Please Explain For A Rookie
Jun 25, 2012, 9:45 am
#2
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The letters represent the fare buckets from which the tickets are sold. The airlines control the prices of flights by having different fares/rules in different buckets and then releasing different numbers of seats into those buckets for passengers to buy. So if there are $1500 seats and $250 seats available the airline will try to sell only a few $250 seats and more $1500 seats to maximize the revenue.
From a passenger perspective the two key things to consider are the fare you'll end up paying and the rules governing the fare (including refundability, change fees, upgrade rules and probably other things, too). Those will potentially vary depending on the bucket the ticket came from.
From a passenger perspective the two key things to consider are the fare you'll end up paying and the rules governing the fare (including refundability, change fees, upgrade rules and probably other things, too). Those will potentially vary depending on the bucket the ticket came from.
Jun 25, 2012, 10:08 am
#3
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Jun 25, 2012, 10:28 am
#5
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Not all airlines apply the same rules. I'd be careful making blanket statements like this without knowing which specific airlines are being discussed.
Jun 25, 2012, 10:55 am
#6
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Note also that there can be different specific fares in a given fare class. For example, a carrier might have refundable B and nonrefundable B on the same route, although both book into the same B inventory class. You need to look at the rules for your particular fare. The fare class is mainly useful for questions like upgradeability and how many miles the flight will earn.
Jun 25, 2012, 12:16 pm
#7
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To make matters letters also used to indicate seasonality, weakend or weakday.
The first letter indicates the booking class.
The second letter season: H for high (Summer and holidays); L for low (when fewer people are travelling to that destination.); K for shoulder ( neither high nor low).
The third letter indicates day of the weak: W for weakend and X for weekday.
Numbers following it tell you advance purchase requirements.
The lettrs used for the second or third place may also be used in the first place to indicate thr class of service.
Y is also used to indicate economy class in general, C or J for business and F for first. It's best to think of these as cabin class.
Each of these three cabinn classes has multiple booking classes within the cabin class, which is indicated by the farecode.
Each booking class reflects different prices, which can be refundable or non refundable. The fare basis may also include OW, meaning one way, and RT meaning round trip.
If the fare is the same weakday or midweek, the third letter would mean somethimg else.
BLOW14 (made up fare basis) may mean
B class
Low season
One Way
14 days advance purchase requirement.
To make matters letters also used to indicate seasonality, weakend or weakday.
The first letter indicates the booking class.
The second letter season: H for high (Summer and holidays); L for low (when fewer people are travelling to that destination.); K for shoulder ( neither high nor low).
The third letter indicates day of the weak: W for weakend and X for weekday.
Numbers following it tell you advance purchase requirements.
The lettrs used for the second or third place may also be used in the first place to indicate thr class of service.
Y is also used to indicate economy class in general, C or J for business and F for first. It's best to think of these as cabin class.
Each of these three cabinn classes has multiple booking classes within the cabin class, which is indicated by the farecode.
Each booking class reflects different prices, which can be refundable or non refundable. The fare basis may also include OW, meaning one way, and RT meaning round trip.
If the fare is the same weakday or midweek, the third letter would mean somethimg else.
BLOW14 (made up fare basis) may mean
B class
Low season
One Way
14 days advance purchase requirement.
Jun 25, 2012, 12:45 pm
#9
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That's a bad statement to make. This classification is not universal.
Originally Posted by printingray
Y = Full Fare unrestricted Economy class
B = Almost Full Fare Economy with minimal restrictions - also used Star * RTW
M = Almost Full Fare Economy with few restrictions
B = Almost Full Fare Economy with minimal restrictions - also used Star * RTW
M = Almost Full Fare Economy with few restrictions
Jun 25, 2012, 2:26 pm
#10
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There is actually a standard for these things (google on "IATA Resolution 728 Code Designators for passenger ticket and baggage check") but airlines alter how they use them pretty much at will. (Trivial example -- with no supersonic service any longer, R is now Premium Economy on some airlines and 1st-class-suites on others.)
LCCs that don't sell through the GDS systems may or may not use this kind of fare code at all.
Jun 25, 2012, 2:40 pm
#11
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Jun 25, 2012, 2:48 pm
#12
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Y and F were are as close to universal as you're going to get, and virtually all non-low-cost airlines use these for the basic, interline-able, full-fare coach and first respective.
There is actually a standard for these things (google on "IATA Resolution 728 Code Designators for passenger ticket and baggage check") but airlines alter how they use them pretty much at will. (Trivial example -- with no supersonic service any longer, R is now Premium Economy on some airlines and 1st-class-suites on others.)
LCCs that don't sell through the GDS systems may or may not use this kind of fare code at all.
There is actually a standard for these things (google on "IATA Resolution 728 Code Designators for passenger ticket and baggage check") but airlines alter how they use them pretty much at will. (Trivial example -- with no supersonic service any longer, R is now Premium Economy on some airlines and 1st-class-suites on others.)
LCCs that don't sell through the GDS systems may or may not use this kind of fare code at all.
Regardless of IATA, airlines do use designations at will as you acknowledged yourself. In some classes R is not a purchased bucket at all. It could be an award or an upgrade bucket too.
I am not sure what your issue was when I said that his interpretation of Y, B and M is not universal. You seem to be saying what I did, that different airlines use the same letters for different classes, except YFCJ.
Last edited by Yaatri; Jun 25, 2012 at 2:53 pm