CommentatusMaximus

I'm just learning how to use ITA Matrix and am so impressed with it. I have some GUCs coming to me in about a month and am trying to figure out how to best optimize my route (eg, pay the least and get upgraded to J).

However, I'm finding that if I have a trip with multiple segments I can't always get the lowest fare buckets versus checking each flight individually. Like A-B-C-D prices out with a mix of higher fare buckets (say T, X, and V) than A-B + B-C-D (all V) even though they are the same flights.

If I gather all the individual flights with V ticket availability, can I call Delta and have them create a single trip out of them using these lower fares? Or is there some other trick to "forcing" the system to let me buy all the flights and stick them into a single PNR? I could just book the short A-B segment separately but that would create issues with luggage, missed connections, etc.

Thanks for any help!

Bowgie

Short answer is no. There can be married segment restrictions that keep you from doing this. Both Delta and ITA price tickets taking into account married segment logic.

Both ITA and Delta will find broken fare tickets, which are just a complete trip with two or fares cobbled together.

If Delta doesn't allow end-on-end ticketing on a particular route, it can in a few circumstances, be cheaper to buy two separate Delta tickets. ITA will combine two separate tickets on a trip with flights using different airlines and ticketed as one trip. An airline booking site can do the same if its rules allow.

ITA finds cheaper flight occasionally, not because it can ignore Delta ticketing rules, but because it is just better than Delta in finding the cheapest flight that fits those rules. There is an online tool that can help you to input an ITA trip into Delta for booking. Sometimes, booking it as a multi-leg trip on Delta can work, too.

3Cforme

Married segments availability is the problem as noted by Bowgie.

Looking for itins segment by segment manually has been obsolete for years. Let computers find qualifying itins for you. ITA Matrix's advanced controls/outbound routing controls is very useful. Want four Delta-coded segments LGA-LAX? Enter dl dl dl dl into the outbound routing codes field. ITA has deep search skills: it can find a qualifying & available through-fare, or construct something from broken fares.

MSPeconomist

If you're trying to get as many segments upgraded as possible from a single GUC, you need to read the rules carefully, although in practice YMMV.

When I last faced this issue, I had a supervisor and even a manager look carefully to confirm that (at that time, which was a couple years ago) a SWU/GUC covered an entire fare component, including flights after a stopover (over 24 hours) on an international itinerary.

My understanding is that it's still the case that if you have a broken fare, you need multiple GUCs.

CommentatusMaximus

Thanks all for the replies. If I book A-B and B-C-D roundtrip the cost is $1200, all Delta 006 ticketed V fares. But booking it all together increases the cost to $1600, the only difference I see is that a couple fares jump up to sightly higher buckets. The $400 (X2 as I'm bringing the wife) pales in comparison to the savings if I can apply the GUCs but it just galls me that I'm paying more for apparently no good reason!

Paplover

It is not "no good reason". Delta has decided that demand for A-D is higher than A-B or B-D and is charging accordingly. Your desired ticket is for A-D and it happens you need to stop in B and C to get there. I often see higher fare classes for my multi-segment trips than some of the individual segments.