How to tell availability?

So as I mentioned in a thread below, Im going standby to Maui.
Is there a way for me to find out what kindof availability there is on the flights?
I cant get on the list until 7 days from the flight, but I have a lot of reservations riding on it, and if Im going to have to try another airline, I need to know at least 2 weeks in advance.
Can you guys offer any suggestions?
If I call a few weeks out, will they tell me how the availibility is looking?

TIA,
Dave

Well, from my experiences, there's a few ways you can do this.

Yes, like you said, you can call the airline and see what they will tell you about availability. However, if the flight is some time off, that will probably change between now and then. They may give you some hints as to better days of the week, or may not.

You can play around online to see what the fares are for the flight. If it is usually $200 but one day it is $500, chances are that the flight is more full... Most airlines fill the aircraft in buckets or classes (K, Y, M, F, etc varies by airline) with each having different price points.

Probably one of the best ways is to find someone on here who works at the airline, has access to their systems, and can give you an idea.

In my access to our bookings system in the office, it gives information for some other airlines, by booking class, if there are 4 or more seats left. What airline are you planning to fly on, what dates, origin/destination? I can see what I have.

9/1/05
Southwest from SDF - PHX flight 276
ATA from PHX - OGG flight 4585

Return same airlines 9/11/05

Hi, I just checked these flights through the ZED web-site and as of today, there is good availability on those flights. They do not give you the actual count but will give you a smily face for good and a frown face when the availability is poor. Perhaps some-one will be able to check for you in late August as the time nears close to your flight.

I will pray that the availability is good in September when you are traveling. Have fun in Hawaii.

http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

Does flyzed.com ever give anything besides a straight face or a frowning face? Such as a smiley face? Curious to when and the percentage booked does it switch between faces? Like is 90% full a frown? Or is it 80%, 70%, or what? Thanks for any enlightenment.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Paular:
Hi, I just checked these flights through the ZED web-site and as of today, there is good availability on those flights. They do not give you the actual count but will give you a smily face for good and a frown face when the availability is poor. Perhaps some-one will be able to check for you in late August as the time nears close to your flight.

I will pray that the availability is good in September when you are traveling. Have fun in Hawaii.

http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Paular,
Thanks a lot!
That's a good start, I appreciate it. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

As aztimm mentioned above, you can check "fare buckets" to get a general idea of how full a flight is. One place you can check this is:

<a href="http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm" target="_blank">http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm</A>

When you pull up a flight, if you see all 9s or all 7s for all or most of the buckets, that means the flight is wide open. 9 is usually the highest, but some airlines only go up to 7.

If you see zeros for all or most of the buckets, that means the flight is sold out or overbooked.

You'll see many buckets, but the most important ones are F, C, and Y, which stands for First, Business, and Coach class respectively.

The other buckets you see will vary from airline to airline. Those other buckets are used to indicate discount or award seat availability, so the lower those numbers are, the fuller the flight is.

It is important to understand that these numbers indicate how many tickets are for sale, not how many seats there actually are on the plane. The airlines often oversell seats (usually coach, but sometimes business and first class), especially on the bigger planes, so if you see numbers like Y7 and lots of zeros in the other buckets, that might mean the flight is already full.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">The other buckets you see will vary from airline to airline. Those other buckets are used to indicate discount or award seat availability, so the lower those numbers are, the fuller the flight is.

It is important to understand that these numbers indicate how many tickets are for sale, not how many seats there actually are on the plane. The airlines often oversell seats (usually coach, but sometimes business and first class), especially on the bigger planes, so if you see numbers like Y7 and lots of zeros in the other buckets, that might mean the flight is already full. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>


So for my flight, if it says:
Cabin class: Y7 H7 L7 M7 B7 K7 Q7 N7
That's a good thing? http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_biggrin.gif

Ok I admit it, I need help. I'm looking at America West flight 6475-LAX/YVR June 17.
Y4 H4 W4 B4 Q0 L0 K0 V0 M0--is this as bad as I think??? http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...n_rolleyes.gif
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
Rule #1 non-rev availability
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_biggrin.gif
--Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes[/list]

Keep'em flying

DrummerDave:

Congratulations! All those 7s means your flight is currently wide open and looking good. For now http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Migflanker:

Sorry yours doesn't look as good. Y4 means there are only 4 coach seats left for sale. But it looks like your flight is on a small plane, which means it's not likely that the plane is being overbooked. So maybe there are actually four seats left. With 16 days left to the flight, I'd be somewhat worried that it will fill up.

If this flight is actually on a big plane, then I would say that coach on this flight may already be full.

The H4 W4 B4 might be more expensive coach tickets that they are willing to sell, and the Q0 L0 K0 V0 M0 are probably cheaper fare classes or awards that they don't want to sell because the flight is filling up.

Originally posted by Migflanker:
Ok I admit it, I need help. I'm looking at America West flight 6475-LAX/YVR June 17.
Y4 H4 W4 B4 Q0 L0 K0 V0 M0--is this as bad as I think???

