flyinryan

I am trying to learn the fare rules and routing languages. Now, I know what a "stopover" is - 4 hours or more in one airport (right?) But what is a transfer and how can I work it in to my routing?
Example: Here are fare rules from a recent search, SFO-JAX on UA:

STOPOVERS - PERMITTED-2 OUTBOUND 1 INBOUND 1 AT
55.81 USD EACH DENVER
TRANSFERS - 8 PERMITTED OUTBOUND 4 INBOUND 4

ROUTING 35 FROM SFO-UA-ONT/LAX-UA-BOI/GEG/LAS/
PHX/RNO/SMF/SLC/SJC/SBA/FAT/SNA/SAN/
ONT/BUR/TUS/LAX/OAK-UA-DEN-UA-
OR FROM SFO-UA-ONT/LAX-UA-SBA/FAT/SNA/
SAN/ONT/BUR/TUS/LAX-UA-DEN-UA-
OR FROM SFO-UA-PDX-UA-SEA-UA-PDX-UA-
EUG/BOI/GEG/LAS/RNO/SMF/SLC/SJC/PHX-UA-
DEN-UA-
VIA MSP/OMA/DSM/MKC/STL/MSN/MKE/
COS/DFW/CID/ICT/LNK/OKC/TUL/MLI/IND/
AUS/SAT/HOU-UA-CHI-UA-CLT/CLE/DTT/DAY/
CMH/IND/SYR-UA-
OR VIA MSY/ATL/ORL/TPA/MIA-UA-
OR VIA MSP/OMA/DSM/MKC/STL/MSN/MKE/
COS/DFW/CID/ICT/LNK/OKC/TUL/MLI/IND/
AUS/SAT/HOU-UA-CHI-UA-PIT-UA-PHL-UA-

Does this mean that I can book SFO-JAX, and force a connection from SFO to MSP, then DFW, etc etc, and as long as I don't exceed 4 each way, I can finally arrive in JAX?
Help the newbie understand, please! I really want to learn this stuff so I can do my own and not have to copy off everyone else. Thanks in advance for any/all help. ^

VPescado

You can't do what you are describing as there is no routing constructable by the above that has DFW as a connection point after MSP.

Here are the rules:

1) You get to choose one FROM, one TO, and optionally one VIA from the OR's.

2) When you see a slash ("/") that means you get to choose exactly one of the cities that are slashed together (that's why MSP-DFW fails)

3) You can exclude connection points that exist in the routing - eg. if it says AAA-BBB-CCC, you can go AAA-CCC (provided there isn't some other explicit rule like "All flights from AAA to CCC must be via BBB").

4) You need the carrier to fly direct between the points on your route - e.g. a lot of SFO routes will say something like SFO-UA-SJC/OAK-ORD. But there are no direct flights from SFO to SJC or OAK so they are useless to you.

5) There of course needs to be inventory in the appropriate bucket for the fare.

6) When you notice a loophole in a routing, you should not post about it as it risks the loophole being closed. e.g. if you find out that MIA-BOS-FLL-SEA-SAN-PDX is a valid routing (Im rather sure it's not), don't give it any unwanted attention as the airline lurkers may decide to "fix" it (much the way cats and dogs are "fixed" by the vet. Feel free to make vague references and to PM your friends and tell folks at do's just don't make it easy for someone to cut and paste your post into an email to the fare desk.

Plane Crazy

Without contradicting point 6) made by VPescado above, does anyone have any creative ideas for an East Coast - HNL - East Coast YUP milage run on AA applicable for travel 2-9 of March? Thanks.

VPescado

You should proably start a new thread for your question as otherwise this thread will get way too confusing with various specific requests. Also someone that has good ideas for you will be far more likely to spot your question.

ja_user

Step #1 http://www.faremetrics.com/expand.html

Step #2, paste in routing rules, set number of transfers, and minimum mileage earned per segment. In this case, 4 and 500?

Step #3 hit submit.

