F Class, C Class, Y Class, What Do These Mean?

[[ATA] Hassel]

Certain airlines have different name for their classes. in AWS we use F, C and Y but some also uses J, E and M classes. In all cases I have not been able to find what these Class Codes actually mean?

Any ideas?

[LemonButt]

Depends on the airline...many have branded first class cabins where they won't call it first class, but "Ultimate Class" or something else.  Same goes with Economy Plus, etc.

[Infinity]

Certain airlines have different name for their classes. in AWS we use F, C and Y but some also uses J, E and M classes. In all cases I have not been able to find what these Class Codes actually mean?

Any ideas?

Airlines usually subdivide their travel classes (First, Business, Economy) into separate booking classes. So for example Lufthansa uses booking classes Y, B, M, H, X, V, W, Q, S, G, K, L, T, E, U for Economy Class; C, D, I, J, Z, P for Business Class and A, F, O for First Class.

They are -roughly said- each priced differently and activated at different times according to time until the date of the flight and demand. Very roughly, the next most expensive is activated once the cheaper booking class is booked out (there is a contingent for every one). It's much more complicated than that, but just so you get the general idea. Some booking classes are also reserved for frequent traveler awards or employee travel. They don't 'mean' anything in that sense.

Well, as you can see from the above, there is one booking class denominating the full fare. For LH, that's F, C and Y. So those are used as general 'codes' for the travel classes. Some airlines use J as their full fare Business Class code, but F and Y are basically the same for pretty much every airline in the world.

[[ATA] Hassel]

Airlines usually subdivide their travel classes (First, Business, Economy) into separate booking classes. So for example Lufthansa uses booking classes Y, B, M, H, X, V, W, Q, S, G, K, L, T, E, U for Economy Class; C, D, I, J, Z, P for Business Class and A, F, O for First Class.

They are -roughly said- each priced differently and activated at different times according to time until the date of the flight and demand. Very roughly, the next most expensive is activated once the cheaper booking class is booked out (there is a contingent for every one). It's much more complicated than that, but just so you get the general idea. Some booking classes are also reserved for frequent traveler awards or employee travel. They don't 'mean' anything in that sense.

Well, as you can see from the above, there is one booking class denominating the full fare. For LH, that's F, J and Y. So those are used as general 'codes' for the travel classes. Some airlines use J as their full fare Business Class code, but F and Y are basically the same for pretty much every airline in the world.

+1 for a very nice answer

I had thought the letters was an abbreviation for something, but can see that they don't really have any meaning
Cheers
Hassel

[Escaped]

In real world, they are basically a fare identifier.  There are some airlines that have discounted Y fare, but call it something else.  There's also discounted first class fare.  This is typically used in internal promotions like trying to win customers over with package deals.. like US Airways Vacations does..  air, car & hotel.. they discount air travel since they have control over that.. and ends up usually being competitive with any package a customer can build separately by booking each item separately .. ie .. booking air on one site, hotel on another, and then car on another.