Originally Posted by
USHPNWDLUA
These are not really the exact same flights! The fare classes are different.
Yes, the fare classes being booked in to are different. But the flights booked are exactly the same.
Originally Posted by
mherdeg
Are you totally sure about this? If these trips are actually being fared out with individual-segment fares and if the fares allow end-on-end combinations into a single trip, then I think you are wrong here. Have you looked closely at this specific example?
I do agree with you that it is possible to use united.com multicity search to price out an A->B->C trip using generous per-segment A-B + B-C inventory and covering the trip with a single A->C fare in a lower fare class than is offered in the married-segment A-C-through-B inventory. But are you sure that that is what is happening here? In the fare constructions sbm12 has provided I see multiple fares covering a journey, in which case using inventory per each fare might make sense.
I haven't studied these examples deeply enough to see for sure what's up.
In this case the more expensive fares are the end-on-end options while the less expensive fares are single fare components in each direction.
Originally Posted by
mgcsinc
These examples are a bit unusual...
And yet I had minimal trouble locating them. I'm not nearly as convinced that they are "unusual" rather than UA's SOP right now.
Originally Posted by
mgcsinc
That is perfectly within their rights to do
Sure, but I believe it is worth raising the point that UA is not actually delivering on their advertised policy of sharing the lowest fare when searching.
I get that they think they might know better than me about my trip. But the part where I can routinely get different prices based on the type of search being performed is bad for consumers.