Earning PQP on Expedia "Special Fare" ticket
 

I need to book an economy flight from DEN to TYO for next week. United wants $2,343 for the non-stop UA flight. Expedia sells the same flight (with one night hotel) for $1,796 as a "special fare".

Am I correct in understanding that the Expedia ticket is a bulk fare that earns PQP? If so, is there any reason I shouldn't buy the ticket through Expedia? By my calculations, the Expedia ticket would earn 2,314 PQPs (11,574 miles / 5) versus 2,244 PQPs for the United ticket.

Most likely.

It would mean that you’d need to deal with Expedia for any changes / refunds / etc. As for PQP — you’re forgetting a very important caveat. The fare will earn a percentage of distance, from 25-100%, depending upon the fare class, and I don’t know that there’s any way to know what the fare class will be in advance. (They cut the lowest bucket for bulk fares to 25% as of January 1. :td: )

I have a 'special fare' ticket from Expedia for the end of March for Florida to IST with two of the three legs each way on United and on 016- stock. When the whole PQP vs PQM thing happened, I looked and it seemed that the PQP earnings were based upon a specific ticket price that United was using that Expedia must have paid them. I called United and asked if this was a 'bulk'/'exception' fare and they said no after checking with a different department.

So, do not trust that Expedia 'special fare' tickets will necessarily be 'bulk' and earn big PQP.

Going forward, when I do this, I will probably cancel the ticket within the 24 hours if the receipt does not explicitly say 'bulk' or 'wholesale'.