Combining Multi-city flights?
 

On co.com I found an itinerary I want -- BKK-NRT-LAX-ORD-PIA. For various reasons (mainly to earn credit card EQM's but also because it is slightly cheaper and it is United metal) I want to book this ticket at united.com. However, whenever searching for flights from BKK to PIA, I cannot get UA to route through LAX. The only way I found to do this is to put in a multi-city trip of BKK-LAX and LAX-PIA. If I book this as a multi-city itinerary, will I be able to check in at BKK all the way to PIA (there is only 2.5 hours at LAX between flights)? If not, does anyone else know of a way to force such routing choices through United.com? Many thanks.

Multi-city flights like yours are treated essentially the same as normal flights, since you're not stopping over in LAX.

You can book as normal, and bags will be sent through as normal.

Thanks! The word "essentially" makes me a little nervous, but I think I'll go ahead and hope for the best. If anyone has any confirmation of seamlessly traveling under multi-city itineraries on the same day, your input would be appreciated also. Thanks again.

If the actual flights are the same between the two website results, there will be no practical difference for you.

The only time you will have the kind of difficulty you fear using multicity is on a travel agency website where you can buy inter-airline tickets that you couldn't buy on UA or Co.com. Even then you can usually check through, but sometimes you can't get your boarding passes all at once.

You will have to claim your luggage at LAX anyway to clear customs. At that point, you can make sure your bag goes on to PIA.

When I was living in San Francisco, I once had two different PNRs from OGG-SFO and SFO-ORD-SDF with a two-hour layover at SFO, and the agent in Maui checked my bag all the way through to SDF.

Thank you everyone for your input. Despite the helpful points above, my main concern is (or was as I'll explain) in regards to what happens if the flight to LAX was delayed. . . and whether the split flights would create problems if a delay to LAX caused me to miss the next flight.

However, after some more tinkering on United.com, I was finally able to get the ticket I want without using the multi-city option. For some reason the route I wanted showed up after I clicked the "flexible date" option. My date is not actually flexible, but nonetheless additional routings were included after I selected this option. The price was exactly the same as on co.com but strangely cheaper than the flights on united.com when the flexible date option was not checked.

Once again I appreciate everyone's input. . .

Call?
 

Having trouble on a carrier's website? First, second and third thing to do is to call the carrier. If something doesn't quite work on the website, there may be a good reason for it or there may be a bad reason. Either way, best to determine what the reason is and deal with it.

You are of course correct that calling is the "best" thing to do. However, I HATE doing that. I shouldn't ever have to call an airline in my opinion. If I have to call, I view them as failing. In 2012 I should be able to do everything online. . . at least that's the way I want it and hope the airlines can meet my expectations.