How to see if "T" fare is available

Old Jun 22, 2022, 11:51 am
  #1  
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How to see if "T" fare is available

I want to take advantage of the GS benefit of having an award ticket converted to a Saver Award if "T" fare is shown as available. When doing an advanced search on UA.com, "T" shows as available, but the GS phone agent says it is not. I am finding that whenever I search for "T" it comes up for purchase. It used to be that the search for a specific fare class would yield a yes-or-no result as to availability - nothing ambiguous.

I am sure I am missing something obvious, but is there a way to do an accurate search for fare-class availability? Thank you.
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 12:26 pm
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Are you actually seeing the T fare available for sale, or something like T1 shown in Expert Mode search.
There's another thread talking about a glitch where fare classes that aren't available are shown as having 1 seat available but it's phantom space.

If you give us the flight number and dates we can verify with tools like ExpertFlyer.
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 2:06 pm
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Originally Posted by JALsnipe
Are you actually seeing the T fare available for sale, or something like T1 shown in Expert Mode search.
There's another thread talking about a glitch where fare classes that aren't available are shown as having 1 seat available but it's phantom space.

If you give us the flight number and dates we can verify with tools like ExpertFlyer.
Thank you very much for the reply. I am able to go in and book a T fare both ways as far as I can tell. It us flight 1040 on July 21 and 1039 on July 25, EWR-AUA roundtrip. Thanks again!
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 2:12 pm
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Just looking at 7/21:

EF is showing J2 C0 D0 Z0 P0 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W8 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N9
UA expert mode is showing J2 JN2 C0 D0 Z0 ZN0 P0 PN0 PZ0 IN0 I0 Y9 YN9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 HN9 Q9 V9 W8 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N9 XN0 X0

But ua.com is indeed pricing a T fare. Could this be inventory in UA's system but not GDS?


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Old Jun 22, 2022, 2:25 pm
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Originally Posted by CopperSteve
Thank you very much for the reply. I am able to go in and book a T fare both ways as far as I can tell. It us flight 1040 on July 21 and 1039 on July 25, EWR-AUA roundtrip. Thanks again!
Note that the requirement, AFAIK, isn't that there be a T fare available, but rather that there be T inventory available. So, searching by fare class is a sufficient* but not necessary criterion; you can just look at the Expert Mode numbers. When they work.

Originally Posted by JALsnipe
But ua.com is indeed pricing a T fare. Could this be inventory in UA's system but not GDS?
Does the fare pricing match a published T fare? This looks a lot like the (nonsensical) numbers that we've seen recently from Expert Mode ( High fare (class) but low bookings with lower fare published -- the discussion starts taking weird turns after 15-20 messages).

* The T fare shouldn't be available because there's no T inventory. Since it is available, maybe GS would be willing to force open X space for you anyway. But, in general, you should just be looking for the flights you want with Expert Mode enabled and reacting accordingly. And, actually, if you do this often, an ExpertFlyer subscription might make sense, because whereas you can't set an alert for XN or IN space, you can set an alert for T space. So you could set it up to email you when it's found inventory that you could convert to an award ticket.
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Old Jun 22, 2022, 2:27 pm
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The app shows T1 on both outbound and return, and will book the RT T at $815.07.
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Old Jun 23, 2022, 3:28 am
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Originally Posted by JALsnipe
Just looking at 7/21:

EF is showing J2 C0 D0 Z0 P0 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W8 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N9
UA expert mode is showing J2 JN2 C0 D0 Z0 ZN0 P0 PN0 PZ0 IN0 I0 Y9 YN9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 HN9 Q9 V9 W8 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N9 XN0 X0

But ua.com is indeed pricing a T fare. Could this be inventory in UA's system but not GDS?

(IMAGE EDITED OUT TO SHORTEN SIZE OF QUOTE) Image summary: econ on 7/21 UA1040 showing fare of $325 in T-fare class w/ break from business discount.
Originally Posted by Kacee
The app shows T1 on both outbound and return, and will book the RT T at $815.07.
To both above: this is the website continuing to glitch out. I don't know how much the "Break from Business" discount is, but at $325 for the o/w, that is still higher than the highest o/w refundable T fare currently filed which is $314 (TNA0A9CS/FLEX) and non-refundable T which is $289 (same basis, no FLEX appendage). So unless the break from business is adding cost (it's not), these aren't actually T-fares even though the website display is trying to say it is. Similarly for the RT, highest (refundable) T-filing is currently $628 and there isn't a round trip non-refundable T filing, so it would be constructing based on 2x $289, which is far below the $815.07 that was supposedly booking RT into T.

