United fares to Europe high?
#16
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO/SJC/OAK
Programs: OZ Diamond (*G), KQ Asante Gold (ST+), Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,511
Having been just pleased and amazed to find UA SFO-LHR economy in May for about $550 (several dates, all with SNS) for my own purposes, I just checked for AUS-LHR for those dates and they all came up at about $890. Obviously not as cheap as the SFO-LHR sale, but far from $5-6K.
#18
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: SJC / DPS
Programs: AS G75K, UA Silver
Posts: 1,757
https://goo.gl/flights/A9JL
https://goo.gl/flights/ivZZ
#21
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: ATL
Programs: UA:MM 1K HH:Diamond IHG:Plat Marriott:Plat
Posts: 652
As mentioned upthread, the issue appears to be the SNS requirements. Almost all dates in Feb and Mar appear around ~$500 when you add a SNS:
https://goo.gl/flights/A9JL
https://goo.gl/flights/ivZZ
https://goo.gl/flights/A9JL
https://goo.gl/flights/ivZZ
https://goo.gl/flights/gYed
#22
Join Date: Jan 2017
Programs: UA
Posts: 324
I'm seeing nutso prices as well. 8 grand to fly anywhere business class in Europe on United. Even with stops. Google flights will show a much more reasonable price, but when you look at the fare....it immediately goes up to 8 grand. And that's with a SNS. Looks like a bug. UA apparently has a pricing policy of hammering Houston customers, but this is beyond what any reasonable person would pay
#23
Join Date: Nov 1999
Location: if it's Thursday, this must be Belgium
Programs: UA 1K MM
Posts: 6,484
Maybe there's something going on those weekends in BCN that they know about. You remove the discount carriers / weird connections and only TAP has <$700 fares. Seems all the majors are high priced those weekends, NYC-BCN:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...D8;md=960;eo=e
Maybe take the train from Madrid:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...D8;md=960;eo=e
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...D8;md=960;eo=e
Maybe take the train from Madrid:
https://www.google.com/flights/#sear...D8;md=960;eo=e
#24
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: DEN
Programs: UA 1P-1MM, Marriott LT Titanium
Posts: 3,930
I was looking at DEN-FRA for early June and it is pricing fairly high. Even with a SNS (or 7 day stay), it's coming out over 2K for economy. Without the SNS/7day it's pricing at $3400. I think that this is just another data point that they are not releasing cheap fares for long-lead-time buying.
#25
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: AA Plat, UA 1K>Plat>moving to Silver
Posts: 2,089
I've already purchased a month or so ago east coast RT to AMS and CDG for what would have been about $2.8K for business, but for applying a GPU on one leg making it $2.3K, so I suspect it is just pricing software fluctuations which might come down again, whether J or Y.
#26
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: YQR
Programs: Nexus/GE, UA/MPG, Bonvoy Tit, LTP
Posts: 1,294
Just be careful if booking Air Canada that many of their European routes are now flown by AC Rouge. High density LCC service at mainline prices . Have avoided them like the plague due to their reputation but I see Paris, Barcelona, Athens, Glasgow and Edinburgh are Rouge. They have also been known to sell it as a mainline flight and then Rouge it later, with no notification to you.
#27
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: YQR
Programs: Nexus/GE, UA/MPG, Bonvoy Tit, LTP
Posts: 1,294
#28
Join Date: Jan 2017
Location: SFO/SJC/OAK
Programs: OZ Diamond (*G), KQ Asante Gold (ST+), Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond, Marriott Gold
Posts: 1,511
Just be careful if booking Air Canada that many of their European routes are now flown by AC Rouge. High density LCC service at mainline prices . Have avoided them like the plague due to their reputation but I see Paris, Barcelona, Athens, Glasgow and Edinburgh are Rouge. They have also been known to sell it as a mainline flight and then Rouge it later, with no notification to you.
#30
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Austin, TX
Programs: UA 1K, Marriott Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 141
I'm seeing nutso prices as well. 8 grand to fly anywhere business class in Europe on United. Even with stops. Google flights will show a much more reasonable price, but when you look at the fare....it immediately goes up to 8 grand. And that's with a SNS. Looks like a bug. UA apparently has a pricing policy of hammering Houston customers, but this is beyond what any reasonable person would pay
Maybe when I started searching RT fares I had weird dates or triggered some strange bug on united.com resulting in the crazy-high fares. Their search UX is awful - it remembers some stuff if you return to the advanced search page but other fields have to be re-entered every time. Changing only the date on the flight results page can change other search parameters without warning.
In retrospect, I probably should have checked RT fares with a distant return date, maybe the more normal Y fares would have shown up. I could have just abandoned the return leg or tried to repurpose it for another trip. But we booked J for a very reasonable rate via the cruise line. (I hate yielding control of flight details, but the price was right.) Thanks for the advice, everyone!