Deceptive flight numbering by United Airlines (sham on them)!

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:56:42 -0800, wrote:

When I did a spot check on United Vacations in January 08
This flight number popped up 77
when you click on the 77, this comes up


Flight Details


Denver to Hawaii, Oahu
United Airlines 77

Flight#:
United Airlines 77

Departs:
Denver (DEN)
1:23 PM - 19 Jan '08

Arrives:
Hawaii, Oahu (HNL)
7:46 PM - 19 Jan '08

The United web site shows Flight 77 departing Denver at 1:23 pm
and has one stop at SFO and says "Plane change". Seems pretty
clear to me.

You have an hour and two minutes for the change.

Neither leg seems to be a code share.


--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

On Nov 7, 1:36 pm, (John L) wrote:
Hawaii. When first looking at our flight information it looks like we
have a nonstop flight from Denver to Hawaii ...
I think, as these are two separate flights they should
be numbered that way and not just UA77.

Hmmn. On what date do you think you have a ticket from Denver on UA 77?

I spot checked a bunch of dates between now and Christmas, and it only
flies SFO-HNL.

April 9, 2008.

In article .com,
wrote:

Hey all

My wife has booked us a package deal through United Vacations to
Hawaii. When first looking at our flight information it looks like we
have a nonstop flight from Denver to Hawaii, but after doing some
research to see if my wife really go us the best deal it becomes
apparent that is not the case. Looks like we have to change planes in
San Francisco. I think this is very deceptive and I have mind to call
United an ear-full. My daughter tells me that many airlines do this
all the time. I think, as these are two separate flights they should
be numbered that way and not just UA77.

Anyone else's thoughts on this very deceptive practice?

Sam Smith

We had the same situation on a flight to Shanghai. The flight from LAX
to SFO had the same number as the flight to Shanghai. We wanted to
upgrade and were really only concerned about the flight from SFO to
Shanghai. Well it turns out with United's rules since it was ticketed as
a single flight we couldn't upgrade unless the LAX-SFO was also
available. On the return, the flight number was the same changing planes
in SFO to get back to LAX they had ticketed it as two separate legs.
Thus we were able to upgrade the transpacific flight even though no
upgrade was possible from SFO to LAX.

Now I know that even if the flight number is the same, I should try and
get it ticketed as two legs if I want to upgrade the way longer leg.

Hmmn. On what date do you think you have a ticket from Denver on UA 77?

I spot checked a bunch of dates between now and Christmas, and it only
flies SFO-HNL.

April 9, 2008.

Ah, OK, that is indeed a "change of gauge" flight, first leg on a 737,
second leg on a 767. For better or worse, this practice is well
established in the airline biz, you're not going to accomplish anything
by yelling at them.

I suppose you could try to call them up and wheedle your way onto UA
43 which really is a non-stop, but don't get your hopes up too far.
Looking at the cheap fares on that route, they all seem to have a $100
per person charge to change them. Depends whether it's worth an extra
hundred bucks not to change in San Francisco.

On Nov 7, 2:48 pm, Hatunen wrote:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:56:42 -0800, wrote:
When I did a spot check on United Vacations in January 08
This flight number popped up 77
when you click on the 77, this comes up

Flight Details

Denver to Hawaii, Oahu
United Airlines 77

Flight#:
United Airlines 77

Departs:
Denver (DEN)
1:23 PM - 19 Jan '08

Arrives:
Hawaii, Oahu (HNL)
7:46 PM - 19 Jan '08

The United web site shows Flight 77 departing Denver at 1:23 pm
and has one stop at SFO and says "Plane change". Seems pretty
clear to me.

You have an hour and two minutes for the change.

Neither leg seems to be a code share.

--
************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

At first glance it was ot clear to my wife, as only shows UA#77 DEN-
HNL, not UA#77 DEN-SFO and UA#77 SFO-HNL. Of course if you click on
flight it gives you more details. I guess they figure a bunch of
people will do this and thus not find out about their deceptive
practices.

Sam Smith

Nobody wrote:
wrote:

apparent that is not the case. Looks like we have to change planes in
San Francisco. I think this is very deceptive and I have mind to call



There are a couple of advantages to having the multiple flights under a
single number. If there is a snafu, United has greater responsability to
accomodate you than if you had booked the trip on the same planes but
with two separate flight numbers.

Really? Where is this stated?

AES wrote:


I think I encountered this situation -- and on United, in fact -- when
searching for non-stop Zurich-SFO flights recently. If I'd booked one
particular flight that came up on screen without looking carefully at
the flight description, I might have missed the immigration stop at
Dulles; and if so, not only would the hope of catching some
uninterrupted sleep on the flight been substantially reduced, but I'd
might have then arrived at the United domestic terminal in SFO, with
family waiting outside the immigration doors at the SFO Intl Terminal.

But it is also true: Transferring between United domestic planes or
gates in SFO is likely to be pretty painless.

Surely you could have called them from Dulles to tell them to meet you
at the correct SFO terminal.

Hatunen wrote:

On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 15:37:18 -0500, Nobody
wrote:


wrote:


apparent that is not the case. Looks like we have to change planes in
San Francisco. I think this is very deceptive and I have mind to call


There are a couple of advantages to having the multiple flights under a
single number. If there is a snafu, United has greater responsability to
accomodate you than if you had booked the trip on the same planes but
with two separate flight numbers.

From a marketing point of view, the USA airlines are very big on making
their schedules compete to appear first on reservation systems, so the
ability to market that denver-hawaii as a single flight increases the
odds that someone would book it (and yes, this is deceptive advertising).

From a capacity planning point of view, it allows UA to provide booking
classes that are available to only those booking the den-hnl flight.

Say UA wants to do a seat sale DEN-HNL with 20 available seats. It can
put 20 seats in V class on the flight 77, and none on the actual real
flights. This way, those flying DEN-SFO or SFO-HNL will not be eating up
on the inventory of V seats reserved for DEN-HNL.


The two legs might not even be truly on the same airline; one leg
may be a code share flight.


I have never seen a codeshare using the same flight number as a non
codeshare flight, have you? Do you think UA codeshares on partner metal
when going SFO-HNL?

John L wrote:

Hmmn. On what date do you think you have a ticket from Denver on UA 77?

I spot checked a bunch of dates between now and Christmas, and it only
flies SFO-HNL.

April 9, 2008.


Ah, OK, that is indeed a "change of gauge" flight, first leg on a 737,
second leg on a 767. For better or worse, this practice is well
established in the airline biz, you're not going to accomplish anything
by yelling at them.

I suppose you could try to call them up and wheedle your way onto UA
43 which really is a non-stop, but don't get your hopes up too far.
Looking at the cheap fares on that route, they all seem to have a $100
per person charge to change them. Depends whether it's worth an extra
hundred bucks not to change in San Francisco.



Not only the change fee, but also the fare difference.
I suspect they took the longer flight due to the lower cost.

wrote:

At first glance it was ot clear to my wife, as only shows UA#77 DEN-
HNL, not UA#77 DEN-SFO and UA#77 SFO-HNL. Of course if you click on
flight it gives you more details. I guess they figure a bunch of
people will do this and thus not find out about their deceptive
practices.

Sam Smith


Oh, quit whining and bitching. Nobody is trying to deceive you. Just
write it off as you didn't know.