findark

If you're only interested in purchasing E+, it should be much cheaper (like less than $50) for a flight that short.

dministrator

I just booked a multi-city economy ticket like this for a 2 week trip in late September, my ultimate destination being TRZ.

Booking 1:

Flight 1: SEA-SIN transiting at SFO, all on United
Flight 2: DEL-SEA transiting at NRT, all on ANA

This was priced $530.99

Booking 2:
One Way: SIN-TRZ transiting at CMB, on Sri Lankan.

This was priced $150.29

MAA, SIN, KUL are well connected to TRZ. So I explored the schedule and pricing to&from those airports first.

A round trip itinerary from SEA and MAA is about $1,021. SEA-SIN-SEA costs $756, SEA-KUL-SEA was $651.

I tried several combinations like SEA-KUL + SIN-SEA and SEA-SIN + KUL-SEA and SEA-MAA + SIN-SEA etc, etc.

Ultimately, the schedule and cost in the bookings above worked for me and I went ahead and booked it. I still have to purchase a ticket to DEL.


Some context: In the past, I always went to MAA where my family picks me up and drive to TRZ. This is the first time I will be flying directly to TRZ primarily to avoid the driving. MAA-TRZ flights' timings didn't work for me.


Q1. Did I book an United "revenue open jaw" without realizing it? In other words, is what I did in Booking 1 above, considered open jaw?

Q2. Why did the combination above in Booking 1, produce the best/cheapest rate of all the other combinations I tried?

Anything else I should learn from this for my future bookings?

Thank you for sharing the knowledge.

jsloan

Q1: Yes, this is an open-jaw ticket. A (single) open jaw is defined as a journey from A to B, combined with a journey from C to A, provided that the (unflown) B to C leg is the shortest of the three.

Q2: The vast majority of United fares can be booked on a half-round-trip basis as part of an open jaw itinerary. In most cases, they can be combined with some fares for other carriers -- particularly ANA, given that they have a joint venture with them. So, you're paying half of the SEA-SIN price plus half of the SEA-DEL price.

However, most of the inexpensive fares have a prohibition against end-on-end ticketing. An end-on-end ticket is created when you combine a fare from A to B with a fare from B to C, all on the same ticket. So, it's likely that the inexpensive fares that you used to construct your Booking 1 cannot be combined with the flights from Booking 2, meaning that a less-restricted, more-expensive fare had to be used instead.

FYI: I don't know how long you have at SIN, but if you are checking luggage, current UA policy prohibits them from checking you bag through to a non-Star Alliance airline on a separate ticket. So, you will have to go through immigration and customs at SIN, pick up your bag, and then re-check it with Sri Lankan.

As far as future lessons -- I think you've hit them on the head. Any time you're trying to make a complicated journey -- particularly one that involves several airlines -- try all of the various combinations to see which will price the best for you.

mahasamatman

That works within North America, but rarely for intercontinental flights.

jsloan

No, that's not true at all. Nearly all discount UA fares can be booked on a half-round-trip basis as part of an open jaw. That's different from saying that they can be booked as a one-way; the second part of the open jaw is required. So, for example, you can book MSP-LHR / CDG-MSP and it will be half of the MSP-LHR round-trip fare plus half of the MSP-CDG round-trip fare.

This is a typical rule (from an MSP-LHR L fare):

So, you can't use this fare for a one-way trip, nor for a double open jaw (e.g., MSP-LHR / CDG-ORD). But you can use it for a single open jaw.

cblaisd

Family member has not been into her account online since UA upped the security with the silly pick list of ice cream flavors, etc. Figure I'm going to need to make a call to web support (?) with her nearby in order to get things back to where she (or I as her travel manager) can log in. Do I call web support? If so, what number? (With no status anymore, I'm loathe to call the general line and get the outsourced folks ) and the "secret" 1K line to DTW no longer works.....

WineCountryUA

What is the problem?
If the security questions have not been entered, you just need to do that.
If the answers have been forgotten, there is a process to address that.
Have you hit a roadblock?

cblaisd

Password no longer works.

WineCountryUA

And what happens when you do a password reset?

Assume you are not trying to use the old PIN.

cblaisd

I will have to get back to you on that one, since I do know that it is her email associated with the account and any password reset instruction will come to her email. It's too difficult to try to coordinate that long distance, so will wait for a couple of weeks when I can be present with her.

Maybe that's all it will take.

In the meantime, if it doesn't, what is web support's phone #?

Thank you for your help!

EmailKid

I'm not sure this is a web support issue. In fact I doubt it, it's a password issue that I doubt web support will assist.

cblaisd

Maybe not, but could someone share that, please?

WineCountryUA

Without the account email and access, you will be stuck (rightfully so).

Pretty sure all UA phone lines queries for account id, so you get the same folks as you would if you go thru a regualr phone agent.

Since UA only publishes an email contract for Web Support, FT does not allow posting an non-published numbers (BTW, most of the web support numbers you can find by search have been killed).

I think if you get on the phone with the other individual you should be able to do all you need with any UA human involvement.

mahasamatman

Sorry, I misunderstood what you were getting at.

MrFrosty

2 quick questions:

1. I'm only a premier silver. How do priority luggage tags work? I purchased 4 x RT tix from SFO - NAS. We each had 1 checked bag. On the way out all 4 bags were given the orange priority tag. On the way back, only my bag was given the orange tag. The agent advised that only the Silver member with VIP printed on the luggage tag is able to get the priority tag. Is that correct?

2. Flight was delayed 2 hours due to weather in IAH. United sent me a survey asking how I felt about the flight delay but no compensation. Are weather events eligible for compensation?

-Mike