Currently when I try the R/T on the days/flights you specify on UA.com I am getting a base fare of $716 (without taxes) and seeing W bucket availability on outbound and V on inbound. I suspect it is actually booking into these classes, as I see a fare filings of $334 (WNA4A9DN) and $379 (VNA7A9DN), so only off by ~$3.

Long story short, and to answer the original question: as has been discussed recently in other threads, the UA website and expert mode are glitchy right now and fare class displays shouldn't be considered accurate from those sources. To find out if there is truly T availablility, need either ExpertFlyer, some other method of GDS access, or call and ask a rep if they see T inventory on the flight in question.

On an aside, I wonder how often this GS privilege is actually needed to be invoked, seems that it would be a pretty rare scenario that they have T-class availability but no X or XN (my guess is the system that decides on award levels in part looks at what revenue fare classes are available when deciding to release saver award inventory). Though perhaps when they level the inventory near departure (do they still do this?) it could be possible to slip a last minute award in using the fact T-class is now available?
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Old Jun 23, 2022, 8:52 am
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Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
seems that it would be a pretty rare scenario that they have T-class availability but no X or XN
I would not expect to see correspondence between T and XN. You have to go down lower in the table - L or K.

Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
Though perhaps when they level the inventory near departure (do they still do this?)
No they do not. That ended years ago.
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Old Jun 23, 2022, 9:13 am
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Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
To both above: this is the website continuing to glitch out. I don't know how much the "Break from Business" discount is, but at $325 for the o/w, that is still higher than the highest o/w refundable T fare currently filed which is $314 (TNA0A9CS/FLEX) and non-refundable T which is $289 (same basis, no FLEX appendage). So unless the break from business is adding cost (it's not), these aren't actually T-fares even though the website display is trying to say it is. Similarly for the RT, highest (refundable) T-filing is currently $628 and there isn't a round trip non-refundable T filing, so it would be constructing based on 2x $289, which is far below the $815.07 that was supposedly booking RT into T.
The $325 is inclusive of taxes and fees; the 285 PQP would represent the base fare. (Which, incidentally, still doesn't match).

When I look at the one-way today, I see a $347 break-from-business "G" fare (!), which claims to be discounted from GNA3A9DS ($307 base fare). That fare basis is supposed to cost $139.

UA IT, why must you be you? 😭

Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
Long story short, and to answer the original question: as has been discussed recently in other threads, the UA website and expert mode are glitchy right now and fare class displays shouldn't be considered accurate from those sources. To find out if there is truly T availablility, need either ExpertFlyer, some other method of GDS access, or call and ask a rep if they see T inventory on the flight in question.
Yep.

Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
On an aside, I wonder how often this GS privilege is actually needed to be invoked, seems that it would be a pretty rare scenario that they have T-class availability but no X or XN (my guess is the system that decides on award levels in part looks at what revenue fare classes are available when deciding to release saver award inventory).
I mostly agree with Kacee. I've definitely seen K0 XN9, but it's rare. Normally you have to wait for the lower buckets to fill if you want saver space.
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Old Jun 23, 2022, 10:46 am
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Originally Posted by Lux Flyer

On an aside, I wonder how often this GS privilege is actually needed to be invoked, seems that it would be a pretty rare scenario that they have T-class availability but no X or XN (my guess is the system that decides on award levels in part looks at what revenue fare classes are available when deciding to release saver award inventory). Though perhaps when they level the inventory near departure (do they still do this?) it could be possible to slip a last minute award in using the fact T-class is now available?
In the last ten years Ive only done this only once - I agree its rare.
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Old Jun 23, 2022, 11:18 am
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Originally Posted by Lux Flyer
On an aside, I wonder how often this GS privilege is actually needed to be invoked
Originally Posted by bmwe92fan
In the last ten years I’ve only done this only once - I agree it’s rare….
Prior to PlusPoints, the primary value lay in the ability to then apply a GPU to upgrade the award ticket (whereas the T could not be upgraded due to W fare minimum). Now you can just upgrade the T (though it will cost more points).
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