Originally Posted by
jsloan
W is a relatively high fare; you're running into an inventory issue.
That said, I found a construction that will give me a fare of $1127, which I think is what you were seeing: a light L fare out and a light W fare back.
I put in a search to avoid the light fares. (ITA Matrix f !..-lgt)
The non-light fare is... $1247.
I have no idea what you did to get a price of $2249, but the implication that there is a $1000 fare difference for TATL BE vs non-BE is flat-out wrong.
Well I got the $2249 from some really weird funky, hard to find web-site called United.com. It some low class, junk site as far as I can tell.
My response to the inability to find a decent not BE fare on the flights I wanted was to go to United.com, if that does not work, then the problem is not mine, its United. Lets be serious, my $$$ is green, and because UA can't get it crap together with LH, another airline (AF, via Delta.com) got that $$$$.
And I don't think there is an inventory issue, the flight was available
at a good fare because it is mostly empty. The problem is that how United is running its business is messed up.
Originally Posted by
j2simpso
If you have to resort to fare construction on Matrix to find the non-BE fare that should be indicative of LH not providing passengers with the warning/tools to get out of BBE.Heck, UAmakes you click a box and sign away your first born child before they even give you the privilege of booking BE. In addition it's also unclear if the non BE option is available for a party of 4 at thattprice as the OP mentioned.
One thing the OP should consider whenever buying groups of tickets is to purchase them one at a time. If you try ordering 4 tickets the booking engine will look for whatever fare bucket has 4 seats available which may not be the lowest. Buying one seat at a time ensures you always book from the lowest bucket.
One question I do have for the FAQ is how do partners determine what should be Basic Economy or not? Clearly price wasn't the only factor in this instance. Is it possible to have only say 5 seats left in Y with UA still selling Basic Economy fares?
As for BE vs normal Y fare I will consider looking at normal fares the moment TPACS go that way. Currently AC is phasing that in and I suspect UA and the LH Group will follow suit.
-James
I got no warning on LH's web-site. They were clear that it was "economy light" and that as a result
non-elites would get no bag (but as a *G I got a waiver), with a ridiculous price for a non "economy light" (in the range of $1000+ more). It appeared to this - flown about 5MM flyer) that LH had just de-linked the first free bag. There was nothing about it being a BE on UA,
with far more limitations, and the loss of key (E+ and seat selection) benefits. Even reading UA's web-site I can't find out what a W fare, but BE exactly entails.
And I don't think this was an issue of a limited number of seats. I got no "___ seats available" indication when looking on 3rd party sites which lead me to look at these flights.