gobluetwo

My complaints.

ORD-SLC
UA non-stop was about $900 at the time I wanted to book. US via PHX was $570. I'm flying US.

ORD-ATL
UA non-stop is on regionals and about $800 at the time I wanted to book. DL non-stop is on mainline and about $200 (!!!) at the time I wanted to book. I'm flying DL.

ORD-PVD
UA non-stop was about $900. US via PHL was about $600. JetBlue via LGA was about $500, but overnight in NYC on the return. I'm flying US.

ARGH!

For ORD-HNL, that's actually a decent price. It's the coasts that often get the good HNL fare sales. If you're in Chicago, I'd jump on $700. I've been to Hawaii twice in the last 3 years and paid $640 and $750 per ticket. You won't do much better than $700 out of ORD, imo.

787fan

my rule of thumb is that any domestic itinerary more than $600 a.i. or more than 13cpm should probably use miles to redeem

zombietooth

This is sound advice. However, if OP is on someone else's dime, and is up for a small risk, he should try the nesting/overlapping itinerary trick and maybe even incorporate a hidden-city segment if the ticket(s) is/are cheap enough.

krentzie

Wish I was on someone elses dime but its my business so this is gonna forces me to fly US

chinatraderjmr

I just bought a R/T for next week DXB-DOH. I have to make this trip every month and while it's only a 1 hour flight, the EK service in F is still nice and I appreciate the 3 cabin 777. I need 1 more R/T w UA to get my final 10000 mile RDM bonus (1/2/4 offer) I asked my assistant last week to book it on UA just to get this last bonus finished off.
I am SHOCKED at what UA thinks they can charge for this 5th freedom flight. What are they smoking?
EK DXB-DOH R/T F. US1290.00
UA DXB-DOH R/T F US$1888.00
QR DXB-DOH R/T F. US$1288.00 (QR IS A 2 CABIN)

How does UA justify $600 more then the 2 other carriers that fly this route (both with excellent service / hot snack and full bar, etc while UAs F/As don't even leave there jump seat on this flight and if your lucky, They will give you water or juice in F. Sorry. That fare is just crazy. UA can keep there 10000 miles and ill take EK and save $600

Many European airlines have 5th freedom flights around the region from DXB or AUH. They all charge less then HALF what EK charges (DXB-MCT $600 LX / $1800 EK)

I guess UA either has no interest in picking up new customers in DXB and this is how they drive us away or else someone in Rev Mgmnt has lost his mind

Beerman92

Wait, United still has humans in revenue management? I thought it was all done by fancy schmancy algorithms on computers. I guess they might need one person in the department just to make sure the computers stay plugged in but I just figured they would assign that task to the VP of Customer Relations since they have a lot of time on their hands these days as they aren't relating to the customer much.

gobluetwo

So this is why US is so much cheaper than UA these days...

http://www.cnn.com/2012/06/07/travel...rge/index.html
When did that happen???

zombietooth

My point was that you don't use your personal miles for the benefit of a client.
Since it is on your dime, then you also had the option of using miles, which sometimes is the best way to go.

However, I have, in the past, defeated the hub to hub rip-off using the nesting/overlapping trick. In case you don't know what it is, here is how it works:

Say a flight from hub A to hub B prices outrageously for a 3 day turn. I would do an ITA search for the cheapest RT within a 30 day window and buy that ticket so that my outbound is the day that I really want to travel and my return is the day the yields the cheapest fare. You would then have the following:

A to B on your desired departure date.
B to A on the cheapest date within your search window

Next, you do the same search from B to A, starting with your desired return date, paired with the cheapest return date within the 30 day window. Now you would have two tickets and two itineraries from which you would only use your first segments to create your desired itinerary as follows:

Ticket 1:
A-B on your desired outbound date
B-A on the cheapest date within your search window

Ticket 2:
B-A on your desired return date
A-B on the cheapest date within your search window

So you would fly the first leg of your A to B itinerary and the first leg of your B to A itinerary, leaving you with two orphan segments. You can either construct another itinerary from your orphan segments and have an additional A to B trip if you make the return on the A to B itinerary later than the return on the B to A itinerary, or you could throw away the unused segments. But you should call and cancel the unused segments if you do this, so that you can retain some residual value. Most of the time, I have been able to use the orphan segments by planning another trip or multiple trips at the same time. So long as you don't leave too many segments unused, you will likely not be caught.

I only use the 30 day search window above because that is the single search limitation when using ITA, but you can search through the whole 338 day schedule by using multiple searches.

In one case, I had a hub to hub fare of $1,100- and was able to buy the two overlapping itineraries for $750-, saving $350- for my quick-turn business trip. In that case, I planned the returns for a nice weekend trip with my wife and used a saver award for her ticket.

There are lots of other tricks if you research the applicable threads. But for now, your US Air ticket is a good solution.

economyplusfan

How do you search ITA over 30 days? The only way I can see to do it is to enter 4 separate travel lengths over 4 searches: 1 - 7, 8 - 15, 16 - 23, 24 - 30.

FJY787

The wife and I are planning a trip from SFO to HNL in early December. Currently the UA website is giving about $620/p for the direct flight RT. The Delta price is $387/p for the same date albeit less attractive time and also connect via LAX, which I don't mind much.

I have status with UA and would like to stick with them for free bag check and also earning miles. But saving $500 seems attractive.

Is it possible that UA will lower the price in fall? Should I wait for possible UA price decrease or just book the delta flight now?

zombietooth

Yes, you have only 7 day search windows to work with. But, say you wanted to fly in two weeks on a two day turn and the fare was outrageous. Well, then you would first make the start of your search the actual day you want to fly, or the day before, if you have that much leeway. Then keep adding length to your return until you see a decent fare, which doesn't always happen by the way. So you would first try for a length of 3 to 7 days, then 7+ days, then 14+, then 21+ and so on. Next, before you buy any tickets, you need to search for a reverse RT from your destination to your origin and back, starting the search on day after your outbound for a two day turn, and likewise, keep adding length to your return until you see a good fare. If the total of the two tickets is 20% cheaper or more than the cost of the single short-turn RT, then I consider it a good buy and worth the risk. I have noticed that a lot of the time, fares don't change much beyond 7 day+ trip lengths, but there are always anomalies and mistake fares/errors. And, if you are able to construct a second useful itinerary from the orphan segments, then it is a no-brainer.

dlwalt

jasp25

Try farecast.com it will tell you if there's any chance, based on statistics, of the price going down.

chinatraderjmr

What ever happened to carriers matching fares? I always thought the legacy carriers pretty much all offer the same fares (UA or AA might be more expensive for certain dates if the cheap fares are sold out but don't they all have pretty much the same cheap fares)?

channa

They typically match fares, but availability may not be there.

Also, CO tends to be a bit more conservative with matches when they have nonstop flights.

I would suggest the OP check alternate airports if they want to fly UA. UA's nonstop premium to the islands out of SFO can be significant at times. I often find myself on other carriers or flying from SJC with a connection.