Farelock - Questions/Answers/Experiences
 

I keep on getting farelock notifications even after I have purchased the fare. I assume it is yet another IT bug.

Yup. me too, and I bought the ticket... and just received an email the Farelock has expired, but the ticket, with same PNR, is showing in my current reservations.

So, I noticed something I hadn't before. Not sure if this is purposeful, or a glitch, or something else.

Had been checking prices on a domestic flight to EWR for me and the fam, who are 2 adults, a toddler, and a lap infant. Usually, I now try to book the lap infant at the same time, despite the occasional ticketing issues that I have to call into resolve, I find it's easier than having to call in after ticketing to get the infant added, spell their name over the phone, give their birthdate, then give them all my information again because inevitably, whenever I add a lap infant on the phone, it always deletes the Secure flight info. of the parent that's attached to the child (have no idea why...but its consistent). Anyhow, I also noticed that the farelock on this particular itinerary was about $5 more with the lap infant added than without (even though as a domestic flight, the infant doesn't get a ticket and doesn't pay anything). So just thought I would make people aware.

Seeing this, I re-searched the itinerary without the lap infant, farelocked at the lower price, and then will call in after purchase to get the infant on. I suspect this isn't intentional, but either very low priority to fix, or something they don't really know about.

Farelock reminder after purchase bug still active.
 

I just got a fake farelock expiration mail with some weird dates .. never used Farelock nor am I traveling to the destinations listed in the mail (nothing in my account as well).

That, and I haven't figured my schedule yet for 1/12/0001

Called UA, they didn't know either :rolleyes:

I’m seeing farelock on itineraries with other carriers involved. Is this a new thing?

either that, or a bug.

are the partner flights codeshares with a UA flight number, or marketed by the partner as well?

Copa but not marketed as UA flights

Farelock as a prediction tool
 

Hi all, has anyone tried using Farelock as a prediction tool? As in: "If farelock is offered, then you know the price of the flight is not going to go down in the x days". United knows whether pricing is going to go down or up within a 7 day period, so they don't offer it otherwise.

That is not the way fares or farelock works.

The most common reason you see a fare price change is a fare class inventory goes to zero and the new price is due to a higher-priced fare class -- it is not the airline changing the "pricing" for the present fare class.

Farelock may not be offered if the fare rule expires or will not meet advance purchased requirements.

I'm not that much a fan of FareLock anymore, but when I was, I saw fares going both up and down with an active FareLock for the same itinerary. As WineCountryUA pointed out, this was due to changing availability.

I've even seen fares going up because of the FareLock itself. FareLock creates an unticketed reservation in the system, for which it does pull inventory.

That's interesting, I thought the distribution was more like 60% fare bucket being used and 40% fare changing - esp as you get in that 6 week window. You would know, so you're saying it is more like 80% inventory being used?

i don’t think anyone can tell you that. There are many reasons fares change. Sometimes, the airline sells out of the inventory and so goes to the next bucket. Sometimes, they sell the inventory, then replace it so the same fare re-appears. Sometimes, they add or pull a fare, in either a higher or lower bucket, meaning the fare goes up or down. Sometimes there is inventory, but not a fare filed, then they do. Sometimes, there is a fare filed but no inventory. Sometimes, inventory is available on a nonstop but not when ‘married’ from your origin - sometimes it’s the opposite. Many reasons fares can go up or down, and Im sure the data could be pulled to give an aggregate percentage, but I’d guess it wouldn’t mean anything in practice since it’s going to vary so much by route, date, etc.

in other words, fares/inventory change all the time, for various reasons. Farelock is not going to be a predictor of any of this. IME, anyway, farelock is pretty consistently offered at booking as long as it’s all UA/UAX metal.

What do you mean by "fare changing"? Fares will rise as you pass through the various AP requirements. Apart from changes attributable to that, within six weeks of departure is when you are even more likely to see inventory driven changes.

Can you apply PlusPoints to a Farelock if there is confirmed space?