anything to replace seatmap.com yet??
 

i know this has been discussed a lot...but wondering if i missed anything...is there any new way to see how crowded the flight is without making believe you are booking a flight? it sure is tedious that way

i did a search...so please please do not yell at me

thanks much

The truth is that United's website (with a bit of work) can give you the same information.

I've found that using one of the fare availability tools (See the main FT Miles forum) in combination with itn.net allows me to find flights and/or seats that I'm looking for.

-JC

This was listed elsewhere on FT lately. It's ok.

http://www.virginflyer.com/sabre.asp

BillJ

that sabre site is really neat..i could not find out how many seats were left on the flight...guess i will need to continue making believe it am booking the flight

thanks much all

Just to clarify the itn.net solution - if you register on www.itn.net and in 'My Account' set Availability Format to 'an expert' (under Display Preferences), then when you're logged in and look at flights, it will show you availabilities.

Or is this what you mean by making believe you're booking the flight?

Could be wrong but I understood the thread question to relate to SEATING MAP and not fare classes?

I too would like to see something that replicates (quickly) www.seatmap.com

FWIW when clicking on the Virgin site I looked at 862, the SYD-SFO flight I am on in a few hours.

FWIW - I simply do NOT believe these figures at all:


United Airlines 862 SYD 21 Dec 15:15 SFO 21 Dec 09:35 744

BUCKET CLASSES: F5 C9 D9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 K9 L9 G0 A5 Z9


United Airlines 816 SYD 21 Dec 16:15 LAX 21 Dec 10:40 744

BUCKET CLASSES: F6 C9 D9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 K9 L9 G0 A6 Z9

I had a friend trying to BUY a seat a few days back and there were no seats in ANY coach class. This is the absolute highest of high seasons here.


------------------
~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from a UA 747-400 exit row 15 near you SOON!

Well I just searched ual.com on UA862 for 21Dec and got: F5 C9 D9 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 K9 L9 G0 A5 Z9


I could not tell from the original question what the original poster was looking for (e.g. fare class availability or the seat map - they are both useful for determining if a flight is full.) Although I do think seatmap.com's seatmap was less than useful since it did not show Premier seating.

BillJ

hi
i was originally just looking to see how crowded coach is...whether bumping was a possibility...or if i really do not want to get bumped...and it is crowded in coach...i would know that i better get there early

thanks all

i am sure i am misunderstanding that sabre site but....when i checked a flight online at ual.com...i found there are only 3 or 4 seats left...(not counting first class)...when i put in the same flight on sabre and add up all the seats (except for f class)...they add up to about 50...is that possible?

The replacement (or best equivalent yet) is Mathais's (smile67's) Availability Tool. He runs aeroplan.de which is what seatmap.com front ended into. You can check out all the banter in the Miles Buzz at

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum1/HTML/009504.html

You can download the tool at:

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hartberg/ft/SabretoolSetup.exe

Setup is in German, but I think most of us know which buttons are yes and which are continue.

Since this really isn't UA specific, I'll move to MilesBuzz.

Chuck
aka cblaisd
Moderator, United

Airlines tend to open up all inventory levels (unless the flight is way oversold) the week before a flight departs to allow people to make changes to their existing reservations. Since the advance purchase requirement can't be met, there is little risk for the airlines since only the more expensive fares can be bought and anybody wanting to make a change to their return flight is able to do so if they pony up the change fee.

The only true way to see how full a flight will be is to call up the airline and ask--even at that, the airline will only be able to tell you how many revenue seats have been sold.

Thank you for posting this. I downloaded/installed this program (yes, even though the installation was in German). Once installed, it is in English. This is the first time I have been able to access fare codes and availability for the airlines. IT IS PRETTY COOL.

I have a mileage run this weekend (CLE-DTW-MKE-MSP-MCI and back for $247.) Most of the flights are showing "P4 F4 Y4 B4 M4 H4 Q4 V4 L4 T4"... I am assuming this means that there are 4 P-First Class, and 4 F-First Class available? I am OnePass Silver, so I am hoping most of the 8 segments will be upgraded to First...

Does anyone have any hints/tips on how to interpret these fare availability charts for trying to guess Elite Upgrade-ability?

Please advise. Thanks.

------------------
CO Silver, Hertz Gold, Starwood Gold

[This message has been edited by dzoellner (edited Dec 24, 2003).]

pretty good actually

The availability displays on itn show the different fare buckets that can be sold. If an availability display shows Y9 B9 M9 Q9 K6 L4 U0, it doesn't mean that there are actually 46 remaining seats on the flight.

These fare bucket numbers have to do with yield management programs used by the airlines.It could mean that there are only 9 seats available and it shows what fare buckets can be used for the remaining seats.

An availability display that shows Y0 B0 M0 Q0 K0 L0 U0 means either a full or cancelled flight.

A flight with Y9 B9 M9 Q9 K9 L9 U9 means a flight with at least 9 seats. If there are only 9 seats remaining on this flight, then according to this availability display they could be sold as U,L,K,Q,M,B, or Y.

Usually if only 9 seats remain on a flight they would only be sold in the higher fare buckets unless there is a sudden, unpredicted rise in availability.