United'd Website
 

Could anyone please tell me how I can tell which seats have been sold and what the seat configuration is for each flight?

User friendly explanation would be appreciated! I'm no computer expert http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

[This message has been edited by Flashes1 (edited 06-15-2001).]

You can't tell what seats have been sold, but you can tell a bit about availability.

First, you have to change your profile on the united.com website so you are in expert mode.

Second, you can create an itinerary for the flights you are interested in. In expert mode, the availability lists the number of seats (up to 9 max) that the airline is willing to sell. If it says something like F3 A1 Y9 B9 M9 H4 V2 W1 S0 .. that means the airline is wiling to sell 3 F tix, 1 A ticket, 9 Y tickets, etc. It doesn't mean that any or all of those seats are available, it just means that's how many they will sell, and purchasing one can and will affect the other buckets. You can only make general assumptions about availability based on these numbers because of yield management .. the airlines sell more tickets than there are seats because of no-shows, delays, etc, and usually do a good job of yield management. In general, the airline won't share information about the actual number of unsold seats because they consider that to be priviledged, competitive information.

From there, if you select flights, you get to a screen from which you can do seat selection. That screen will show you which seats are available for selection at this time, but it also has no bearing on how many actual seats are available either, since not everybody reserves a seat and many seats are blocked or held back for airport assignment.

One of these screens tells you the equipment type for the flight, but again, that's only a generic indication of the equipment type. If it's a 757, then you know what the configuration will be, but if it's a 777 or 747, there are different configurations available, especially for international flights. Generally the last digit of the equipment shows the model of that plane. For example, 763 is a 767-300. 744 is a 747-400. You can use the seat maps on united.com to see typical seat maps for all the planes theh fly.

-David


[This message has been edited by LIH Prem (edited 06-15-2001).]

Very good suggestion up until the part I have highlited. As far as I can tell, United has discontinued this, and there is no button on the website to select your seats. You can do it over the phone, however there is no visual. You may want to try United Connection. If you need a link, respond, and Ill post one to download the software.

Hope this helps! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

ZACH

David,

That's great information! Where's a good place to find out the price-rankings of all the fare "types". Ie: is a W-fare less than an M-fare? etc. etc.

You can still select seats; they've just changed the design of the page a bit. Once the fare is calculated look under the itinerary-and-fare box for the "Select seats" link.

One thing UA JUST changed (since this morning) is that you can't log into your FF account straight from the homepage anymore. Why, why, WHY!??

JohnnyP: Yes, a W-fare is less than an M-fare. However, on rare occasions I've seen V fares less than W fares, so the price-ranking isn't always strict. Go figure. Generally, you don't care about this stuff for domestic travel unless there's some kind of bonus promotion that only applies to particular booking classes.

Airlines don't pull out a seat map and say, "this one will be an M seat and that one over there will be a W seat." If you want a particular advance seat assignment, it makes no difference whether you're on an M, H, Q, V, W, S, or T fare. They all have equal claim on physical space ("the person sitting next to you may have paid several times what you did"). It's first-come, first-served.

By keeping non-elite/non-full-fare passengers out of "the front of the bus" (until day of departure) the highly profitable last-minute business traveler is less likely to get stuck with a crappy middle seat, and therefore more likely to choose United, all else being equal. That's the theory, anyway.

I stand corrected, and I apologize. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

My sentiments exactly. I wish the people who manage the website design would test out changes they make for usability http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mad.gif I can see no benefit from this change.

------------------
Tony

Absolutely none. It's ugly, too.

Usually, W is less than M. There are several posts you can search for that describe the different fare classes in this forum.

I think the best place for fare class/price information is on expedia. From the flights menu, choose the "airline fare list" from the menu on the left hand side of the page. You have to fill in a city pair and then it lists all the available fare codes and prices with links for the rules in price order. (I wish there was a way to limit the display by airline but there isn't.) On that screen you will see fare codes such as VXR21N, which is a V class fare.

There have been other posts here and probably in General Traveltalk that explain how to decipher those codes. I think in this case 21 means 21-day advance purchase and the N means non-refundable. Not sure what the XR letters mean.

-David

Here's some old posts that cover this topic.

Fare Class Codes on United Web Site

United Fare Categories

fare codes

United connections software lets you see which seats are available (not Blocked).

I run it with my web browser & then switch back and forth.

I find it hard to find the best fare on it though. So I usually book on United web site. United.com select seats seem limited in choice.
Next day I call reservations and ask for specific seats that I know are available. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cool.gif . 99% mafi mushkala(no problem...)


Thank You again to all that made United connections available!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I shall tell you the benefit, and the reason why I had not used that login-direct-from-front-page: security. If you are going to be doing web browsing and especially buying things online, you need to be cognizant of both the "http:" vs "https:" in the Location bar, as well as the little padlock icon in the status bar of your browser. The front page of United is not a secure site - it does not use HTTPS (stands for "secure HTTP" - the general term used is SSL encryption). Why should you care? It means that anyone sniffing the network between you, across the Internet through many routers, and United's server could easily capture your MP number AND password. By clicking "Login" now, or "Mileage Summary" in the past, you are redirected to a secure form, where you can enter that information and be sure that the only server that can decrypt the information is United's server.

Note that it's possible for an unencrypted (http://) Web page to have a form such that when you submit it, the information you filled out in the form is sent encrypted (https://) so that it cannot be easily eavesdropped. I believe that's how logging into your MP account from the home page of www.united.com used to work. Although the change is slightly less convenient, it enhances the user comfort level, even if it strictly speaking doesn't actually increase the level of security. People who find an extra click all that annoying can bookmark the new login page rather than United's home page anyway....

You're right, but doing that is usually discouraged for two reasons:
1) It gives people warm fuzzies to see the padlock icon on any page in which they are entering private information. In that case, they do not see the padlock on that page. If the submit button has a non-encrypted page as its target, you will get a pop-up warning you.
2) And because of this, the default configuration with IE is that the browser pops up a "You are about to send information over a secure connection" pop-up, which is good, but can be confusing to people.

Most web sites are designed such that people get the fewest pop-up warnings from the browser, to reduce worried help desk calls http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif.