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Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)

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Old Oct 22, 2018, 6:09 pm
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Last edit by: drewguy
Originally Posted by UA Insider
Hello – We would like to share some information that will help answer some of your questions. We're continuing to roll out our signature United Polaris® direct-aisle-access seating, adding at least one aircraft with United Polaris seating every 10 days on average from now through 2020.To support this effort, we performed a system update this past weekend to redefine some of our cabin booking classes, which includes no longer offering United Polaris first class. As a result, any United Polaris first class tickets will now be designated as United Polaris business class. We will be reaching out to all customers impacted by these changes.We’ve also re-aligned some of our booking codes. Notably, you’ll see that we aren’t using F, A classes anymore, and R and RN, which were upgrade classes before, is now PZ. PZ has the same availability as the booking codes it replaced.Premium cabin booking codes for United domestic and international flights are now as follows:
  • Revenue: J, C, D, Z, P
  • Award: JN, ZN, IN, I
  • Upgrade: PN, PZ


Thanks,

- UA Insider
Below is a list of the changes that may commonly affect reservation practices:
  • R/RN for upgrades has been replaced by PZ
    • suggest: search for PZ space
  • F, A fare classes have been removed
    • suggest: no known workaround yet for 016- ticketing F or A on partners? (google flights may work?)
  • O, ON fare classes have been removed
    • suggest: --
  • PN is still used for GS upgrades and 1K Instant Upgrades

Summary of Current Fare Codes (thanks jgreen1024)
Revenue buckets (PQM earnings)
J - Full Fare Business (300%)
C - Full Fare Business (200%)
D - Full Fare Business (200%)
Z - Discount Business (200%)
P - Deep Discount Business (150%)

Y - Full Fare Coach (150%)
B - Full Fare Coach (150%)
M - Discount Coach (100%)
E - Discount Coach (100%)
U - Discount Coach (100%)
H - Discount Coach (100%)
Q - Discount Coach (100%)
V - Discount Coach (100%)
W - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
S - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
T - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
L - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
K - Deep Discount Coach (100%)
G - Deep Discount Coach (100%)

N - Basic Economy (0%)

Saver Award Seats
IN - Elite Saver Business Award
I - Saver Business Award
XN - Elite Saver Coach Award
X - Saver Coach Award

Standard Award Seats
JN - Elite/CC Business Award
ZN - Business Award
YN - Elite/CC Coach Award

Upgrade Awards
PN - GS upgrade, Instant upgrade for 1K
PZ - Upgrade to Business/Domestic F
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Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)

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Old Oct 18, 2018, 1:06 pm
  #1  
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Changes to UA's Fare Classes (19-20 October 2018)

Just got the following from United Sales ... I don't see this reported elsewhere:
Starting the evening of Friday, October 19, into the early hours of Saturday, October 20, we are realigning some premium booking codes and discontinuing the use of others to prepare for the launch of United® Premium Plus. This will impact flight schedules, availability and PNRs for travel on/after Monday, October 22.

As a result, between October 19 at 5:00 p.m. CT and 1:00 a.m. CT on October 20, for travel on/after October 22, seat maps will be unavailable and seats cannot be assigned by agencies or United (reservations airports, united.com, etc.).​ Similar to a schedule change, a GDS response message will indicate that seat maps are unavailable. Times are subject to change.

We apologize for the inconvenience and ask that you view seat maps and assign seats after the times listed above.

As part of this change, we will also officially stop offering United Polaris® first class as a separate cabin from United Polaris business class.

Premium cabin booking codes for United domestic and international flights will be as follows:

Revenue: J, C, D, Z, P
Award: JN, ZN, IN, I
Upgrade: PN, PZ
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 2:27 pm
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Is PZ an entirely new upgrade code? If so, I wonder what it's use will be for...
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 2:30 pm
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Originally Posted by pushmyredbutton
Is PZ an entirely new upgrade code? If so, I wonder what it's use will be for...
It's almost certainly a replacement for R, which is apparently becoming a P+ code, either for revenue or award tickets.

