Originally Posted by
imgonnafly
that's the mystery! but they have to be getting the numbers from somewhere, right? and it's even more strange because on google flights (which i think uses the same back end as ita?), it specifically says book with united (at the higher price) and book w a travel agent (for the lower price). i feel like part of the mystery is related to this "book w a travel agent" but i can't quite figure out what...
My best guess is that Google Flights says "book with a travel agent" because the backend (which I do think is shared with ITA) spat out a price which Google couldn't find through any OTA or airline website (it will link to Orbitz et al. if it can).
But yeah... where ITA can price the CNY 1602.00 base fare is beyond me. I have encountered rather glaring inventory issues on ITA before though, so I can't say I fully trust it.