Triestino

First, let me preface by saying that I'm new to FlyerTalk and hope that I'm posting my question in the right location. If not, I do apologize in advance.

I am trying to book a flight on United (or its partners) from SFO to Syracuse , NY leaving Aug 18, returning on Aug 23. I visited ITA Matrix and found a flight (2 - stops - ORD/CLE) for $555 and then proceeded to the United site to match identical flights and book a ticket. To my surprise, the United ticket is $817.

I took some screen shots of both sites but can't seem to figure out just how to include in this tread. Any advice or help would be appreciated. Even understanding why such a big price difference between sites would be helpful.

As an aside, my dates are somewhat flexible in that I can leave SFO on Aug 18 or 19 and can return Aug 23 or 24.

Again, please forgive if I am posting in the wrong location.

Thank you in advance for any replies

DavidRS4

Are you pricing out a multi-city ticket on United?

Make sure to do it as a multi-city and list the exact routing as listed on ITA.

PaulInTheSky

Try to take a look at the fare basis and see they are the same. I can bet they are not.

WineCountryUA

Try the ITA command on Hipmunk and have Hipmunk sent you to united.com.

likely a fare basis issue but it could be out of sync inventory issue.

cordelli

Second the hipmunk suggestion.

kilo

I've seen this a fair few times over the years (albeit a small percentage of the time). It obviously means that on these occasions one cannot rely on the convenience of ITA to search for airfares.

I think the 'out of sync' explanation might be right. It seems to occur when fare prices are changing. Quite often hours later the prices match up on ITA and UA.com. Sometimes the ITA price changes to match the original UA price and the UA price has again changed to a different price.

xzh445

Even easier than Hipmunk - Try Google Flight Search. (Google owns ITA and uses that engine)
http://www.google.com/flights/
It will allow you to select flights and then book directly on UA. Looking for those dates the are plenty of $556 fares/times available.
Good luck!

TakeTheATrain

You could try forcing a booking code by using the "Enter specific classes of service" function in the advance search.

WineCountryUA

Since the default is the "lowest available", entering a specific fare code is used for forcing higher fare codes (such as W for GPUs).

Driving by DCA

First, are you using multi-city on united.com to find the same double connection that ITA finds? United isn't alway good at showing you multiple connections and may be showing you the cheapest single-connect price.

If you're trying multi-city on united.com, sometimes you have to click through to the actual purchase page to get the fare shown on ITA.

It seems united will sometimes not realize that the fare can be constructed that way and show a really high price when you're looking at the flight options, but clicking on the flights you know work will cause it to run the entire itin through the fare engine and come up with the price you know it should be.

If there are inventory issue, sometimes you can get the ITA price for a brief time by booking through Orbitz. That usually happens when you're looking at a mistake fare that's been pulled, but sometimes Orbitz (or another OTA) can book something for a short period after it's gone from united.com. I doubt this is the case for a domestic itin like yours.

mgcsinc

Just as an FYI, what is usually happening here is that the website is initially obeying married segments logic, and then ignoring it. In theory, you shouldn't be able to get these prices, although I'm glad for the "feature" while it still exists!

Triestino

Thank you all for the information/suggestions that you shared. I waited a few days to see if the UA fare(s) would even get somewhat close to the quoted ITA Matrix fares, Hipmunk, or Kayak. Interestingly, not once could I find a match. Just now, I tried the following flight segments and still received very different results:

20AUG13
SFO (UA712) 9:32AM --> DEN (UA452) 1:50PM --> IAD (UA4832) 9:59PM ---> SYR -Arrive 11:31PM

24AUG13
SYR (UA5900) 9:25AM --> ORD (UA1723) 12:00PM --> SFO Arrive 2:31PM

I can't seem to add the screenshots; however, I received the following fare quotes:

ITA Matrix = $555.50 RT (T-Fares for all segments)
Hipmunk = $702 RT (A mix of K,W, and S Fares)
United Site = $816 RT (Mostly W fares)
Kayak = $656 (Mix of L, W, and S fares)

I do apologize for asking, but perhaps someone on this forum can help me secure a better fare. I would like to fly UA so that I can gain some additional miles (only a UA Mileage member at this time); however, I'm just looking to get 5K miles (total) on this run at the lowest fare possible. An additional point is that I can fly from SJC airport as well.

Thank you to all that have responded to my 'noobie' question

P.S. As an aside, Kayak mentions that I should wait to purchase my ticket as it claims with "85% confidence", that the fare will go down. Should I wait or is the suggestion off.

HkCaGu

I might have found a way. See my other thread. Basically:

1. Sign out of united.com.
2. Construct itin from Kayak, get sent to united.com. Confirm quote.
4. Sign in.
5. Pick seats, etc. Purchase.

FortFun

Looks like the IAD-SYR flight might not have T space.

WineCountryUA

looks like you found a key issue
looks like Q4 V1 W1 S0 T0
so the ITA fare construction can not be booked