Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Airline Alphabet??

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Airline Alphabet??

I understand there are different fares for the same flight and that these fare are reprented by letters...does anyone know the code or know where to find the code (or decoder ring, etc)??

It depends on the airline. For instance L14WENR Means L class, 14day advance purchase, weekend, Non-Refundable. AA lowest usually N Delta U United W so on and so forth.

Don't forget the W is weekend and X is midweek. Any numeral found in the farebasis is usally the advance purchase needed (be7NR 7 day, UE30NS is a 30 day etc.) You'll never be able to learn them all. The constantly change.

Perhaps I did not communicate or perhaps I just don't know where of I speak... I am looking for the class(i.e. F=1st class) of ticket issued. If this is airline specific then i am looking for Continental. I thought I remebered someone priting them here at one time

COntinental F first A-first class-sometimes coach fare, but first seating D-business or first (usually upgrade from coach to business with miles on this class of svc) Y-full coach--no discount , sucker HKBVQT-restrictive/nonrefundable/advance purchases required. Not all markets have D and A class...

the fare basis is found in the calc line after the segment pricing. Do you have a ticket in front of you? if so... for example cohou co den 221.43qx7ip co den221.43qx7ip 442.86end. The qx7ip is the fare basis. Q is the class of service.

Each airline uses a bit of different alphabet soup. In general, P is Premium first class, F is regular first class, A is discounted first class. BA considers their first class JFK-Lon to be P class, while AA from Dallas-Chicago might be F. If they are having a fare sale, they might use A. Also, A is used for special discounted around-the-world fares. Limited number of seats in the cabin at the discounted price. J is premium business class ( like SQ ), C is regular business class, and D is discounted business class, or around-the-world fares. In economy, almost every airline uses Y for full, unrestricted economy. From there, it is different. You would have to ask each airline -- is B higher than M? Is L higher than H? This is important when it comes to changing return flights. If you're booked in Q, and only M is available, you will have to buy up to the higher fare. I think it's called the "hierarchy" of fares. When a res agent pulls up availability, it starts as highest fares on the left, lower ( in tariff category, not necessarily in fare ) to the right. There are some other intracies -- like you've paid a full F fare from LA to Brownsville, but the commuter flight only has Y on it, you might see your fare as F all the way thru, but sit in Y. It's cheaper to pay a thru fare than to break it. Not always, but sometimes. Hope I haven't thoroughly confused you.

Thanks to all! I better understand now.

Excellent post from Dana g. I will add a few things. D, A, I and O are also used for consolidator and net rate fares in the various classes of service. W will be used for some business classes, and the elite coach cabins. X, Z, W, K and others are used for both frequent flyer seats and for special non-revenue passengers (such as airline personnel, suppliers, tour operators, etc.) Almost every airline uses Y for full, unrestricted coach as dana observes, except KLM and Kenya Airways which use S. Nothing says a certain letter must always indicate a certain class; it is up to each airline to assign the letters. But as you can see, F is pretty much the only universal indicator.

When I worked as a telephone res agent for American (mid-90s), I always liked it when people called and asked me, "What's the fare from A to B?" When I tried to get more info on what their plans were so I could help guide them to the lowest fare that applied to what THEY were trying to do, they were like, "I just want to know what the fare is!!!" Of course, what they didn't know was that I was looking at a screen full of different fares that all had different requirements and that all I could do was give them a range, like "We have coach fares that range from $150 to $950 round-trip." I just looked at one of my old training docs that gave coach fares NYC-LAX as P26, C26, KFSE7NR, Y26, KE0Z234N, KBE14NR, KSE14NR, QE7NR, VE14NR, MBE7NR, MSE7NR, F26, KFE7LGAN, and QAP3. And that's actually not a particularly messy example -- it doesn't even have any of the flight specific (FS) fares like Q26FSPL! I also liked it when I found a fare that I thought my customer should qualify for, but SABRE wouldn't let me book it, so I would then have to plow through about 10 screens of fare rules to figure out what the glitch was. What fun! Man, I am SO glad I don't work there any more! ;-)

Rich--sounds like you were ready for the loony bin after looking at those type fares day in day out.

That is what airline reservations agents (I was one for 21 years) and Travel Agents do all day every day. This is why an agent is worth their fee. There are as many as 30 fares in each market and they change daily. There are ways to manipulate fares to get them lower. The internet does not alway know how to find the best fare, an experienced agent does. Again a Very Good Agent is well worth their fee.