AndyTLe

That's the thing. You don't need A to open up. Since you are holding a FIRST CLASS ticket (save the debate on if A is a true F ticket), all you need is F inventory to SDC. So all you need it to show is F1 to SDC.

philfna

Ahhh..thanks for the enlightment my problem is going to be that SFO-MSP is going to get a lot of upgraders for that flight. So it will be A0 and F0 by SDC I am guessing ARGH!!! Getting up at 4am NOT fun.

gpez

Haha CALLED IT.

What percentage of people who fly have even *heard* of seatcounter.com or even understand how fare buckets work? 1%? If even that many? There are no promises that seatcounter.com is going to stay free or stay at all. Say with me now: fancy tool.

Having every customer call waste your employees' time and increased phone toll fees (guess who picks up the 1800 number tab) is the complete opposite of "making money for shareholders" which you seem so fond of. How does advocating this make any sense?

And your accusation that I'm "scared" because I'm not open to "try something new" is incredibly stupid and insulting. I use seatcounter all of the time and I educate everyone I know in how these things work. Even with these tools, my experience and understanding its still VERY SCARY to not have a confirmed flight AFTER YOUR TICKETED FLIGHT HAS LEFT. If you are a FF you know better than anyone that things change on a seconds notice and no confirmation = you are screwed. Saying "well too bad" is just terrible customer policy and makes the whole SDC thing close to useless.

Its a terrible, unusable and confusing option. Did you even read my point that its bad business to do it this way? It is smarter and more economical as an airline to know what flight your customers are actually planning on taking as far in advance as you can. That allows you to change loads, switch planes, update crew, lower fuel orders, sell more tickets which all result in (drumroll please) MORE MONEY FOR SHAREHOLDERS! This doesn't even count the increase customer satisfaction (which sadly we all know that for beancounters doesn't count for squat). They could charge a million dollars for changes, no one would take them up on it and I promise you'd be here saying "oh well at least they LET you make changes" Doesn't change the fact that its a stupid policy.

There is no question of if FlyNow was better than SDC, it 110% was.

AndyTLe

As mentioned, no one telling you to miss your flight. If you want to fly later, use SDC to your advantage or pay the change fee.

How is requiring same fare class better than ANY class of service? Unless you're buying high fare class tickets, it is unlikely that you're able to use FlyNow when you need it. There are very frequent flyers that fly on the lowest fare classes and are locked out of using FlyNow because the most deeply discounted fares aren't available.

zman

It may NOT be a first class ticket, per the rules.
First class ticket has to be F or a non UP Coach fare that is F
like an International Business that books into F domestically..
It is probably a Coach ticket eligable for an instant free upgrade, if available.
I am guessing it is a YUP or MUP or QUP ticket.

Marylou

Oh gosh, those flood gates will open on that one.

wlynnw

i don't think flynow has anything to do with fare class at all. if you had a nwa lowest fare k class coach ticket and you can use flynow on an alternative flight (where k class tickets had been sold out long ago) as long as there were coach seats available.

flynow is better than sdc in every possible way and a debate about which one is better is pointless.