Valsetz

I fly regularly TPA - TUS via IAH. The IAH - TUS leg recently became a UA flight under SkyWest, just this year. This seems to have changed the pricing structure on CO. I just booked that itinerary for $337 on UA when the exact same itinerary was $767 on CO:

3/31

CO 1807/UA 3567 (operated by CO)
Lv TPA 6:35p
Ar IAH 8:01p

UA 4694 (operated by Skywest DBA United Express)
Lv IAH 8:50p
Ar TUS 9:24p

4/4

UA 4668 (operated by Skywest DBA United Express)
Lv TUS 5:20 a (ugh!)
Ar IAH 9:37a

CO 1656/UA 3574 (operated by CO)
Lv IAH 11:05 a
Ar TPA 2:17 p

$337.80 booked on UA
$767.30 if booked on CO

So I booked in on UA, where I couldn't even choose my seats on the IAH-TUS, TUS-IAH legs operated by Skywest, was issued both UA and CO confirmation numbers on the UA reservation, went to the CO website, pulled up the reservation, and booked my E+ seats on the Skywest/UA Express flights and my exit rows on the CO TPA-IAH/IAH-TPA legs (as a CO plat).

Guess that's what they mean by still operating as separate airlines...

bankerflyer

Same experience on a IAH-MAF trip booked last week. CO=$335 while UA=$140 for the same flights. I guess the message at this point is to look on both websites before booking.

rggale

I booked a complicated res yesterday EWR-DEN-MSO-DEN-PHX-EWR and it was ~3k through CO, and $1800 through UA. Both CO and UA Elite Desk agents said that the systems are being kind of funky as they integrate...which almost always means higher fares for us. Hopefully new UA doesn't get used to the inflated RASM.

nonactin

If you make an extra stop at PHX/LAS/LAX on your way to Missoula, you may be able to save a lot of $$ since the ticket prices of MSO-PHX/LAS/LAX are affected by low fare carrier Allegiant Air.

kb1992

Same for fares to China.

Mixed CO/UA fares could be as low as $830.

UA only fares are massively more expensive.

Darlox

Wow... I'm having massive deja-vu here. This exact same scenario happened to those of us who lived through the NW/DL merger (which, I'll note, ended up being a major factor in the decisions of many of us to jump ship to *A). I just hope the rest of that scenario doesn't play out again here, as these pricing discrepancies eventually blossomed into the inability to book many Int'l itineraries PERIOD, because of the hacks they wedged in to try and address the pricing discrepancies. I spent the better part of 4 months booking Int'l flights on Orbitz because there was literally no other way.

I just encountered the same thing earlier this week buying a flight to SIN, depending on whether the TPAC segments were the UA or CO flight number. CO 6031 is UA 895 -- a 1-stop "direct" flight ORD-HKG-SIN. Pricing was ~$100 different between the sites for the same flight, and seating was a complete bollux... as even once the flight was purchased, ua.com couldn't assign me seats in either direction. The flight is actually TWO segments behind-the-scenes, and UA apparently couldn't figure out how to assign seats on CO 6031 since there was only a single codeshare flight shown on the itinerary for a journey that's actually two flights on UA's metal.