example, for the EWR to NAS route, there are 2 different Y-class fares: The more expensive Y8 fare has no penalties for changes/cancellations, which is not the case for the much cheaper Y0BN fare:

[KVS Availability Tool 2.0.4/Platinum - Sabre: Fares/TCY/US-USD]

"I" fare class is 50% EQM when booked at CO.com and with the CO/Chase MC with the onepass discount. It doesn't show up as 50% until after you have selected your flights and are about to pay.

Actually, after you make the purchase it shows the correct 100% EQM for that fare class booked using CO.com.

That's good to know. That makes a couple of upcoming personal trips easier to decide on.

What is the purpose of booking classes (except for EQM's?) if they have different restrictions within the class?

Last week I was trying to book a refundable fare from IAH-DAL on Co.com. Each time I did it with the Chase Onepass code, it showed me an O class fare that was non-refundable. When I did it without the code it gave me an O class fare that was refundable. I am sure that many would have assumed it was refundable since that was listed as the preference going in and it gave the same booking class.

It took a couple of calls to straighten that out (it really wasn't worth it for the $5 of savings). One of the excuses I received was that when I checked "lowest refundable fare - fewer restrictions", that won't always be a refundable fare. I would have to check "Full fare - no restrictions". That makes no sense.

Booking classes have to do with availability, aircraft cabins, and mileage credits. Fares are about prices, rules, restrictions, etc.

You start with a fare, then look at the associated booking class -- not the other way around.