I Class?
 

ITN is listing the following for NW 1 from LAX to NRT on Nov 10:

Cabin class: J0 C0 I4 Z0 Y0 B0 M0 H0 Q0 V0 L0 T0 K0

My question - what is "I" class? It looks like it is a business class seat since it is listed with the J, C, and Z seats.

When I go to nwa.com they say that I class gets 150% EQMs. They also do NOT list I class as even qualifying for EQS!

I think that's where international mileage upgrades used to come from, but I don't know what it's currently used for.

ExpertFlyer lists the following NW codes below. "I" isn't among them so it clearly has something to do with the 2% club.


A NW Domestic - First - Award Select
AN NW FIRST CLASS Select
B NW ECONOMY Select
BN NW ECONOMY Select
C NW BUSINESS Select
CN NW BUSINESS Select
D NW Int'l - Business - Award Select
DN NW DELUXE NIGHT Select
E NW SHUTTLE SERVICE Select
F NW FIRST CLASS Select
FN NW DELUXE NIGHT Select
H NW ECONOMY Select
HN NW ECONOMY Select
J NW BUSINESS Select
K NW ECONOMY Select
KN NW ECONOMY Select
L NW ECONOMY Select
M NW ECONOMY Select
N NW ECONOMY Select
P NW FIRST CLASS Select
Q NW ECONOMY Select
R NW Domestic - Upgrade to First for WP members and using miles Select
S NW STANDARD Select
T NW ECONOMY Select
U NW Int'l Mileage Upgrade to Business from Discounted Coach Select
V NW ECONOMY Select
W NW Domestic & Int'l - Coach - Award Select
X NW ECONOMY Select
Y NW ECONOMY Select
YN NW ECONOMY Select
Z NW Int'l Mileage Upgrade to Business from Full Fare Coach Select

Z is also discounted WBC. KL uses I for WBC somewhere between Z and C/J.

I have seen I class used for NW business class fares out of India. Priced between J and C.

I'm not sure why "I" fare bucket is being displayed again, as others have pointed out it used to be the upgrade bucket for WBC on B fares. Incidentally, I was "I" space showing on one of my tools last week on some transpacs and just assumed it was an error. I can't recall the routes/dates I was searching for so cannot replicate the results to check deeper.

I can tell you this on the NW transpacs, if you see J0 and then anything in the C or Z buckets, it's likely an error and there is really no space at all left to sell in WBC. I was in a back and forth with my TA last month about this because I kept asking her to book me on days that I saw C space available (J0C6Z6 etc) but she was insisting there was no space to sell. Ultimately ended up booking for the day before and waitlisting and clearing shortly thereafter. Not sure if others have similar experiences.

I believe there have been previous posts regarding I Class. IIRC, this used to be one of the upgrade buckets for NW, from B to I, just like Y upgrades to Z with miles. However, I Class has always been a paid fare class for KL and AF, so to keep harmony amongst the ST carriers, NW created U Class as the new upgrade bucket from B fares. I Class remains now as a paid WBC/FC fare basis for NW, just like for the other ST carriers.

While NW does not have any I fares of their own to sell, that I know of, there are a number of I fares offered by other ST airlines that require a connection to a NW flight and that require I Class to be available in order to confirm a seat in the front cabin on the connecting NW flight. I is now similar to C, Z, and D, which are all subclasses of the full J fare bucket.

While NW made this change some months ago, to try to keep harmony amongst the ST carriers, KLM still has an interesting anomaly which they have not resolved. They use D Class for both mileage award tickets in the front cabin and also for upgrades from paid B fares to the front cabin. And their yield management programming is such that they tend to severely limit the latter upgrades, while still offering plenty of seats for free to passengers who wish to claim a mileage award originating in AMS. Having purchased several B fares to cities via AMS, I speak from experience here. The AMS-XXX segment might show D9 if you originate in AMS but if you are connecting from the US to go beyond AMS it shows D0. I have not thought through the logic for this, but it appears that KLM definitely does not want to allow NW passengers to upgrade with miles on Europe Select flights beyond AMS, yet they will give the seats away for free to any member of a ST carrier's program who is willing to pay the extra miles for an award D class ticket that originates and terminates in AMS. I find this very frustrating, to say the least.

I just checked expertflyer and as I said in my earlier post, NW still has published I WBC fares priced between C and J, at least ex-India .