Configs

[timboeing707]

Hello,

Just wondering if someone can help me find what the "config" information means such as on the planespotter.net website; Air New Zealand Fleet Details and History - Planespotters.net Just Aviation (http://www.planespotters.net/Airline/Air-New-Zealand)

An example from the list eg Air New Zealand Boeing 777-319ER
"Config" - C44W44Y244, I am wanting to know what this means.

Please let me know if you are able to help, and thanks for taking the time too!

Best Regards

Tim Gorman

[The_Steed]

I believe that to be the configuration of the seating;

C44 - 44 First Class
W44 - 44 Business Class
Y244 - 244 Economy

:ok:

[Capetonian]

It is, but it is not always correct as the configurations on some aircraft are variable according to predicted demand for seats in the cabin where movable divides are used.
Also, this is physical seats and does not take into account overbooking parameters, seats not commercially saleable, etc.

[Union Jack]

In the case of ANZ, configuration surely more likely to be Business, Premium Economy and Economy, with no First available on their aircraft.

Jack

[timboeing707]

Hi Thanks for the replies so far!!
Just a note I was using ANZ as an example only, as other airlines seem to do different codes for configs.

Once again thanks !!!

[DaveReidUK]

Classes are defined by IATA.

C is indeed Business, W is Premium Economy/Coach and Y regular Economy, although the actual product delivered corresponding to a given class will obviously be slightly different from airline to airline.

[kcockayne]

Yes. 44 would be a lot in First !

[Smoketrails]

F = First Class
C = Business Class
W = Premium Economy
Y = Economy

The Yanks call business class first on most airlines.

[Capetonian]

To be precise about it :
W = premium economy
Y = economy including W/premium economy
M = economy only (Misery)

[Hartington]

The IATA definitions are not definitions. They are recommended practices. If an airline wants to use F for heavily discounted tourist it can. Last time I checked the airlines in oneWorld used one set of codes to mean different things and Star used a different set of codes (although the differences were not significant).

It's worth having a look at an airline like BA. They have at least 2 seating configurations on their 747 fleet the main difference being how many Club seats they have. The knock on effect is that in one of the two layouts they have Club upstairs and downstairs, from front to back, they have First, World Traveller Plus, Club, World Traveller which when you think that airlines usually lay out seating in pecking order front to back is unusual. Then the 777 fleet has some aircraft with no First at all just Club, WTP and WT.

[DaveReidUK]

The IATA definitions are not definitions. They are recommended practices. If an airline wants to use F for heavily discounted tourist it can.Airlines do indeed depart unilaterally from the IATA definitions, and the IATA spec makes provision for that, but that doesn't negate the fact that there does exist a set of standard definitions. These are to be found in the Standard Schedules Information Manual (SSIM), which alas isn't in the public domain though there is a recent(ish) copy here:

www.cohor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/SSIM-March-2011.pdf (http://www.cohor.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/SSIM-March-2011.pdf)

Search for "Aircraft Configuration Version" and "Passenger Reservations Booking Designator".

[Capetonian]

Here's something I wrote a while ago to try to de-mystify the class codes and explain how each subclass (e.g. J C D I) relates to a different fare or yield management level within the cabin (C). What follows is an oversimplification due to the complexity of RM systems, the bid/offer process, dynamic/discriminatory availability, married segment control, etc.


If you look at an availability display you will see up to 26 letters, each followed by a single digit number (or a letter in some cases)

In general assume you have a 2 cabin aircraft with 2 physical classes of service, so-called Business and so-called Economy. The Business cabin is generally referred to as C and the rear cabin as Y or M (the first and last letters of MiserY)

Within C class you will have several sub-classes, typically J D I and R (this will vary from airline to airline). The way the airline controls its yields is by allocating each sub-class to a fare type, so for example C will be the full unrestricted business class fare, D will be a restricted fare, perhaps with a cancellation/change penalty, I will be deep discount, perhaps for consolidator fares, and R might be for frequent flyer redemption, freebies, and so on. For the Y class cabin it's more complex with more subclasses.

Assume that the C class cabin has 30 seats. The airline will obviously want to sell as many as possible at the highest fare, so when sales open it might show availability as :
J30 D20 I10 R5
which totals more than 30 because the total does not represent the actual number of seats available, but the 'buckets'. The balance will change as departure approaches according to sales and predicted loads, so when the flight is nearly sold out, it might show J12 D7 I1 R0.

The GDSs, and Seatcounter, only show single digit availability, so anything >9 is reduced to 9, so where you see a 9 there could be 200 seats available, or 11, or 9.

So in Seatcounter, or on a GDS display you will usually see a display such as
Y9 M7 K6 O2 N1 ... etc.

To get back to your actual question, the classes which show a '9' have plenty of seats left, and the ones where you see a 1 or a 3 are almost sold out - they will of course be the lowest fare levels.

Each letter corresponds to a fare basis which usually begins with the same letter as the actual class, for example a YR would be a full unrestricted Y class return and has to be booked in Y, whereas as an MPX1M fare would be a cheaper PEX fare with a 1 month maximum stay and has to be booked in M.

From this you can see that the Y class produces the highest yield and the airline will hold availability in that right up to the end for last minute bookers, and because ideally they'd like to fill the whole aircraft at that fare, whereas the lower yield less flexible tickets sell out first and they will sell fewer of those.

The yield management mix on a Monday morning redeye LHR - MAD would be very different to a lunchtime midweek LGW AGP (Malaga), due to the former being full of 'rich' businessmen and the latter mainly holiday traffic.

The websites do not generally show this information, so you are working blind, which makes it harder to understand. An airline employee using a GDS would see the fare bases displayed and would thus be able to relate each fare type to an actual fare.

Each fare in the table below corresponds to a booking subclass, usually the first letter of the fare basis being the same as the required booking class in the 'B' column.

LN FARE BASIS OW GBP RT B PEN DATES/DAYS AP MIN MAX R
01 VPRGB 187 V NRF B27JAN O30JUN+ +SU+ 1M R
02 RPRGB 247 R NRF B27JAN O30JUN+ +SU+ 1M R
03 NLSRGB 313 N NRF S01JAN 15JUL +SU+ 12M+R
04 TLSRGB 338 T NRF S01JAN 15JUL +SU+ 12M+R
05 QLSRGB 413 Q NRF S01JAN 15JUL +SU+ 12M+R
06 LLSRGB 513 L NRF S01JAN 15JUL - SU+ 12M+R
07 HLSFGB 663 H NRF S01JAN 15JUL - + 12M+R
08 KLSFGB 813 K NRF S01JAN 15JUL - + 12M+R
09 QLSRWGB 413 Q NRF S01JAN 15JUL + - - R
10 ULSFGB 1013 U NRF S01JAN 15JUL - + 12M+R
11 LLSRWGB 513 L NRF S01JAN 15JUL - - - R
12 HLSFWGB 663 H NRF S01JAN 15JUL - - - R
13 MFFGB 1413 M - - - - - - R
14 ZPRGB 1428 Z + B27JAN O31AUG 7 + 1M R
15 KLSFWGB 813 K NRF S01JAN 15JUL - - - R
16 ZLSGB 1890 Z + - - 14 7 12M+R
17 BFFGB 1913 B - - - - - - R