We looked earlier at three passengers traveling one way to Tokyo. Most business travelers have return tickets as they want to return home when the business is completed. Let's meet the travelers again:
| Mr. Hideyoshi's return fare in First Class is £7128.00 | Miss Ichikawa's return fare in Business Class is £4454.00 | Mr. Guilford's return fare in Economy Class is £1348.00 | Mrs. Sato's return fare in Economy Class is £648.00 |
Two people are both sitting in the Economy cabin of the flight from London to Tokyo, and one is paying more than twice the price of the other. In fact, Mrs. Sato will get the same meals and see the same films as Mr. Guilford. How is this possible?
The answer is the flexibility of tickets. Mrs. Sato has purchased a ticket with no flexibility. She cannot make any changes to her reservation, she cannot stay at any city between London and Tokyo and she will not get an automatic refund if she cancels her ticket. Mrs. Sato's type of fare, also known as discounted fares, will be studied in Units 6 and 7.
Business Travelers must have flexible (changeable) travel arrangements as meetings times and dates often change at the last minute. A traveler may need to extend the trip to include extra meetings, or need to fly to their destination one or two days earlier than planned.
The fares we have been looking at are known as 'Fully Flexible Fares', and they're indicated by a single letter:
First Class F
Business Class C (the single letter J is also used.)
Economy Y
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