Originally Posted by
jsloan
It what?? Yeah, no wonder you got a better price then. Among the 19 other ways in which that would work out to be cheaper, that fare wouldn’t have the special surcharge for the Hopper.
To be clear — HNL-GUM-NRT-ORD-DCA is absolutely not a valid route on any HNL-DCA fare that I can find, for rather obvious reasons. :-) (It’s in the range of 150% longer than the nonstop distance).
Are you sure it didn’t price as WAS-HNL+HNL-NRT?
Not sure what the booking agent is saying, but the fare construction is almost certainly WAS-GUM-WAS (possibly with a fare break in CHI as ITA seems to like mid-continent fare breaks to save $100). There is a very respectable regular Z fare (
Z1RWB) filed from pretty much every US city to GUM in the $1,600 to $2,000 (h/r/t) range, which allows extremely liberal routing:
Fare:
Code:
UNLIMITED FREE STOPOVERS PERMITTED ON THE PRICING
UNIT. 13 TRANSFERS PERMITTED IN EACH DIRECTION.
2 PERMITTED IN HKG/NAN/NGO/TYO IN EACH
DIRECTION
2 PERMITTED IN UNITED STATES IN EACH
DIRECTION
8 PERMITTED IN MICRONESIA IN EACH DIRECTION
1 PERMITTED IN CANADA IN EACH DIRECTION.
FARE BREAK SURFACE SECTORS NOT PERMITTED AND EMBEDDED
SURFACE SECTORS PERMITTED ON THE FARE COMPONENT.
Routing:
Code:
/VIA THE PACIFIC/
MAP CONSTRUCTED LEFT TO RIGHT AND RIGHT TO LEFT
1. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/DEN-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/
ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-TYO/NGO/HKG-GUM
2. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/CHI-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/
MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-TYO/NGO/HKG-GUM
3. WAS-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/
JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-TYO/NGO/HKG-GUM
4. WAS-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-
TYO/NGO/HKG-GUM
5. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/DEN-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/
ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-GUM
6. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/CHI-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/
MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-GUM
7. WAS-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/
JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-GUM
8. WAS-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-
GUM
9. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/DEN-TYO/SHA/SEL/OSA-GUM
10. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/CHI-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-TYO/SHA/SEL/OSA-
GUM
11. WAS-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-TYO/SHA/SEL/OSA-GUM
12. WAS-TYO/SHA/SEL/OSA-GUM
13. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/DEN-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/
ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM
14. WAS-WAS/NYC/EWR/CHI-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/
MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-
GUM
15. WAS-HOU/DEN-SFO/SEA/LAX-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/
JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM
16. WAS-HNL-WP/UA/HA-OGG/MKK/LNY/LIH/KOA/JHM/ITO-WP/UA/HA-HNL-
MAJ-KWA-KSA-PNI-TKK-GUM
For some reason I really don't understand, ITA (and maybe an agency) is booking domestic segments into F when using that fare. As far as I can tell, .bomb will use Z on all components which is consistent with the rules I see:
Code:
>$LB29
029 WASGUM 30NOV17 UA USD 2006.00 Z1RWB STAY---/-- BK-Z
FARE CLS EXPLANATION BOOK CODES
-------- ---------------------- ----------
Z1RWB BUSINESS RESTRICTED FARES Z
Z1RWB APPLIES FOR ONE WAY FARES
BOOKING CODE EXCEPTIONS
VIA UA Z REQUIRED WHEN OFFERED Z- FARES BETWEEN
USA-CANADA
VIA UA Y REQUIRED Z- FARES BETWEEN USA-CANADA
VIA UA Z REQUIRED WHEN OFFERED Z- FARES WITHIN
USA
MICRONESIA
VIA UA Y REQUIRED Z- FARES WITHIN MICRONESIA
VIA UA Y REQUIRED Z- FARES WITHIN JAPAN
VIA UA Z REQUIRED Z- FARES
The actual challenge with the Hopper is inventory. When searched as HNL-GUM, there is basically never Z space, and only rarely D space. You can start playing with the segment marrying tool ("multi-city search") on .bomb to do some pretty creative things as they will sell down to almost last-seat P on the Hopper if you marry it correctly (OGG/LIH work well in my experience, as does breaking in an interior stop). It's very hard to see "true through" Hopper inventory, as no sane pricing engine is going to spit back an 8-10 stop routing for WAS-GUM.
I was considering going back to the islands and then coming home via Asia and the 77W on this fare, but am struggling with Hopper inventory (for one possible date, KWA-MAJ is J0, which is really messing me up).