V-Flyer

Just had a look at my booking for SFO next month and they want to charge £1,300 for a PE seat, but just £819 for UC!

How do they work out those pricing algorithms?

Maybe because PE would be a W and UC a Z? It is not uncommon for a fully flexible fare in a lower cabin to be more expensive than a discounted/non flexible fare in a higher cabin.

Neil

I understand your logic, but I have never seen this before. Also, I would have thought the purpose of this upgrade opportunity was to extract a few more ££ from the pax to fill spaces in a premium cabin, not to get people to change to a flexible ticket. It just seems wrong to me.

It is done by an automated system with a set of rules and it can only work within those rules.
This is why you need a human brain to tell you it is wrong and stupid!

I started a thread a while ago to try to deduce some of the rules behind exactly this process, but nobody really took the bait and I didn't make much progress myself.

I had theorised that the system removed the upgrades once the lowest fare buckets in the higher class sold out, so I am surprised by what you are seeing. The flight is S0 K0 so I guess it is indeed offering W.

Also, generally speaking the VS booking engine upgrades you automatically to a higher cabin if it would be cheaper for you to travel in it (unless you have requested a flex fare), so it would be interesting to see what happens if you try to book the PE upgrade!

Incidentally, I am doubly surprised that it is offering an upgrade to a fully flex because if you only take that option for that sector, then the more restrictive conditions of your return sector still apply, so you lose a lot of what you are paying for!

Yes but maybe there aren't any non-flex available in PE?

More importantly - did you hit the button on the Upper option..?!

Hamster wrote:Yes but maybe there aren't any non-flex available in PE?

Only W is available in PE for Martin's flight, but the question is why the system is offering it (see above).

If we could understand the vagaries of the VS Reservation system then we would have the key to predicting the Lottery numbers each week ):

I have adopted the mantra of constantly checking on line and occasionally calling VS - this surprisingly enough can often reap results

buns