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Consolidated "Why is this fare so expensive?" Thread [Archive]

Old Feb 28, 2021, 12:23 pm
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Consolidated "Why is this UA fare so expensive?" thread

Potential reasons for high fares
-- the lower fare classes are sold out
-- the lower fare classes are not available due to fare rule restrictions
..... day of the week travel restrictions, Saturday night stay requirement, minimum stay requirement, advance purchase requirements, ...
-- desired fares are not combinable
-- discount fares not available for one-ways, only roundtrips Why are international OWs so expensive, such high fare classes?
-- discount inventory for codeshare marketing airline is gone, but flight operator may have discount fare (or the reverse)
-- Plating -- airlines restrict the best fare to their ticket stock, meaning ticketing that flight on another ticket stock will be more expensive
-- Airline is figuring it will still sell (due to last minute purchases0 even if the competition is lower earlier. Such as peak leisure periods or special events.
-- Airline is placing a premium on non-stop (monopoly?) versus alternative connecting routings

If you find an expensive flight, start by checking the fare class and compare to the less expensive option -- that generally will explain a lot.
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Consolidated "Why is this fare so expensive?" Thread [Archive]

Old Dec 1, 2017, 7:40 pm
  #1306  
 
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https://www.google.com/flights/#sear..._ALLIANCE;eo=c

Can someone tell me why the price difference is so big between booking with UA and LH? Can I call UA and tell them I see LH offering same flights at half the price and they'll book it for me at that price? This is ridiculous.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 8:08 pm
  #1307  
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Originally Posted by UAL250
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear..._ALLIANCE;eo=c

Can someone tell me why the price difference is so big between booking with UA and LH? Can I call UA and tell them I see LH offering same flights at half the price and they'll book it for me at that price? This is ridiculous.
Probably not. You have to find a fare that UA can ticket. Do you really want a night in London, or are you just aiming for Paris?
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 8:18 pm
  #1308  
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Originally Posted by UAL250
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear..._ALLIANCE;eo=c

Can someone tell me why the price difference is so big between booking with UA and LH? Can I call UA and tell them I see LH offering same flights at half the price and they'll book it for me at that price? This is ridiculous.
Note that the LH and UA itineraries, while involving the same flights, are booking into different flight numbers for some of the segments. The price differential you see is typically (not always) a matter of different inventory for the codeshare vs. native flight numbers.

You can try calling UA and feeding them the specific flight numbers from the LH itinerary, but if Google Flights doesn't show it booking at the cheaper price through UA, you probably can't get it.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 10:20 pm
  #1309  
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Originally Posted by UAL250
Can someone tell me why the price difference is so big between booking with UA and LH? Can I call UA and tell them I see LH offering same flights at half the price and they'll book it for me at that price? This is ridiculous.
Because LH1035 has K space but UA9323 does not (in this combination). This is basically LH messing with you, and UA can't do anything about it.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 10:46 pm
  #1310  
 
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Originally Posted by UAL250
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear..._ALLIANCE;eo=c

Can someone tell me why the price difference is so big between booking with UA and LH? Can I call UA and tell them I see LH offering same flights at half the price and they'll book it for me at that price? This is ridiculous.
The ticket UA is offering is a round-trip to CDG. I imagine what you're seeing with the LH fare is the doing the open jaw IAD-LHR and CDG-IAD plus a short segment in the middle from LHR to CDG. The short hop from LHR to CDG can only be plated on LH stock now (as an intra-Europe flight) so it's the only way to get this on a single ticket. UA will gladly sell you the IAD-LHR / CDG-IAD portion for just $673, however, if you really wanted to get that part on 016 stock.
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Old Dec 1, 2017, 11:00 pm
  #1311  
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Originally Posted by hoshattack
The ticket UA is offering is a round-trip to CDG. I imagine what you're seeing with the LH fare is the doing the open jaw IAD-LHR and CDG-IAD plus a short segment in the middle from LHR to CDG. The short hop from LHR to CDG can only be plated on LH stock now (as an intra-Europe flight) so it's the only way to get this on a single ticket. UA will gladly sell you the IAD-LHR / CDG-IAD portion for just $673, however, if you really wanted to get that part on 016 stock.
Huh? You can't have a single ticket on more than one carrier's stock.

UA is happy to sell the complete itinerary on 016 stock. It just costs more than ticketing through LH because the inventory for CDG-FRA is different native flight number vs. codeshare (S on the UA codeshare vs. K on the native LH flight).
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:10 pm
  #1312  
 
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Originally Posted by Kacee
Huh? You can't have a single ticket on more than one carrier's stock.

