Originally Posted by
eigenvector
Expedia / other OTAs often show phantom availability, when you actually try to book it the price will go up at the last step because the fare bucket being shown isn't actually available for booking.
As will google flights, because, among other reasons, it will show fares that UA won't let you book because they violate married segment restrictions.
Originally Posted by
fj1886
The first point was that Google Flights can sometimes be cheaper, at least in my observations, but I didn't give an example of that.
See point above. Just because google flights shows a cheaper fare doesn't mean it's actually bookable.
I have frequently found that if I search on consecutive days for a particular routing, United will (I assume) sense that I am interested in it, and the price will rise even though the same fare classes are still available.
That's not because UA is tracking you. There are a variety of possible explanations the most likely being (a) you missed an AP requirement (happens all the time), or (b) the fares themselves increased (also happens all the time).
Originally Posted by
WineCountryUA
all the OP shared was
Not clear at all if the same flights, same carriers.
Yeah and there was a reference to B6 being cheaper for a nonstop vs. UA for a one-stop.
What this thread shows is that airfare construction and pricing is complex and not well understood by most.