Why am I Unable to Book Certain UA Flights Between BOS and the Carribbean?
 

Whenever I search for flights to the caribbean, starting in Boston - the website always has me fly in the evening with a 10-12 hour layover until the next day OR it shows a morning flight with first class with a normal 1-2 hour layover.

How come it will not show any normal coach fares for the first leg of the trip and allow me to travel in the morning when I do this search?

Some specifics would be helpful. BOS to where? When- at least the month you want to go.

United hasn't had a large presence in the Caribbean. Perhaps those are the only flights?

Boston to almost anywhere in the caribbean. Looking week of april 14th (5 nights or so)

The issue i'm finding is when i search for the flight, it shows flights that depart in the evening out of boston and connect in EWR. Then it shows a 10-12 hour layover with a departure the next morning.

However when I go further down the list of available flights it shows morning flights out of Boston with a typical 1-2 hour layover in EWR. But these flights are more expensive since it is showing me a fare for Business/First class. When I click view seat map - there are economy seats available, but these fares do not show up in the search.

You are seeing supply & demand. Your first post noted that there are only 10-12 hour layovers. But, your second post noted that there are convenient layovers which are much more expensive.

You're flying during vacation to a Carribean destination from the Northeast and seats are in demand. The more convenient, the more likely they are to be more expensive.

Fuel prices are on the way up, so I would make a decision soon.

In my first post I'm actually referring to both layovers -

For the shorter layovers it only shows fares with business class but when I click view seats there are coach seats available.

The problem is likely the morning flights out of BOS (what is their economy availability?). Are you going via EWR? Some fares require Saturday night or not available on certain days.

Flights to SJU are pricing under $500 all in with service BOS-IAD-SJU.
I tried STT but I'm finding connections from SJU to STT via Cape Air and it requires connecting to a Cessna.

Which other airports in the Caribbean would you like?

Try building it with multi city. That should get rid of the irritating overnight.

When I do multicity search BOS - EWR and then say EWR-AUA for 4/14. It only shows first class fares out of BOS.

Bingo!

So even though I count upwards of 15-20 E+ seats available in the seat map you can only purchase business fares?

Sorry if I am repeating myself.

If Y is sold out yes (note the seatmap can be very misleading).

Example, Y is sold out to mostly non-elites without access to E+. So they have no seat assignments and E+ looks empty (BTW, it is not uncommon), passagner will get seat assignements at OLCI or gate.. Economy is sold out but seatmap looks empty.


So the real question is, what the the fare class inventory shows? (provide a specific flight and date, someone can look up or read up on Expert Mode to find yourself.)

Yes - based on this:

UA 1288 F5 A3 Z2 P0 Y0 B0 M0 E0 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0
UA 1040 C9 D7 Z2 P0 Y0 B0 M0 E0 U0 H0 Q0 V0 W0 S0 T0 L0 K0 G0 N0

They are not selling any Economy seats at this time on those flights.

You can. They're just more expensive than the business class fare.

Edit - Nevermind ;)

This is very common on Sat and Sunday searches. Search tomoorow! Its the great website. I too searched ORD-ANC in June, 2 non stops both showing first class only and yes, I have economy selected. I called and it was taken care of. My frequent weekend searches only show first.