US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - This is insane - DCA-LGA Shuttle $140 cheaper on UA ticket

I need to go to NYC for the day on January 6. So I checked usairways.com and the lowest-priced Shuttle same-day roundtrip from DCA to LGA priced out at $256.70. DL and AA, in comparison, were exactly the same price.

When I saw these relatively high prices, I was just about ready to resign myself to a cramped and inconvenient, but cheap United Express flight out of IAD to any of the three NYC airports. Much to my surprise, however, the lowest-priced WAS-NYC flights on united.com were the US Airways Shuttle flights! Pretty much all of them priced out at $116.70! ("S" fare basis). So I'm all set to go with a comfy seat on an A319, probably upgraded to F on day of departure, to and from the most convenient airports in NY and DC, for a bargain-basement price.

I've never seen such a huge price discrepancy between US-issued tickets and UA-issued codeshares for the same exact flights. Plus, UA tickets on the Shuttle are generally more flexible than US's own, allowing standby with no fee. Why is US not matching UA's price on this route?

Why is US not matching UA's price on this route?

Because the competition is DL and AA. UA seems to have all types of cheap fares on codeshares with U; however, they are not the competition on this route just the low cost provider.

This is interesting ... I've commuted on this route for a few months and found the opposite to be true whenever I was taking the shuttle vs using IAD mainline flights (with an occasional *shudder* UAX flight) with UA pricing higher than US.

I guess it just flip flops -- buyer beware.

I noticed this the other day as well...I was pricing a GSO-BOS itinerary, and everyone was about $231 (NW was at $227, through DTW though), but UA had a $192 as a code-share on the US non-stops, $197 as a US nonstop one way, the other way through IAD (with both flights being on wonderful CRJs...)...I haven't booked the trip yet, but I'm leaning toward Delta through ATL, since they are a good $30 cheaper than US (they were the highest at $267).

I haven't been able to find any rhyme or reason to the US/UA codeshare flight costs out of DCA. Sometimes the prices are within a few dollars of eachother, sometimes the UA flight on US metal will be way higher, sometimes way lower. I've rarely found US prices to be lower on UA metal, out of DCA or IAD. I can't figure out how they manage the price schemes on this at all...

While they're the same flights, they each have different allocations of seats, different pricing engines, different inventories remaining, etc., and anti-trust laws prohibit them from colluding on prices.

They are often the same, but I have seen each side way out of line each way. That's why I always use our corporate travel site that gives both prices.