New US fare booking class / classes "codes" align with AA [1 Feb 2015 ]
 

Seems that the booking codes are changing for travel after 2/1/2015.

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/divid.../airlines.html

Website seems to suggest that the "new O" is either X or A, but according to Expert Flyer, the new upgrade class is Z.

Anyone know which is right?

It looks like they are aligning with AA fare codes. On AA, there are two upgrades code for F: one for instruments like an eVIP/SWU (that's A class on AA) and one for the standard domestic upgrades that are free to EXPs and require 500-miles upgrades (aka stickers) for PLTs and GLDs (that's X class on AA, which AA made EF stop reporting on a while ago).

And then C is the e-VIP/SWU upgrade inventory class for Business.

I could be wrong, but this new chart certainly looks very familiar to me as a pmAA flyer.

So that explains what's going on. My corporate travel system sent me an "upgrade status" email today for a flight 3 weeks out. The only difference is the "Class/Type" went from "Economy/E" to "First/O", but I went to the US site and only the code had changed. I was wondering why I got an early upgrade on a cheap fare.

Yes, this is the same as AA's fare codes.

Two interesting notes, one is the Economy codes are clearly in an order of priority. That priority is not really used thankfully in most cases by AA (there are a few exceptions like certain upgrade awards offered by AA).

The second notes, is the codes not listed like T are also important (these are mileage award codes).

Rasheed

I have an itinerary that was changed from O to U and Z (Business and First) so they are definitely aligning to AA. One curious detail is that the international portion (SDQ-PHL) was before branded First Class, now it's branded Business, so it looks like the front cabin is being renamed to business on caribbean/central america flights to further align with AA.

Another thing: My SDQ-PHL flight now says MEAL: MarketPlace™, is that a glitch?

I have the same "glitch" but their website clearly says that you get a meal..

http://www.usairways.com/en-US/trave...irstclass.html

Has the system been updated with this information yet? I'm not seeing a single "C" bucket available for any route after February 1st (granted, my sample size is manual through EF). Is this still in "J" if we want to apply e-VIP upgrade certs. even for flights departing later this year?

Here's a handy guide from CWSI: http://cwsi.net/aa.htm

Okay, added this in a wiki...

It doesn't look it. I just checked a number of flights that I know for certain had (old) J availability PHL-MAD, PHL-CDG and the reverse. Those flights now have no C availability.

Thankfully, I applied my certs before they did all this reclassification, and got notification yesterday that "my flights had changed". The only change was the booking code had gone from J (Envoy) to C (Business).

Ah.. I guess this is why there's some issues with US airway's inventory. Is it likely that availability for revenue fare would normalise and return to previous levels? eg: a week ago

I've been holding off from purchasing an US ticket but now the fare class changes availability became non-existent.

Me too - I had some J confirmed in April that have now TK'ed to C class. But I had monitored some other flights pre-realignment that had plenty of J class for Chairman's cert upgrades (I'm talking J5+) that all are showing as C0. In fact, I'm looking all over the map for C inventory over the next few months and have yet to find a single C seat for a Chairman's cert upgrade. Yikes.

Has anyone called the CP desk to find out what actual availability is yet? I'd be surprised if all CP cert inventory did actually vaporize this weekend. (And at a terrible time too! I was about to pull the trigger on some before they expire.)

Now if they'd only fix the no 150% EQP bonus for Y/B/W fares. I'd like to know that if those fares are bought that they'll be properly credited later in the year.

C space is back, per EF. Loads different from before (a flight I've been watching has gone J6 on Saturday to C2 last night, a few cases of the reverse as well), but it's there.

Just checked the GDS and I can see it's back too. Loads are different, agreed - some flights that had J vanished (as it can even without the realignment, keeping in mind) and then others that had no J, some have many C seats, which is unusual historically ...