Pit Falls of Booking One Way Ticket - United

[CHEZMARYLOU]

We are heading to Alaska next August and I started looking at pricing on United.

We sail from Seward so our 1st flight is from Pit to Anc.

Returning from Van to Pit.

We want to fly business class.

 

Looking at some dates in July for sample pricing I can save about $40 on the 1st flight to Anc and $218 on the 2nd flight if I book the flights separately. This is for 2 of us.

 

We've booked separate flights before, often on 2 different airlines. I just can't figure out why the difference in pricing between 2 one way tickets, and booking the trip as a multi city.

 

What am I missing here?

 

Thanks for your insight.

[CruiserBruce]

Booking one way segments don't really have any downsides I can think of- we do it several times a year, both on awards and actual purchases. Typically Business or First class. In fact more one way segments than standard roundtrips, I think.

 

United started pricing this way a year or so ago. Guess it works for them.

Edited September 2, 2016 by CruiserBruce

[FlyerTalker]

I'm gonna take a wild stab at this.

 

When you want to book an open jaw PIT-ANC-(open)-YVR-PIT, it is pricing this in USD for the two segments. However, when pricing out PIT-ANC and YVR-PIT separately, it prices the first is USD and the second in CAD. This is because pricing engines generally use the currency of the initial city for a ticket, unless specified otherwise. That could account for the difference due to the conversion rate between the Loonie and the Greenback.

 

I could be wrong, but that's my first guess.

[CHEZMARYLOU]

That's interesting Flyer Talk but the CN$ is lower than the US$ so you would think pricing it in CN$ would be more, not less. I have a month until flights come out so I'll experiment with pricing.

[Globaliser]

I'm gonna take a wild stab at this.

 

When you want to book an open jaw PIT-ANC-(open)-YVR-PIT, it is pricing this in USD for the two segments. However, when pricing out PIT-ANC and YVR-PIT separately, it prices the first is USD and the second in CAD. This is because pricing engines generally use the currency of the initial city for a ticket, unless specified otherwise. That could account for the difference due to the conversion rate between the Loonie and the Greenback.

It's a bit more than this. I had a quick play using random date: PIT-ANC on 1 July and YVR-PIT on 8 July. UA only both directions, and the cheapest was with two connections. UA773 --> UA733 --> UA1257 outbound; UA545 --> UA457 --> UA3538 inbound.

 

If you book it as a multi-city, the two fare components are US$691.36 (fare basis code TAAWUPFN) + US$589.00 (fare basis code SNN4A9SN).

 

If you book it as two one-ways, the PIT-ANC fare component is the same: TAAWUPFN at US$691.36. But the YVR-PIT fare component is different: its fare basis code is WNN7A9SN and it's priced at CA$665.89 or US$508.19.

 

Why the YVR-PIT should book a W fare when the YVR-PIT half of the open-jaw (multi-city) ticket books an S fare is something that I can't immediately work out. However, S is a lower class than W in the availability displays that I can see, and one would normally expect an S fare to be cheaper than a W fare. Consequently, I suspect that the Canadian-market W fare is actually simply cheaper than the US-market S fare, even if (as I suspect) a Canadian point of sale sees no S class seats and must book using the W class seats it sees (on a dual inventory basis).

 

So it's perhaps as much market differences as simple exchange rate differences.

[em-sk]

I would agree with several pf the pervious responses, it comes down to currency, how the airline does the conversion and as well as what fare buckets they realise into the CDN origin market vrs US origin market.

 

United and Air Canada are star alliance partners. Both airlines sell each others flights on their website. They (together with Lufthansa) have anti-trust immunity to co-ordinate pricing between North America and Europe however the authorities did not give them the right to do that between Canada and the US. They compete in that market. End result is if you look at the Air Canada website you will also find the same united return flight for potentially less or more.

[CruisingAlong4Now]

One difference is if you have to reschedule. Two one ways require two change fees. Open jaw is one change fee.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. (BTW, that was not sarcasm, but a real request for correct info.)

[CHEZMARYLOU]

One difference is if you have to reschedule. Two one ways require two change fees. Open jaw is one change fee.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong. (BTW, that was not sarcasm, but a real request for correct info.)

 

Thanks, I was thinking along those lines.

[alidor]

United, and other airlines, made a change about 6 weeks ago. They said it would no longer necessarily be true that a round trip would be lower. (It actually has been that way for a while.) Doing a lot of tickets, I find that it seems lately that I have been doing a lot more tickets for people. I think that you are right, though, that it leads to more money because of extra penalty charges.

[Globaliser]

United, and other airlines, made a change about 6 weeks ago. They said it would no longer necessarily be true that a round trip would be lower. (It actually has been that way for a while.)

Is this different from the policy change in relation to circle trips that was announced at the end of March?