What’s a Fare Code?
Circa 1995 there was a program out there called EaasySABRE accessible through dial up consumer systems like CompuServe, AOL, and Prodigy. Yes, I am dating myself but I have to tell this story in order to bring several others into perspective over the past year or two.
Below is a much more recent view of the travel agent version of sabre: red. That blue screen is the terminal session that some in the industry still use to make, retrieve, and change air reservations.
Let’s dissect the flight below from the listing above.
UA = United Airlines
8144 = the flight number
23OCT = it will operate on Oct. 23, 2019 (as of the date I type this for example)
The flight leaves from DFW Dallas/Fort Worth at 11:20 AM CT
And arrives in YYZ Toronto, Canada 3:16 PM ET
Here’s where it gets interesting…
Fare classes F, A, and P are first class and United is selling four seats at different fares. The more expensive F class fare may be fully refundable however vs the P class fare not fully refundable.
Fare classes Y, B, M, U, H, Q, etc are all coach class fares and have all sorts of different fare rules attached to them. But at this moment, you can’t buy any class S, T, or L seats. You can buy the likely more expensive W and higher fare classes.
These fare classes can literally change by a millisecond on a number of reasons not limited to the following:
The airline can at any time choose to stop selling any fare class on any flight or portion of a journey even if seats are available. This is what airlines call revenue management and will be my basis for several personal experiences.
The triggers above may be automated.
The triggers above can be related to a popular event. For example, the Super Bowl or a popular cruise departure day nearby.
The triggers may affect the monetary cost for the flight but not the price in points/miles or vice versa.
You can usually see these fare codes when booking direct with the airline website and/or with a third party travel site like Expedia but what the airlines have not necessarily wanted you to see is what makes up the actual fares available on routes vs. what you may be able to book at a later date.
Like what you are reading? Comment and let me know what you’d like to hear more about and that will drive what I write next :)
