Originally Posted by
crackers8199
ua 795 phl -> iah
ua 709 iah -> las
ua 1194 las -> iah
ua 1511 iah -> phl
if i book that combination as a round-trip (phl -> las) united.com tells me the final cost per passenger is $715.60
if i book all four flights separately, as one way tickets (using multiple destination search), united.com tells me the final cost per passenger is $384.60
Ah. There's a difference between booking four separate one ways and using multiple destination search. Based on the price, I'm guessing that what you're actually seeing is a fare priced as at most two fares (one RT, two half-RTs, or two one-ways). Click through to the fare rules and see if there are two fare bases or four.
I'm guessing that the exact flights you're looking at did not come up when you did a RT search?