Load check for a newbie?

I have seen people asking for a load check and would like to do so but have no idea what the answers mean. It's a bit like when you ask a question in a foreign language and they answer with a string of unintelligible words. Is there a link to somewhere which will make it clear please?

There is an explanation on this page - the 'decoding gds availability' section

Fantastic, thanks, Tontybear. Ironically I had made it as far as that page but hadn't scrolled down far enough to see the explanation. To challenge my understanding of it I would be grateful if someone could do a load check for me please on VS27 LGW-MCO on Tuesday 16th August and VS16 MCO-LGW on Saturday 3rd September. Many thanks.

Load checks turn out to be pretty irrelevant, being that far in advance and the route that you've asked for can change dramatically, but here are the figures today.

VS 27 0 LGW
16/08/16 11:15 AM MCO
16/08/16 3:25 PM 744
Daily
45% / 39m J9 C9 D9 I9 Z1 W9 S9 H9 K9 Y9 B9 R9 L9 U9 M9 E9 Q9 X0 V0 N0 O0

VS 16 0 MCO
03/09/16 7:35 PM LGW
04/09/16 8:45 AM 744
Daily
60% / 47m J9 C9 D9 I5 Z3 W3 S0 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L0 U0 M0 E0 Q0 X0 V0 N0 O0

The only bit of meaningful info (at this precise moment) that you can get, is that Premium on your return journey is pretty much full.

Enjoy your decoding

David

Many thanks, David. I'm obviously not getting this right then as it looks to me as though it's Economy which is looking full (lots of zeroes near the end!)?

Many thanks, David. I'm obviously not getting this right then as it looks to me as though it's Economy which is looking full (lots of zeroes near the end!)?

using your return flight as the example

J9 C9 D9 I5 Z3 W3 S0 H0 K0 Y9 B9 R9 L0 U0 M0 E0 Q0 X0 V0 N0 O0

Breaks down as

Upper = J9 C9 D9 I5 Z3
PE = W3 S0 H0 K0
Economy = Y9 B9 R9 L0 U0 M0 E0 Q0 X0 V0 N0 O0

For upper it means that VS is currently willing to sell 9 (or more) seats across the J/C/D buckets and out of those 9 it is willing to sell 5 in the I bucket and 3 in the Z bucket.

Lets just assume that in this case 9 does mean 9 and you buy the 3 Z tickets the figures would then likely show

J6 C6 D6 I2 Z0 meaning VS is willing to sell 6 tickets in Upper spread across the 4 fare buckets.

The 0's against L/U/M etc in Economy mean that at the moment VS aren't selling any seats in those fare buckets

Remember you don't add all the numbers up.

Load checks show how many tickets VS is willing to sell in a cabin / bucket not how many are occupied and that load checks only go up to 9 and 9 means 9 or more tickets. It could mean 9, 16, 23 or (for economy) 145

Tontys made a good job of trying to explain the numbers.

The other thing you need to try and remember is that with the LGW fleet of 747, there are around 375 economy seats on board.

375 seats split into 12 different fare codes which only Virgin know how many are in each individual bucket.

Again, the only thing you know for certain is that in Y there are 375 seats on an empty flight. Y being a full flexible (expensive) fare.

So showing 9 in Y could mean 9 (as 9 is the maximum shown) but it "could" also mean 250 for example. It depends on how revenue management see how many lower fares they need to sell compared to how many full fares they will sell to make profit. This will of course vary not only by route but by dates as well.

Premium and Upper numbers are a little easier to guess as there only around 66 seats in Premium and 14 seats in Upper .

How all the fares are split is quite a dark art and know to only a very few people probably locked away in a dark room

Hope this helps a bit.

David

[buns]

To encapsulate in a nutshell what Tonty has so eloquently put:

"Most of the cheap seats have gone"

buns

To encapsulate in a nutshell what Tonty has so eloquently put:

"Most of the cheap seats have gone"

buns

brilliantly put

Wow, hadn't realised that it was all so complicated! Thanks all and it looks like I need to make some decisions pretty soon.

Or maybe Virgin Holidays have "pre-grabbed" most of the cheap seats in PE and economy - especially for the Saturday night return. Is that the last weekend of some schools holidays?

They do often have good PE upgrade prices available and sometimes a package with them can be good value with car hire and/or hotels as this can be a way into the cheaper buckets.

Always worth checking!

Yes, indeed it is the last Saturday before most schools go back. My son goes back on Tuesday 6th and the Saturday is the last possible date we are considering for the return. Might return earlier though depending on our departure date . Good point about Virgin Holidays grabbing the seats but I can't imagine that their prices will compete with the ex-Dublin flights I am currently looking at.