Combining Basic Economy With a Non-BE fare on a Multicity Ticket
 

Good morning all.

I'm having some issues with booking some tickets and I'm wondering if anyone has some advice on how to handle this.

We'll be flying SNA-SFO, SFO-PPT, PPT-SFO, and then back using SFO-SNA. We'd like the two short legs from SNA-SFO and back to be in Basic Economy to save money, with the two SFO-PPT and back legs to be in Premium Economy for the longer haul comfort and to be able to (hopefully) sleep. However, the United app and website both won't allow this, saying that they won't combine different fare classes on an itinerary like this, certainly not Basic Economy.

Just curious if this is accurate? Is this United's policy now? If it is, is there a way around this? We could buy separate round trip tickets for each sector (round trip SNA-SFO-SNA, then round trip (SFO-PPT-SFO) I suppose, but getting our suitcases and having to go in and out of security again might be a pain. Any other ideas?

Many thanks,

Bob

You can’t do this. The alternative, as you mentioned, is to book two separate trips. I think an agent would be able to check your bags through to PPT since it’s all UA metal, but someone wiser than I can probably speak better to how that all works.

pay the extra $$$ to get this on 1 ticket. Did you check the prem eco through fare from SNA? You can buy separate tickets, but no checked bags and not well-protected in case of irops.

Wasn’t it posted UA will NOT through-check bags when combining Basic Economy and any other ticket? Makes sense as it then negates the whole BE limitation.

Ah ok! That would make sense - although plenty of people (elites, credit card holders) would be exempt from that limitation

Multi-city search might allow you to book the lowest combinable economy fare on SNA-SFO, but definitely not BE. However, airfare doesn’t work like you seem to think; it’s not priced point-to-point. If you’ve already priced out SFO-PPT vs SNA-PPT, so be it, but in general SNA-PPT will not be priced as SNA-SFO plus SFO-PPT.

Yes.

It’s been the policy since BE was introduced.

Yes, there are multiple reports of this. It’s a policy thing, not anything inherent in the system.

Found in BE fares rules
Also, No more "through checking" / interlining of bags when connecting from BE, a recent report has add some uncertainty on this