Flights on Orbitz Are Which Fare Class?
 

Hi, is there a way to tell? If I select a fare, I'm given the schedule, but I can't tell which fare class the flight is on. This is important because on some airlines only certain fare classes accrue FF miles.

Thanks.

How about calling them for the definite answer rather than "hoping" the replies posted here are currently correct?

I will if I don't get an answer here that I can confirm. Maybe it's just a matter of knowing which button/tab/.... to click and I was just temporarily blind.

Right before you click through to the credit card info screen, on Item 7 you can click on "see rules and restrictions applicable to this fare" and it will bring up the fare bucket code. The first letter ("Q," "V," etc.) will be the code that will govern mileage accrual and all that.

What Gardyloo says is correct - but depends on whether you've signed on to Orbitz or not. I tried doing a dummy booking without signing on, and I get to the page <b>before</b> being asked for payment/CC info.

Mine is listed as <b>Item 9
Review fare rules, terms, and conditions</b>
then
<b>See an overview of all the rules and restrictions applicable for this fare.</b>
If you click on &quot;rules and restrictions&quot;, you'll see the fare codes listed for each of your flights.

Assuming you're looking for AA flights, the first letter is the booking code.

The fare basis code looks like this: KLXAP1MN

Does this mean the class is K?

Thanks!

By the way, out of curiosity, is there a certain order to fare classes? I'm looking at Turkish Airlines, and flights accrue AA miles if booked in B, G, H, K, L, M, N, Q, S, T, V, W, X, Y.

But does this mean that the fares also increase as we move along in the alphabet? Just curious.

Thanks.

I don't think there's any correlation between the letters and the fare class. I only &quot;sort of&quot; understand AA's because I had to do my homework recently.

Anyway, your fare class should be &quot;K&quot;.

On AA, &quot;Y&quot; and &quot;B&quot; are full fare economy (1.5 EQP/mile).
&quot;H, K, M, L, W, V&quot; are discount economy (1.0 EQP/mile).
&quot;G, Q**, N, O**, S&quot; are deep discount economy (0.5 EQP/mile).
** Tickets between North America and Europe, India, Asia and Latin America booked in O and Transatlantic tickets booked in Q are not eligible.

http://tinyurl.com/awebg

Thanks. Actually it brings up another question. What's the difference between EQP and EQM?

Right now my YTD elite qualifying miles is about 11000, but the elite qualifying points is about 6700.

If I get to 25000 miles, then I assume that I qualify for Gold? Or is it the points that count?

Also can someone remind me of the shortcut to elite status again? If you fly x miles within a very short period, then you qualify -- or something like that. I can't recall exactly. I also don't know if that was a limited offer that I just read somewhere that no longer applies.

On AA Gold is 25K miles or 25K points or 30 segments (1 flt no. = 1 segment.) Platinum is double that. http://www.aa.com/content/AAdvantage...irements.jhtml

You're thinking of the challenges. Not documented by AA, details here: http://www.flyertalk.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge

Warning: AA challenge leads to easy status which leads to serious AA mile addiction. I used to buy whatever the cheapest fare was -- friends loved the way I could find low int'l fares. No more -- after I made a Gold and Plat challenge with a couple of international trips tnis year, I'm totally hooked. I'm going on a trip to Paris this Dec. just to requalify for Plat. I know it's a nice excuse to go to Paris but really, it completely changed the way I travel.

Well I qualified for Gold one year on AA. I still go to Europe a lot -- this year I've been to Europe 5 times already. However, I still buy whatever tickets are the cheapest. It's problematic because AA is the best for London and Paris for me, but it's not good for places like Rome, Germany and Spain.

Now, regarding EQP -- if I call AA up for the Platinum challenge and I fly to Istanbul in November, wouldn't I qualify? Am I missing something? The page Gradyloo gave me says that I need 10,000 EQP over 3 months to qualify. It doesn't say if the EQP works the same way on Turkish airlines flights though (normally 1 mile = 1 EQP on K class).

But I must admit that I'm tempted to qualify for Gold if this method doesn't work by flying to Europe again over Christmas.

I think that the addiction is bad in terms of spending money. :-)

Actually now that I think about it, if Platinum gives you 100% miles bonus, then basically you just need to fly 25000 the next year to qualify? Or is this not correct?

Thanks.

Those things confuse me. I made &quot;Gold&quot; with AA this past year by passing a million miles total, despite the fact I rarely come anywhere near to flying the required number of miles in a year for elite status. But now I'm confused if that only lasts one year or what.

I think I've read that the lifetime status doesn't expire.

The 100% Platinum bonus applies to redeemable miles, not elite qualifying miles.

Oy.

1. 1 million miles gives you Gold for life.

2. Only &quot;elite qualifying&quot; points or &quot;elite qualifying&quot; miles count for status. For Plat you must fly 50K miles, or accumulate 50K points, or go through 60 cycles. Buying a Mercedes with your credit card may earn you 50,000 miles, but you'll still need to fly to get status.

(The irony of this is that the 1MM &quot;Gold for life&quot; or the 2MM &quot;Platinum for life&quot; totals are based on miles from all sources, so if you buy a fleet of Mercedeses, you're good to go.)

3. Regarding points earned on other airlines - you need to do some (easy) research on aa.com - EQP and EQM are earned at different rates, if at all, on partner airlines depending on class of service and the nature of the ticket. For instance with Turkish Airlines, you get redeemable miles if you fly with a TK flight number, but not EQM or EQP; however if you fly on the same plane with its AA codeshare number on your ticket, then the EQM/P payout is the same as if it was on AA metal.

If you fly on other Oneworld airlines indiscount coach, you may get a fraction of the EQM/P that you would get on AA metal on the same routes; for instance eligible British Airways flights (not US-London, nada for those) earn EQM/P at 25% of the AA rate for discount coach, more for higher fare buckets (thus more costly tickets.) The details are in the Aadvantage section of aa.com, and they're good to know if you fly a lot.

Thanks Gradyloo. Where's the bit about EQP/EQM for Turkish Airlines?

I can see this:
http://tinyurl.com/yg2lae

But it applies to redeemable miles.

I guess this isn't so easy as I expected. Is there a way to book the flight so that it's AA? It's probably much more expensive. Right now Orbitz shows about $750.

Well, the same flights on AA.com are $1358.

Ok, I called AAdvantage and they referred me to this:

http://tinyurl.com/y63frc

On this page: &quot;For a complete list of eligible fare classes and the equivalent elite points earned on AAdvantage participating carriers, view the following: Aer Lingus (through March 31, 2007), Alaska Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, LAN Airlines, Qantas.&quot;

So Turkish is not listed and you do not get EQP/EQM.

However they're telling me that the AA code share doesn't qualify either -- which seems wrong, as the webpage does say this:

&quot;Qualifying miles or segments are the actual miles or segments you earn on eligible purchased tickets for flights aboard American Airlines, American Eagle, AmericanConnection, AAdvantage participant airlines and/or American Airlines codeshare flights*, including applicable minimum mileage guarantees.

* Ticket must reflect an American Airlines coded flight number&quot;