Help for all of you looking to book in a specific fare class.
 

go to www.itasoftware.com and register.

then go to book a roundtrip fare, in the FROM box put :

ATL:: UA+ / f bc=Q (this means flying from ATL, unlimited connections, booking class is Q)

in the TO box put:

IAD:: UA+ / f bc=Q (Flying to IAD, return unlimited connections, booking class again is Q).

This gives me a best price from atlanta to IAD of : $408... still too much for my tastes...I guess I can still play around with the dates.


Just thought I'd help some of you out there trying to get some extra miles.



Mark

Thanks so much! That helps out tremendously!

Just for my personal notes, are those colons or semi-colons. It's hard to tell with the font, and I want to jot the formula down so I don't have to constantly go through the threads to find out.

Okay, now I'm going to ask the next question! What is the best way to book these tickets? Obviously, you can't book through this site, so is a travel agent the best way? The airline? A particular website?

I got an amazing M class from BNA-PHL for $398. That's 2p in $1200! That's hard to beat!

I'm going to keep looking because this is fun!

Oh, almost forgot...........Is there any way to get those darned US codeshares out of there? They don't count for the 4 status trip or the fly 3 get 1 free! I'm getting WAY too many of them! I love US and hope it stays in business, but right now I need UA metal!

Is there a method for finding the cheapest fare of a particular type to any destination from a given airport?

I'll bet you're trying to do the same thing I am -- buy your status. I am just playing around with different city combinations. The best one I've found is BNA-PHL. Try Southwest rates, Airtran Routes, etc. Fly-I routes don't work as well because the M, B, and Y fares are still $600+, but it could work I suppose.

I just have to find a good booking engine to get this fare booked. It's too good to pass up. =)

I thought 2P was only 2 trips, for a total of $796.

Use O:UA (operated by UA) rather than just UA.

It's the 3rd level elite for 2 and the mid-tier for 4. I'm still trying to get the UA terminology down. I thought it was 1p for the lowest and 2p for the middle, but I could be backwards on that. Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong so I don't look like an idiot on this board! =)

I'm sorry. I'm full of questions today.

I'm just wondering if you can use the same coding on Sabre to book these fares? Dillards Travel uses sabre, and I need to renew my Dillard's elite. Sure, there's a $25 fee per ticket, but I'm game if it gets me double what I need.

Here's what I do. Using the same syntax for ITA above, instead of one city, put in lots and select the "any airport within 300 miles option"

for instance for west coast flights I might do

LAX;LAS;PHX;SMF;RNO;SEA;PDX:: o:UA+ / f bc=Q

put in enough so that with the 300 mile radius the whole area is covered

ITA all variables link
 

Here's a link to all the variables available with ITA:

http://matrix.itasoftware.com/cvg/di...dvanced-topics

...but teach a man to fish... ;)

1K = 100K Premier Executive (top status earnable via prescribed miles or segs flown)
1P = Premier Executive (middle " " " " " " " " ")
2P = Premier (lowest " " " " " " " " ")

. . . and he'll be out of your hair on the weekends. :D

How can a force a fare basis instead of booking class. I want to get QUAUP fare basis (the complimentary upgrade) but booking with Q booking class still gives me coach.. Any ideas?

Okay, all, I'm trying to learn how to fish. I appreciate the tip on looking at more than one city at once. That leads me to another question.

Can you look for more than one fare bucket at the same time?

I tried putting semi-colons in between each fare code, but that didn't work. Is there a trick to do that as well?

Thanks for your help with this.

searching by fare basis

Specifying multiple booking codes

to : LAX::/ f bc=l|bc=m|bc=y