How Your Fare Class Determines How Many Air Miles You Earn

Frequent flyer miles can be your ticket to free flights, cabin upgrades or elite status, which can provide you with big perks, such as priority check-in, boarding, baggage and lounge access.

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What Are Fare Classes?Example of Miles Earned by Fare Class Is It Worth It To Pay More for a Ticket That Earns More Miles?

But all air tickets are not the same. Each one has its own fare class that dictates how many air miles you earn. In most cases, the more money you pay for a ticket, the higher the fare class you book. However, sometimes the difference between a high-earning ticket and one that gives no miles at all is a matter of just a few dollars.

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As such, it pays to know the fare class of your ticket before you book it. Here’s how to locate the fare class of a ticket and some examples of the differences that fare class can make.

Also see five legit ways to find the cheapest airline tickets, according to ChatGPT.

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What Are Fare Classes?

Fare classes are letters assigned by airlines to tickets they sell. Some typical fare class letters include Y, J, W, F, N and so on. Each fare class varies in terms of the privileges it provides. For example, different fare classes may vary by some or all of the following parameters, according to travel platform Navan:

Price
Refundability
Upgradability
Mileage earned
Ability to select seats.

For example, a J fare is usually a full-fare business-class ticket. According to popular aviation industry blogger The Points Guy, this type of ticket earns 200% miles from Delta SkyMiles on an Aeromexico flight. Of course, full-fare tickets are the most expensive, so it should be expected that they come with additional perks and flexibility.

Here is the current fare-class structure for American Airlines on its Boeing 777-300ER, per The Points Guy:

First class: F, A
Business class: C, J, R, D, I
Premium economy: W, P
Economy class: Y, H, K, M, L, G, V, S, N, Q, O, E
Basic economy: B.

Other airlines tend to have a similar structure, although not all airlines match fare classes exactly.

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Example of Miles Earned by Fare Class

Here’s a quick example of how your fare class — and the airline you’re flying on — can influence the amount of miles that you earn from your ticket.

Let’s say you’re planning on flying in basic economy on United Airlines from Los Angeles to Chicago O’Hare. The stated roundtrip mileage on that is 3,480 miles. But a basic economy ticket on United books into its “N” class. And here’s where fare classes can get a bit confusing.

If you are crediting the miles to United Airlines, you’ll earn redeemable flight miles, which you can use to potentially get free flights in the future. However, according to The Points Guy, you won’t earn any Premier qualifying flights, which help get you airline status.

However, as United is a member of the Star Alliance, you can credit your United miles to any member of that alliance too. Though you’ll need to look at the guidelines for earning miles for each airline.

The bottom line is that while each fare class grants varying benefits, including miles paid, the amount you actually earn will depend on various factors. This is one of the reasons accumulating air miles and status is part art and part science.

Is It Worth It To Pay More for a Ticket That Earns More Miles?

If you’re striving to earn frequent flyer miles and status, in many cases, it can be worth it to pay more for an air ticket.

Imagine you fly regularly and you’re planning on taking the long flight from Los Angeles to Singapore. If you book an N-class fare on Singapore Airlines, you’ll earn only 50% of the flown miles, which in this case will amount to about 8,760 miles. But if you pay a bit more for a W-class fare, you’ll earn 75% of your flown miles, or about 4,380 more. In some cases, this can mean the difference between earning or requalifying for elite status and missing out completely, and that’s a scenario most frequent flyers want to avoid.

If you’re just a casual traveler, flying perhaps once per year or less, then playing the fare-bucket game usually won’t make sense. In that scenario, simply going with the cheapest fare is likely to be the best option overall.

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