Originally Posted by
Miles Ahead
My itinerary was ORD-FRA-GVA-FRA-ORD. Initially booked as W/W/W/W, which triggered a bag fee. I called and confirmed I got "lit", at least as far as bag fees were concerned. I upfared to V/V/V/V and it's still showing bag fees, but called and United confirmed that this was a mistake.
There is a tremendous amount of confusion between "point of origin", which is the language used in the rollout and "departure city". My understanding is that on the return flight, my departure city is GVA but my point of origin is ORD. As such, a W should have been fine. I don't think it's truly a Light fare, as my upgrades waitlisted fine.
I am also wondering if the web display is not coded correctly and it's just looking at the first letter of the fare basis and running with it.
I can confirm that there are no UA or LH W-Light fares filed in the ORD-GVA market; there are W-Light fares filed GVA-ORD. However, as you suggest, the GVA-ORD fares should
only be used for travel originating in Europe, and even if there were a set of discount one-way fares for these markets (there aren't), you shouldn't be able to combine a non-Light outbound with a Light return.
They can't/shouldn't just use the first letter of the fare basis to make a determination, because there are non-Light versions of these same fares.
I suspect you would have gotten a free checked bag on the W fare.