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A question out of curiosity – with BA fare classes, is there any significance between the different letters in given group? For example, is there any significance between K, L, N fare classes?
As I understand it, they relate to things like how flexible they are if you want to cancel, and how many avios you will earn.
Thanks for the replies. It would make sense there’s differences in cancellations/changes. I believe the Avios and tier points are the same within a group e.g.
Economy lowest – Q, O, G – 25% Avios of miles flown
Economy low – K, L, M, N, S, V – 50% Avios
Economy flexible – Y, B, H – 100% Avios
but it got me wondering why there are 6 different classes for “Economy Low”, maybe it is the restrictions on changes/cancellation
If you have a spare hour or two take the fare code (often 6 characters beginning with your booking class/fare class letter) and so some googling.
Pages of the rules for each fare class will come up.
But you will rapidly be able to identify the aspects where each fare class differs from another after one or two, such as @NorthernLass suggests.Detailed study of fare class rules can be useful as sometimes with a bit of thought you’ll be able to identify advantages with some that can be very useful in some cases.
I’m pretty sure Flyertalk will have more info somewhere if you really want to get into this.
The main thing to remember about fare/booking classes is they are a subset of cabin class. EU261 gives you the right to choose to be rebooked/rerouted in the same cabin class if an airline cancelled your flight. But a lot of airlines try illegally to say they can only reroute you in same booking class (of which avios/award ticket is just one amongst typically at least 2 booking classes in same cabin) and only if same booking class is [still] available.
Whereas under EU261 they are obliged to reroute you in any available seat in same *cabin* class. So there doesn’t have to be an available award/avios booking class/fare class within that cabin just any seat of any booking class, not just one in same booking/fare class for you to have the right to be rebooked into. Illegal refusal in this case if airline/route is subject to EU261.
Economy low – K, L, M, N, S, V – 50% Avios
but it got me wondering why there are 6 different classes for “Economy Low”, maybe it is the restrictions on changes/cancellation
In that group it’s likely the T&Cs are the same but it enables the airline (not just BA because most airlines have this system) to have a number of price points within each bucket.
So (random figures so done get hung up on the amounts) there could be 20 seats in each bucket but K might be £100, L £ 110 and M £ 115 so that as soon as K is sold the sales system can just jump to the L bucket without manual intervention.
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