carsnoceans

I have been working a circuitous routing between ORD-GRU and the damn fare keeps breaking at stopover!! I can't really pinpoint the problem and it's killing me.

Trying to work out ORD-LAX-MIA-GRU r/t fare. I am totally blowing past the MPM but that's fine. I believe it's a 15% surcharge for going over MPM? Let's assume that's fine. Now, according to fare rules - there are no HIP checks and free stopover at North American Gateway. Min stay is first Sunday after last stopover and under total trip under 90 days.

Not really very clear on the Seasonality of the fare. Is it on dates of travel from origin/ destination or from gateway?
So I am trying to keep this in same season, meeting min stay reqs and max stay reqs. However, fare still breaks when adding a stopover.

For ex -

Trip 1:
ORD-LAX-MIA-GRU-MIA-LAX-ORD
08/13-11/02
Total fare - $958
For some reason it's getting booked under different fare basis - QLE3MGQ1/ QLX5MDQ1 for each direction. Not sure why.

Trip 2:
ORD-LAX-MIA(stop)-GRU-MIA-LAX-ORD
08/13(stop @mia)-10/22(from mia)-11/02
Total fare - $1300+
Booking under - OB21ZNI3 (ORD-LAX)/ SB14ZNK1 (LAX-MIA)/ QNE7MGQ1 (MIA-SAO)/ QLX5MDQ1 (SAO-ORD)

Furthermore, I don't understand how is ITA working here... I checked inventory on all segments given by ITA. It is pricing everything in Q whereas some segments are O7 and some are S2. Inbound leg on both trips are priced in Q but there are legs where it's Q0 and G7 (is G a restricted fare?).

Can anyone tell what am I doing wrong in booking the stopover? Or is ITAs pricing is wildly off mark in respect to availability?

jridge

For starters,
Isn't 10/23 a Friday?

carsnoceans

Must be a typo. I selected all M-Thu dates on this one.

Edit - Also, why would it matter? That restriction is only on inbound leg (SAO-ORD) which doesn't have a stopover.

jridge

Unless I'm mistaken, "trip" would mean departure from MIA. Does it make any difference if you shorten the stopover so that it departs MIA in August?

carsnoceans

Yes, it changed things but not in a good way. Priced out another set of dates keeping fare rules in mind...

08.08 to 09.07 (same route)
$958

08.08 to 08.27 to 09.07
$1165
Not only the price was changed, ITA forced a different route. My argument was "aa lax aa" so only one layover at LAX between ORD and MIA. But ITA gave me 2-stops LAX and LAS. LAX layover was 60+hrs.
Note outbound leg(s) are on weekend but fare basis has no Mon-Thru travel restriction on that component.

This is driving me bonkers!!

PS - This is not a problem using ITA. But I don't think ITA is being very accurate between a R/t vs multi-city for same dates and same origin/destination points.

pandaperth

You might find more expert advice in the ita-specific thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milea...tures-ita.html

jridge

There is different availability on the domestic segments if you search ORD-LAX-MIA or ORD-LAX-MIA-GRU, which is not unusual. Specifically, there is nothing in Q on ORD-LAX-MIA on 8/8. The above price showed fare basis NLX23GQ1. It seems to me your problem is not so much the fare rules as the availability.

carsnoceans

I don't understand. Why is the availability going to be different for ORD-LAX-MIA vs ORD-LAX-MIA-GRU?

I, too, think availability is the culprit here. But then it's ITA that's screwing up. It is pricing in Q fare whereas it should be looking up N or S (whatever is available).

skunker

Married segments. You are buying a fare from ORD-GRU so there has be availability for the exact routing for the fare to work; otherwise it gets broken up into parts. This is what your are seeing.

See if this works:
If it does put it on hold and call web services to add the stopover.

carsnoceans

I see. Didn't know international trips were booked as married segments.

Would stopover have to be part of the same inventory?

skunker

Yes, QR is really bad about them. Yes, same inventory. Put a non-stopover routing on hold and call web services, they should be able to help.

carsnoceans

I am guessing QR is not referring to Qatar.

What does it stand for in this context?