Rule #1 non-rev availability
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change, but pretty soon...everything's different.
--Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes
Keep'em flying

Migflanker....I checked the ZED Schedule and HP Flt# 6475 has a Frown Face so the chance is poor. The Aircraft is CR9. Can you go on AC? They have a flt on an Airbus 320 at 19:20 that arrives 21:58 that has a Smily Face. The AS flt 675 at 19:58 has a Frown Face but there is an earlier flight at 17:50 on AC flt # 557 that arrives 20:28 that has a Smily Face and the equipment is Airbus 319. You may have a better chance if you can standby for flights that have the larger aircrafts.

Good Luck

Hey Migflanker,

Sorry for not replying sooner, didn't realize I could actually help someone out for a change...

Anyway, I work for HP so have access to this... It doesn't look too good. As you know it is a CR9 plane, and right now, there's less than 10 seats left.

Strangely, the day before and the day after there's about 30 seats left both days.

However, if you are willing to come to PHX or LAS, we have larger aircraft. The evening PHX flight has availability; the late LAS flight is WIDE OPEN.

Send me a PM as the date gets closer and I'll give you some better numbers.


Tim

Thanks to all
I have friends booked on flight 6475 and was trying to fly up with them, but I guess that plan has been thoroughly dashed.

Paular, Tim thanks for the additional info, for what was to be a quick fun week-end trip, this is beginning to have all the aspects of a major operation; long gone are the days of "lets fly over to XXX for the week-end"

Keep'em flying

Hey Migflanker,

Well, you never know what might happen. There could be some people who cancel or don't show up or whatever. If you really want to go, you should also list for an LAX-LAS-YVR flight as a backup. I noticed that AA has a LAX-LAS flight at about 7:20pm.

When were you thinking of returning? I took a look at that Sun/Mon, and both look good.

Again, if you are still interested, send me a PM when it is closer and I'll update you then.

Also--make sure you have an agreement with YV (Mesa Airlines). The LAX-YVR flights are operated by them, and even we have to follow different rules to list.

Tim

can one of you guys help me out with flight availability? i know this is not the europe forum, but i haven't had any luck on that forum with this question. I am traveling from CVG and want to get to CDG on Delta. I would like to travel on the evening of June 17th or 18th. would one of you mind checking flight availability on the website that shows you a smiley face or frowny face to indicate availability on these flights. I would love to take a direct flight from cvg to cdg, but if not available could someone suggest other options. i tried posting for the correspondant in europe that works for delta, but i have not received an answer in the 4 weeks since i posted to him. I appreciate any and all help you could give me. my wife and I will be traveling on delta friends and family passes.Thanks again!!!

Brian,
Sorry that you've not got anywhere with help from anyone with access to the DL system. If it helps I've had a look via our CRS at what DL are selling ( includes overbook profiles ) and the direct flight on the 17th seems to have about 20 seats avail for sale down the back although Business is full. The other option the system shows is up to JFK and then out of there ... those flights are showing about 40 seats avail for sale down the back but only 4 in business.
If you have not seen it in his messages Matt posted a link to a DL travel guide ...

also you might want to check out an old post of Matts warning about travel to CDG on DL at
I don't know how appropriate this is nowadays as its a couple of years old ...

Thanks again Tim, the HP flight was one of those "why don't we all fly up together" deals; since that's out, I'll probably fly up on AS, lots of nonstops you know...I love those nonstops.

Again thanks to Tim, Paular, Anthony (the link with the decipher key is great) and you too Paul

Keep'em flying

Brian,

DL 44 from CVG to CDG has one overbook in biz and 16 overbook in coach on June 17th.

DL 44 from CVG to CDG has two overbook in biz and 17 available seats in coach on June 18th.

There are other options from ATL however, they are full for both dates.

Another option will be CVG-ATL-BRU or CVG-JFK-BRU and take the Thalys train to CDG. It costs about USD$60 and is a fun ride.

And stay tunned because DL will have a summer embargo on buddy passes for certain cities and I'm sure CDG will be one of them.

Au revoir!

flower,

thanks for replying. my question is this now...if you have friends and family passes for a certain destination, can they be switched to another destination? also, how can you check how many people are listed to non-rev on a certain flight? thanks

I can always help people with flight loads on AS, of course and we are working on getting a website similar to HPs really helpful nonrev site. Their web address . This is for nonrevs who want to check the flight loads and gives you the generic faces that tell you how "good" or "bad" the flight looks.

First of all, thanks to Donna for that nifty HP page. I'd never seen it before and have bookmarked it!

Secondly, if anyone needs load information on Southwest I'd be happy to look it up for you! Our employee site (which is user name/password protected) offers flight load forcasting for approximately 60 days out. It forcasts the number of seats for standby/nonrev travel that are expected to be available 1 hour prior to flight departure.

I hadn't seen that link to HP availability for a while, thought they took it down.

Anyway, if anyone wants more than a smiley face (or frown), please feel free to ask me, and I can look up actuals for HP.


Tim

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Randy:
First of all, thanks to Donna for that nifty HP page. I'd never seen it before and have bookmarked it!

