Just looking for a bit of advice from the regulars.

I'm trying to book LHR-IAH-LAS-IAH-LHR on a LON-LAS V fare. (100% earning in LH M&M). Outbound LHR-IAH-LAS is fine.

On the return I want to do LAS-IAH(23 hours)LHR. So NOT technically a stopover. I'm looking at arriving at 16:31 on day 1, and departing 15:45 day 2.

My problem is LAS-IAH is showing married segment availability. As a standalone, the best avail is E8. Married with the IAH-LHR segment it's V9, as is the IAH-LHR segment.

So my V fare should be valid from LAS-IAH-LHR, because there's no stopover, and the through availability is V9.

ua.com won't let me book it, because it's looking at the LAS-IAH segment as separate segment.

Before I go into a long discussion with a UA agent or a TA, is my understanding correct? Despite there being a 23 hour gap, this should be bookable on a V fare?

Your understanding is correct.

A third party site may be able to handle this better for you.

Quick update for future browsers of this thread.

The married segment availability is quite specific. It isn't possible to generally link to a TATL flight - only specific combinations are allowed, otherwise the availability on the domestic leg drops back to standalone availability.

If I was booking LAS-IAH-LON straight through, it would be available down to T class. If LAS-IAH is split in anyway from the specific IAH-LON flight, it goes back up to U class.

My plan is thwarted...

So I'm trying to book an open jaw ticket to Europe. The routing that I would prefer is CLE-IAH-MUC-XXX outbound in May then YYY-MUC-ORD-CLE return in August. Some weird things happen depending on how I search:

1. When I do CLE-XXX and YYY-CLE, and restrict it by Fare class S, I only get the early 6am flight CLE-ORD, and that's the only option, which gives me a 9 hour layover. I would prefer the 10:15am flight, but that does not show up with S availability.

2. If I restrict this by S, W, I do get the 10:15am flight in W.

3. If I do CLE-ORD, ORD-XXX, YYY-CLE in multicity, I do get the 10:15 in S.

So, if I do origin-destination searches, I only get W for the route I want, but if I search segment by segment the results give me S. Obviously, I prefer S, since it's cheaper. My question is why doesn't the flights show up at all when I search origin-destination in S, but only in W? S seems to be available when doing segment by segment. In both cases, looking at the farecodes the tickets are CLE-XXX, so it's not combining two fares CLE-ORD and ORD-XXX

Possible reasons:

married segments
fare class limitations/rules.

This is a complicated aspect of air transportation pricing.

In simplest terms, pricing is NOT the sum of the segments but rather determined by your origin and destination (O/D). So a S fare might be available on a segment for one O/D but not for another O/D -- even for the same segment. (I have probably overly simplified this, but that is my level of understanding).

You might have a chance to get the lower pricing by piecing together the series of segments by use of multiple destinations booking (is this your #3), but you may also get a higher price.

Other related issues --- married segments, captive airport / hidden city pricing ( AAA-BBB-CCC is cheaper the BBB-CCC)

I don't think it's a married segment issue, as I am able to get this all on one ticket, one itinerary. I'm going to be more specific:

Case 1:
Multicity search for CLE-IAD, IAD-CLJ, BUD-CLE, restricted to S, I get:

CLE-IAD UA4319 in S
IAD -MUC UA902 in S
MUC-CLJ LH1670 in S

BUD-MUC LH1675 in S
MUC-ORD UA125 in S
ORD-CLE UA5839 in S

Clicking on View Rules and Restrictions yields
CLE - CLJ S SKX6NCE
BUD - CLE S SKX6NCE

Case 2:
Multicity search CLE-CLJ, BUD-CLE, restricted to S, the CLE-IAD-MUC-CLJ flights listed above do not show up at all, though they did show up if the search was done differently, still one search

Case 3
Multicity search CLE-CLJ, BUD-CLE, restricted to S, W, I do get the flights in case 1, but only in W, the return is the same:

CLE-IAD UA4319 in W
IAD -MUC UA902 in W
MUC-CLJ LH1670 in W

BUD-MUC LH1675 in S
MUC-ORD UA125 in S
ORD-CLE UA5839 in S

Fares:
CLE - CLJ W WKX5NCE
BUD - CLE S SKX6NCE

So in both cases the outbound is one fare, CLE-CLJ. The S shows up doing the search CLE-IAD-CLJ and BUD-CLE but does not show up doing CLE-CLJ and BUD-CLE. So I don't think it's an issue of married segments or hidden city or fare limitations as in both cases it is one fare, not a combination

What I don't understand is why cannot I get CLE - CLJ S SKX6NCE in case 2.

But it is, however the multi-destination search managed to avoid the limitation. Does this mean that we should not trust simple searches? That there may be a cheap answer? That is correct!

So, you're saying that the multiple destination search doesn't always look at married segment limitations? By the way, the routing was previously available in S, so I assumed that the bucket ran out of availability, but now I don't know What to say.

Could somebody please check expert flyer or KVS if SKX6NCE is available for the following routing 5/2 outbound, 8/13 return?

CLE-IAD UA4319 in S
IAD -MUC UA902 in S
MUC-CLJ LH1670 in S

BUD-MUC LH1675 in S
MUC-ORD UA125 in S
ORD-CLE UA5839 in S

That would clarify if this is united.com search issue or not.

SKX6NCE is a valid fare on 5/2 for CLE-CLJ
when searched as CLE-CLJ, UA902 is S0
but when searching IAD-MUC, UA902 is S9

Hm, interesting. I thought that it was the CLE-IAD segment with the problem, because if I search CLE-CLJ, then S works with UA4796 (the earlier CLE-IAD flight) instead of UA4319, and both connect to UA902. I would just prefer the later flight.

If paired with UA4796, UA 902 is S1
if paired with UA4319 or UA4908 or UA4096, UA902 is S0

Unless you do a multiple destination search, in which case united.com shows UA902 as S9.

Would doing a multiple destination search consider the connection in IAD a stopover as it's more than 4 hours? And thus leading to the fare being validated differently?

thats what married segments is all about

stopover for international trips is >12 24 hours but the >4 hours may be a factor in this case.
My guess is the multi-destination is not enforcing the married segments (for whatever reasons, in this case) hence the availability.

A 'stopover' on International flights is 24hours or more, not 12.

In addition, i've had tons of problems on ua.sux website and I've mostly not used it at all.

Instead, I'll use hipmunk and have it build the itinerary (which has very similar showings as ITA and uses the route language) - then push it over to ua - from which I'll book the ticket.

-jeremy