What is seat availability data?
Seat availability data shows how many seats remain bookable on a flight, often broken down by fare class. It is the signal beneath the price: as cheaper fare classes sell out, the displayed fare rises. Capturing seat availability data alongside fares is what lets a product explain — and predict — why prices move.
What are fare classes?
Airlines don’t sell one “economy” price; they sell economy in multiple booking buckets, each with its own price and conditions, identified by a fare class code (a single letter). Cheaper buckets are released and then closed as demand grows. Understanding fare classes is essential to interpreting availability and predicting fare movement.
| Concept | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Fare class code | Which booking bucket a fare belongs to (price + rules). |
| Seats in class | How close that bucket is to selling out. |
| Class hierarchy | The order in which buckets close and prices step up. |
| Availability count | Demand pressure — a leading signal of price rises. |
Blogs · Free Download
March 2025
42 pages
