Are O1 and I1 for bus class award and upgrade for the same inventory seat? This is what I was told by a CSR. I was not able to get an award ticket for my wife and an upgrade for myself. I did make the res for my wife and I was waitlisted on the PA list. I checked the system afterward and the codes where set O0 and I0. From an inventory management standpoint this does not seem correct to me. Why would you use 2 codes for the same inventory item.

As I understand it, there are a certain number of seats that can be used for Business Class pax either on u/g or award. This number is not set per flight, plane, time, or any other seemingly logical factor -- it is determined (and tweaked) by the revenue management department.

Hypothetical Example:
This collective pool may be 6 seats, a minimum of say 3 are going to be used for awards.
Thus availability would look like:

O6 I3

This is because there are 6 total seats, a maximum of 3 which will go to u/g's, and at least 3, as many as 6 will be award seats.

So, if the first 3 claims to those seats are award seats, then it would look like:

03 I3

But if the first three were u/g claims, then the inventory would read:

O3 I0

Does this make sense? Any of the United experts please feel free to clarify or correct.

[This message has been edited by TarHeelFlyer (edited 07-09-2002).]

I have noticed that the numbers of seats in 'I' is the same as 'O' all the time (at least on international flights). It does seems like the it's the same inventory.

To distinguish those who are flying on an award ticket (so no miles) and those who are upgrading (so they'll get miles)

Agreed, I can not find any difference between I and O on a few random flights, though I swear I have seen O0 I1 before.

That said, why do you frequently see R and X as different numbers? (the F equivalent of O and I)...

That means UA is protecting their F product very aggressively by not releasing many seats in advance for mileage plus redemption (R class) while they are willing to release several for upgrades (X class) for people using either miles or SWU since they've already bought a revenue C seat and it frees up another C seat for sale to someone else.

[This message has been edited by Empress (edited 07-09-2002).]

Empress, Be careful, UA may look to hire you in Inventory Management.

Seriously, great observation and comment, as always.