This past spring, with a week left to go before my scheduled Friday departure ORD-NRT and me still on the upgrade list (and reading all the threads about even 1Ks not clearing their upgrades recently), I started panicking and so started looking around for a reasonably priced one-way biz class ticket to TPE (my final destination).

Lo and behold, on Orbitz I found a reasonably priced FIRST-CLASS ticket being sold as a TG codeshare on UA ORD-KIX, with continuing leg to TPE in NW WBC. Since I'd wanted to sample NW's new WBC, I bought the ticket. The next day, my ORD-NRT upgrade cleared.

Both my F ticket and my original UA ticket were fully refundable (the UA ticket was a B fare buy-up, so I consider that essentially refundable since I know I'll reuse the value), so up until the day of departure I was debating which flight to take. As a leisure traveler, I pay for all of my own airfare, so I was leaning toward my original UA flight, which was less than half of the TG F ticket. In the end, I decided I didn't want to have to deal with Orbitz to get my TG refund, so I cancelled my original UA ticket. Also, I think I just couldn't get over my amazement that TG was underselling UA in F by more than 50% (and the ticket was also cheaper than other airlines' C fares by a good percentage), and therefore the fare seemed like too good a value to pass up. (Yes, I'm a strange one, caring more about value than actual dollars paid.)

To this day I wonder about the extreme price discrepancy -- and where I can find more of them. Has anyone else come aross this (other than US' bargain-basement pricing of the F suite on UA's IAD-LAX and IAD-SFO widebody runs this summer)?