mauld

I was looking to do a paid r/t EWR-LHR in Jan or Feb, and while there are lots of low cost coach non stop seats available from EWR, on the return (on any given date), it appears the lowest fares are 'flexible' coach starting at $2728 (one way). Yet the seat map shows lots of open seats. To get the lower cost r/t ($600) you have to use LH via MUC or FRA. I am assuming at some point UA will open up those coach seats at a lower price, or am I making a wrong assumption?

revigik

can you give an example?

docbert

Hard to say without dates, but the first dates I checked have $25+ fares between EWR-LHR (Jan 18 out, Jan 25 back).

Of course that $25 each way becomes $779 by the time you add in the $518 fuel surcharges, but that still a lot less than what you're saying.

mahasamatman

Seat maps indicate little - many people don't get seat assignments, particularly in groups.

There's no way to know. If they've actually sold those seats, there's not much that will happen.

goodeats21

There are sometimes weird fare things happening. Recently, I was looking for a simple domestic one-way flight. Out of a 10 non-stop options, 2 were insanely priced....over $1k...while the other 8 options were $100 or so.

The next day, the 2 offending flights were priced back in line with the other options. (Note, we are not talking about special wide-body flights or anything).

I believe there are random programming errors or some type of algorithm gets out of whack occasionally.

Has the LHR issue been going on for multiple days?

The other possibility is restrictive routing rules that the web site is having difficulty displaying correctly. The outbound could be cheap, but not staying minimum number of nights or something could be pricing the return leg really high.

docbert

Great example of this going on the the moment (and has been for the past few weeks). If you try and book SFO-SYD, the cheapest flights available are on UA SFO-SYD on the outbound, but on the way back the only option available is SYD-AKL-SFO on Air New Zealand. Most booking engines (including united.com) don't even give you the option of the SYD-SFO direct flight once you've selected the outbound.

The reason is that what you're actually buying is a SFO-AKL flight, which allows routing SFO-SYD-AKL, and allows for a stopover in SYD. The "return" is thus AKL-SFO, giving a full flight on SFO-SYD-AKL-SFO and thus no option to come back direct from SYD.

Kacee

I run into this more and more all the time.

For example, if you want to O/J between Asia and Japan with a W (e.g., SFO-HKG // NRT-SFO), the minimum fare for the Japan-US segment is typically a Q, raising the total ticket price to around $2K. Even if there's a RT K available US-Japan in the $500 range.

garykung

Maybe. Maybe not.

You should try an alternative date to test this theory.

mauld

I have put in a variety of dates from Jan to March... But my trip is only 2 days, leaving on a Sun with a return on Tues. Now I have done this in the past with non stop EWR - LHR flights at a cost ranging from $400 to 800 same time frame. It just seemed odd, but it could be this time there is a minimum stay requirement with LHR flights. (PS I have non stops booked for early 2017 to other European cities at very low prices out Sun return Tues.. MAD, MXP, CDG etc),

findark

That's correct. The cheap fare you see is EWR-FRA with a stopover in LHR, which is why you need to transit FRA on the return. It seems like the lowest published UA fare on NYC-LON without the Saturday night stay restriction is B00RCE, a $3,023 round-trip.

evanroberts

Leisure versus business markets -- someone going Sunday - Tuesday doesn't look a leisure traveler.

mduell

No, UA may never offer those seats on the nonstop for a lower price, if they feel the passengers will pay more.

Or they'll fill them up with LHR-EWR-xxx connecting traffic at lower fares in more competitive markets.

3Cforme

Friday to Sunday non-stops can be had for $779 in January. R/T on UA.

milypan

I noticed the same thing when I purchased a RT SFO-FRA ticket for a flight at the end of August. I was only staying two nights (work trip), and even when UA was having sales to Europe, the lower fare classes would only open if I extended the trip to cover a week or so. I eventually ended up buying the same ticket through a consolidator (Justairticket) for a lot less than it was available on united.com ($1000 vs $2700). Still earned full PQM...didn't pay attention to the PQD because I just do the CC waiver anyway.

1k-all-the-way

Same for me on a 2 day SFO-KIX...could not get a reasonable fare on the return....