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Old May 24, 2018, 1:33 am
  #1  
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LH Group Booking Classes

I was just recently searching for a complete list of booking classes on Swiss and wasn't really finding anything useful or up to date in this forum. So I decided to do the list myself only upon completion to stumble across this nice little table on meilenrechner.ch . -.- As I haven't seen it posted before I'll just put it here for future reference.
The Booking Classes for Adria Airways, Austrian Airlines Group,, Brussels Airlines, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa and SWISS:


Specific ranking of booking classes for Swiss:

First Class:

F: Full Fare First Class
A: Discounted Fare First Class, RTW books into this class
O: First Class Award, First class Non-Rev (Swiss only!)

Business Class:

J: Full Fare unrestricted Business Class
C: Full Fare nearly unrestricted Business Class (also used for opups and bought upgrades at the airport to my knowledge)
D: Business Fare

Z: Discounted Business Fare, RTW books into this class (LH books RTW into D!)

P: Heavily Discounted Business Fare

I: Business Class Award
R: Business class Non-Rev (Swiss only!)

Premium Economy Class (not available on Swiss, but reserved as OS and LH use it):
(In the above table E and G are still listed in Economy but the letters are not available anymore. for booking anymo! Hence you can't get booked into this class on Swiss. They are unused and reserved for premium Economy)

E: Reserved for Premium Economy
G: Reserved for Premium Economy
N: Discount Premium Economy (Used for Non-Rev Economy Flights on Swiss only!)

R: Premium Economy Class Award (Used for Non-Rev Business Flights on Swiss only!)

Economy Class:

Y: Full Fare unrestricted Economy Class
B: Almost Full Fare minimal restricted Economy Class

M: Almost Full Economy Fare with few restrictions
U: Higher Level Economy Fare with few restrictions
H: Economy Fare with moderate restrictions

Q: Discount Economy Fare with moderate restrictions, used for RTW trips
V: Discount Fare Economy, often with a lot of restrictions
W: Discount Fare Economy often with many restrictions
S: Ready-To-Fly Economy Fare

T: Heavy Discount Fare Economy Class with a lot of restrictions
L: Heavy Discount Economy Fare with lots of restrictions
K: Heavy Discount Economy Fare with lots of restrictions

X: Economy Class Award
N: Economy Non-Rev (only Swiss)

If you have anything to add or if anything ir wrong pls let me know :

Last edited by Nick Art; May 25, 2018 at 1:13 am
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Old May 24, 2018, 4:09 am
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Just a note to those not familiar - any economy class can exist as Light, Classic and Flex (including Y light and K flex, yes), every Business class can exist as Saver and Flex. And I presume they might have a similar system in First but I don't know.
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Old May 24, 2018, 4:29 am
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Originally Posted by Fabo.sk
Just a note to those not familiar - any economy class can exist as Light, Classic and Flex (including Y light and K flex, yes), every Business class can exist as Saver and Flex. And I presume they might have a similar system in First but I don't know.
First does not have that system as far as I know, and certain letters do not offer saver: for example J. Although it could be that it’s just extremely rare.
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Old May 24, 2018, 10:59 pm
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Originally Posted by Fabo.sk
Just a note to those not familiar - any economy class can exist as Light, Classic and Flex (including Y light and K flex, yes), every Business class can exist as Saver and Flex. And I presume they might have a similar system in First but I don't know.
Branded fares like these are afaik only filed on the intra-EU market and wouldn't be available on the markets that offer F inventory. Outside of the EU market, they also use fancy but different brand names like "Basic" and "Basic Plus," but in reality, it always means a different booking class is involved (unlike the intra-EU market).

Outside of the EU market, you can still buy any LH Y-fare (which LH would brand as "Economy Flex") with the certainty that it will be refundable, or any LH K-fare (branded "Economy Basic") with the certainty that it will not be voluntarily refundable. First Class only has two booking classes, so only offers "First Basic Plus" (A) and "First Flex" (F). Both are usually changeable and refundable, although there may be a fee involved.
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Old May 25, 2018, 12:15 am
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There is plenty of variation, the booking class is never a definitive clue, you have to look at the fare used. Taking your example on Munich New York, Lufthansa has full flex (FF) fares, changeable and refundable (RC) fares against 410€, and and non refundable but changable(NC)fares:

Code:
25MAY18**25MAY18/LH MUCNYC/NSP;AT/TPM  4025/MPM  4830
***   FOR STAR ALLIANCE RTW* SEE FQD XYZXYZ EG:FRAFRA   ***
LN FARE BASIS    OW   EUR  RT   B PEN  DATES/DAYS   AP MIN MAX R
01+FCOUPON       9232     18464 F  -     -     -   + -  -  12M R
02+F77OW         7080           F  -     -     -     -  -   -  M
03+F77RT                   9440 F  -     -     -     -  -  12M M
04+FFFDEW                  8480 F  -     -     -   + -  -  12M R
05+FRCDE07W                6120 F  +     -     -   +  + 2+ 12M R
06+ARCDE21W                4220 A  +     -     -   +21  2+ 12M R
07+ANCDE28W                3882 A NRF    -     -   +28  6+  1M R
Similar picture for business:

