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Old Jun 12, 2019, 10:53 am
  #46  
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Originally Posted by UAFLYER22
So you are saying that on UA, if S class is not available, it automatically goes to Y? Are those the only two classes that the gov't has contracts for?
No. I’m saying that on that particular route — I think it was WAS-SAC, but I’m not sure — the only two fares published were SCA and YCA. In another market, they may choose to use a different bucket for the _CA fare. Presumably, UA factors several factors into their bid, including the load factor they expect on the route, how often they want to sell _CA vs YCA, etc. I’m sure UA would prefer for it to be all-YCA, but then they’d lose the bid.

Originally Posted by therossinator
Not necessarily, I always get booked on a U fare every time I go between Guam and Okinawa. Maybe it’s because it includes code shared flights with ANA, maybe it’s because it’s short haul international, not really sure.
Assuming it’s a city-pair route, it just means that UA bid YCA and UCA fares in that market.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 10:53 am
  #47  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
. The number of government tickets sold is not a factor; it’s the overall flight inventory that matters.
The number of tickets sold is absolutely a factor but seldom comes into effect. I have the sheet outlining all the City Pair contracts out of Guam, it has the prices for each city pair in YCA and _CA as well as the number of seats that can be sold as _CA between those cities under the duration of that contract. That being said, the quantities are pretty big and I’ve never encountered a situation where it was clear that the _CA allotment had been exhausted.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 10:55 am
  #48  
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Originally Posted by therossinator
The number of tickets sold is absolutely a factor but seldom comes into effect. I have the sheet outlining all the City Pair contracts out of Guam, it has the prices for each city pair in YCA and _CA as well as the number of seats that can be sold as _CA between those cities under the duration of that contract. That being said, the quantity are pretty big and I’ve never encountered a situation where it was clear that the _CA allotment had been exhausted.
Ah. Thank you for the correction; I wasn’t aware of that. ^ It does make sense, though, that the airlines would want to limit their exposure at the lower fares.

On any particular flight, though, assuming there are still _CA seats in this general inventory you’re talking about, there’s nothing stopping passengers from buying _CA fares until UA decides to zero out the bucket being used on that route.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 11:37 am
  #49  
 
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If the outbound leg is cheaper on UA, but the return leg is cheaper an AA, will they book UA roundtrip? UA out and AA back?
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 11:48 am
  #50  
 
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Originally Posted by therossinator

The number of tickets sold is absolutely a factor but seldom comes into effect. I have the sheet outlining all the City Pair contracts out of Guam, it has the prices for each city pair in YCA and _CA as well as the number of seats that can be sold as _CA between those cities under the duration of that contract. That being said, the quantities are pretty big and I’ve never encountered a situation where it was clear that the _CA allotment had been exhausted.
So here's a question - say that on a given flight UA has sold out all S and below fare classes (assuming _CA is SCA) to general consumers, but hasn't sold all the S allotment for government. Is the _CA fare available for gov't?
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 12:52 pm
  #51  
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Originally Posted by drewguy
So here's a question - say that on a given flight UA has sold out all S and below fare classes (assuming _CA is SCA) to general consumers, but hasn't sold all the S allotment for government. Is the _CA fare available for gov't?
No. In that case, you'd be booked into YCA.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 1:18 pm
  #52  
 
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Originally Posted by jsloan
No. In that case, you'd be booked into YCA.
What if the lowest fare in one direction is L and in the other direction the lowest fare is H. Do they do a mixed fare or that automatically gives YCA for the whole trip?
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 1:23 pm
  #53  
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
What if the lowest fare in one direction is L and in the other direction the lowest fare is H. Do they do a mixed fare or that automatically gives YCA for the whole trip?
I'd have to look at the fare construction. Without being able to do that, my guess is that you'd get _CA in one direction and YCA in the other.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 1:50 pm
  #54  
 
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Originally Posted by StuckinITH
What if the lowest fare in one direction is L and in the other direction the lowest fare is H. Do they do a mixed fare or that automatically gives YCA for the whole trip?
I've always gotten mixed fares. Plenty of times I've had YCA one way and _CA the other.
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 9:23 pm
  #55  
 
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Because I love this conversation and want to belabor it as much as possible...

