US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - Expedia Beat Usairways.com

Okay, I was glancing at the DREAM MAPS over at Yahoo! this morning looking for candidates for a nice 8 segment day of flying next month and set my sights on Hartford, CT (BDL).

I took a look at airfares this morning and expanded my segments out to this:

TRI-CLT-DCA-PIT-BDL-PIT-DCA-CLT-TRI

at usairways.com this came out to $119.07+ (or $177.10 all in)

I knew I should have booked this while I was at work but I didn't. By the time I got home this evening, usairways.com was charging $286.10 for this itinerary. Looking at the fare codes showed a hodge podge of fares strung together indicating that the T class fare I was shooting for was all sold out on some segments.

Well, I boogied over to Expedia and messed around all evening and discovered that sometimes it would give me the low fare ($182.10 all in - same as usairways.com with a $5 booking fee) and sometimes it would give me the higher one, saying that the fare had changed.

Well, I just kept pulling the thing up until it gave me the lowest fare again and I booked the thing. It charged me $182.10 all in ($119.07 fare + 58.03 taxes + $5.00 booking fee). Just one fare class (the cheapest T one, for all segments). Do other online booking sites just lag behind usairways.com when they say a particular fare class is sold out, or do fare classes really appear and disappear like that, meaning I could have booked it at usairways.com if I had hit the CONTINUE button at exactly the right second?

Even without the online booking bonus from usairways.com that still comes out to 0.023 a mile with the GP bonus miles. NOT BAD!

Of course, booking on Expedia meant that I couldn't select all the nice exit row seats reserved for preferred flyers, but heck, I just picked up the phone and called the Gold Line and the nice lady moved me to exit rows on every single flight and put me on the upgrade lists for the 4 possibly upgradeable flights.

I guess this just goes to show that usairways.com does not always offer the best possible deal?

I would have rather booked it through usairways.com though. But hey, all is fair in love and miles. :p

I think this is one of those times that the auto-faring breaks and can only piecemeal fares together. I would say its a good chance to use the low fare guarantee, but the problem is that the booking engine isn't putting it together like you want it to. :td:

-JC

Yeah, I thought about booking it anyway at usairways.com and then taking them up on the low fare guarantee to get the difference refunded plus a $50 travel voucher, but after reading about some of the hassles encountered in that program I decided I was probably better off just grabbing the thing while it was sitting there staring me in the face at Expedia, which I did. :)

Was looking to fly from CLT to LGW and the website was showing $1857 for two pax. Checked online and some website ( forgot which one) showed $1100. Called my travel agent who got me the same amount so I went ahead and got them through him. I could have taken the lowest fare guarantee advantage but had read on this forum about US Airways not being good about honoring them, so did not take the chance. Have also been checking intermittently to see if fares on US website has come down but the then never have. Have even see the fares going up to $1900 for two.

Was looking to fly from CLT to LGW and the website was showing $1857 for two pax. Checked online and some website ( forgot which one) showed $1100. Called my travel agent who got me the same amount so I went ahead and got them through him. I could have taken the lowest fare guarantee advantage but had read on this forum about US Airways not being good about honoring them, so did not take the chance. Have also been checking intermittently to see if fares on US website has come down but the then never have. Have even see the fares going up to $1900 for two.

You all were very smart about not trying to use the low fare guarantee. I have been unsuccessful in trying to explain to US that the reason for thier guarantee is so that I know when I go to their website I am getting the best fare and that point does not seem to be well taken.
So far all I can get out of them is that the fare I was going to book on expedia was a different fare basis code and they will not honor it. I then tried to expalin I wanted the lowest fare but this fell on deaf ears. To tick me off even more right after denying my claim the US website changed the fare they were charging to the same fare from expedia.
Im sure I will never hear back a proper response. So far the only person on here who has recieved this guarantee is pam.