Problem booking open jaw?
 

My mother-in-law just tried to book (with United agent on the phone) an open jaw SFO-IAD, then EWR-SFO in business for a trip next month. The agent (and later her supervisor) couldn't book this as an open jaw in business and could only offer two one way tickets. The supervisor actually told her to try Expedia.

I tried looking/booking it as an open jaw for her on united.com and it showed zero availability for the EWR-SFO leg, even though there is plenty availability when booking one way for that leg.

I'm no expert, but I've never come across that before. I've seen prices shoot up for some open jaws, but I've never seen an airline not allow them at all. Is this unusual or am I just out of touch?

BTW, she was NOT trying to get an award ticket.

never
 

The reason is pretty obvious IMO..............that is not an open jaw! e.g.
SFO-IAD-LAX is an open jaw.
Pray tell why she wants to book this on a single PNR?

SFO-IAD, EWR-SFO is most certainty an (destination) open jaw

It's unusual, but it's not completely unheard of. There's a combinability rule that's being violated somewhere. It could be intentional, or it could be UA messing up their fare table again.

What are the dates involved? I assume she's looking at the nonstop flights?

Yeah I bet the premium t-con (EWR-SFO) fare rules prohibit that combination.

Most of the time I prefer to book one-ways anyway.

Roundtrip (1 traveler)Edit search
Thu, Oct 10, 2019Revise
SFO - IAD 9:30 am - 5:38 pm
Thu, Oct 17, 2019Revise
EWR - SFO 7:00 am - 10:11 am
Fare
$1,846.51
Taxes and fees
$167.09
TOTAL
$2,013.60

pretty straight forward on UA.com

I'm seeing some oddities in trying to book open jaw tickets lately as well, but I think it has to do more with fares that were incorrectly loaded. Fortunately one-way tickets [for the most part] are priced sensibly.

I have noticed on a number of int'l flights where PP is currently not being sold but may be in the future the fares seem to book into Y/B class. Calling up an agent to book the flights usually clears this issue up. YMMV.

I am guessing. So I can be wrong.

I believe it may have something to do with non-p.s. route (SFO-IAD) and p.s. route (EWR-SFO). UA may construct the fare in a way that prohibits the existence of this fare.

Dates and flights? As noted, seems to work fine.

I regularly book open jaw, albeit on international flights and have never had any problems.

Somewhat similar experience.

Tried to book BOS-EWR-FCO, PVG-EWR-BOS, United asks for $3000+ Y fare.

However, it's $570 for BOS-EWR-FCO, $770 for PVG-EWR-BOS in W class if booked as one-ways.

I was able to book this as one PNR for $1300 several months ago, but not now.

Advantage to book as one ticket: if I need to cancel or change both dates, I only need to pay one change fee instead of two.

That's a little different. That's not a valid open jaw, because the distance between FCO and PVG is greater than the distance between BOS and FCO. (The un-flown leg must be shorter than either flown leg).

However, if the one-way fares were combinable with each other, you could price it as two one-ways on one PNR even though it's not a valid open jaw. It's just that UA likes to play around with its combinability rules.

It wasn't straightforward on UA.com when I tried outbound 9/12 and return on 9/18 (or 9/17).

For those who think I am incapable of using united.com. This is what happens when you try to get the EWR-SFO segment on 9/17 or 9/18 even though there is actually business availability.
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cf8d8aa62a.png

There's an odd combinability restriction. If you select the cheaper outbound flight, you'll get return options in business class. The outbound that you've selected is in J class, and there doesn't appear to be a return flight that can combine with an outbound J fare.