What you need to know about United's fare classes

The recent changes to United Airlines’ MileagePlus program are a mixed bag for customers. For one, the carrier raised thresholds for each tier — Silver, Gold, Platinum and 1K — by roughly 25%, making it harder to achieve Premier status across them. At the same time, however, United has made the perks that come with achieving status easier to redeem — specifically regarding PlusPoints, the airline’s flexible upgrade currency for Premier status holders.

The MileagePlus program has a variety of fare classes, and if you’re a beginner to the points and miles game, they can be confusing and overwhelming to figure out at first.

United uses different letter codes within its reservation systems to label different buckets of tickets. While we commonly refer to them as economy, premium economy, business class or first class, the reservations systems use designators such as Y, O and J, among others.

Let’s consider the United Polaris cabin. Regardless of the seat they choose, passengers in this cabin may have booked their tickets in different fare classes. For example, a passenger in Seat 1A might have booked the “I” class, which typically is the fare class for booking a “Saver Reward” ticket using miles. Another passenger in Seat 8L might have booked a full-fare (cash) “J” ticket. While the inflight experience will remain the same, important distinctions remain between the two.

United’s Polaris business class uses the same fare codes as domestic first class. KYLE OLSEN/THE POINTS GUY

Understanding fare classes is essential for frequent United flyers as they affect mileage and Premier qualifying point earnings, which are tied to the price of your ticket. For instance, a basic economy passenger with an “N” ticket will earn significantly fewer miles than a business traveler with a full-fare “Y” ticket.

Paying attention to fare classes is important if you’re looking to get an upgrade to a higher cabin. An upgrade from economy, the “W” fare class, to Polaris business class requires 40 PlusPoints, while lower-priced fare classes could require double that amount to get bumped on long-haul flights.

These fare class codes also apply when making flight changes. If only a higher fare class is available, you may need to pay the price difference, even when using United’s same-day-change policy. Therefore, it’s crucial to familiarize yourself with these codes.

Let’s take a look at how United breaks them down.

Revenue fare classes

United uses many different fare classes for standard revenue tickets. These letters apply to paid tickets booked directly with United, but they also apply to reservations made via credit card travel portals — including Chase Travel™ and American Express Travel.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

To better understand these fare classes, go to the United website and select Expert Mode in your profile settings.

This will allow you to see the complete list of fare classes when searching for paid itineraries on United-operated flights, like this flight below from Miami International Airport (MIA) to Munich Airport (MUC). Note that this setting can sometimes be disabled automatically and may require you to reactivate it when you revisit.

The list of available fare classes includes paid tickets, upgrades and awards, all mixed in.

Starting with revenue fares, here’s how it breaks down:

First/business class

J: Full fare
C: High fare
D: High fare
Z: Discounted fare
P: Deepest-discounted fare

Premium Plus

O: High fare
A: Discounted fare
R: Deepest-discounted fare

Economy

Y: Highest full fare — regional instant upgrades for all elite members when PN is available (or PZ if Premier 1K)
B: Full fare — regional instant upgrades for all elite members when PN is available (or PZ if Premier 1K)
M: High fare — regional instant upgrades for Premier 1K when PZ is available
E: High fare
U: High fare
H: High fare
Q: Discounted fare
V: Discounted fare
W: Lowest standard Polaris-upgrade-eligible fare
S: Deep-discounted fare
T: Deep-discounted fare
L: Deep-discounted fare
K: Deep-discounted fare
G: Deepest-discounted fare
N: Basic economy on domestic and short-haul international flights

Notice that the last fare class you see for this ticket in the above example is “K.”

In the following itinerary from San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Singapore Changi Airport (SIN), you’ll notice all the previous fare classes along with “G” and “N,” which are United’s deepest-discounted class and its basic economy class, respectively.

When you book United tickets, you’ll often see multiple prices for the same economy fare class. Domestic and short-haul international flights offer an “upgrade” option to convert a discounted fare into a fully refundable one. Meanwhile, long-haul international flights usually have three different options for the lowest-priced economy fare class:

Basic economy (limited perks)
Economy (standard perks)
Flexible economy (standard perks on a fully refundable fare)

Pay close attention to the ticket you book to know exactly what to expect.

How fare classes affect partner mileage rates

When you book United flights via United’s website, you earn MileagePlus miles based on the price of your ticket. However, if you opt to credit these flights to a partner program, such as Air Canada Aeroplan, the miles are typically earned based on fare class or distance flown.

Let’s use Air Canada Aeroplan as an extended example. Here’s the accrual chart for United-operated flights credited to your Aeroplan account:

In the above flight from San Francisco to Singapore, Great Circle Map calculates the distance as 8,446 miles. Booking a ticket in the “S” fare class would accrue Aeroplan points at 50% of said distance — so you’d take home 4,223 points. This is notably higher than the 1,975 United miles you’d earn with United MileagePlus.

Using the same chart, the Miami-to-Munich flight is calculated at 5,007 miles. A “T” fare class ticket would earn 2,950 miles with MileagePlus, a notable improvement over the 2,500 points you would earn with Aeroplan.