Deceptive pricing on connecting itineraries {workaround to married segment pricing}
Feb 5, 2014, 5:43 pm
#61
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 8,634
Indeed - what happens if you have IROPS? If you want to go A-C but you buy a multi-segment A-B, and B-C. Let's say A-B is late (or worse even, A-B is cancelled and UA re-routed you A-D-B, arriving at B much later), what's UA's obligation to get you to C? Are you effectively a no-show for B-C because you booked multi-segment?
Feb 8, 2014, 2:00 pm
#62
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NYC suburbs
Programs: UA LT Gold (BIS), AA LT Plat (CC SUBs & BD), Hilton Dia (CC), Hyatt Glob (BIB), et. al.
Posts: 3,292
Holy Hidden Fares Batman (aka UA Rip-Offs 101)
Dirty Tricks, UA Style
Please pardon me if this violates any FT rules or copyright laws, but the link above is fascinating and infuriating and potentially very lucrative (via cost savings) all at the same time. I’m absolutely guilty of not knowing this information and probably gave UA many hundreds of dollars unnecessarily in the past.
Basically, as per the link, UA’s website flight search function, when using the “Round Trip” tab for itineraries involving connecting service, often does not offer the lowest UA fare. For such itineraries, using the “Multiple Destinations” tab often offers significantly lower fares.
Just as the author did, I tried a couple of sample dates and itineraries. For a weekend in May, selected JFK-SFO-BUR-SFO-JFK flights, via Round Trip (JFK-BUR-JFK) search resulted in a fare of $632. The exact same dates and flights, via Multiple Destinations search resulted in a fare of $392, nearly a 40% savings. (Never mind the apparently random $258 fare which UA offers periodically for this itinerary.) Same weekend, selected LGA-IAH-LAS-DEN-LGA flights, via Round Trip (LGA-LAS-LGA) search resulted in a fare of $432. The exact same dates and flights, via Multiple Destinations search resulted in a fare of $381, not as large a difference but significant nonetheless. Doesn’t always work that way but quite frequently it does.
The point is, when searching for fares on the UA website, it would be prudent to search the exact same flights via Round Trip search and via Multiple Destinations search before giving UA any hard earned dollars.
Thank you very much Seth, you've most definitely done your good deed for the day! ^^^
…
And then there is the part where they change the price being charged for the EXACT SAME FLIGHTS depending on how you ask about them.
…
United is pricing tickets differently based on how you search. If that is not misleading and deceiving then I don’t know what is. An itinerary should have a single price for a passenger, not a variable number depending on which specific clicks one makes to get to the final page. Consumers are getting screwed and many likely don’t even know it.
…
And then there is the part where they change the price being charged for the EXACT SAME FLIGHTS depending on how you ask about them.
…
United is pricing tickets differently based on how you search. If that is not misleading and deceiving then I don’t know what is. An itinerary should have a single price for a passenger, not a variable number depending on which specific clicks one makes to get to the final page. Consumers are getting screwed and many likely don’t even know it.
…
Basically, as per the link, UA’s website flight search function, when using the “Round Trip” tab for itineraries involving connecting service, often does not offer the lowest UA fare. For such itineraries, using the “Multiple Destinations” tab often offers significantly lower fares.
Just as the author did, I tried a couple of sample dates and itineraries. For a weekend in May, selected JFK-SFO-BUR-SFO-JFK flights, via Round Trip (JFK-BUR-JFK) search resulted in a fare of $632. The exact same dates and flights, via Multiple Destinations search resulted in a fare of $392, nearly a 40% savings. (Never mind the apparently random $258 fare which UA offers periodically for this itinerary.) Same weekend, selected LGA-IAH-LAS-DEN-LGA flights, via Round Trip (LGA-LAS-LGA) search resulted in a fare of $432. The exact same dates and flights, via Multiple Destinations search resulted in a fare of $381, not as large a difference but significant nonetheless. Doesn’t always work that way but quite frequently it does.
The point is, when searching for fares on the UA website, it would be prudent to search the exact same flights via Round Trip search and via Multiple Destinations search before giving UA any hard earned dollars.
Thank you very much Seth, you've most definitely done your good deed for the day! ^^^
Feb 8, 2014, 2:04 pm
#63
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 8,634
UA is not intending to offer the cheaper fares. It's a bug. How people think this is a "dirty trick" is completely beyond me. Thanks to recent attention (from people who I am completely shocked to learn didn't already know about the big, frankly), it will probably be fixed soon.
What silliness.
What silliness.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:13 pm
#65
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: EWR
Programs: UA Gold, UA MM, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,329
UA is not intending to offer the cheaper fares. It's a bug. How people think this is a "dirty trick" is completely beyond me. Thanks to recent attention (from people who I am completely shocked to learn didn't already know about the big, frankly), it will probably be fixed soon.
What silliness.
What silliness.
