Understanding ExpertFlyer and reward availability

Would value some help in understanding Expert Flyer.

I booked 4 returns to SFO for April 2015 back in October when reward availability was great. Purchased 4 x M economy tickets and managed to upgrade 3 to UC and also my outbound.(understand I was very lucky!) I didn't have enough miles left at the time so I'm left in economy on the way back.

Now I've collected enough miles again I'm looking to upgrade into UC to join the family for the return leg. There are no Gs available (no surprise) but I'm happy to keep checking. When I looked on the website there only appear to be fares with chauffeur available for the VS42 and I've been quoted nearly £3000 to upgrade my return leg from an M fare!

Expert flyer suggests this availability for the return flight:
J3 C3 D3 I3 Z3 W9 S9 H9 K9 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X9 N9 O9

Could someone please explain? Do I have any chance of a G appearing or even an affordable upgrade?

Advice most welcome.

J3 means that VS are only prepared to sell 3 more tickets for cash in UC and it is going to be a busy flight in UC so it is unlikely they will release any more G's or cheap upgrade.



(although J,D,C, I & Z are UC fares you don't add all the numbers up - the only one that really matters is the J one as all the others are subsets of it)

Ineresting though that given there are (apparently) Zs available, the upgrade cost for a single leg from an M is as high as that... could understand if there were only Js left, or does a 1-way upgrade have to be full fare?

...correction, as I just noted the 'only fares with chauffeur' comment... so clearly Zs are not on sale after all, unless you were only looking at a 1-way fare OP, in which case it would certainly have been priced as a J

J3 means that VS are only prepared to sell 3 more tickets for cash in UC and it is going to be a busy flight in UC so it is unlikely they will release any more G's or cheap upgrade.



(although J,D,C, I & Z are UC fares you don't add all the numbers up - the only one that really matters is the J one as all the others are subsets of it)

Interesting. Does that mean there are only 3 empty UC seats for this flight?
I looked last week and it said J9 D9 and Z8. Does that mean they've sold a lot of seats in UC in the last week.

Think I may have to wait for a PE reward instead!

The numbers mean what tickets VS are prepared to sell which is not the same as the number of unsold seats in the cabin.

Airlines often do oversell cabins because they know that most times some people will change their plans (especially those buying full price J tickets) and it will all work out well in the wash.

And yes it could very well mean they have sold those seats in the last week.

It's far too early to tell now, to be honest, but J3 looks bad.

Also, a cabin can be Z>0 but the specific fare codes can be unavailable to sell it. This would normally mean that they would let you swap into the flight if you'd booked a Z to begin with, but won't sell you a new seat. if Z=3 in EF then something interesting is going on, if the cabin were truly that close to being full they would have mostly zeroes and low numbers for expensive categories, which would not only force people to pay a lot of money for a new ticket on the flight, but also stop people from switching dates for their tickets into this cabin.

Small reason to be at least a little bit optimistic

Keep checking for Gs every day as they can and do appear at random, even when you think there's no hope.

And if all else fails, ask at the airport when you check in - if there are still unsold seats or no shows, they'll often sell G upgrades at the desk.

Sorry to hi-jack the posters question. Can anyone tell me if BA do the same on reward tickets redemptions nearer to departure. Will they let you upgrade from say WT+ to club one way with Avios or cash. Many thanks. Linda

Now I'm confused

Still only with-chauffeur UC flights on VS42 for my date in April - SFO-LHR leg £2900 but ExpertFlyer says: J9 D9 Z9

Anyone any idea what's going on here?

Is that price for a one-way ticket on the VS42 or for the return leg of a return ticket?

Because for one-way tickets there's no such thing as a Z - they're only available as return fares.

Thats the cost of the one way fare.
I've got an M class economy fare, have upgraded to G on way out. Looking for another G on way back ideally but happy to pay reasonable upgrade.
Assume J9 D9 Z9 means availability reasonable and there may be a chance of a G coming up by mid April.

Will keep looking daily!!