Glossary
What Is a Booking Class (Fare Class)?
A booking class, also called a fare class, is the single letter an airline files a fare under. It is narrower than the cabin: one cabin is usually sold under several letters, at different prices and with different conditions. The table British Airways publishes for Aer Lingus flights, for example, puts the economy letters in three groups and the business letters in two, and each group earns at a different rate.
The letters are not universal. Each airline decides which letters belong to which cabin. The letter A is a first class fare in a table Finnair publishes and one of the cheapest economy fares in the British Airways table for Aer Lingus.
What your programme reads
Whether the letter matters depends on the programme you credit the flight to, and often on the airline you fly. A programme reads one or more of four things.
- The letter. Where a programme awards a percentage of the miles flown, the percentage is usually set by the booking class. The British Airways Club does this for some of its partner airlines, and Finnair Plus does it for most of its oneworld partners. In tables like these a discounted letter can earn much less than a flexible one in the same cabin. Finnair says a letter its tables do not list earns nothing.
- The fare type. This is the name of the fare you chose, such as Semi-Flex or Flex. It is not a letter. British Airways adds a fixed number of Tier Points to each of its own flights according to the haul, the cabin and the fare type. On Air Canada flights ticketed by Air Canada, Aeroplan sets the rate by fare option: Economy Standard earns at a lower rate than Flex, and Basic earns no Status Qualifying Credits (SQC).
- The price. Spend-based programmes count what you paid for the fare. The British Airways Club, Iberia Club, Finnair Plus and AAdvantage all do this on their own airline's flights. In these programmes the figure follows the fare paid rather than the letter.
- The cabin. Flying Blue awards Experience Points (XP) by cabin and distance band, so the letter matters only for which cabin it belongs to. The fare type can still move the figure: on medium-haul international economy flights, a Basic fare earns less and a Flex fare earns more than the fares in between.
One programme can use more than one of these. The British Airways Club counts the price and the fare type on British Airways flights, the price on some partner airlines, and the cabin, the booking class and the miles flown on others. It also says it falls back to the cabin, the booking class and the miles flown for a travel-agent booking where the fare has not been disclosed.
What the calculator asks for
The Status Lark calculator asks for the cabin first. The letter is optional: without it the answer is the range that the cabin's letters earn, and the result says when a letter or a fare type would narrow it. For an airline whose fare type decides the figure, the form offers that airline's fare names. A price is asked for only when the programme you are crediting to earns on price.
Where to find the letter or the fare name
- The letter. Look at the e-ticket. Finnair says you can find your booking class on your e-ticket. ANA says it is shown on the e-ticket itinerary, the receipt that the airline or travel agency issues.
- The fare name. Look at the itinerary receipt from the airline. Aegean notes that the fare option is shown there when you book directly with the airline, and may not be visible on a booking made elsewhere.
- On a British Airways booking. British Airways shows its own Tier Points estimate in the Review and Pay step of booking, under Rewards, and afterwards in Manage My Booking.
If you can find neither, give the calculator the cabin. It then shows the range for that cabin rather than a single figure.
On a codeshare
On a codeshare, the airline that sold the ticket and the airline that flies it can file the same seat under different letters, and programmes differ on which one they read. United, for example, says the operating airline decides how many miles you earn, and that the fare class on your ticket may differ from the one the operating airline uses. Other programmes read the class of the airline that sold the flight. See marketing vs operating carrier.
Work out what your flight earns
The flights calculator takes the cabin, plus the letter or fare type where you have it, and shows what the flight earns towards status in the programme you choose.