xliioper

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You do not understand. I said they could not be combined on a single fare. Connections longer than 4 hours can generally be combined on a single ticket on the legacies (each segment will just be on a separate fare). You are apparently confusing fares and tickets which are two different things. The drawback is that when they fare separately, they will generally cost more than segments which are on the same fare.

Kevin AA

The maximum domestic connection rule is supposed to 4 hours or the next flight, which occurs first. This is how you can get a 5 hour layover, because there is no connecting flight during that span of time. The same applies for an overnight stay. Fly in on a late flight, and the next available flight is the next morning. But Southwest IT has always been behind the legacies'. I wonder if it's because they are consistently profitable, they just don't see it as a real need, unlike AA et al who need to make that kind of programming to stay barely profitable.

Hipplewm

All 3 legacy carriers (DL may be different, but I fly AA and UA enough to know this is true) haven't had segment or RT discounts in quite a while. No matter what it is 100% segment based, you can price it as segment, one way, RT doesn't matter it all adds up the the same price. On WN IME it does not. On the days i can get it to ticket <4hrs the price is considerably less then if it is >4hrs and I have to buy 2 separate tickets

As far as confusing fares - in reality it doesn't matter and shouldn't matter if all the pricing is the same - at the end of the day, for WN is DOES still matter and they make you do a LOT of extra work, as well as pay extra for a >4hr layover.

loomis

Like the OP, I recently tried booking flights to Central America, but had the same issue. I decided to move along to another carrier.

Are you listening, SW? It is important for you to understand buyer behavior.....and you are missing out on sales!

xliioper

You still do not understand about the difference between fares and tickets. You can have multiple segments on the SAME TICKET, if the connection is over 4 hours, but not the SAME FARE if they are domestic flights. A single ticket can have multiple fares on it. Just because you got something to ticket does NOT mean all the flights are on the same fare. As I stated quite clearly, for connections to/from international destinations, the legacies allow connections up to 24 hours on the same fare. As far as discounts for roundtrip purchases vs. two one-way's, the legacies still absolutely do this. Mostly on international fares, but also on domestic routes where there is little or no LCC competition. Here are some example domestic routes where Delta has roundtrip fares filings that are cheaper than two one-way's.

DTW-DSM
DTW-LEX
DTW-CHA
DTW-JAX
DTW-OMA
DTW-MEM

Hipplewm

Notice how I clearly said DL may be different??

Find me one on UA and I'll look into it, but I fly them enough to all kinds of weird places, that I would have probably run into this issue in the past 5-6 years

In all reality - it just doesn't matter - you definitely can't do it on WN - it won't even price - it just says NO - sorry we don't fly there, or we can't get you there today etc

xliioper

UA absolutely still does it, just like DL. Again, it tends to be smaller markets with non-stop service and with limited or no LCC competition. A few examples of cheapest one-way fares vs. cheapest roundtrip fares on UA.

IAH-CLE one-way = $348, roundtrip = $369
IAH-CRW one-way = $332, roundtrip = $319
IAH-DSM one-way = $243, roundtrip = $305
IAH-ICT one-way = $273, roundtrip = $323
IAH-TYS one-way = $223, roundtrip = $289
IAH-GRR one-way = $203, roundtrip = $277

Of course, it's not just IAH.

EWR-CLE one-way = $219, roundtrip = $185

As you see, the legacy airlines like to take advantage when they have a hub on both ends.

DL DTW-MSP one-way = $182, roundtrip = $143

Hipplewm

That is why I never noticed, and I fly to quite a few of those places - I am not at a hub

I just did:
CHS-CLE via IAH 454 OW and 908 RT
CHS-GRR via IAH 685 OW and 1370 RT

Hmm, learn something new - don't ever live in a hub city LOL

xliioper

Not entirely limited to non-stops from hubs. CHS-SHV, CHS-XNA, CHS-AEX are all $209 one-way on UA, but there are roundtrip fares from $278 - $284. The roundtrip fares have a Saturday night stay requirement, so you would probably not notice if your roundtrips do not involve a Saturday night stay.

Note that cheapest one-way fares on legacy airlines often have end-on-end fare combination restrictions. You can purchase them on a single ticket with one-way or roundtrip routing, but not as part of a multi-city itinerary. Cheapest one-way CHS-CLE main cabin fare is $137 and CLE-GRR is $112, but you can't combine these fares on a single ticket. If you attempt to book this itin on united.com it will cost around $419 instead of $249 (it will upfare you to higher priced fares that are not as restrictive for combinations). Google Flights will alert you when it is cheaper to buy such an itin as separate tickets, rather than on a single ticket.

pinniped

Apparently this is not a hard and fast rule anymore. My aforementioned 9 hour connection, MCI-SAN-SFO, was something like $115 where the nonstop MCI-SFO was $109. It's clear it was one fare - the basic MCI-SAN fare (which I also fly by itself a few times a year) is usually $99-109. I've also had long connections on UA and AA that priced normally - e.g., the regular connecting fare, not an addition of two separate fares. When you fly a route enough, you'd sniff it out pretty quickly if it was an addition of two other fares.

Clearly they can do some things in some markets but not others. It's up to Southwest how they want to price things as a response to competition.