I've searched the forums but I cannot find the answer to this - what do the following codes mean for this flight? I know the letters are for the fare/class, but what do the numbers mean in relation to the number of seats available? I am particularly interested in the Z fare:
J9 C9 Z4 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9
The flight is in October, do I need to rush and buy now or can I afford to wait?

Welcome to FT

The number will show a maximum of 9 seats (eg Y9) available for sale at in that booking code. With Z4 this means that there are only 4 seats available in that booking class on that flight.

Hope that helps

Thanks! I didn't think it would be that full already, I better buy!

The reservation system can't show more than 9 seats available. So the flight could also be completely empty.

But if the fare I want shows 4, then there are only 4 seats left? I was wondering about the 9 thing, so many of them show 9 it seemed strange.

Some airlines will only show a maximum of 7, or 4 seats rather than 9. So sometimes if you see a display that looks like F7 A7 J7 D7 Y7 etc (or F4 A4 J4 D4 Y4) it may only be that it's one of those airlines. But if it's J9 C9 Z4 Y9 B9 M9 H9 Q9 V9 then you can be pretty reliably sure that there's only 4 seats available for sale in that class at the moment.

Well I went ahead and bought it, went back and checked the numbers again and sure enough, they reflected my purchase!

Thanks for the info - London here I come!

Great News. Don't forget to use the rest of the web site to help plan your trip for things like hotels reviews and car rental rate discount codes

Regarding the "Z" fare class:

I was told by an international agent that the "Z" bucket reflects seats available as upgrades when you purchase a full "Y" fare. I am watching an IAH-NRT flight in November that is the key part of an eight-segment international itinerary that I am willing to pay $300 to upgrade on (each way).

The flight went from Z0 to Z4 yesterday, so I called, but was told what the "Z" meant (see above). I was hopeful because other flights that WERE available to for me to upgrade my "B" fare on had shown Z4...I could'nt take them, however.

Also, the "4" in Z4 has no relation to FC availability...there are >20 FC seats available on that flight. It likely reflects the number of seats that the CO capacity-control gurus decided to release.

Edit:

Now that I think about it, my discussion pertains to CO; other airlines may have different codes or codes that have a different meaning.

[This message has been edited by jfrench1000 (edited 06-19-2003).]

Edit2: This probably belongs in the "DUH" thread because I thought that I was in the "Continental" forum.

[This message has been edited by jfrench1000 (edited 06-19-2003).]

Although some code letters (J, Y) are universal, some are airline dependent.

In Nov, Dec of 2002, Z fare on CO was a very heavily discounted business class fare.IAD-LHR was about $1250. Those tickets put one in J class on VS in CO's solid block.

UA and LH list Z class(I think deeply discounted business class), IAD-Europe-IAD from now to the end of the year. They have probably filed a fare for the code, but I do not think tickets can be procured for that class at the moment. LH Z tickets are available for some flights Europe-USA-Europe, at the moment. They are deeply discounted business class fares.

I do not think one gets into Z class business on a Y class ticket on international travel, other than perhaps by corporate contract agreement.

Z will mean different things on different airlines. Z on Air Canada is the student fare and the inventory that Airmiles (not Aeroplan) buy their seats from. It is a deeply discounted fare and earns no points on AC.

Either way it sounds like cme10ae bought the seats they wanted and then the system reflected that.

If they were discounted Business Class tickets in this case it would seem logical that they would need to be purchased this far out.