Are there any website that show booking class availability?
Oct 6, 2000 | 5:29 am
#2
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: HKG/SFO
Programs: CX GR; AA Life GLD, EXP; SPG Life GLD, PLT
Posts: 1,050
Oct 6, 2000 | 12:32 pm
#3
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Third planet from the Sun
Posts: 7,024
No reservation system will show you real seat inventory. The only way to see true seat inventory is to use the direct access feature that puts you into the airlines own computer system. Direct access is only avaialble if you have access to Sabre/Worldspan or Amadeus.
Oct 6, 2000 | 3:11 pm
#4
Join Date: Apr 1999
Posts: 3,709
NYTraveller: Welcome to Flyertalk.
ITN expert mode will show you the fare codes with a one-digit number.
Anytime you see the number 9, it means that there are 9 or more seats available for that fare code.
Any number below 9 indicates the actual number of seats available.
So T5 means 5 seats for class T, while Q9 means 9, or 19, or 90 seats for class Q.
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"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."
ITN expert mode will show you the fare codes with a one-digit number.
Anytime you see the number 9, it means that there are 9 or more seats available for that fare code.
Any number below 9 indicates the actual number of seats available.
So T5 means 5 seats for class T, while Q9 means 9, or 19, or 90 seats for class Q.
------------------
"I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own."
Oct 6, 2000 | 11:53 pm
#5
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 685
Jon: I don't believe that is correct. I'm sure it varies from airline to airline what the number means (some airlines have 7 as the maximum), but it seems like it's kind of a relative thing. 0 always seems to mean zero but 1 doesn't seem to mean "1 seat", it means "very few seats". I'm not travel agent (I'm sure some reader is), it's just my experience.
Oct 7, 2000 | 9:57 am
#6
Join Date: Oct 1999
Location: Third planet from the Sun
Posts: 7,024
Unless your are in direct access, numbers do not always reflect true inventory. The airlines update the CRS systems 2-4 times a day and even then, CRS systems can show bogus inventory. There are times when CRS systems will show inventory in a certain class when in fact there are zero seats available.
On the other side of the coin, Airlines will often show zero inventory on routings (with a connection) but the individual flights will show inventory. An example would be American showing zero N seats for a flight from SEA to MSY (connecting in DFW) but the flights from SEA to DFW and DFW to MSY both show N seats available. Yield managment at its best.
On the other side of the coin, Airlines will often show zero inventory on routings (with a connection) but the individual flights will show inventory. An example would be American showing zero N seats for a flight from SEA to MSY (connecting in DFW) but the flights from SEA to DFW and DFW to MSY both show N seats available. Yield managment at its best.
Oct 8, 2000 | 11:20 am
#7
Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: Miami Beach, FL, USA
Programs: AA EXP 2MM
Posts: 218
The website for American Airlines is pretty good for this; seat maps show you how many seats are available in each class. I recently flew on a friend's buddy pass (who works for American) and used this to track seat availability down to the last few hours. It was pretty accurate.
Oct 8, 2000 | 1:35 pm
#8
Join Date: May 2000
Location: Kfar Saba, Israel
Posts: 4,172
Seatmaps are not a good indication because not everybody reserves seats in advance.
Usoftie - Some airlines(I believe most of them) keep seats to themselves - usualy in higher classes so they'll be able to "play" with the seats in case of overbooking. So usualy when it says 1 it means 1 for booking. These seats are very dynamic and can change from one moment to the other. I am following a flight for wednesday night: 4 hors ago it was J2Y0 , 2 hours ago it was J0Y2 and now its J0Y0...
Usoftie - Some airlines(I believe most of them) keep seats to themselves - usualy in higher classes so they'll be able to "play" with the seats in case of overbooking. So usualy when it says 1 it means 1 for booking. These seats are very dynamic and can change from one moment to the other. I am following a flight for wednesday night: 4 hors ago it was J2Y0 , 2 hours ago it was J0Y2 and now its J0Y0...