SU pricing oddity - classic cheaper than saver ticket
May 9, 2019, 10:54 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: LTN
Programs: Aeroflot Bonus, British Airways Executive Club
Posts: 463
SU pricing oddity - classic cheaper than saver ticket
Normally one expects that a saver fare should be cheaper than a classic fare, however, a pricing oddity when departing from Europe causing the opposite. The itinerary is an origin open jaw from GVA to SVO, returning to a different European country, HEL in this case.
As you can see, the "saver" ticket is much more expensive because it is in a high booking class B, where the classic ticket is sold at class N, the lowest possible booking class except promo class.
I then checked the fare rule on ITA matrix, and found out that the following statement only appears on saver but not classic fare:SU NVU GVA to MOW
OPEN JAWS
ORIGINATING AREA 2
PROVIDED -
THE OPEN SEGMENT MUST BE
-BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SIP OR WITHIN ANY ONE COUNTRY
COMBINATIONS ARE WITH ANY ROUND TRIP INSTANT PURCHASE/
ONE WAY INSTANT PURCHASE-TYPE FARES IN ANY RULE AND
TARIFF.
which means, in order to open-jaw between different European countries, this saver fare can't be used but only the classic fare.
A sensible traveller therefore book the classic fare. However this pricing oddity affected me because I initially booked the outbound journey only as a one-way and attempted to add the return journey later, as change rule says that only fares in the same brand can be used when changing the ticket, if I need to return to a different European country as in my case, the whole ticket would be bumped to a sky-high BVO fare which doesn't have this restriction, so I had to buy a separate ticket for my return journey (Connecting with separate ticket at SVO on SU). In fact I was building a "connection" from GVA to HEL via SVO in form of an open-jaw return ticket since SU doesn't have a GVA-HEL fare, and no airlines serving this market fit my timing (I need to take overnight flights).
As you can see, the "saver" ticket is much more expensive because it is in a high booking class B, where the classic ticket is sold at class N, the lowest possible booking class except promo class.
I then checked the fare rule on ITA matrix, and found out that the following statement only appears on saver but not classic fare:SU NVU GVA to MOW
OPEN JAWS
ORIGINATING AREA 2
PROVIDED -
THE OPEN SEGMENT MUST BE
-BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SIP OR WITHIN ANY ONE COUNTRY
COMBINATIONS ARE WITH ANY ROUND TRIP INSTANT PURCHASE/
ONE WAY INSTANT PURCHASE-TYPE FARES IN ANY RULE AND
TARIFF.
which means, in order to open-jaw between different European countries, this saver fare can't be used but only the classic fare.
A sensible traveller therefore book the classic fare. However this pricing oddity affected me because I initially booked the outbound journey only as a one-way and attempted to add the return journey later, as change rule says that only fares in the same brand can be used when changing the ticket, if I need to return to a different European country as in my case, the whole ticket would be bumped to a sky-high BVO fare which doesn't have this restriction, so I had to buy a separate ticket for my return journey (Connecting with separate ticket at SVO on SU). In fact I was building a "connection" from GVA to HEL via SVO in form of an open-jaw return ticket since SU doesn't have a GVA-HEL fare, and no airlines serving this market fit my timing (I need to take overnight flights).
