droopydog

it is showing as all zeros for me:

VY 6736 FCO 14:55 → DBV 16:15
Y0 B0 I0 U0 F0 C0 N0 A0 J0 E0 H0 K0 M0 L0 R0 V0 S0 X0 Z0 T0 W0 Q0 O0 P0 D0 G0

which seems to indicate sold out. They are offering no seats on the flight on their own web site, so seems to be the case.

escape4

That's odd. It's still showing Cs for me, not zeros. I have seen zeros many times in the past and I know it means sold out but I thought perhaps Cs meant something else particularly with the virus in Italy I was wondering if the flight was being cancelled.

C is "equivalent" to zero - what is the difference between Cs and zeros then?

Thank you

TerryK

They are different. C means waitlist closed while 0 means sold out. You can usually waitlist, with eligible fare, for zeroed out flights. IOW, 0 means sold out but there is still a chance. C means waitlist is too long already and airlines don't even accept new waitlist requests.

escape4

Ah, got it! Thanks for the clear explanation.

Calchas

Zero means that the airline cannot offer you a confirmed reservation at this time.

However if you have a ticket that allows waitlisting (which are rare these days even in the full fare bucket), you can have yourself added to the waitlist. If a seat opens up, or if revenue management decide to shift things around, you may be confirmed from the waitlist. You may be aware of the concept of "stand by" travel in North America; essentially, being on stand by means you are on a waitlist, although typically a revenue passenger holding a full fare ticket will have priority over a staff ticket.

In the old days with paper tickets, it was a lot more relevant because the disconnect between a reservation and a ticket was more obvious.

C means that the airline will not accept people from the waitlist, the bucket is closed to waitlisting.

A flight that is all C looks set to be cancelled to me.

escape4

Darn, that was my fear. I hope it's C because it's very oversold (hence it's not zero) but sounds like you think it's more because of an upcoming cancellation.

canadavid

Is it possible to search for multi city itinerary and check if a fare is available on all flights ?
For instance, I have a ticket that is flexible and would like to add a stopover (permitted in the fare rule) but would like to check availibility before calling to make the modification.

thx!

ExpertFlyer Voice

You would do separate one-way searches.

chronicrelief

I'm looking at a fare with the following rules in the stopover section:

UNLIMITED FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT IN
LIS/OPO/BRAZIL.
A STOPOVER MAY NOT EXCEED 120 HOURS.
OR - UNLIMITED STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT IN
LIS/OPO/BRAZIL AT EUR 75.00 EACH.

The OR clauses seem mutually exclusive so I'm a bit confused as to when the free stopover rule is applied and when it is not.

I also have a constructed fare with this fare basis that has 2 stopovers (> 24 hours) and yet one of the stopovers is pricing as a transfer. Would appreciate any hints as to why this might be happening.

anabolism

I interpret the rule as allowing an unlimited number of stopovers at LIS or OPO or anywhere in Brazil, with each stopover free if under 120 hours, and $75 if 120 hours or longer.

One would have to carefully examine the entire set of fare and routing rules to try and determine if the one flight is not permitted and hence is pricing separately. Pay attention to booking inventory, permitted/excluded flights and routes, day of week, etc. And of course, if either of the stops is 120 hours or more there should be a $75 charge for it.

chronicrelief

This makes sense, thanks!

I don't think the flight is pricing separately because ITA shows the right fare basis. My flights are:

RAK-LIS Oct. 9
LIS-SSA Oct. 9
SSA-GIG Oct. 12

I'm expecting SSA to be the free stopover since it is over 24 hours but under 120 hours, but fare construction shows: RAK TP X/LIS TP SSA G3 RIO 29.78JMAEXI9B 1S168.51 [...] indicating that I am being charged 168.51 (approximately 150 euro) for the stopover. So it seems like the stopover is being treated as a transfer (transfers cost 150 according to the fare rules).

anabolism

Do the fare rules say something such as "Not qualified for auto-pricing?" It could be a situation where the fare in a record needs to be reviewed by an airline's tariff desk.

chronicrelief

Yes they do infact say that. What does this mean? I have to go to the airline directly to price this out correctly?

anabolism

I'm not an expert, but I think some fare rules are written in a way that automated pricing engines can follow them, and in that case what Matrix or an airline or online travel agency shows as the price is accurate, but some rules are more complex and need to be interpreted by a person, generally a tariff desk agent at an airline. So, in this case, it may be that to get the lower fare you need to price it with an airline (or a travel agent that will send it to an airline's tariff desk). You could try using an airline web site and see if it prices it the way you think is correct.

IMH

I'm quoting this as a timely reminder. Even more counterintuitive is that, once an alert has been set for a flight, clicking on the magnifying glass returns "did not detect a flight schedule change" for flights that have been cancelled.