Originally Posted by
emcampbe
For SFO-CVG/CMH-SFO, fare basis is SAA2AKEN outbound, TFA4ODER return. For the all CMH itin, outbound fare basis is LFA4ADDN outbound, TFA4ODDN on the return. Kicking my self for not booking last night, when the fares were about $25 less per person on either, as the CMH-SFO was booking into L. Maybe I'll wait until next week. But the real question is, how is a roundtrip with an L and T fare basis more expensive than a roundtrip on an S and T fare. I realize CMH and CVG are different markets, but as someone who lived in S. Ohio for years, I know that CMH is typically cheaper than CVG to fly into/out of. But really confused about how the higher fare class into CVG is cheaper than the lower fare class into CMH. Is it just a 'non-stop' penalty. Or something else going on here.
In addition to CVG and CMH just being different markets with different fare tables, the -ER fare is available while combined with the -EN fare on SFO-CVG because it's "high enough" (has no Basic Economy match, or it would be a -DN fare) which gets you a discount equal to the Basic Economy differential. (The -ER fares let you pay BE rates h/r/t for regular Economy, but require combination with higher fares.)