Zed Fares

Hi everyone - I am new to the forum but I have been non-revving for a few years now and have been pretty successful at getting a seat. I recently completed a the following trip ORD->BOS->AUA->MIA->IAH->ORD and got F or J class each time and never missed a flight.

More recently I got stuck in CYOW because of a flight cancellation and went through the process of buying a ZED ticket to CYYZ. The ZEd fares mystified me but I read some of the posts here and it looks like it is a good idea to have some some ready to go for the routes you fly frequently.

It also seems that the city pairs are not an issue as long as they are in the same band as where you want to go. Any other info or experiences with ZED fares would be greatly appreciated.

Looks like a good board with lots of knowledgeable people so I look forward to visiting herre often. FYI - while not a GDS expert I am working on a large booking engine development project for one of the major airlines. Any Sabre experts out there? I don't see a thread on Sabre or Apollo tips.

Welcome aboard! I hope you find our little corner of cyberspace informative and entertaining.

I noticed you listed AE as your carrier. Are you based in Taipei? Canada? Australia?

But anyway, thanks for visiting. Please feel free to join in on any discussion. "The more the merrier" as they say!

Sorry Randy that was a typo. Corrected to read AA.

Okay, got it! I was wondering how a Mandarin Airlines employee could be based at ORD. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_biggrin.gif

I'm based at MDW. Feel free to post events, reports, etc. on the Chicago thread. It's one of the more active on the forum. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

AHH yes ZED, my airline UAL just signed its first agreement for ZED fares with LH.

1) You need to know the mileage between the cities your are traveling.
2) You need to know what ZED fare you qualify for.
I.E. On LH I qualify for ZED LOW fares, YZL=Economy ZED Low and CZL Business ZED Low. My mother qualifies for YZH=Economy ZED High.
3) The ZED fare zone list.

An example for FRA-ATH follows

FRA-ATH= 1129 miles the chart reads


________________YZL_|_YZM_|_YZH__
600-1600 miles $21 | $30 | $42

So you get a fare of $21US for a one-way ticket from FRA-ATH this does not include taxes and fees. I was able to figure these out buy looking up the ID95 price and deducting the cost of the fare from the total.

It seems that the mileage band is more important than the city pair - as long as you have paid for the mileage then you should be OK. Do the CSRs always (or most of the time) know what do with a ZED coupon? My first experience demonstrated that this was not the case but it was worked out in a few minutes.

I noticed in Apollo that UA has just signed their first ZED agreement with LH however AA has dozens of them in place already. It will be nice when we can flight list and check loads across the carriers. How many years into the future do you think that will be - at least with the major carriers?

GoZED has been offering several ZED functionalities for ages. Some carriers like LH/OS/AY/SK will only permit listing via the GoZED/FlyZED website and not via call centres.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by AL - SYD:
GoZED has been offering several ZED functionalities for ages. Some carriers like LH/OS/AY/SK will only permit listing via the GoZED/FlyZED website and not via call centres. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
It has been like that for over 2-years and no new airlines have been added. I was surprised to see that AAs arrangement with CO and UA are ID90 and not ZED fares. I wish you could book and buy your ZED tickets over the internet rather than at the counter. The CSR I spoke with in IAH recently had no idea about ZED fares.

I do think more airlines are signing up for ZED fares. Just a few posts up someone said that UA is starting to use ZED, which is a good thing... maybe they will use ZED with more carriers later.

Alaska (AS) started on ZED last year, with AA as the only interline carrier. Since then, Qantas and KLM have been added (maybe more). Let's hope more carriers sign up with more ZED agreements... they're much better than ID90s.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bikerscooby:
Let's hope more carriers sign up with more ZED agreements... they're much better than ID90s. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Do you mean in price or in ease of carrier options? I was forever using "Multis" or Multi Endorsed ID90's, ID100's, ID95's etc when I was with Ansett. They were really like a ZED allowing several carriers on the one ticket.

Price. For me, AA and QF on ZED are less than half the price of ID90 on UA, for example.

I happen to love Zed fares. The cost of my OA tickets has dropped considerably since US joined the Star Alliance and started to use Zeds.
We use Sabre, but the only part of Sabre I am happy with is the gate program. The rest is more difficult then we had before US changed over in the 90s.
You work in my favorite big city, which Randy knows I visit several times a year. It is just too darn cold and snowy right now. Give me 60F and sunny in SAV where I now live.
One more thing, a late welcome from me to the forum.

I wanted to buy a couple of ZED tickets from IAH to ORD and neither CO or UA have ZED agreements with AA so I'll probably have to buy ID90s. Too bad there is not one simple to use web site where you can purchase, check availability flight list and redeem ZED tickets on OAs! I guess this is whatFlyZED is all about but just not enough carriers take part.

As you are OneWorld it might be worth checking with the BA Staff at ORD/IAH to see if you can travel on BA as we have some staff traffic rights between IAH and ORD. Probably depends on ticket type.

Thanks Paul - I'll give it a try. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

As with anything, ZED tickets are only as good as the knowledge of the check-in agent. I am customer service with BA in EWR and tried using a ZED ticket with AA in SFO. Ticket was issued SFO/MIA valid ZED/AA. Wanted to go SFO/JFK to connex with a flight to EZE. SFO to MIA or JFK is in the same fare band. AA said I needed to reissue tkt to say SFO/JFK. Even the supervisors had no knowledge of the ZED program. By the time the BA tkt counter opened, we missed the flight and opted to fly BA from SFO/LHR/EZE. Only lost one day of vacation, but had a wonderful time!

I fly on my daughter's pass. Several locations have been great at getting me a ZED when I couldn't get a ride on US. I just had an agent (and his supervisor) refuse to do a ZED for me because I am not the employee. My wife just used America West by calling their 800 number and flew from LAX to STL for $20. Are there other airlines that will sell you their own ZED or equivalent for Interline travel?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks

If you just call Lufthanza, they'll tell you what code and password to use for your airline (re flyzed.com)