From: sam@terapin.com (Sam Lewit)
Newsgroups: rec.travel
Subject: Re: EAASY SABRE usage hints?
Date: 22 Aug 92 22:19:13 PST
Organization: BBS

LONG!

Icle <4911@metasoft.UUCP>, alan@metasoft.UUCP (Alan Epstein) writes:
>
>I understand the quick path mechanism, but I always feel that I'm
>missing something. For instance, if I don't care what day or flight
>I'm flying, how can I find the seats that offer the lowest prices?
>Unfortunately ES bargain hunter is rather opaque in its operation
>and doesn't afford an understanding of why the itinerary I have
>chosen does not yield the lowest published fare shown on the FARES
>display.
>
>Additionally I'd like to know what all the fare codes mean, so I
>don't have to always go through screens of rules before deciding
>that I can't use a particular fare.


I had a little trouble getting used to ES also, and I'm certainly no expert
myself, but once you get used to it, its actually pretty good. I have an
example of a trip I was checking into earlier this morning for my vacation.

First you list the fare. In my example I wanted to go from San Francisco to
Auckland, New Zealand on any airline leaving on Nov 15....

/f,sfo,akl,nov15,all

        From:  (SFO) SAN FRANCISCO, CA                    NOV-15-92
          To:  (AKL) AUCKLAND INTL, NEW Z
All airlines - Regular and discount fares                 Fares in: USD
                                       
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
               Round
   One Way      Trip  Fare Code   Airline(s)
  --------  --------  ----------  -----------------
1             745.00  KNSH        NZ  [: The fare code is the 1st letter.
2             746.00  HHAWE       UA  [: On line 1, the code is K, and the
3             746.00  QHAB2       CO  [: code on line 2 is H. I'm 
4             746.00  MHAPNS      QF  [: interested in the cheapest, so I
5             845.00  KWOWH       NZ  [: keep in mind of looking for a
6             846.00  QH3AB2      CO  [: fare code K on New Zealand Air
7             846.00  KHAPS       QF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
To view fare RULES, enter the line number of the desired fare, or

 8  View MORE fares                   11  View available FLIGHTS
 9  CHANGE fare request               12  View fares for a SPECIFIC airline
10  View the FIRST fares display      13  View fares from HIGHEST to LOWEST
> 1

                   FARE RULE SUMMARY

           From: SAN FRANCISCO, CA         (SFO)
             To: AUCKLAND INTL, NEW Z      (AKL)
             On: AIR NEW ZEALAND
           Date:            NOV 15
          Class: KN                Fare in: USD

Fare round trip:    745.00
      Fare Code:  KNSH

Press <ENTER> to continue with the rule SUMMARY, or
1 View DETAILED rules/restrictions
2 Return to FARES display
3 View available flights
> 3

                              FLIGHT AVAILABILITY

From:  (SFO) SAN FRANCISCO, CA
   To:  (AKL) AUCKLAND INTL, NEW Z                           SUNDAY            
                                                            NOV-15-92
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Flight   Leave      Arrive   Meal Stop Aircraft OnTime  Classes of Service**
1 UA1123  SFO  500P  LAX  618P        0    72S      9     F  Y  B  M  Q  H  V
  NZ   1       815P  AKL  600A  DB    0    744            K
2 DL 569  SFO  500P  LAX  619P  S     0    73S      9     K
  NZ   1       815P  AKL  600A  DB    0    744            K
3 US2036  SFO  500P  LAX  619P  S     0    733      8     K
  NZ   1       815P  AKL  600A  DB    0    744            K
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 

This is the key part. You've listed the schedules, and keeping in mind that
you're looking for a fare code of K, you can see that you can take any of the
above flights for that cheap fare because they show the fare class 'K'.

On your return it would be the same class, so look for NZ with a class K. Also
note that in international flights like above, the domestic flight is usually
handled by a different carrier. That is ok, and included in the fare listed.

I also have an interesting story that may be of interest to someone (maybe
not). But a couple of years ago when tension was high between Iraq and the US,
people weren't flying, and the airlines lowered their rates tremendously. I
wanted to go from San Francisco to Paris in October. I went onto Easy Sabre,
and found a round trip fare of $458 round trip which of course is amazing from
the west coast. All the airlines were matching the fares, so I jotted down the
airlines and each airlines' fare code. I then started checking the schedules,
and nobody had that class available (they were all reserved/sold already). So
figuring that the fare was probably gonna be the same to any of the major
European cities (i.e. Frankfurt, Brussels, Amsterdam, etc), I checked all of
them too. But all were reserved/sold. I had a 2 week window where I could go or
return.

So each day I logged on (I use GEnie... unlimited ES use) and checked to see if
anything had opened.

Now here's the problem. To check a schedule, I had to do:

/sc,sfo,paris,nov15,1
/sc,sfo,brussels,nov15,1
/sc,sfo,zurich,nov15,1
/sc,sfo,amsterdam,nov15,1

etc... then...

/sc,sfo,paris,nov16,1
etc... for the next day I wanted to check

So I had to enter about 5-6 cities for one day of travel, then the next several
days of travel! ANd I had to do this each day I tried! I called ES and asked if
there wasn't an easier way to say "Give me any flight to Paris in fare code K
from nov15 through nov28th". She said no, it must be done manually, but
admitted that the professional system (Saabre) could do searches like this.

But... to end this long story, I finally did latch onto that cheap fare. My
travel agent was shocked that I was able to get the fare.
Organization: Doctoral student, Biology, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA