steveo

All,

I'm trying to book my thanksgiving travel, trying to myself and my gf from ORD to Buffalo. Flight on the Wednesday leaving on Saturday. When I book 1 ticket, the price round trip is $250, but when I add a second person the price jumps to $380 a piece. The reason for this is there is only one ticket left at K class for the Saturday flight.

Is there any work around this? Is there any chance more tickets at lower fare classes will become available?

One other thing I've noticed is a lot of itineraries are showing up with only P-class availability despite only being half full, you know flights with connections through IAD or Cleveland.

Jaimito Cartero

Check booking through another portal. Expedia, Orbitz, Kayak or Hipmunk.

Otherwise, just book one ticket, and then the other.

emcampbe

This is the only way to do it. One PNR can contain multiple people, of course, but everything else needs to be the same....flights, fare class, fare, etc. If there's only 1 K fare left, and you want to pay that for 1, then you'll need to book on separate PNRs. Of course, you have to weigh the potential disadvantages of this (could be split up in IRROPS, if one is elite and the other not, the companion won't get on upgrade list, etc.)

Trying an OTA might be possible, and might result in the lower fare being shown in the initial search, but when it goes to verify the fare later in the booking process, you'll very likely get a message saying something like, oops, looks like that fare is no longer available.

Interestingly enough, a few years ago, I ran into this issue on Delta - wanted to book two of us - but only 1 of the lower fares was available. So I booked one of us on the lower fare, and me on the higher. Within 24 hours, I checked again, and they had added, again, just a single seat to the lower fare. So I booked a second ticket for me at that lower fare, then called back to cancel my initial ticket for a full refund (since still within the 24 hour window). Was still on two PNRs, but both got the lower fare. Can try this and see if it works.

Rae Song

It has happened to me before. I ended up booking separately and paid the higher fare for the second ticket.

mre5765

A *A partner airline might have a code share on that route and thus might have inventory at the lower fare buckets. Try attempting a booking on LH, AC, US, ...

emcampbe

Note that only US might work for this. LH, AC, not to mention any other non-US carrier, can not sell a fare for a domestic flight.

mre5765

Yes they can.

Just did a search on LH.com for SFO/DEN and it fares (K).

NY-FLA

You might try simultaneous but separate windows; booking one ticket on .bomb and another on Orbitz. Try and hit the purchase buttons as close to simultaneous as possible. I recall this working for me in the single remaining ticket scenario a couple years back, but it might have been on US.

WineCountryUA

Any airline with a codeshare agreement with a domestic airline can offer a domestic route fare but non-domestic airlines can not operate domestic only flights.

WineCountryUA

That particular suggestion has been reported as working by numerous FT posters. While on the surface it does not seem reasonable, given the number of successful reports one needs to accept it as possible.

SEA1K4EVR

Another possibility to try is call reservations and see if they can book you 2 tix in K. If you get an agent willing to try and help you out they could call another dept and see if they'll open up one more K seat for you. Not saying this will work every time but over the years I've had it done for me a time or two. It'll be the luck of the draw..but is certainly worth a phone call.

LaserSailor

OP...try alternate booking to ROC, a long hour by car and a cheapie rental

rasheed

Despite others saying that it is a 'stupid' idea, I have needed 5 tickets (UA G fare example), but only 4 available. Booked almost simultaneously (4 on one portal, 1 on another). I think I did the single via united.com and the 4 via another OTA. It worked.

Also have done something similar due to an identical issue on AS (needed 3, but only 2 available).

Does it always work? Probably not, but likely works more often than one thinks. Yes, separate PNRs...

Rasheed

steveo

thanks everyone. What I did was buy one ticket yesterday, checked again today and they released another ticket this morning with the K fare, costing one dollar less than the ticket I bought yesterday. Should I call up and complain to get my one dollar back?

A more serious question though. We're now on different PRNs, I am a 100 K while she has no status. Obviously this will create a situation where I'll most likely be upgraded to first while she'll be stuck in the back of the plane with the scraps. If I call the 100k line do you think I can get them to combine them?

thanks again

mre5765

PNRs cannot be combined.

Within 24 hours they might agree to cancel both and refare under one PNR. Or you might get an agent that fouls it up and you are back to square one.

IME,the risk of a companion not being upgraded happens anyway. Sometimes the companion is upgraded with the elite, and sometimes the elite is upgraded at his window, and the companion stays at the top of the upgrade list never to be upgraded.

And even once under one PNR, the reservation is likely to be auto split anyway.