Y, J, F fare class… what are those?

You probably have seen those letters, but can’t make something out of it.

Economy could be E, right? Business for B? First for F?

Not necessary… Its a little bit complicated than that.

Fare Classes

There are 4 common fare class across many airlines, namely:

• Economy Class
• Premium Economy Class
• Business Class
• First Class

Obviously, not airline will be able to offer all of it. For example low cost airlines would usually have only 1 fare class, which is Economy.

There are also subclass for each fare classes, which can normally be seen during booking. Here is an example of the “subclass”

And then again, not all airlines have the same subclasses.

What does it do?

Well, the obvious ones is easy (for airlines) determination of your fare class.

It also determines what kind of restrictions you will be having (e.g. refunds), upgrade eligibility.

Additionally, for airline’s frequent flyer program, how much you will earn for your flight is also determined by this letter.

Here are some examples in a ticket.

Code Table

Disclaimer: This is not the full list since there is no universal standard that all airline use, but there are some industry patterns.

Economy

Code	Meaning
Y	Full Fare
H	Discounted
M	Standard
N	Basic
O	Non-refundable promo
X	Award

Premium Economy

Code	Meaning
W	Full Fare
E	Discounted

Business

Code	Meaning
J	Full Fare
D	Discounted
I, Z, U	Award

First

Code	Meaning
F	Full Fare
A	Discounted
O	Redemption

Summary

Here are the possible codes being used, which varies from airline to airline.

⚠️ You may see some duplicate. This is because 2 or more airline may use the same letter for a completely different fare class.

Cabin Class	Code
Economy	Y, B, H, K, M, L, V, S, N, Q, O, G, X
Premium Economy	W, E, T, R
Business	J, C, D, Z, I, U, Z
First	F, A, P, R, O

To make this much more simpler, most online discussion usually use to the following, regardless of its sub-class.

Fare Class	Code
Economy	Y
Business	J
First	F