Booking * J Class Fares and NZ Air Pointsl

[airnewzealand]

I am a Gold Elite with Air New Zealand’s Airpoints. I am planning a trip to Europe ex SYD mid year and have seen a few good cheapish deals on * Carriers.

My question is when searching for J fares how can I find out the fare class? Do I need to contact the TA concerned or is there another way?. I have looked at various TA sites and the do not appear to hold this information against the particular fares

Reason for asking is I booked a J class fare on Asiana to LA late year. I subsequently found out, before I flew out, that is it was a ‘P’ Class fare which does not accrue either Airpoints or status points. Luckily I was able to cancel the fare and rebooked on NZ. I do not want to be caught out a second time.

Thanks

 

[anat0l]

I don't believe there is an easy way to do this. Sometimes you can find the booking class on various airlines' booking websites by interrogating the HTML page code after you generate a list of fare options. This varies from airline to airline and the method of which it is done also differs.

For example, I could find out the fare code for a given fare offered for sale on Air New Zealand, using the source code idea. Not sure about other *A websites (not that I don't think they might, but rather I haven't tried).

The other way is to grab the fare details (exact price and fare basis) and call the airline in the country where the fare is being sold, then see if they will tell you what the booking code is (e.g. C, D, I, J etc.). This can be exhaustive, however.

I guess programs like Expert Flyer or KVS might be able to tell you this information as well.

Certainly, you will almost never go wrong booking with the airline of the FFP which you want to credit towards, but understandably this may not always be possible, or cheapest.