BA 112 02/25/01
F2 A0 J9 D9 W9 T9 Y2 B0 H0 K0 M0 V0 N0 Q0

Does that mean there are 18 Business Class seats and 2 First Class seats left?

BA179 03/01/01
F4 A4 J9 D9 W9 T9 Y9 B9 H9 K9 M9 V9 N9 Q9

Are there 8 First Class seats and 18 Business Class seat left?

What do all those letter mean? Thanks.

I this has been discussed in detail, but let me lend my limited knowledge.

The number of available seats is usually limited to 9 or 7, depending upon the reservation system, so if you see 9, that could be 9, or it could be 20 or 30.

First Class is usually F, A and sometimes G. F being full-fare, and A discounted. Let's say there are in fact 7 First Class seats available. You might see: F7 A2, which would mean that of the 7 seats, all are available at full-fare, but only 2 at discount. Not all city pairs will be eligible for the discounted fare, but it will show you if a seat is available, i.e. it might be available, but not to you.

Business Class is usually C, J and D. Not sure about the difference between C and J, but D is discounted.

Full-fare coach is Y, and almost full-fare contracted rate is usually B or M -- depending upon carrier. All of the other letters are usually variations of discounted coach.

-- John

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Hi,

The booking codes are as follows:-

A First Class Discounted
B Economy/Coach Discounted
C Business Class
D Business Class Discounted
E Shuttle Service (No reservation allowed)
or Economy/Coach Discounted
F First Class
G Conditional Reservation
H Economy/Coach Discounted
J Business Class Premium
K Economy/Coach Discounted
L Economy/Coach Discounted
M Economy/Coach Discounted
N Economy/Coach Discounted
P First Class Premium
Q Economy/Coach Discounted
R Supersonic
S Economy/Coach
T Economy/Coach Discounted
U Shuttle Service (No res. needed/Seat guaranteed)
V Economy/Coach Discounted
W Economy/Coach Premium
Y Economy/Coach
Z Business Class Discounted

A lowercase "n" after any class code indicates Night Service.

Thanks,
Richard

In the first case (BA112), it means 2 F seats left for sale and no discounted F inventory is available, and at least 9 business class seats (for discounted and normal inventory). Economy seems quite full with only 2 full-fare seats left (doesn't mean they are there - but they are selling them and will bump if necessary). As the most expensive fares go, so will the cheaper fares, so you will never see more A seats than F, more D seats than J/C or more V, K or Q than Y.

Airlines don't like to show more than a few seats (usually 4, 7 or 9 for any given fare) for competitive reasons. Only the yield management people and gate/check-in agents (latter on day of departure) will know for sure.

The second case (BA179), it means the flight is "wide open".

I am wondering whether the information about the number of available seats in each class of services is available for each and every flight? Is there a website where I ccould check what classes of service are left on any flight? That would be great piece of information to have! Thanks in advance for any replies!

Hi McFly and welcome to Flyertalk.
Try http://www.flyaow.com/ and register as an expert user. This will allow you to access available fare codes anywhere and anytime until departure of the flight.
Salt.


[This message has been edited by salt (edited 02-17-2001).]

If you see "J5 D5," that usually means there are 5 seats total in business. They might be sold at either discount or regular, or available for upgrade.

Different airlines on different systems do not all use the same codes for the same inventory. Just FYI

What on earth is "first class premium"? What does the Pax get, or get to do, that "regular" first class doesn't (no XXX rated comments here, please)? Or is that like for the Concorde?

Think of what the difference is between domestic F on U.S. airlines is like vs first class on international flights. There's a world of difference. To name a few: sleeper beds, 60" or greater pitch, 7 course meals.

True, but international first class (full fare) is still coded "F". "Premium" implies extra cost and perhaps some extra service over and above full fare First.

One thing that's unfortunate is that you can't guarantee that what's shown online on itn (which is behind many of the booking engines: their own, trip.com, United, ANA, etc, etc) is actually real.

A friend of mine tried booking a trip the other day with all segments showing availability, yet it failed in the final booking stage. It turned out that the flight that was booked out was showing Y4 on itn! She phoned a travel agent and waitlisted for it.

So, depending on where you are looking up the information, it may mean sweet FA.

Just a note - flyaow.com and thetrip.com are both linked to itn.com/getthere.com so info will be the same as you would get on itn.com

Mr. Branson's airline had an interesting answer to this one. His idea did not YET come to fruition, but the idea was great!

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~ Glen ~

cousellor, it make difference for us poor chaps living in thye states, because we have "sub-premium" F class as the standard, which are inferior to, e.g. asian J class. in other countries F class = "premium" in US