Website bait and switch?
 

I was looking at booking the BAH flight before it goes away. I priced PDX-IAD-KWI-BAH with open R space in W for $575 o/w.

On the next screen I see that UA is selling BAH-(DMM)-FRA-SFO-PDX in business for $2500 o/w. The fare classes are marked on the website as Z/Z/A. It's not a terrible price so I click on it. On the checkout screen I happen to look at the details of the LH BAH-FRA segment and see that it's actually an S fare. :eek:

This isn't the first time I've seen this but it's starting to get old. UA shows a decent one way price, you select it, only to realize it's not the fare class you originally thought. Most of the times I see it, it involves partner segments, but there have been a couple where the UA segments do the same thing.

I'm just happy I caught it before purchase. (can post screenshots if anyone is interested)

Was the ticket a bussiness class cabin but "S" fare -- if so sounds like an S-UP ticket which do exist.

or

Are you saying this was a Mixed Cabin ticket that was not clear marked?

Good catch! But does the UA S fare purchased on LH transfer to an S fare as operated by LH, or could it map into a different bucket at the LH end?

Is there an easy way to tell? The fare was marked "Z - Business" on one screen and "S - Economy" on the checkout screen.

http://i.imgur.com/QFgND48.png

http://i.imgur.com/ybBJFbw.png

What happens if you click on the "Mixed Cabin" icon - does UA show it as Economy on LH and business on UA metal?

That is just flat out misleading. It expressly states "Business (Z)" for the LH segment.

The "mixed cabin" refers to domestic F and international business (or at least that's what it typically means in this situation).

This would absolutely support a DOT complaint.

No. Business, BusinessFirst, First are what are listed.

Tried the same booking on the old website and the fare basis for BAH-FRA-SFO is ZXXXX so I wonder if the new website just can't handle it for some reason.

Ok - as I have detailed in other threads the new website seems to really struggle to combine different cabin classes, and it doesn't find the lowest price repeatedly, which is why I also go to google flights / use the old website to see what is really going on. I think we all have a lot to learn when using the new website...

With the old website now gone this bug(?) is getting annoying.

I searched for the same routing as above with a W, V fare basis in the booking code field.

United.com returned PDX-IAD-BAH in W and BAH-FRA-SFO-PDX in Z. When I went to the payment screen BAH-FRA was marked as a W fare.

The fare rules breakdown is here:

http://i.imgur.com/doo2nmu.png

The way I read that, it is a Z fare and is simply displaying incorrectly?

It's an H fare that books into Z.

I think the question was about the BAH-SFO segments that show a Z basis booking into W.

Exactly. There is a Z fare basis on BAH-SFO but it displays as booking into W.