berkeleyguy3

Hi All,
I'm trying to price out a mileage run PVD-OAK on a UA S fare, and I'm running into something really strange with the availability. I think it might have to do with the term "married segments" that I've heard around here, and I'm looking for your advice.

Here's the story. I'm using ITA to price out the itinerary PVD-IAD-JFK-LAX-OAK, all on UA/UX metal, booked in fare basis SA14AN. Using the UAL.com 'expert' view, I checked for availability for each segment (individually) in S -- no problem, availability was there.

Now here's the strange thing:

If I do a fake booking for JFK-LAX and then LAX-OAK separately, I see:
JFK-LAX: F9 C9 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T0 K9
LAX-OAK: Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S9 T9 K9 L8 G4

BUT: If I do a fake booking for the very same flights JFK-OAK-LAX (to get both segs at once), I see this:
JFK-LAX: F9 C9 Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S0 T0 K9
LAX-OAK: Y9 B9 M9 E9 U9 H9 Q9 V9 W9 S0 T0 K9 L0 G0

What's going on with the availability? Why does it change based on whether or not I query the availiabilty with a connection or separately?

It's annoying -- I got this itinerary to price out in S last night and now it won't work, presumably because of what I'm seeing here. Any ideas on how to get around this?

Tango

United has capacity controls on how many S class seats that they want to sell between two cities and even though they might be willing to still sell S class between OAK and LAX, the S class quota might be filled from OAK and ORD so they will show 0 S class through the LAX connection.

There are ways to get around this but you need to have the correct GDS system or a good travel agent.

SchmutzigMSP

If you just enter it all in as multiple cities, shouldn't it work, since they'd be seperate legs? i.e.:

Field 1: PVD-JFK
Field 2: JFK-LAX
Field 3: LAX-OAK

and reverse order for the return flights.

sadiqhassan

This would only work if the fare is then priced out as JFK-LAX S class + LAX-OAK S class rather than PVD-OAK S class

(I didn't include field 1 for the sake of simplicity)

Cheers

TerryK

What sadiqhassan said. There is no way around this as this is intentional for inventory management purpose. If there is no S inventory for your routing, you cannot purchase S fare tickets. The fact that it is available by segment is irrelevant.

The reverse could also be true where S is available for JFK-LAX-OAK, but not JFK-LAX alone. No, you cannot book JFK-LAX-OAK than delete LAX-OAK as they are married segments. Attempt to delete one will delete all married segments.

N227UA

Almost basically, there is no way to get around that. If you try to book all segments independently, the system would check the inventory for married segments automatically, which I consider pretty clever. It's **** ******* annoying surely.

TWAforever

I'm ready to get flamed for this, but why should it be annoying. The airline is simply trying to value every single OD pair differently and possibly giving them different levels of access.

GregL

Yes, these are married pairs... BUT... try pricing the itinerary out on Orbitz. For some reason Orbitz seems to book segments individually, which allows you to get around married pair availability.

Greg

ozweepay

There are ways a travel agent can get around this, but often they are caught and fined (or given a "debit memo") so few will do it.

It was common practice in the "old days", but then so was using B2Bs.

One last thing: depending on united.com in expert mode is not always a consistent experience: I've seen it show S1 and then give an error when trying to book "Due to pricing fluctuations and availability, that fare is no longer available" or somesuch.

Then I start over, see S1, try to book and get the same error. Then call UA to find out that it's actually S0 and the website is just confused (I know.. shocking... united.com is confused).

Tango

If a travel agent books enough travel with the airline used, the airline will do nothing to prevent this.

berkeleyguy3

Since I first posted this yesterday I've run into this problem several more times with itineraries I was able to price out on ITA. I'd find something in S (or whatever), call united, and it would price out higher due to "no availability". Using KVS or united.com, I would see the S availability in front of me. I could go back to ITA, and even hours later it would still price out fine in S.

Here's what I'm wondering: Does ITA marry segments in a different way than United? Is this why I keep getting these tantalizingly low prices that never are bookable?

fzwinter

A good travel agent, as has been posted before, can "break" the fare and allow you to book the flights. There is some risk to the TA for doing so, so some may be reluctant. IMO, most of them will do it anyway since they're already pi**ed at the airlines for taking away their commissions.

Good luck!

Clincher

This is a very helpful forum...it helps me understand a problem I ran into today. I can book on co. com from MDW-EWR-JAX for $223. But EWR-JAX on the same dates and time prices out at $1027
Can I expect seats to open up between EWR-JAX?
Option: I can get a OW SW $49 flight from ISP-MDW, take my $223 MDW-EWR-JAX fare and just get off in EWR on the return since I live in NYC. Is that wrong?
Orbitz did not help me and I am too proud to call a travel agent a beg them to 'break' the married pairs for me.

N227UA

Can you describe those ways how to get around? As far as I'm concerned about Apollo, it automatically, yes it's programmed, checks the availabilities of married segments even though each segment is independently booked. Agents can see availbilities, but once they try to book 2nd or 3rd segment, the system won't give confirmation.

BTW, I'm pretty sure that carriers don't issue ADM for independent segment booking as many of their employees also do this.

N227UA

It's simply impossible to break married pairs, however if you were to ask book segments independently, they can do it. I'm not sure about CO, but UA's CRS, which is Apollo, automatically checks it like I said. If CO's CRS isn't programmed to check automatically, you might get it.