"Married" connection?
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 57
"Married" connection?
I am booking a trip from SFO to Istanbul in december through work travel agent.
They came back with LH sfo-fra-Ist with a ~2 hour connection time. I asked to be moved to the sfo-fra flight on united metal, departing an hour earlier than the LH flight. I was told by our travel agent that is considered a married connection and as such is almost 3K more round trip. Wait time in FRA for this flight is exactly 3 hours.
Have never heard of this before. On united.com this comes up as a regularly priced option when doing a search for SFO-IST routing.
I would really prefer to fly United metal for obvious reasons, but can't justify the increased spend. The travel agent did mention they occasionally change the rules on these connections and to try back in a week.
Anyone have experience with this and know how likely it is to change in the next month or so?
They came back with LH sfo-fra-Ist with a ~2 hour connection time. I asked to be moved to the sfo-fra flight on united metal, departing an hour earlier than the LH flight. I was told by our travel agent that is considered a married connection and as such is almost 3K more round trip. Wait time in FRA for this flight is exactly 3 hours.
Have never heard of this before. On united.com this comes up as a regularly priced option when doing a search for SFO-IST routing.
I would really prefer to fly United metal for obvious reasons, but can't justify the increased spend. The travel agent did mention they occasionally change the rules on these connections and to try back in a week.
Anyone have experience with this and know how likely it is to change in the next month or so?
#2
Join Date: Mar 2011
Programs: AA Platinum Pro, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt Exploralist, Marriot Silver
Posts: 2,065
Married segments are tied together for pricing and upgrades. In many ways like a special fare for two segments together instead of pricing separately. Sounds like you got a good price on your current itinerary, but the flight you want is simply priced differently.
More reading here:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/3334150/
http://boardingarea.com/thewandering...rfare-pricing/
More reading here:
http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/3334150/
http://boardingarea.com/thewandering...rfare-pricing/
#3
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Floating around
Programs: UA 1K (1MM), DL Gold (1MM), Marriott LTT
Posts: 10,344
Sorry, but what's the 'obvious reason' for wanting to fly UA?
Is it because the LH segment won't earn miles based on fare class? Or because you are booked in a high enough economy class that you would like to try and use one of your GPUs (if you have any)?
-RM
Is it because the LH segment won't earn miles based on fare class? Or because you are booked in a high enough economy class that you would like to try and use one of your GPUs (if you have any)?
-RM
#4
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 57
Because I want to earn lifetime miles and want to make sure the spend counts towards GS qualification.
#5
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Jersey Shore/YYZ
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Plat, Hilton Diamond, Hertz PC
Posts: 12,521
#6
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: AUS after 40+ SFO/OAK
Programs: UA MM (recovering former 1K), Marriott Titanium Lifetime
Posts: 550
OP, make certain that the TA is giving you the same LH connection FRA/IST when using the earlier UA flight. Since I was curious about this, I picked 2 random dates (12/10-12/14), and got interesting results:
UA8828/UA9126 (both LH), the 2:50 dep, priced at $1343 (H/H).
UA903/UA9126, (UA/LH) the 1:50 dep, priced at $1343 (H/H).
but
UA903/TK1588, also the 1:50 dep but dep IST 1 hr earlier than LH, priced at $3595 (Y/B) -- guessing this may be the "married" condition based on the fare classes.
So, maybe when they priced using UA903, they picked the TK flight which became the earliest connection.
UA8828/UA9126 (both LH), the 2:50 dep, priced at $1343 (H/H).
UA903/UA9126, (UA/LH) the 1:50 dep, priced at $1343 (H/H).
but
UA903/TK1588, also the 1:50 dep but dep IST 1 hr earlier than LH, priced at $3595 (Y/B) -- guessing this may be the "married" condition based on the fare classes.
So, maybe when they priced using UA903, they picked the TK flight which became the earliest connection.
#7
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: SFO
Programs: UA GS
Posts: 57