Code:
 25MAY18**25MAY18/LH MUCNYC/NSP;AT/TPM  4025/MPM  4830
***   FOR STAR ALLIANCE RTW* SEE FQD XYZXYZ EG:FRAFRA   ***
LN FARE BASIS    OW   EUR  RT   B PEN  DATES/DAYS   AP MIN MAX R
01+JCOUPON       6806     13612 J  -     -     -   + -  -  12M R
02+J77OW         4823           J  -     -     -     -  -   -  M
03+J77RT                   6430 J  -     -     -     -  -  12M M
04+JFFDE0W                 5620 J  -     -     -   + -  -  12M R
05+CFFDE0W                 4920 C  -     -     -   +  + -  12M R
06+DWRCDE7W                4320 D  +     -         + 7  2+ 12M R
07+DXRCDE7W                4120 D  +     -         + 7  2+ 12M R
08+DWRCDE4W                4020 D  +     -         +14  2+ 12M R
09+DXRCDE4W                3820 D  +     -         +14  2+ 12M R
10+ZWRCDE1W                3620 Z  +     -         +21  2+ 12M R
11+ZXRCDE1W                3420 Z  +     -         +21  2+ 12M R
12+ZWNC28W                 3370 Z NRF    -         +28  6+ 12M R
13+ZXNC28W                 3170 Z NRF    -         +28  6+ 12M R
14+PWNC60W                 3120 P NRF    -         +60  6+ 12M R
15+PXNC60W                 2920 P NRF    -         +60  6+ 12M R
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Old May 25, 2018, 1:01 am
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In Contrary to what I’ve been told I just found out that Swiss does actually have R and N as Classes for Non revenue Flights (only for employees). Chart has been updated.
Non-Rev First Class flights get booked into O! So contrary to common belief there still is a system in place for non-rev Flights that’s mostly for employees (but the system for pax would exist too, just unused)!

Last edited by Nick Art; May 25, 2018 at 3:07 am
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Old May 25, 2018, 2:24 am
  #7  
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Originally Posted by mozilla
First Class only has two booking classes, so only offers "First Basic Plus" (A) and "First Flex" (F). Both are usually changeable and refundable, although there may be a fee involved.
LH does issue A First Class fares that cannot be changed or cancelled, in A Basic.
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Old May 25, 2018, 2:32 am
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Originally Posted by chris63


LH does issue A First Class fares that cannot be changed or cancelled, in A Basic.
Yes apparently, I haven't seen them but oliver2002 showed an example. They're still changeable though (albeit with fee)?
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Old May 25, 2018, 2:50 am
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Originally Posted by mozilla
Yes apparently, I haven't seen them but oliver2002 showed an example. They're still changeable though (albeit with fee)?
No, some A fares are fully restricted, no changes or cancellations period.
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Old May 25, 2018, 3:06 am
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Originally Posted by chris63


No, some A fares are fully restricted, no changes or cancellations period.
No such thing on LX right?
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Old May 25, 2018, 3:57 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by Nick Art

No such thing on LX right?
Same on LX, I have booked A flights that cannot be changed or cancelled, one needs to be sure about dates & then have travel insurance 😊
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Old Oct 1, 2018, 3:31 am
  #12  
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How do I book fully refundable fares on LX for a multiple segment ticket online? On swiss.com it always defaults to the lowest fare class. On lufthansa.com I can pick flexible or non-flexible, but it looks like the flexible version is changeable but not refundable. I guess I could call but can this be done online?
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Old Oct 8, 2018, 4:13 am
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Originally Posted by escape4
How do I book fully refundable fares on LX for a multiple segment ticket online? On swiss.com it always defaults to the lowest fare class. On lufthansa.com I can pick flexible or non-flexible, but it looks like the flexible version is changeable but not refundable. I guess I could call but can this be done online?
On Swiss, book exact same itinerary as close as possible to original travel dates, but on one or more flights that forces the reservation into the refundable RBD you want because lowest is unavailable on those flights (use EF to help you find flights with no lowest RBD inventories). Once ticketed, call in to change to the dates you want. Make sure ticket gets reissued and you get the new ticket number.

Difference vs just calling in is no need to hand over CC data to agent (if you do it correctly) and no risk of agent making typo's in names or other vital data. Also no service fee and time spent on the phone will be significantly less. You have more control.

Note to have a "zero charge" change make sure the itinerary is exactly the same and book as close to your desired travel dates (taxes fluctuate depending on date).
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Old Oct 8, 2018, 6:33 am
  #14  
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Originally Posted by mozilla
On Swiss, book exact same itinerary as close as possible to original travel dates, but on one or more flights that forces the reservation into the refundable RBD you want because lowest is unavailable on those flights (use EF to help you find flights with no lowest RBD inventories). Once ticketed, call in to change to the dates you want. Make sure ticket gets reissued and you get the new ticket number.

Difference vs just calling in is no need to hand over CC data to agent (if you do it correctly) and no risk of agent making typo's in names or other vital data. Also no service fee and time spent on the phone will be significantly less. You have more control.

Note to have a "zero charge" change make sure the itinerary is exactly the same and book as close to your desired travel dates (taxes fluctuate depending on date).
Very smart creative solution - thanks for the tip! The reasons you list for why it's better than calling in to book in the first place are exactly what I had in mind and why I wanted to book online.
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Old Oct 8, 2018, 6:37 am
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Originally Posted by escape4
Very smart creative solution - thanks for the tip! The reasons you list for why it's better than calling in to book in the first place are exactly what I had in mind and why I wanted to book online.
I agree with what has been said above.
Luckily for me, I have a third option, although while less favorable than booking online for me, it does work when needed: That is to go the very old fashioned way and book the whole thing in the Swiss Bookin Office in Zurich. (I can usually stop there on my way home). While they do charge a fee of 30-90.- Swiss francs, in my opinion, especially for complex routings that are not bookable online, it is worth it not to have to explain the whole routing to an agent over the phone, but face to face. (And you get free drinks and chocolate there!)
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