Old Jan 12, 2014, 3:56 pm
FlyerTalk Forums Expert How-Tos and Guides
Last edit by: WineCountryUA
This thread is for posting about how the PQDs for particular flown segments post to the United website. How many PQDs posted for a particular segment, the timing of the posting, and similar issues belong here.

For a more general discussion and Q&A about PQDs, use this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ad-2014-a.html

How many PQDs will post for each segment?

We're still trying to figure that out! In general, though, here's how it's supposed to work: For each fare* in your itinerary, the PQDs (airfare + YQ) for that fare will be distributed across the segments associated with that fare using an "industry standard" method that is opaque.

*Airline tickets are generally priced all the way from your origin to your destination as a single one-way or half-round-trip fare. For example, if you fly LAX-SFO-EWR-LHR-FRA//FRA-IAD-DEN-LAX, there will usually be a single half-rount-trip fare associated with the entire outbound trip, and a single half-round-trip fare associated with the entire return trip. In general, you do not pay a specific price for each segment of your trip. Understanding this simple idea is fundamental to understanding how airfare is priced. Sometimes, though, your trip will be made up of several fares all tacked together. For example, it could be that the return trip in the above example is constructed as FRA-IAD-DEN//DEN-LAX. In this case, the fare is said to "break" at DEN. It is essential to know where fare breaks occur in your itinerary in order to predict/explain PQD earnings for each segment. (You should probably learn how this stuff works anyway, because it can help you understand why some tickets cost more than others, where you can put in a free stopover, etc.)

What is the most helpful way for me to report the PQD breakdown for a trip I took?

If you want to contribute the most information possible, post the PQDs associated with each segment of your trip, and post the full fare construction of your trip.

To see the fare construction, go to the Saudi Airlines website, click on "Manage Bookings," click "eTicket," and enter your ticket number (beginning with 016). There's also a browser extension/script available to ease the Saudia link/searching: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...-analysis.html.

A few notes on how contract fares can be negotiated per daniellam:
Having used bulk and corporate negotiated fare tickets in the past and being familiar with the the various ticketing methods used by travel agencies, the following are three methods which I have observed and each have their own implications in terms of accounting/reimbursement by the travel agency and their corporate client ("employer") as well as the earning of PQDs.

In each of these scenarios, we will assume the following (ignoring taxes and other fees the corporate travel agency may add on top):

- The regular published fare before corporate discount is $1,000
- Negotiated corporate fare contract allows the fare to be sold for $750 (travel agent keeps $50) with the net fare being $700.
- Payment method is credit card in all cases, and the employee buying the ticket is reimbursed for the amount charged to the credit card.

Method 1 - Published Fare with Commission Method (only if contract allows this method to be used)

Fare on e-ticket receipt shows: $1,000 (this can be pulled up on united.com)

"Commission" claimed when ticket issued: $300 (travel agent keeps $50) [A special corporate code is entered onto the e-ticket]

What the e-ticket looks like to the passenger: Looks just just any other e-ticket that was purchased directly from United Airlines, with the exception of a code in the "tour code" field (not normally visible on united.com).

Invoice from travel agency shows: $1,000

Payment flow:

1) Passenger is charged $1,000 on his corporate AMEX (merchant on credit card bill shows up as "United Airilnes") and the employer reimburses him $1,000 once an expense report is completed.

2) Travel Agency receives $300 "commission" from the airline and keeps $50.

3) Travel Agency cuts a check to the employer for $250.

End result: The employer pays $1,000 less $250 for a net of $750. (Note: The employer may bill the client $1,000 for the employee's travel if they can get away with it).

PQD Earned: $1,000

Implications: More accounting work needs to be done by travel agency to determine how much to pay the employer. Employer needs to pay the published fare and wait for the "rebate" from the travel agency.

Method 2 - Published Fare with Corporate Discount (only if contract allows this method to be used)

Fare on e-ticket receipt shows: $750 (this can be pulled up on united.com)

[A "ticket designator" is added to the fare basis (eg. QUP14QPN/CORP) where as an example "CORP" is the ticket designator to denote "corporate fare")]

"Commission" claimed when ticket issued: $50 (travel agent keeps $50) [A special corporate code is entered onto the e-ticket as well]

What the e-ticket looks like to the passenger: Looks just just any other e-ticket that was purchased directly from United Airlines, with the exception of a code in the "tour code" field, "ticket designator" (not normally visible on united.com) and of course a lower fare than what it would have been if purchased on united.com.