Step #4 work with the routing rules to learn how to strip out the ones that are not valid. For instance, out of MCI all AA routes list MKC-STL, and that flight doesn't exist, so I always modify the routing rules so options with that flight are not listed anymore.

flyinryan

I've been trying this, and I can't get the faremetrics software to work - I've read the route expander guide, and made my cut/paste look just like the example, but no go. I've been using Expedia to get the rules/routings, as suggested by the faremetrics help page, but evidently the lingo isn't quite right. Where can I find UA fare rules/routings that I can plug into Faremetrics? Or, what do I need to change on the Expedia rules to make it work?
Mods: if this needs to be moved to a new thread, please do so.

flyinryan

self-serving bump

ja_user

Find the routing in the rules on expedia, right before booking a flight between the right city pair, on the right airline.
Faremetrics, I have noticed, breaks allot when you choose options other than what I specifically said, 500 mile minimum, number of transfers. Do not choose the carrier your on, that is not reliable.
THe above example doesn't work, it is formatted incorrectly. Pick your own pair on expedia and view the rules.

Fly16

Sorry to bump this up, but I too am having trouble getting it to work. Copied routing rule from Expedia (eg, 529, BWI to SEA or 35, BWI/BUR) and filled in only min. transfers (4) and miles (500), but still get error statements. Are others having these problems or am I missing something still? BTW, am using Mozilla Firefox. Would this make a difference?

SchmutzigMSP

I've noticed that the route expander doesn't always work perfectly. Often times it will miss obvious routings that are very clear to even the novice routing-rules student (such as omitting any connections in DTW for NW routes). I find it's best to just learn how to read the rules by hand, freshen up a bit on your U.S. geography and use the mileage calculator to verify that you've selected the right routing. ^

VPescado

You would probably have more luck getting answers to you questions by bumping up one of the existing threads on fare expander instead of this one.

Fly16

very much for the quick response. You were very good to answer. I will do as you suggest. And have been playing around with route expander myself. If you copy the route by hand it seems to work, but not cut and pasting out of expedia -- for me at least.

ja_user

I have never seen it work for me if you specify the carrier, either. Just put in 500 Mile min and possibly tweak the routing put in.

kebosabi

Sorry to bring back up an old thread, but I've been having some hard time figuring out routings.

I usually fly LAX-DFW-BWI-DFW-BWI (or LAX-ORD-BWI-ORD-LAX) on AA several times a year for miles, business, and leisure. I'm rather happy with this by itself as 4900 miles RT does give me enough miles for elite status. However, I am open to try other interesting routings to increase my miles. Also, flying the same route repeatedly is getting rather boring .

I did look at several of the places that previous FTers has suggested, but I still cannot find the ROUTING section which I can take a look to see which connections I can squeeze in to maximize my miles. Travelocity and AA.com doesn't show routing rules, so I've tried Expedia under rules and restriction, but I'm still not seeing anywhere that shows which cities that I can make a connection through without the fare increasing three-fold.

Can someone help me where to look for this part so that I can become a true MR?

SchmutzigMSP

You're in the right place. When you click on the rules and restrictions, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page where you'll see something like this (actual routing rules for BWI-LAX by the way):

This tells you which cities you're allowed to go through and in which order to adhere to this specific fare. Each fare has different rules, but *in general* most of your economy/coach fares are going to have the same routing rules between two cities. To read the routings, you need to remember these points:

• you must read left-to-right, top-to-bottom and not go backwards
• you are allowed one "FROM" and one "TO"
• you can only fly between cities that actually have flights between them
• a "-" means you may continue on from the previous city to the next city in that exact order (no connections)
• a "/" means "or", so "DEN/LAS" means you can go through DEN -or- LAS
• you can use an "OR TO" instead of a "TO", but only once
• you must not have more than the maximum number of transfers specified earlier in the rules and restrictions

Now, the some rules and regulations will cut off the routing rules at the bottom. In this case, just look at the reverse city pair (BWI-LAX) in this case and you can use the routing rules from that, but just read it in reverse (i.e. right-to-left, bottom-to-top, and replace the "FROM" with a "TO" and a "TO" with a "FROM".