Originally Posted by
mgcsinc
Yes. Ish.
This is not a situation of differently-priced fares published with different routing restrictions. It's a situation where the monopoly pricing (which UA applies to both non-stops and one-stops in this market, it looks like) is being defeated by end-on-end combinations. That's why the OP is seeing this only through outstations.
This has been happening for years though, on UA, CO and all of the other major airlines. I've seen options like this for as long as I've been using the ITA tool, which makes these fares very easy to find. I've also seen plenty of examples over the years where end-on-end combinations are prohibited on specific routes to protect the pricing even on less convenient routings.