And, to ward off speculation: No, this does not mean that confirmed upgrades will switch to P+. All R inventory will be changed to PZ when they make this switchover.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 2:31 pm
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Originally Posted by jsloan
It's almost certainly a replacement for R, which is apparently becoming a P+ code, either for revenue or award tickets.

And, to ward off speculation: No, this does not mean that confirmed upgrades will switch to P+. All R inventory will be changed to PZ when they make this switchover.
I hope we see loads of PZ then before they claw it back during the transition
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 3:57 pm
  #5  
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Originally Posted by findark
I'm honestly really surprised they're going to so much trouble to remap R.
Yes I think this is a mistake. They should have just taken G, E, and N, and created new economy codes.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 4:01 pm
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Originally Posted by VWang1111

This was going to be my question as well. It's going to be a real interesting answer. Whoever books earliest gets first instead of 2-4-2 business? Or will they not allowed assigned seats but now process upgrades from business to first to let people upgrade from business. This way revenue economy customers don't die on the waitlist with global first empty.
Didn't UA have a similar issue when they were phasing out the 3-class ps birds? IIRC the system was set up to only allow a subgroup of customers to select the F seats in advance.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 4:03 pm
  #7  
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I believe the plan will be to block all of F and to assign the seats to high-value customers (some memo was saying it was by ticket price, could be GS, etc.) at the gate or by contacting them in advance. It would be similar to how they did this when 3-class aircraft flew p.s. routes a couple of years ago.

Because First is being removed as a cabin, I think from a systems perspective there will be no longer any possible upgrades from J.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 6:31 pm
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Originally Posted by findark
Hm, so looks like R is getting a remap to PZ. Also, they're taking a nine-hour full system outage for this... if you're traveling early next week I would highly recommend preparing for major IT issues when this migration inevitably goes wrong somewhere.

Here's hoping my existing R segments get migrated to PZ with no issues


I'm honestly really surprised they're going to so much trouble to remap R. The First codes are already seamlessly disappearing after they sunset domestic A fares a month or two back, but I suspect this one is going to be rough.
I am also surprised they are remapping R. A and O are now unused. (I can see why they aren’t using F)

I have a domestic JN booking in a three-class 772 coming up. Guess I will be getting up in the wee hours of Saturday morning to see if I can move to former F, just in case.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 9:18 pm
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So if R maps to PZ, PN continues for GS + instant up for 1k on y/b/m, then no more RN? Admittedly RN was usually the same as R but I did see a few times differences.
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Old Oct 18, 2018, 9:23 pm
  #10  
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Originally Posted by mrt88
So if R maps to PZ, PN continues for GS + instant up for 1k on y/b/m, then no more RN? Admittedly RN was usually the same as R but I did see a few times differences.
I don't know how many of these details they'll publish vs. what we'll figure out by trial and error. I'd say there's a good likelihood that RN is gone, though. It wouldn't surprise me if it were to return for upgrades into P+, if they were to offer any.
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Old Oct 19, 2018, 10:00 am
  #11  
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Originally Posted by mrt88
So if R maps to PZ, PN continues for GS + instant up for 1k on y/b/m, then no more RN? Admittedly RN was usually the same as R but I did see a few times differences.
Why would they keep RN around? It wasn't used at all.
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Old Oct 19, 2018, 10:05 am
  #12  
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Originally Posted by Sykes
Why would they keep RN around? It wasn't used at all.
It's been used for elite upgrades below 1K for a while now.
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Old Oct 19, 2018, 10:19 am
  #13  
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Originally Posted by Kacee
It's been used for elite upgrades below 1K for a while now.
Oh, cool ... I had no idea.
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Old Oct 19, 2018, 1:15 pm
  #14  
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The real question is whether this makes it formally impossible to book three-cabin First as a UA codeshare (assuming answer is yes, not that carriers like to give UA codeshare F inventory anyway).

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 20, 2018 at 12:31 pm
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Old Oct 19, 2018, 1:15 pm
  #15  
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Originally Posted by dav3d
Anyone have an informed opinion if United codeshare bookings (016) for PE on *A (e.g., O,A,U on Air NZ) will become possible after United officially rolls out the product?
Almost certainly will be possible.

Last edited by WineCountryUA; Oct 20, 2018 at 12:31 pm Reason: split post
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