Originally Posted by
meunger11
I also experienced something funky about their Florida pricing. Three weeks ago, my wife and I compared the following airfares:
Both Class F
DFW-MIA-PUJ-DFW $2,600
DFW-ORD-PUJ-DFW $6,800
Both had 4-day layovers at the FL cities
Unless they were codesharing with Etihad domestically
, I didn't understand the crazy pricing, but chalked it up to the fare buckets theory.
Not fare bucket availability, fare combination issues. Since you mentioned Florida cities, presumably you mean MCO, not ORD. DFW-PUJ FC fares permit a stopover in MIA (with a small additional charge), so you are able to book that stopover as a simple combination of reasonably priced DFW-PUJ and PUJ-DFW fares (you can actually get FC on this itin for as low as about $1000). If you read the fares rules (can be found on aa.com or ITA Matrix when pricing out a fare) for DFW-PUJ FC fares, you will see the following --
1 STOPOVER PERMITTED ON THE PRICING UNIT ONLY AT THE
GATEWAY IN MIA AT USD 50.00/CAD 50.00.
But since the DFW-PUJ fares don't permit an MCO stopover, you need three separate fares for that itin. DFW-MCO + MCO-PUJ + PUJ-DFW. Further, the fare combination rules in the cheaper FC fares don't let you combine such fares together on a single ticket. In order combine all these fares on a single ticket, you must upfare to full J fares on the flights. Here's end-on-end combination restrictions in the cheaper FC fares to PUJ that forces the upfare --
END-ON-END COMBINATIONS NOT PERMITTED WITH DOMESTIC
FARES WITHIN THE UNITED STATES. VALIDATE ALL FARE
COMPONENTS. SIDE TRIPS NOT PERMITTED.
You can get a much better deal by simply breaking apart the itin onto separate tickets. One FC ticket for DFW-MCO fare, and a separate ticket for MCO-PUJ + PUJ-DFW fares. That will avoid running afoul of the fare combination rules on the lower fare classes and you will be able to get cheaper F/J fares on the itin. Still almost certainly more than the MIA itin because of the requirement for three fares vs. two, but much less than having to purchase full J fares in order to combine all the fares on one ticket. The fare combination restrictions are a form of fare discrimination meant to ensnare business flyers who often book such complicated multi-city itins and are less price sensitive. Price sensitive leisure flyers are more likely to book simple roundtrips. This is also why there are often minimum stay/Saturday night stay requirements in the cheaper fares (business flyers tend to have shorter stays and often avoid Saturday night stays so they can be at home on the weekends).