Airfare types and definition - Airline tickets
What is an airfare ?
Definition of an airfare.
Let’s start with something easy. What is an
airfare? The airfare is the price that you pay to travel on an airplane. The
fare may be one-way or round-trip. The price consists of a base fare plus the
regular taxes and fees. So what are the main types of airfares?
1- Published airfares
Anyone can buy a published airfare. You can buy
them from anywhere – airlines, travel agencies, or online booking sites.
Types of airfares
Below are a few different types of published
airfares. They all have their own special rules, restrictions, and
availabilities. Airlines will fill airplane seats with a variety of these fare
types.
Apex fare
These fares are discounted international fares.
Apex fares are usually purchased in advance – this is called advance purchase.
For example, you need to buy the ticket at least 7, 14, or 21 days before
departure. They will have some other restrictions attached, such as being
non-refundable and fees for any changes.
Discount fare - Excursion fare
These fares are cheaper as they are usually
available for a limited time, like a ‘seat sale’. Discount fares can have a
long list of limitations like the:
– Travel dates – e.g. July – August only
– Minimum stay – e.g. 2 nights
– Maximum stay – e.g. 3 months
– No refunds sometimes ( Non refundable - Non reroutable - Non endorsable )
Unrestricted , flexible , full fare , or walk-up
fare
These are the most expensive types of airfares.
This is because you can refund or change these tickets as necessary. They can
also be purchased on the same day you travel. The pricing for these fares is
used as the benchmark for the discounted fares. So, this is basically the
regular price of the fare.
Joint fare
Joint fares are a result of more than one
airline working together as partners to get you to your destination.
Through fare
Through fares can be combined with the above
fare types and happen when you fly through a gateway city. Although you will be
flying via a third city, you are only charged one fare from your departure to
your destination.
Bereavement fare
Bereavement fares are last-minute fares that
are available right up until the time of departure. Airlines offer them to
family members for funerals, or in the case of imminent death. Although
bereavement fares are usually discounted full fares, they may not always be the
cheapest ticket. The discount is usually 50% of the full fare. You can only buy
bereavement fares from the airline directly, over the phone or at the ticket
counter. Apparently, in recent years many airlines have been cutting their
bereavement fare options.
Open-jaw
An open jaw ticket is a return ticket, however,
the departure and the destination are not the same each way. For example, you
fly from New York to Rome, have a little road-trip around Europe, and fly back
from Paris to New York. NY to Rome, Paris to NY.
There are three different types of open jaw
flights:
1. Destination open jaw – NY -> Rome, Paris
-> NY
2. Origin open-jaw – NY -> Rome, Rome ->
Boston
3. Double open-jaw – NY -> Rome, London
-> Boston
Going to a different airport in the same city
is not considered to be an open-jaw flight.
Multi-city
Multi-city flights are single tickets that have
multiple stops. Like a Round the World ticket, but you don’t have to go that
far! You can turn layovers into stopovers
(layovers
are under 12 hours and stopovers are over 12 hours). Traveling this way allows
you to visit many destinations and save on overall flight costs.
Booking open-jaw and multi-city flights online
can be very expensive. The best way to book these types of flights is to use a
travel agent. They are experts at piecing together these types of flights.
Youth fare / child fare / infant fare / senior fares / ships crew fare etc..
When you book your flights with a travel agent,
there may be the option to get reduced rates for youth, child, or senior
travelers. This depends on the airline and the airfare. However, these
discounts may only apply to full-fare tickets, or only be 10%, so our
discounted fares may already be the cheaper option.
Children are from 2-11 years old.
2- Unpublished flight deals
So aside from published fares, we also have
unpublished airfares. These airfares are not available online through flight
booking websites and neither on the airline’s own website. You also cannot call
the airline to book these flight deals. Travel agents find these airfares
through a Global Distribution System (GDS).
To get an unpublished airfare, you will need to
contact a travel agent. There are varying discounts available on these fares,
depending on your route, airline, dates, etc. Also, the fare rules for these
airfares may vary wildly, including some of the restrictions mentioned
previously.
Unpublished airfares are also known as private
airfares, wholesale airfares, consolidator airfares. Fare consolidators are
also known as bucket shops in the UK.
Opaque airfares
Ok, here is one type of airfare you probably
haven’t heard of. Opaque airfare prices are shown without revealing the airline
or the flight number (and in some cases the flight times). Airlines offer these
opaque fares as a way to keep the prices private until after they are
purchased. This is because airlines don’t want to sell all of the seats on an
airplane at the lowest price.
Ticket fare classes
You may find a letter code on your boarding
pass or e-ticket which signifies what type of airfare you have.
These lucky letters usually represent First
Class.
These ones are for Business Class.
This is pretty much always used for full-fare
economy tickets.
These represent other subclasses like
restricted or discount fares. Each airline uses them in different ways with
different meanings.
These letters are usually used by fare
consolidators.
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