UA is happy to sell the complete itinerary on 016 stock. It just costs more than ticketing through LH because the inventory for CDG-FRA is different native flight number vs. codeshare (S on the UA codeshare vs. K on the native LH flight).
Whoops, you're definitely right. I was just thinking of a way to potentially avoid the codeshare issue though it would involve separate tickets. All this nonsense of worrying about ticketing stock is really becoming a big downside of mileage plus and UA.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:19 pm
  #1313  
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Originally Posted by hoshattack
.....All this nonsense of worrying about ticketing stock is really becoming a big downside of mileage plus and UA.
Becoming? Its been like this since the advent of codesharing.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 8:38 pm
  #1314  
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Originally Posted by IAH-OIL-TRASH
Becoming? Its been like this since the advent of codesharing.
But prior to the introduction of PQD, you could just book whichever was cheapest without having it affect your status qualification and earnings.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 9:26 pm
  #1315  
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Originally Posted by jsloan
But prior to the introduction of PQD, you could just book whichever was cheapest without having it affect your status qualification and earnings.
If I recall there were still fare class nuances to attend, although I don't remember ever being bitten by them as they can do now.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 9:47 pm
  #1316  
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Originally Posted by fumje
If I recall there were still fare class nuances to attend, although I don't remember ever being bitten by them as they can do now.
True, but at least they didn't depend upon ticket stock (except to the extent that codeshares make it difficult to figure out the prime booking class). Prior to the introduction of PQDs, nobody bothered trying to figure out how to get UA to ticket some complicated multi-carrier itinerary; they'd just book it wherever they could find it.
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Old Dec 2, 2017, 11:45 pm
  #1317  
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Originally Posted by hoshattack
All this nonsense of worrying about ticketing stock is really becoming a big downside of mileage plus and UA.
Totally agree with you there.

Don't see why UA can't follow AA and DL and grant PQD on partner ticketed flights based on a percentage of mileage flown.
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Old Dec 3, 2017, 1:45 am
  #1318  
 
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Originally Posted by Exleftseat
I am looking for 2018 at a one way fare out of NRT to any of UA's hubs and the cheapest I find is around $ 5,000.00 in Y. DL and AA are between 750.00 and 1,000.00. Even DL PE fares are under 1,000.00. That's a big chunk of money. But compare that to a LAX-NRT one-way W fare for just
$ 500.00.
Go figure.
Anything out of NRT is about 5000 through the end of 2017... insane. AA and DL are $1000
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Old Dec 3, 2017, 5:42 am
  #1319  
 
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Originally Posted by Evident
Anything out of NRT is about 5000 through the end of 2017... insane. AA and DL are $1000
Here is something I found really insane, even if it is the opposite situation.
Just booked a ticket on united.com in J. BOS->PVG, then TYO->BOS.
Two low fares available, about $1,500 with United and Air China (via PEK), with TPAC on UA. Choose this fare, and return flight in J priced at $721!
Need Y instead on that itinerary? I saw $3K to PEK. And $1,500 out of TYO.
Now, I wanted to be smart and avoid PEK. I was willing to pay more ($1,800) to fly direct to PVG. But then, somehow, the $721 out of TYO disappeared. So, went back and booked through PEK (with 4 hours to transfer it should be OK).
The mysteries of ticket pricing are wonderous. I was willing to spend $300 more but United somehow preferred me to spend less.
Anyway, the finance folks at my company will be very happy.
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Old Dec 3, 2017, 10:33 am
  #1320  
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Originally Posted by skidooman
Here is something I found really insane, even if it is the opposite situation.
Just booked a ticket on united.com in J. BOS->PVG, then TYO->BOS.
Two low fares available, about $1,500 with United and Air China (via PEK), with TPAC on UA. Choose this fare, and return flight in J priced at $721!
Need Y instead on that itinerary? I saw $3K to PEK. And $1,500 out of TYO.
Now, I wanted to be smart and avoid PEK. I was willing to pay more ($1,800) to fly direct to PVG. But then, somehow, the $721 out of TYO disappeared. So, went back and booked through PEK (with 4 hours to transfer it should be OK).
The mysteries of ticket pricing are wonderous. I was willing to spend $300 more but United somehow preferred me to spend less.
Anyway, the finance folks at my company will be very happy.
So, what actually happened here is that you didn't buy a flight to PVG at all. Instead, you purchased a roundtrip ticket to PEK, with a stopover in PVG and an embedded surface segment from PVG to TYO. UA currently has a sale fare filed -- $2156 all-in roundtrip from BOS to PEK in P, plus $100 for a stopover. United's pricing engine will sometimes find fares like this. When it does, the per-leg fare calculations are messed up. The $1500 comes from the entire outbound to PEK ($1078) plus a fraction of the return fare (looks like about $500, but it's basically completely arbitrary). The $721 isn't the price of any TPAC leg; it's just the residual piece of the return flight.

That's why you can't book the PVG nonstop on the outbound and avoid PEK -- they haven't filed a sale fare to PVG. It's also why you would have to pay much more for Y; as soon as you flew Y in either direction, you'd need a J ticket to PVG instead of PEK, which bumped up the price.

That's a great price for that route, though. ^
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