Ridiculous variable ticket pricing
 

United is using analytics to continuously adjust fare prices and it has gotten to the point where it is completely ridiculous.

Yesterday I booked a one-way ticket to the east coast. It was $973 for a refundable B fare in coach. There were 3 first class tickets for $1797 (given this was UX - that is kind of a joke).

Today refundable coach is $725 and full F is $925 (3 seats still left). When I go into my reservation it wants $457 to upgrade to first.

I called GS and they see $1797 as the price of first. Then she goes and checks a different way and says refundable first is $800. So instead of giving me an instant upgrade and collecting more money, they rebook the ticket in first and give me a $200 refund.

If United thinks this policy is sustainable they are nuts. People who buy expensive refundable tickets do not want to get screwed like this and have to check every day to see if the fare dropped.

This is now the 4th time in 3 weeks I have done this. In all cases the upgrade didn't go through and I switched to first and got a refund.

I am so frustrated about this I am going to email Oscar.

It is what it is. You have to remember two things:

1) A lot of people are not allowed by their employer to buy F.
2) A lot of travelers (or their agents) buy whatever fare is presented and allowable.

But, yes, the more you know about airline pricing, the more annoyed and/or pleased one can get. I'd be annoyed that I had to go through that, but pleased I didn't get shafted. It's your own knowledge and curiosity that is taking you down the path to frustration.

Sometimes it's the routing.

Just about a week ago I try NYC - KIX directly - get a price of something like $1500 (it's all very Y :) ). Manually route NYC - HKG - KIX, KIX - SFO - NYC - priced at $800. Same day, same time.

What's that mean? :)

Yup, and a lot of corporate travel agents will book the former, as United wants.

In this case it is a simple one-way DEN-RDU.

That's ridiculous..."I'm going to email Oscar about this". Good luck with that.

You got $200 back and you're now flying first class. Yet you complain.

As you know, all airlines use dynamic pricing models. They are free to charge what they want when they want. If they want to lower the fare the next day after you purchase that's their right. And it's also their right not to notify you or anyone else that the price dropped. It's up to the purchaser/flyer to check.

Lucky for you, you found a lower fare and were able to get an even lower one calling the agent. I'm not sure if you are saving your employer money or yourself money but it doesn't really matter. You got the cabin you wanted and got a refund in the meantime. Enjoy it.

So, yes, please contact Oscar and tell him, "I don't like that you lowered the fare and gave me money back and gave me a first class seat. I prefer you only keep increasing fares as the date of travel gets closer so I can feel like I got the best deal." That's basically what I'm getting out of your post.

-RM

I would personally love that. Ever since they eliminated the guaranteed airfare rule, I end up getting screwed because I plan ahead. I can't understand why businesses reward lack of planning.

Welcome to the variable world of airline pricing. Prices change all the time, but more relevantly, fare bucket availability changes all the time.

Twice last week I bought tickets day before flight. The following day (4-6 hours before the actual flight) I checked again and in both cases cheaper fare classes were available. Voided both tickets, rebooked, and saved about $300 on the pair.

I understand variable pricing and that fare buckets change all the time - I've flown 5M miles over the last 35 years.

The point I'm complaining about is that the airlines are basically forcing us to check every day for lower fares. I can have my secretary check 3 times a day but this is a complete waste of time and resources for both the airline and customer.

I am not talking about how non-refundable fares go from $200 to $300 to $150 over time by changing availability of fare buckets. That is fine and airlines have been doing that forever.

I am talking about buying a full-fare (F) ticket that one day costs $1200, then costs $1800, then costs $800 and availability and price depend on whether I logon as my GS account or as someone with no status. While this is completely legal and some people will think it is "smart", it is disingenuous to their best customers.

Nobody's forcing you to do anything. You are choosing to do so in the hopes of saving money.

And Best Buy "forces" me to check the price on my TV every day in case it's dropped and I can use their 30-day low price guarantee... In fact nobody is forcing you to do that - you are choosing to.

If you want the best of both worlds, there are multiple services that will check for prices changes and let you know. eg, Tripit Pro and Yapta.

I have been dealing with this quite a bit myself as of late. There's just a certain pain point where I'm no longer willing to pony up for a ride in F. After I ticket in Y, however, it's pretty routinely the case that I can do a 24-hr refund to partially up to F. Then the following day I might be able to grab F for the entire trip. As of right now, I have nearly $4k in pending charges/refunds for a single trip on Sunday due to multiple such cycles. Seems like madness to me.

What's worse is that a straight-forward buy-up is generally not doable. Even after holding for input from the rate desk yesterday, I was still faced with either the CSA adding a $300 charge to my CC, or refunding online and starting all over to pick up P throughout my outbound journey for an extra $100. Three record locators in, I finally have the seats I want at a price I'm willing to pay.

But there's the rub - United Continental still doesn't think you're one of their best customers. They seem to think that whoever the next poor (or not so poor) schlub that crosses their purchasing threshold is their best mark, ahem I mean best customer. Part of it may be this is their response to the automated price checking/mapping services that are out there that drive parts of the market, comparison kayakers, etc. Another part may be that they assume that since you, United MP member, have stuck it out this far, will continue to play their games. There's always more of us being born everyday so only when a metric that clicks too low will they even respond to the existence of "best" MP members. And their response earlier this year was simply to dole out status bumps to primarily folks who hadn't even been flying United recently.

David

Not sure how this is "disingenuous." It's not like they're trying to trick you. The fares are published. And the price swings are due to market conditions as reflected in various algorithm inputs. UA charges what they think people will pay at any particular point in time.

More generally, I often find UA's fare structure frustrating but I try not to spend too much time worrying about it. Either I pay the fare they're selling, or I choose another airline, or I don't fly. I don't see much point in adding "angry" to the list of menu options.

There are plenty of existing threads on how /UPDI fares work. The fare structure isn't changing, so I'd recommend just using Google Flights fare alerts instead of checking 3 times a day.