Invoice from travel agency shows: $750

Payment flow:

1) Passenger is charged $750 on his corporate AMEX (merchant on credit card bill shows up as "United Airilnes") and the employer reimburses him $750 once an expense report is completed.

2) Travel Agency receives $50 "commission" from the airline and keeps $50.

End result: The employer pays a net fare of $750. (Note: The employer may only be able to bill the client $750 in this case).

PQD Earned: $750

Implications: Less accounting work needs to be done by travel agency. Employer does not need to wait for "rebate", but can only bill the client the fare less corporate discount.

Method 3A - Bulk Ticketing with "credit card" as form of payment (perhaps this method seems to be the easiest to use when automated online booking tools such as Concur are used to automatically quote fares/issue tickets as only the "bulk" fare between specified city pairs need to be loaded into the system instead of having to program a bunch of specialized ticketing instructions into the system for each corporate contract???)

Fare on e-ticket receipt shows: "BULK" or "BT" or "IT" (this can be pulled up on united.com)

[Note: When the travel agent issues the ticket, $750 is entered as the fare with a "BULK"/"BT"/"IT" flag added so that the fare dosen't show up on the ticket. This results in the fare amount being transmitted only the the revenue accounting department of the airline, while other staff at the airline don't see the price]

"Commission" claimed when ticket issued: $50 (travel agent keeps $50) [A special corporate code is entered onto the e-ticket as well]

What the e-ticket looks like to the passenger: "BULK" / "BT" / "IT" in fare box, as well as a fare basis that may either be that of a published fare or an obscure one such as "YBULK".

Invoice from travel agency shows: $750

Payment flow:

1) Passenger is charged $750 on his corporate AMEX (merchant on credit card bill shows up as "United Airilnes") and the employer reimburses him $750 once an expense report is completed.

2) Travel Agency receives $50 "commission" from the airline and keeps $50.

End result: The employer pays a net fare of $750. (Note: The employer may only be able to bill the client $750).

PQD Earned: $0 [Because United dosen't know how much was actually paid without referring to their revenue accounting department]

Implications: Minimal accounting work needs to be done by travel agency. Employer does not need to wait for rebate. Employee does not get PQD.

Method 3B - Bulk Ticketing with "Cash" or "Invoice" as form of payment (even though payment is by credit card)

Fare on e-ticket receipt shows: "BULK" or "BT" or "IT" (this can be pulled up on united.com)

[Note: When the travel agent issues the ticket, $700 is entered as the fare with a "BULK"/"BT"/"IT" flag added so that the fare dosen't show up on the ticket. This results in the fare amount being transmitted only the the revenue accounting department of the airline, while other staff at the airline don't see the price]

"Commission" claimed when ticket issued: $0

What the e-ticket looks like to the passenger: "BULK" / "BT" / "IT" in fare box, as well as a fare basis that may either be that of a published fare or an obscure one such as "YBULK".

Invoice from travel agency shows: $750 (note the agent is basically selling that $700 ticket for $750)

Payment flow:

1) Passenger is charged $750 on his corporate AMEX (merchant on credit card bill shows up as "AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL" instead of "United Airlines") and the employer reimburses him $750 once an expense report is completed.

End result: The employer pays a net fare of $750. (Note: The employer may only be able to bill the client $750).

PQD Earned: $0 [Because United dosen't know how much was actually paid without referring to their revenue accounting department]

Implications: Minimal accounting work needs to be done by travel agency. Employer does not need to wait for rebate. Employee does not get PQD.
Voucher impact on PQDs is covered in Vouchers in the PQD era
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It Begins: PQDs Posting on United.com

Old Jan 26, 2014, 8:07 am
  #376  
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Originally Posted by Cargojon
did I read somewhere correctly that Concur purchased tickets do not count for PQD's?
Not quite. Concur is just a travel agent and they can sell lots of different types of tickets. It would appear that if they sell you a "bulk" ticket, which is one where they've negotiated a better rate than the typical published fares from the airlines, then you are at risk of not receiving PQDs. Such negotiated rates may be route or even company specific.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 8:09 am
  #377  
 
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Originally Posted by sbm12:22225106
Originally Posted by Cargojon
did I read somewhere correctly that Concur purchased tickets do not count for PQD's?
Not quite. Concur is just a travel agent and they can sell lots of different types of tickets. It would appear that if they sell you a "bulk" ticket, which is one where they've negotiated a better rate than the typical published fares from the airlines, then you are at risk of not receiving PQDs. Such negotiated rates may be route or even company specific.
is there any way to tell? My new employer uses Concur and I don't want to risk it.....
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 8:16 am
  #378  
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I asked before, I'll ask again - any NON-AmEx tickets that have had the 0-PQD-due-to-Bulk issue?
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 8:27 am
  #379  
 
