I decided to look up the UN fares in Sabre for TLV-NYC. Here's what I found:
As you can see, there are two fares in the center, that I circled in red -
YRT1 and
MEE3M1. The first letter generally indicates the fare class that will be used, so these fares are for
Y and
M classes.
Y is traditionally the highest fare class for economy;
M seems to be Transaero's lowest fare class for business. In this case,
Y seems not to be regular economy, but rather a "hybrid" of economy and business - it's an economy fare, with economy luggage allowance,
but with business class seating, yet no lounge access. M, on the other hand, is straightforward business class.
Here, let me demonstrate. Here's the "rule application" fare rule for
YRT1:
As you can see, it says "level of travel economy class fare" and "these fares apply for economy class service", however it says "business class service on board", which means you will be seated in a business class seat. I'll provide the proof of that shortly.
Here's the "rule application" fare rule for
MEE3M1:
...like I said, this one is a straightforward, ordinary business class fare. Unrestricted, too.
Now, let's see how it prices out in real life. We'll use Dan's sample dates, July 22 to August 23. Here's the
Y class version:
Okay, so it's pricing out at $1562.36 - I guess American GDSs get charged more.
But it is clearly the same fare - in Dan's screenshot it says the base fare is $1095, and in my screenshot the base fare (top left, under "DEPARTURE DATE") is $1095. And what do we see? Underneath the pricing info, where it says the baggage policy, it shows the
regular economy allowance of 2 bags of 55 pounds each...
HOWEVER, underneath that, I've pulled up the seat map for the VKO-NYC flight, and it's the business class seatmap! So in summary... it's an economy ticket, for all intents and purposes, except for the fact that you get to sit in a business seat. Which for most people, is the most important part, anyway.
Now, let's take a look at the
M class version:
This one is a regular business class ticket - it even has the
business class baggage allowance of 2 bags of 70 pounds each.
But take note of something else... the base fare is $1115 -
that's only $20 more than the Y class fare! And indeed, it reflects in the final price; you'll notice that in my screenshots, the total price for Y is is $1562.36, while M is $1582.36 - the difference in
total price is also only $20 (i.e. it's not like business has higher YQ or something).
Therefore, in theory, if you could get the Transaero site to price it in M class (or maybe call them on the phone?) - or find some other site that's giving the $1414 price for the Y class fare, such as a Russian OTA, maybe -
you should be able to get the FULL BUSINESS CLASS FARE for just $1434, including free changes and business luggage allowance!!!And if not... it appears that Kayak, etc. are showing the
M class fare, not the Y class. So if you don't mind paying a little extra for simplicity, go for that, and you'll be fine.