Online Travel Booking and Bidding Agencies - Price searching (multi city vs 2 round trips) - Kayak is not smart!!

12/19 Sat. ATL-NYC
12/21 Mon. NYC-ICN
12/31 Thur. ICN-ATL

I am 5000 mile short to be 2P. So hoping to get UA/US/OZ/CO miles in this trip.

Kayak says..........
DL/NW $1667 (non-stop / 1 stop / 1 stop)
DL/KE $1735 (non-stop / non-stop / non-stop)
UA/OZ/US $1752 (1 stop / 1 stop / 2 stop)
CO/UA/OZ $1797 (non-stop / 1 stop / 2 stop)


I found out that buying non-stop domestic RT and 1-stop international RT is cheaper. ($287+$1180, or $287+$1342 for UA miles)

-------------------------
Domestic RT
12/19 Sat. ATL-NYC
12/31 Thur. NYC-ATL

CO $287 (non-stop / non-stop)
DL $287 (non-stop / non-stop)

-------------------------
International RT
12/21 Mon. NYC-ICN
12/31 Thur. ICN-NYC

NW/DL $1180 (1 stop / 1 stop)
CO/KE $1342 (1 stop / 1 stop)
UA/ANA $1387 (1 stop / 2 stop)



It looks like multi-city trip search shows more expensive options than combination of 2 round trips in this case. (number of stops are same.. non-stop between ATL-NYC, 1 stop NYC-ICN, 2 stop ICN-ATL)

I am not sure why kayak does not give ATL-NYC / NYC-???-ICN / ICN-???-NYC-ATL as ($287+$1180, or $287+$1342) when I do the multi city option..

Is it common?


And is it okay to assume I will get the UA EQM when I fly CO in Dec?

I've never used kayak, so I can't answer your real question; however, I would be careful of the 'two roundtrip' plan. If something delays the first leg of your return (12/31) you will not be protected on the NYC-ATL flight.

Since you have a layover (12/19 to 12/21) that mitigates the issue in the outbound direction.

Kayak is only as smart as the booking sites it searches. So it won't piece together an itinerary taking 1 round trip from 1 airline, and another from another airline, unless a site like Expedia or Travelocity already does this.