Booking classes, availability and OWE Planning??
 

Whew... these fare rules, technicalities, etc. are so complex. Its interesting to try to solve this all like an algorithmic problem, but I think i'm reaching point of mental overload :)

Not too bad, though. I've been reading the FAQs and Wikis and other websites, and I think finally understood fare booking codes a bit. Let me make some assertions based on what I learnt, and perhaps some of you could verify that its correct. Here goes...

Assertion 1: So economy class ONE tickets have 'L' as "booking class", and booking class is a different concept from "class of service" = economy here. That means, say for particularly flight, economy class passengers could be of any of various booking classes - code K,M, etc. etc.. corresponding to fares paid. Full fare is generally 'Y' and these are refundable non-restrcted tickets. The other extreme would be say O,Q tickets, with lots of codes in between.

Assertion 2: So now if I have to look at rules (say for AAdvantage) then I look for the rules corresponding to L. For example, for doing the Platinum challenge, the number of points = no of miles, for L-class, as against 0.5 miles of Q class, etc. Effectively I just look for "L-class" and get whatever info I need.

Assertion 3: Lots of other things like this. Fare basis code = LONE5 for me which basically defines booking class, plus a corresponding set of rules. Codes can be very complex too like KLRCAS or H7NR (H-class 7 day booking, non-refundable), etc. Is there a nice resource for decoding?

Its all correct so far, right?

Now my question is regard to availablity. Say I'm trying to fly on a particular flight using the LONE, and go to the ticketing agent to make a reservation (on change one while on the road, by calling the RTW desk, etc.), and the agent looks up availability, then do they only look for L-class tickets? Or do they look for all economy class seats - or include seats which are 'lower' than L-class?

Other related question - would it be possible that some flights NEVER have L-class inventory?

Net result, does that mean that I might not get reservations on flights even if economy seats are available?

For example, I wanted to travel LHR-GIG. there is only one direct flight, while others stop at JFK/MIA. I checked www.seatcounter.com and the BA direct LHR-GIG flight for 27th Jan 08 has no availability in L-class. I kept checking for seats "+7 days" till the limit of the service, and there were no L-class seats available at all. Could this be only due to overbooking, or possibly the flight never has L-class available?

Now all this, I expect, would have an impact on planning segments for an *ONE* ticket, wouldn't it? For example, if this is flight is unusable, I'll have to plan accordingly and go via JFK/MIA which uses one extra segment, so I'll have to account for that in planning (fortunately the rules allow for a transit stopoever so JFK/MIA stopover works - see, I've been reading :) )

I guess that means LHR-GIG direct seems to be out for me - unless i'm grossly misunderstanding. Could anyone clarify if possible? I apologise if this is too basic a query, but the more I'm reading the more confused I seem to be getting :confused:

Thanks a lot!

Udai

--

side note, perhaps LHR-JFK-GIG is not too bad an option, coz if I do it on AA, then I can successfully finish the AAdvanatage Gold Challenge, which would mean some benefits for the next 5-10 flights (I also expect to be able to do the Platinum challenge using some of the later flights).

Might be worthwhile even in conmparison to losing one of the 20 segment quota?

current itinerary (simplified from earlier post,to barebones plan, will add more): LHR-?-GIG//SCL-IPC-SCL//LIM-MIA-JFK-LAX-AKL-?-SYD-NRT//DME-LHR

P.S. "L-class" would mean the same thing for all oneworld carriers, right?

Your assertions are correct. I don't know of a resource for simply decoding all of the airlines' booking codes.

Agents would normally simply look for L class if that's the ticket you have. Seats are normally realised in "ascending" class so if L doesn't have any, none of those below it will (although strange things sometimes happen).

Yes it is possible that some flights never have L class. LHR-GIG does indeed look like one of them, but on some airlines you can get a seat by waitilisting. And sometimes seats get released at the last minute - I can currently see 1 L seat on BA247 LHR-GIG tomorrow - but it would be high risk planning on that basis. You can ticket the segment as open-dated (although not if this is the first international segment) and then if there's an empty seat at check-in most airlines would take you, but BA is a very strange carrier these days, so they might not.

Note that the term "transit stopover" is wrong. You either have a "transit" (less than 24 hours between arrival and departure) or a "stopover" (more than 24 hours). To do what you suggest requires you to have a transit in North America.

Hope that helps.

Ouch.... now what do I do? :(
 

Hmm... This is interesting. I was quite excited about the LONE ticket, but now I'm concerned that a lot of the flights I've thought about might be completely impossible, and even for the ones possible, date changes might not be as easy as I'd been hoping....

How bad do would you all think the situation is overall? Are these cases just exceptions, or should I expect similar situations for most sectors? Is it serious enough for me to consider look for other options - overall, is the LONE much less flexible than I've been imagining it to be? On the other hand, I guess it would still be more flexible and cost-effective than consolidator fares for these destinations?

Now, in case there are no L-class seats, are any other alternatives classes considered for LONE passengers? (other than on the waitlist situation described)

For example, I checked one/two AA routings via MIA, and that's only available in B and K. So now, I've no idea how to even do the first segment on the RTW :eek:

EDIT: Oops.. I didn't look hard enough. Sorry. Some flights are in fact available. See reply below.

Suggestions?

I agree, this is just too high risk for most long haul flights which would generally be over-booked.

Oops. Yeah, thanks :)

If applicable you can upgrade to WT+, at a cost, but other than that if there is no L you don't fly (there are a few cases where L is not offered at all, so the LONE books into another economy class, but that is not relevant here).

* fly to GRU
* go via MAD or BCN
* change your SA tour and fly to SCL first, or LIM, or EZE...
* ask BA to release an L seat for you.

Edit to add: I just checked availability for the exact date you want: BA/AA via MIA shows lots of L seats available, same thing for BA/IB via MAD. AA/AA via MIA is also available. And a ton of L seats available AA/AA via JFK. You are just not looking hard enough. :)

Can that kind of stuff happen? I guess doesn't hurt to try.

Ooops..Sorry. Missed the IB somehow.... that really silly on my part.

Though, I'm still not seeing any inventory on L seats for any other flight (AA via JFK or GRU) to GIG. In fact, the display doesn't even show a possibility for L-class on that. It just has an empty space there, but even all other codes show red boxes zero availability - which is odd (even Y class, etc.)

I called up a random travel agent too - he wasn't familiar with RTW, but said he couldn't find any 'L' inventory on those flights - just K and B.

Must be an issue with www.seatcounter.com, or the agent?

But I have been going through the link for the KVS tool, http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=319244
so will try that, or perhaps consider spending the $100 for expertflyer.com.

Thanks for all your help in any case ^ and apologies for all the paranoia :) I should maybe leave all this for a couple days and then get back after a break methinks.

Atleast I'll make it across the atlantic...

You can try the product for free for a few days.

Suggestion: don't look for LHR-GIG. Look for LHR-JFK/MIA and JFK/MIA-GIG as separate segments, and you will find tons and tons of L seats available.

Or pay the $10USD per month, or even $5 per month if you don't need availability alerts. Depending on your usage of the tool, that may make more sense.