2008 Trick it / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Dec 29, 2008, 3:51 pm
#706
Join Date: Sep 2007
Programs: United Mileage Plus
Posts: 232
I was playing around with the negotiator today and noticed something interesting. Not interesting enough to warrant it's own post or even a mileage run deal, but it is a way apparently to knock off a Star Alliance YQ one way on a transatlantic using some of the usual strategies. In all, it drops about $140 off a transatlantic Star Alliance flight.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
Dec 30, 2008, 11:15 am
#707
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Seattle, Chiang Rai
Programs: Marco Polo Gold, Alaska MVP Gold, Ivar's Carte Clam, Taco Time Loyalty Card
Posts: 253
Another Thought on Dropping the YQ; This Time SEA-BKK
I was playing around with the negotiator today and noticed something interesting. Not interesting enough to warrant it's own post or even a mileage run deal, but it is a way apparently to knock off a Star Alliance YQ one way on a transatlantic using some of the usual strategies. In all, it drops about $140 off a transatlantic Star Alliance flight.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
SEA UA X/TYO UA BKK 290.00LXWEB2/UAC UA X/TYO UA SEA
290.00LXWEB2/UAC NUC580.00END ROE1.0
FARE USD 580.00 TAX 2.50AY TAX 30.80US TAX 5.00XA TAX 4.50XF
TAX 7.00XY TAX 5.50YC TAX 20.27TS TAX 350.00YQ TOT USD 1005.57
S1 NVB20JAN/NVA20JAN
By adding a segment from SEA-YVR for the next day it added the fare from SEA-YVR ($69.00), but removed the YQ ($350.00).
SEA UA X/TYO UA BKK 304.50LXTH02 UA X/TYO UA SEA 304.50LXTH02
UA YVR Q7.14 69.00WA14NR5 NUC685.14END ROE1.0
FARE USD 685.00 TAX 5.00AY TAX 30.80US TAX 5.00XA TAX 9.00XF
TAX 7.00XY TAX 5.50YC TAX 20.27TS TOT USD 767.57
This knocks $238.00 off the total fare. $767.00 SEA-BKK is actually a pretty good fare, although probably not all that great as a mileage run at .05 cents per mile.
Cheers
McDevit
Dec 30, 2008, 4:24 pm
#708
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: PEK
Programs: A3*G, UA Gold EY Silver
Posts: 8,958
I was playing around with the negotiator today and noticed something interesting. Not interesting enough to warrant it's own post or even a mileage run deal, but it is a way apparently to knock off a Star Alliance YQ one way on a transatlantic using some of the usual strategies. In all, it drops about $140 off a transatlantic Star Alliance flight.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
I fly from SFO and was looking to go SFO-LHR-SFO. A quick query to the negotiator brought up a price of $672 for January 19-26 on LH. An ITA search gives me roughly that cost with about $230 in YQ surcharges. I don't know if I have ever paid more than $500 to get to London from SFO though, so I thought I would play around a bit. I found that using the multi-city search of SFO-FRA-LHR-YVR dropped the price to $536, with the LHR-YVR leg running through SFO. This effectively drops one YQ surcharge. I can't seem to see booking details, so I don't know if it is dropping both YQ surcharges and adding about $100 for the YVR leg or not. The only details I see are that airline ticket taxes and fees are $164.
As I said, this doesn't really pave the way for any good mileage runs. It might be a way to save some people on the West Coast a few dollars though and possibly lead to bigger savings if you play around with it a bit.
This has been mentioned before. The key is: SFO-YVR = cheap fare?