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New to FT, and enjoying this forum. However, I'm still trying to figure out how to calculate the PQDs for an itinerary started in 2013 and completed in 2014. It's not a straight round-trip, so probably doesn't break down 50-50. DTW-LHR (via ORD) in 2013, then LHR-EWR later this year 2014. Is there any way to figure this out? Will they be able to tell me at United if I call? With my other PDQs for the year, the answer could make or break my qualifying for any status, so might affect which other fares I select for future reservations.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 8:53 am
  #380  
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Originally Posted by Cargojon
is there any way to tell? My new employer uses Concur and I don't want to risk it.....
Well, there's the part where your employer uses the service and you're expected to do so, right? I'd not risk my job over airline elite status.
Originally Posted by kookoo
New to FT, and enjoying this forum. However, I'm still trying to figure out how to calculate the PQDs for an itinerary started in 2013 and completed in 2014. It's not a straight round-trip, so probably doesn't break down 50-50. DTW-LHR (via ORD) in 2013, then LHR-EWR later this year 2014. Is there any way to figure this out? Will they be able to tell me at United if I call? With my other PDQs for the year, the answer could make or break my qualifying for any status, so might affect which other fares I select for future reservations.
Welcome to FlyerTalk!! Have you tried pulling the fare details from the Saudia website as described in the wiki on this thread? You should be able to parse out the LHR-EWR fare chunk as well as half the YQ to figure it out.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 9:59 am
  #381  
 
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Thanks sbm12. I went to the Sudi wesite and was able to get my fare bases, but I'm not finding the correct wiki here to know what to do with the info. Where do I find that?
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 10:04 am
  #382  
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Originally Posted by Cargojon
did I read somewhere correctly that Concur purchased tickets do not count for PQD's?
mine have never been BULK tickets; both domestic and intl. It will be dependent on your route and company. If you have the option to call (rather than forced to use an online tool) you can simply ask the agent if this is a published or a bulk fare; often the difference is very small and most companies allow a higher price ticket if it is in certain limits.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 10:05 am
  #383  
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Originally Posted by kookoo
Thanks sbm12. I went to the Sudi wesite and was able to get my fare bases, but I'm not finding the correct wiki here to know what to do with the info. Where do I find that?
Just paste the info in here if you want someone to interpret it for you.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 10:47 am
  #384  
 
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I use concur with CWT and I've never gotten bulk. As Seth has mentioned it depends on a lot of criteria.

If you want to know if you have a bulk fare purchased, this is easy just go into the e-ticket receipt on united website and it will state bulk as fare price.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 10:55 am
  #385  
 
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Something new on my account today- I hold the MP Club credit card. My account now shows the Presidential Plus PQD waiver.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 11:01 am
  #386  
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Originally Posted by GoDucks
Something new on my account today- I hold the MP Club credit card. My account now shows the Presidential Plus PQD waiver.
Did you convert from a PresPlus card to a Club card with FPQMs???
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 11:06 am
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Originally Posted by WineCountryUA
Did you convert from a PresPlus card to a Club card with FPQMs???
No, I've had only the Club card for a little over 2 years.

I can only see the waiver on the app, I don't see it on ua.com so maybe it's not even real- but it wasn't showing a day or two ago.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 11:12 am
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Originally Posted by mht_flyer:22225817
I use concur with CWT and I've never gotten bulk. As Seth has mentioned it depends on a lot of criteria.

If you want to know if you have a bulk fare purchased, this is easy just go into the e-ticket receipt on united website and it will state bulk as fare price.
thanks. We use CWT as well so this is good to know.
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 12:35 pm
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I got "ineligible" for a LH flight booked on UA website...a recent posting. Is that going to be corrected automatically or do I have to contact UA? What is the best MO?

Cheers!
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Old Jan 26, 2014, 12:44 pm
  #390  
 
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Her is the relevent info, I think, from the Saudi site. Can someone interpret for me?

/FC 25AUG13 DTT UA X/CHI UA LON256.50SKW6NCE UA EWR160.50SKX6NCE NUC417.00END ROE1.00XT34.40US5.00AY458.00YQ5.50YC7.00XY5.00XA10 8.50GB62.50UBXF9.00DTW4.5ORD4.5
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