Europeanexplorer

Many thanks for your help in advance!

I am trying to book a HNL-DEN-PHX-DEN-HNL ticket. There is a pretty good G fare (GES01FS) being sold at the moment. I am trying to book this on the 04/19/2013 on the outbound and 04/21/2013 on the return. The fare allows one day turnarounds and is valid on my travel dates.

I can clearly see on Expertflyer that the 777 on HNL-DEN (UA383) has plenty of G bucket availability: ...W9 S9 T9 L9 K9 G9 N0 and so does the connecting flight from DEN to PHX (UA739). The same goes for the return.

However, when I try to book this on .bomb, the system books me in M on UA383 and T on UA739, even though G is available. On the return, it books me into G without a problem.

Does anybody know why I cannot access the G bucket on the outbound flight? This fare has a 0.042cpm btw in case anyone else is interested!

mherdeg

Gosh, are you sure that G fare is valid on HNL-DEN-PHX on 4/19? When I use matrix.itasoftware.com and untick the "only show flights with available seats" option, the lowest fare I get is a T fare on the outbound and a G fare on the return.

In particular when I specify /f bc=g, it doesn't give me any UA options. When I try to manually force it with
From:: HNL / f ua.hnl+phx.GES01FS

I get "no flights found".

(But note that I can force the return
To:: PHX /f ua.phx+hnl.ges01fs
and it shows me these options.)

Europeanexplorer

Ah - okay. I can see what is going on here. The G fare appears to be valid on Mon-Thurs and then there is a separate G fare for Sun. I guess Fri/Sat books into T then. But that still does not explain why .bomb keeps booking me into M on the 19th April when T is available.

mherdeg

What's the fare basis code of the T fare you're looking at? I don't think ITA can find a valid T fare on that day for DEN-PHX either.

When I do an ITA search for

4/19 from hnl:: ua+
4/21 to PHX / f ua.phx+hnl.ges01fs

I don't see anything affordable price through DEN, but I do see the horrifying/amazing option HNL-SFO-SMF-LAX-PHX on the outbound (prices as HNL-SAC in K + SAC-PHX in G).

The cheapest fare solution I see through DEN involves separate fares HNL-DEN (books into M, as you mention) then DEN-PHX (G).

I think there's a fare issue here, not an availability issue. Repeating the same search but with "show all flights and prices without checking seat availability" doesn't find anything cheaper than $1300 involving HNL-DEN-PHX on the outbound.

Europeanexplorer

I was looking at TLE0UN, but I just realised that this requires a non-stop flight. So I guess you cannot route through DEN on a Fri and Sat without forcing out an M fare on the overwater segment. Thanks for talking this through though mherdeg - would not have realised what was going on here without your questions/help!

channa

There's a $540 all in T out, G back, if you just force the DEN connect:

4/19 HNL :: UA DEN UA
4/21 PHX :: UA DEN UA


I can validate $559 on Orbitz, so might be something the OP can LFG if they want.

Europeanexplorer

Perhaps it was just .bomb playing up again. Maybe it would have repriced this correctly if I had tried to pay. Stupid UA website!

channa

Yeah, so invoke the LFG on them and make them pay.

mherdeg

Whoa � that wasn't there before. I agree that I see $540.

Europeanexplorer

Hahaha... I think I will book a day earlier on the 18th April and take the USD337 RT G fare. A little better value for money and my plans are flexible.