missing RDU-IAH flights?
 

(Apologies if there's a way to find this via search)

Looking for flights RDU-IAH on the weekend of March 11-14, and the normal friday PM flights on CO simply don't show up. Not on continental.com, not on expertflyer, not on ITA...

is this some kind of mistake? It's almost impossible for me to believe that the demand for this route has ceased to exist on a friday after noon -- am I missing something here, or is CO really abandoning 35% of their capacity on this route (and presumably given that it's a friday PM flight, high margin capacity as well...)

CO isn't abandoning the route, they are using UA Express CR7 dba United Express for the 2:35pm and 5:30pm departures. These are the flights that are "circumventing the CO scope clause" so to speak. They are only sold as UA flight numbers but the EUA, Seating, and Airport Control is handled by CO.

Being Discussed http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...al-pilots.html or http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/conti...2xx-range.html

*shakes head and you can hear the rattling inside*

OK... I think I sort of get this. Does this imply that (from a simple, external viewpoint) I can now fly RDU-IAH nonstop in the morning "on Continental" but RDU-IAH nonstop in the afternoon "on United" ?

I *love* airline mergers. </sarcasm>

I may have spoken too soon... while this solves part of the mystery, it doesn't solve all of it. Right now, if I do a search on ITA for *any* nonstop flight from RDU-IAH after 12pm on Friday March 11th, absolutely nothing shows up. No CO or UA..

If these flights have been re-marketed as UAX, they should still show up in a generic search, right? As of right now, I can't see how anyone anywhere can buy these flights, which sort of implies they don't really exist.

So yeah, I'm still missing something. ;-(

Ooh - is it just on certain days? I'm flying RDU-IAH-SAN March 26 and was dreading the E145 segment to IAH. Just checked my reservation and the E145 is still listed....

@travel_addict: from what I've seen it's just the afternoon flights.... these were originally an ERJ at about 230pm and then a 737 at about 530pm. The morning flights appear unchanged.

OK... it's starting to get a LITTLE clearer... on expertflyer I can now that as of Sunday March 6, the two CO flights disappear and are replaced by UA CR7's.... but at least as of right now, these flights are completely zero'ed out -- you can't even buy a full fare F seat on them.

So... I think... EITHER:
1) they've just recently made the change, and haven't gotten the fares/seats published into the booking system yet... or...
2) they swapped out (ERJ+738 = about 205 seats) for (2xCR7 = about 132 seats) and they had more than 132 people already booked on the flights they changed?

Either seems possible, but the first one seems more likely... having that many seats sold more than a month in advance doesn't seem likely.

Thanks ljwobker! We are actually taking the 5:45 pm flight out but maybe because it's a Saturday flight, they are keeping the smaller plane to IAH. But I will still keep checking and keep my fingers crossed! E+ or an EUA would be fantastic!

Yeah, saturdays are lighter loads, so that time of year they don't normally have the evening 737 -- it's all pencilJets.

Download the .exe CO Timetable to your PC (found under Wireless Tools on co.com).

Pull up RDU-IAH on March 11th, and select "Requested Date Only."

Shows one 738 (6:00am), two E45's (8:36am and 11:34am), and two E70's (2:35pm and 5:30pm).

This doesn't help you buy them, but at least you'll know they exist so you can go hunting. It's definitely worth the effort to avoid the E45's.

I found the same thing but for Monday evenings. It appears the afternoon and evening flights are gone every Monday until mid April. I did not find them on United yet either. If they do come back as United flights, can I still get Continential segment and miles?

Yes. Just make sure you use your CO OP number, not UA MR.