In an absolutely horrid and lack-of-transparency move, United Airlines is disabling the “expert mode†feature tonight on their website. It allows anyone to see inventory allocations in every fare class and “bucket†on a given United flight, such as: If this type of display is alphabet soup and meaningless to you, tonight’s change won’t be…
airfares
Tag Archives for airfares.
Airfare transparency takes effect Thursday along with new passenger protections
On Thursday this week, the next round of passenger protections will take effect, including a requirement that airlines and other providers advertise airfare prices inclusive of taxes and mandatory fees. I took a tour around the web yesterday and noticed United Airlines (and Continental) have already begun advertising all-in rates. First, I stopped by United’s…
Booking airline tickets online: Easy or irritatingly difficult?
As a blogger I bookmark and follow a huge amount of travel-related websites that feature news and reviews in the airline and travel industry. One of them is Tnooz.com whose tagline is “Talking Travel Tech.” It really is a fantastic site and they frequently cover global distribution system (GDS) issues and stories for which I…
Trusted travelers, antiquated ATC, rising airfares, American’s troubles, ads everywhere, Qantas’ woes and Expedia gets fined
In other airline, hotel and travel industry news this week… The Transportation Security Administration has officially started a “trusted traveler” program this week. According to the TSA, “This pilot program will help assess measures designed to enhance security by placing more focus on pre-screening individuals who volunteer information about themselves prior to flying in order…
Airfare pricing buckets & airline fare basis codes REVEALED!
In this post, I will shed some light on how airlines assign fare basis codes to the various “buckets†of inventory available for sale on any given flight. If you’ve ever wondered what pricing “buckets†are, or just what your fare showing as WAGT14GS means, read on. My recent Mileage Run 101 posts (Part 1…
Finding better airfares than those published in Sunday newspapers
Many newspapers publish a list of airfares to popular destinations throughout the country and world in their Sunday travel sections, and I’ve always been curious as to their accuracy. Two Sundays ago, the footnote from the Los Angeles Times list of fares read, “Restricted round-trip airfares as researched Thursday, the day before the Travel section…
Constructing a mileage run
I’ve been scanning the fares for a couple of weeks now searching for good mileage runs coming in around 3 cents per mile (cpm), but haven’t found any gems lately like I did last year. One fare did pop up last night that looked sort-of attractive, so I thought I’d take you through my process…
Continental Airlines offers 3- or 7-day reservation holds that lock in the airfare
Yesterday, Continental Airlines announced a new FareLock service that allows you to hold a reservation for three or seven days and lock in the ticket price. Starting at $5 for a 3-day hold, and $9 for a 7-day hold, this seems to be a smart and easy-to-implement ancillary revenue stream. I did a couple of…
Qantas A380s return to passenger service on Saturday
On Saturday, November 27, Qantas flight 31 is scheduled to depart Sydney at 5:30pm local time headed for Singapore and then on to London. While this is a welcome return for the newest Qantas flagship, it comes with a yet untold financial burden. As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday, Qantas CEO Alan Joyce…