I'm leaving my current command in July and will be moving back to the states for a new billet that doesn't require me to travel.
In picking my flight date I have a lot of flexibility. I was originally booked to depart under an SCA fare. I poked around the United Government search in the flexible dates and noticed that while most dates were all $756, occasionally there would be a few days for $1263 sporadically throughout the calendar. I haven't been ticketed yet so I asked to get my date switched to one of the days that is showing as more expensive and when they did, I got booked into a YCA fare. Now when I get ticketed I can apply a GPU.

Last edited by therossinator; Jun 12, 2019 at 9:50 pm
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Old Jun 12, 2019, 9:55 pm
  #56  
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Originally Posted by qukslvr619
So UA allows you to pay the difference with a personal card? I know that the Gov't fare search option only will allow input of Gov't charge card; I think its because it looks at the first four digits of the card number.
Yes.

Originally Posted by therossinator

The number of tickets sold is absolutely a factor but seldom comes into effect. I have the sheet outlining all the City Pair contracts out of Guam, it has the prices for each city pair in YCA and _CA as well as the number of seats that can be sold as _CA between those cities under the duration of that contract. That being said, the quantities are pretty big and I’ve never encountered a situation where it was clear that the _CA allotment had been exhausted.
Out of the NCR, if you purchase well in advance, you’ll almost always get a -CA fare. Purchase within 48 hours on a well traveled route, and all you will likely find is a YCA fare.
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Old Jun 13, 2019, 6:53 am
  #57  
 
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Originally Posted by therossinator
Because I love this conversation and want to belabor it as much as possible...

I'm leaving my current command in July and will be moving back to the states for a new billet that doesn't require me to travel.
In picking my flight date I have a lot of flexibility. I was originally booked to depart under an SCA fare. I poked around the United Government search in the flexible dates and noticed that while most dates were all $756, occasionally there would be a few days for $1263 sporadically throughout the calendar. I haven't been ticketed yet so I asked to get my date switched to one of the days that is showing as more expensive and when they did, I got booked into a YCA fare. Now when I get ticketed I can apply a GPU.
The taxpayers thank you!

(It is *highly* annoying that United made the _CA fare an S fare, just below the cutoff for GPU; I don't think that's unintentional)
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Old Jun 13, 2019, 7:02 am
  #58  
 
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Originally Posted by therossinator
I'm leaving my current command in July and will be moving back to the states for a new billet that doesn't require me to travel.
In picking my flight date I have a lot of flexibility. I was originally booked to depart under an SCA fare. I poked around the United Government search in the flexible dates and noticed that while most dates were all $756, occasionally there would be a few days for $1263 sporadically throughout the calendar. I haven't been ticketed yet so I asked to get my date switched to one of the days that is showing as more expensive and when they did, I got booked into a YCA fare. Now when I get ticketed I can apply a GPU.
This is almost certainly a violation of FTRs. You can't take a more expensive flight for personal convenience.
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Old Jun 13, 2019, 7:33 am
  #59  
 
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Originally Posted by Alpha Golf
This is almost certainly a violation of FTRs. You can't take a more expensive flight for personal convenience.
Not necessarily, though it could get a bit tricky. JTR directs travelers to book the contract carrier, but doesn't mandate the use of the lower/restricted fare in lieu of the unrestricted (YCA) published contract fares. It advises that there could be additional savings by booking the restricted fare, but in my experience DTS doesn't display the exact same flight pairing for YCA fare and then restricted fare. I've seen instances where SCA displayed for nonstops in a market (for example ORDDCA), but the YCA results only showed connections (ORDEWRDCA).
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Old Jun 13, 2019, 7:42 am
  #60  
 
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Originally Posted by drewguy
The taxpayers thank you!

(It is *highly* annoying that United made the _CA fare an S fare, just below the cutoff for GPU; I don't think that's unintentional)
Despite what the site says, the actual difference between a YCA and an -CA on this route is only $100 ($1300 vs $1400) and I only changed my departure date one day, well within my rights when PCSing especially when I was originally booked to depart at 0700 the same morning I was supposed to check out of my command.
In the case of officers, it is completely up to the service member when they choose to detach their command. The orders only state which month and year to detach the old command and attach to their new command.

Last edited by therossinator; Jun 13, 2019 at 8:38 am
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