Secondly, if anyone needs load information on Southwest I'd be happy to look it up for you! Our employee site (which is user name/password protected) offers flight load forcasting for approximately 60 days out. It forcasts the number of seats for standby/nonrev travel that are expected to be available 1 hour prior to flight departure. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Randy,
Any chance you could check the availability on SW for
Flight 149 and/or 276 (Depart 9/1/05 ) and
Flight 1838 (Return 9/12/05)

Thanks!

Sorry for the long delay. I'll get back to you later today.

Where are you flying from and to? These flight numbers all involve multiple cities.

Oh. Sorry!

Im flying from SDF to PHX.
Basically any flight (arriving in PHX) before about 1:30, to give me time to catch my flight to Maui. The #s I listed were first picks.

Thanks!

WN 149 1Sep Seats 137, currently avail 65. Forcast 6-10 at departure.

WN 276 1Sep Seats 137, currently avail 55. Forcast 21-30 at departure.

WN 1838 12Sep Seats 137, currently avail 94. Forcast 31+ at departure.

I'll check closer to the date. Send me a reminder.

Unfortunately we only have 1 SDF-PHX nonstop per day so everything else either stops or connects.

Sound great!

Thanks Randy!

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Posted May 29, 2005 02:46 AM
As aztimm mentioned above, you can check "fare buckets" to get a general idea of how full a flight is. One place you can check this is:

<a href="http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm" target="_blank">http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm</A> </div></BLOCKQUOTE>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Could someone please tell me how to use this site? I used it a while back when I first read this post and I was able to check passenger loads. But now, I don't seem to be able to get to the page that shows how full the flight is. It this because I am a doddering senior citizen and I've just forgotten how, or has the site changed?

Thanks for any help.

Judy

Judy I see you logged onto the site-
A)bort, R)etry, I)nfluence with a hammer. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...on_biggrin.gif

Keep'em flying

Load update for 9-1 SDF-PHX:

WN 149 isn't looking that good. Only 15 seats are available to sell on your last leg. Forcasting 1-5 available at flight time.

WN 276 is much better. Showing 22 seats on your last leg. Forcasting 11-20 available at flight time.

I hope this helps!

Thanks again Randy!
You've been a great help.
Good thing I listed for Flight 276. http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Patch:
Does flyzed.com ever give anything besides a straight face or a frowning face? Such as a smiley face? Curious to when and the percentage booked does it switch between faces? Like is 90% full a frown? Or is it 80%, 70%, or what? Thanks for any enlightenment. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well Patch,

Last year I flew on an LH 744 that had about 160 seats available and it still only showed a straight face... http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emotic...n_rolleyes.gif

Best way ever to get straight numbers on flights: Get contacts with access within lots of airlines! http://www.nonrev.net/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

Dave, just in case you're checking...

WN1838 Sept 12th PHX-SDF
33 seats available
7 NR listings
Forcast 31+

You should have no trouble on tomorrow's flight! Assuming, of course, you haven't changed your itinerary.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by anthonyanthony:
As aztimm mentioned above, you can check "fare buckets" to get a general idea of how full a flight is. One place you can check this is:

<a href="http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm" target="_blank">http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm</A>

</div></BLOCKQUOTE>


Help!
What happened to this website? Now I’m only able to check availability on a few airlines… Anyone know any other web site that works the same way that this one used to do?

---
Vegar

Sometimes you can tell availability if you go to the airline's website like NW, DL, CO,UA and AA and pulling up the seat map/availablity. To do this just pull up your city pairs as if you were making a reservation. Then select your preferred flights, then look at seat map/availabity. If there are still lots of seats available it would give some indication that the flight is wide open. The best time to use this approach to make a judgement is within a few days before departure. Keep in mind that sometimes airlines may block certain rows of seats. Also, if you get message that implies "sorry unable to unassign seat at this time" usually implies close to capacity or potentially oversold. Keep in mind not airlines allows you to see their seat availabity before a purchase of a ticket.

You can also try on amadeus.net look for your destinations and tell if there are avalable plces, not the real number. But you find also the different carriers at the same time

can someone tell me a little more about
<a href="http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm" target="_blank">http://www.flyaow.com/classcwt.htm</A>
It provides links to a number of sites, only one of which looks to be directly relevant to checking availability, and that is SeatCounter.com. That site gives the number available i each "bucket" but doesn't say what the buckets mean. Can someone help me. I'm seeing this list of classes and numbers:

Eva 255 A332 TPE/10:00a DPS/03:10p
B C D H J K L M N Q R T U V W X Y
7 7 0 7 0 0 7

China 687 A330 TPE/08:15a DPS/01:30p
7 4 7 4 7 7 7 7 7 7 0 7 7
B C D H J K L M N Q R T U V W X Y

any idea what the letters (B,C,D..) mean, and whether 7 are good numbers? Thanks.

C and D are business, in the US B is coach as well as the rest. This only show the authorized seats sometimes the numbers can be good but the flights are almost at capacity this is mostly for flights with a big nonshow factor.
Just take that as an indicator, I trust more fly zed.

some one who knows about airlines hotels agreements, to find some low cost hotel around the world. something like New York centre hotels?