Oops, my bad. My eyes saw PQM, but my brain read RDM.

Last week I booked a multi-city itinerary in April for around $600 with various fare buckets. The very next day I priced out the exact same itinerary to see if the price changed, and it went up to over $2,000 only letting me select Y fares for each segment. I found that quite suspect as well.

Interesting - looks like this hit the domestic fare template, fairly recently. It may be coincidence but it seems like it is all non-refundable domestic fares that now have this template text restricting multi-component circle trips. If they sell it as a one way basis, is it even back to back ticketing to use multiple tickets? I feel like this has to be a mistake by UA... perhaps an overzealous attempt to prevent routing fare breaks when cheaper?

The results are very amusing on a route like ATL-FLL, for which no fare is published. Because of the fare break it is just not possible to buy a non-refundable ticket now.

I doubt UA cares to compete in that slug fest with no well placed hub for connections.

No. Back-to-back and end-on-end require round-trips. It's just a series of one-way tickets.

I too am noticing this.. and while the "rules change" mantra is fine and well, this change happened at the same time as the expertmode break... so......

For a while, I've been looking at a multi-city itin that was pricing out at about $600. Over the last couple days, the same flights are pricing at closer to $1700. Buying three separate one-way fares prices out at nearer the $600, short of the difference and fees and taxes.

Even some round-trips are pricing strangely...

I certainly hope that this is not the new normal because something changed and it is absolutely not for the better.

Edit: I'm seeing this on an AAA-BBB/BBB-CCC/CCC-AAA circle.. itin. Nothing crazy... BBB is LAX/ONT, but that shouldn't typically matter.

As far as I can tell, all non-refundable domestic fares are currently tagged with a template which prohibits multi-component (more than two) circle trips. I would guess UA didn't actually intend to do this (if your route has one way restricted fares, you can just do separate tickets), but it is in the fare rules, not just a .bomb bug.

Well this is strange. I'm trying to construct multi-city trip and getting terrible pricing from the United web site. If I book two separate tickets the price is:

IAH-LAS $160
LAS-BOS $157

but

IAH-LAS-BOS is $1,500 as a multi-city trip for the same flights.

If there's a mechanical delay on the first flight there's no hotel or meal compensation for a missed connection if they're booked separately.

I hope so. I have to make 3-4 "multi-city" trips each year, sometimes spending only one night in a city before heading on. If I have to purchase as multiple "one-way" tickets, I risk a mechanical or weather-related delay/cancellation on the first 1W that would make it impossible for me to make the next leg, etc.

(And to the "Oh, you have a choice - just pay the extra $1500 for a full-fare ticket!" crowd: sorry, that's not in my budget.)

The is extremely consumer un-friendly!

I have been trying to price out a multi-city itinerary (economy) since last Saturday. At first the website was pricing it as first class on the first leg. Now showing no availability in lowest economy. Doing individual legs gives totally different (lower) fares. Tried writing web support, 1K voice, & twitter. Response was call the 800 number. Can we just have the old website back?

I noticed that even Google Flights was returning the higher priced multi-city itinerary, so maybe it's not an issue with the United website? Something seems wrong here.

I had a similar problem with expensive fares using Concur for 3 segment RIC-LAX, LAX-PHX, PHX-RIC trip. When I price all 3 segments together with multi-city itinerary, it's $1214, E, U, and E fare basis codes. But if I price 3 one-ways, I got total of $990, in E, V, and V fare basis codes. I went with 3 one-ways.

There's a thread about this exact same issue in the DL forum started around the same time. Sorry, but that's just too much of a coincidence for me. Regulators, where art thou?

Could this be a joint attack to try and break skiplagged?

If so, suck, because all I want is a normally priced circle trip...

No, Skiplagged isn't looking for combineable oneway fares. They're just looking for a single oneway fare to HCT.