berliner5000

So I don't think this has been answered (after searching "fare class availability").

I am trying to go from the east coast to the west coast on December 30/31. One-way. I know that my flight isn't going to be cheap but I'd like it to not be ridiculously expensive either. I'm using flight stats to look at fare code availability to see what my best bets are. Delta.com is not shooting out the same available fare codes though..

For instance: AAA-BBB-CCC. On the AAA-BBB route there is V fare availability (V through Y). On the BBB-CCC route there is U fare availability. When I try to book this flight on Delta, it sends me to H fare. When I try to only book AAA-BBB it sends me to T fare. When I try to only book BBB-CCC, it sends me to a K fare. When I try to book AAA-BBB-CCC as a one-way (not multi-city) trip, I get thrown into a K fare, as well.

Is there any way to book this trip with a U fare price (since I know it's available)? I'm sure this has to do with married segments but I'm at a loss.

xliioper

There must be more than simple bucket availability. The fare rules must also allow what you are trying to do. Often the cheaper buckets require a round-trip purchase to book. So if you are trying to buy a one-way, you will have to buy a higher fare class. Also, there can be day of travel and seasonal restrictions on certain fare class purchases. And, yes, married segment logic can also come into play. Looking at individual bucket availability on the segments is not a valid way to check. You must check on the origin/destination through trip to get the actual availability.

berliner5000

So here's a silly question.... where can I read the fare rules? Like I know I can on ITA, is that the only place?

xliioper

ITA and Delta will list the fare rules once you price a flight. And, no, you can't get around married segment logic. If the fare bucket isn't available for the through routing, you won't be able to book it.

suvayanr

KVS will list all fares between two city pairs

davetravels

ExpertFlyer has fare info . . . . . . .

Oh, wait a minute . . . . . . .

Silly question; Silly answer.

3Cforme

There can be reasons for looking at specific fare buckets. Promo eligibility and fare changes from rebooking come to mind. Mostly, though - for the reasons outlined by LBJ - you're just wasting your time. Use ITA, Orbitz, Kayak, whatever to find & price itineraries. In their search logic they will account for adv purchase/min stay/max stay/routing rules/fare bucket availability for available published rules, and married segment routines.

If you have real flexibility in your travel dates checking for the lowest published fare and picking dates & duration to fit can be an excellent trick. Hence the lamentation of the loss of ExpertFlyer for Delta...

Discplayer

From [email protected] this morning 16OCT2014:

J.M., Oct 16 06:33:
Hi "Discplayer",

Thank you for contacting FlightStats Help Desk.

We just released some enhancements to FlightStats.com including user interface improvements to the mobile site. We also removed Flight Availability. We fund the free tools on the site with advertisements and occasionally add/remove features based on customer demand.

We appreciate your interest and thank you for choosing FlightStats.

Best regards,

J.M.
FlightStats

Discplayer

Is this a free service? If so, how do you access?

jrl767

this sounds weirdly like Delta-speak ...

I'm not techie enough to play around with finding my own hacks or alternate ways of getting the info that FlightStats or EF used to show, and I don't really travel enough to where I need to have that info at my fingertips, but from most of the recent FT chatter it sure seems that there are a lot of FlightStats and EF customers who actually want and use these features, and that it's the airlines who don't want their customers (i.e., those same travelers) to have the data