Admittedly, I am not a travel blogger but i certainly appreciate it being uncovered and published by Seth.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:17 pm
#66
Join Date: Aug 2011
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 8,634
I fly an awful lot always on my own dime and I didn't know anything about it. How long has this "bug" been around? and more importantly what makes you believe it will probably be fixed soon? UA hasn't been able to fix anything that i know of.
Admittedly, I am not a travel blogger but i certainly appreciate it being uncovered and published by Seth.
Admittedly, I am not a travel blogger but i certainly appreciate it being uncovered and published by Seth.
Seth didn't "uncover" anything. He brought something that has been discussed here for a long time to a larger audience.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:22 pm
#67
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: EWR
Programs: UA Gold, UA MM, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 1,329
Fair enough but I appreciate it nonetheless.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:23 pm
#68
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2003
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Posts: 24,709
If it's been around that long, it no longer deserves to be defined as a glitch. A glitch is fixed in a reasonable time frame. A few days, sure. Longer, no way. We're talking about customer pricing here, not some obscure page on the web site.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:43 pm
#70
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Feb 8, 2014, 2:44 pm
#71
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NYC suburbs
Programs: UA LT Gold (BIS), AA LT Plat (CC SUBs & BD), Hilton Dia (CC), Hyatt Glob (BIB), et. al.
Posts: 3,292
UA is not intending to offer the cheaper fares. It's a bug. How people think this is a "dirty trick" is completely beyond me. Thanks to recent attention (from people who I am completely shocked to learn didn't already know about the big, frankly), it will probably be fixed soon.
What silliness.
What silliness.
I’ve been a fairly active member of this site for several years and I’ve never read anything about it and 3 different Google searches didn’t reveal any discussion of this subject here at FT. And in just 30 minutes or so at least one other person has replied on this thread that it’s news to them also. Please do refer us to where it’s been “discussed here for a long time”.
If you have something helpful to contribute to the discussion, e.g. a link to prior discussions, please do so. If I’ve re-started something that’s been discussed here before please show me where and I’ll delete my post or ask the mods to move it. Otherwise your posts are just further examples of flames; perhaps more like flickers, but flames nonetheless.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:46 pm
#72
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Anywhere but home
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Posts: 4,552
It's not just UA; a similar "bug" occurs on delta.com too. This is just one more reason to use multiple sites when searching for fares, such as ITA.
Feb 8, 2014, 2:47 pm
#73
Moderator: United Airlines
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: SFO
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Posts: 66,856
This bug (workaround to UA fare rules to our advantage) is already extensively discussed (once again) in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ineraries.html
Feb 8, 2014, 2:54 pm
#74
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I’ve been a fairly active member of this site for several years and I’ve never read anything about it and 3 different Google searches didn’t reveal any discussion of this subject here at FT. And in just 30 minutes or so at least one other person has replied on this thread that it’s news to them also. Please do refer us to where it’s been “discussed here for a long time”.
.
Feb 8, 2014, 3:05 pm
#75
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: NYC suburbs
Programs: UA LT Gold (BIS), AA LT Plat (CC SUBs & BD), Hilton Dia (CC), Hyatt Glob (BIB), et. al.
Posts: 3,292
Never attribute to incompetence (mistakes) that which can easily be explained by malice (greed).
Hanlon's razor is an eponymous adage that allows the elimination of unlikely explanations for a phenomenon. It reads: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Another similar quotation appears in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774):
...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[11]
Similarly, Jane West's The Loyalists (1812) includes:
Let us not attribute to malice and cruelty what may be referred to less criminal motives. Do we not often afflict others undesignedly, and, from mere carelessness, neglect to relieve distress?
—Jane West[12]
A common (and more laconic) British English variation, coined by Bernard Ingham, is the saying "cock-up before conspiracy", deriving from this 1985 quotation:
Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory.
—Bernard Ingham[13]
Another similar quotation appears in Goethe's The Sorrows of Young Werther (1774):
...misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe[11]
Similarly, Jane West's The Loyalists (1812) includes:
Let us not attribute to malice and cruelty what may be referred to less criminal motives. Do we not often afflict others undesignedly, and, from mere carelessness, neglect to relieve distress?
—Jane West[12]
A common (and more laconic) British English variation, coined by Bernard Ingham, is the saying "cock-up before conspiracy", deriving from this 1985 quotation:
Many journalists have fallen for the conspiracy theory of government. I do assure you that they would produce more accurate work if they adhered to the cock-up theory.
—Bernard Ingham[13]
This bug (workaround to UA fare rules to our advantage) is already extensively discussed (once again) in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ineraries.html
MODS: If possible, please merge the threads. (Although, with all due respect to Seth, my title is much better!
) Edit: I see it was already done, that was fast, thank you. (Still think my title is better!
)Thank you again Seth.
Last edited by iluv2fly; Feb 8, 2014 at 10:33 pm Reason: merge