Flight change: How to find cheapest return flight in time frame?
score:2
The exact answer here will depend on the exact "fare rules" of your ticket which obviously we don't have, but I'll go with the normal rules you'd see for most tickets on that route.
In general, when attempting to change a ticket like this AFTER the departure of the first leg, the prices that are used for the changed legs are those that were in place at the time when you first booked the ticket, which will generally be cheaper than the current fares.
When you do something like look on Google Flights, you're seeing "todays" prices, not those that existed when you first booked the ticket. It's possible these will be the same, but it's likely they won't be. By looking for "one-way" flights you're also seeing the prices for one-way flights, which are generally higher than the price for return flights that your ticket is most likely based on.
The only places that will be able to give you accurate pricing for a change is either United or (possibly) the travel agency that you purchase the ticket through - if it was purchased through a travel agency (and even then, the travel agency will likely need to work with United to work out the correct prices).
In theory, you could try using the "change flights" functionality on the United website, however the unfortunate fact is that this functionality is known to not always function correctly - it may not give you all options for flights, and may overprice what it does offer. As a result, this is generally not the recommended way to do it, especially for a ticket that includes at least 3 countries in it!
Which leaves you with only one option - call United. As you've said, their agents have access to systems that should be able to calculate the new prices relatively easily, although even then they can sometimes have difficulty pulling up the historic prices depending on the exact situation.
Upvote:1
You can presort with a tool like ITA Matrix https://matrix.itasoftware.com/search
Search for "one way", "calendar of lowest fares" and United as the airline (routing code "UA+").
If there are any dates that look better than others, you can start with these. For May this does not look promising:
Upvote:3
I would try the following:
- Find the fare class for your flight. It’s the first letter of the fare code.
- Go on experflyer.com (no affiliation). The service requires a subscription, but there’s a 5-day free trial, no credit card required.
- Go to flight availabilities, enter RTB-CDG, April 23rd, +/- 3 days, UA, fare class, show all dates in one screen.
- You’ll get a list of flights for that fare class for a full week. Availability is shown as a letter (the fare class) and a digit (the number of available seats in that bucket, or 9 if there are more than 9). You want those which are not 0 (or possibly a higher number if you are several people travelling).
- Things are a bit complex in your case because of the multiple connections, but UA actually return the same availability for all flights on the itinerary, so you can quickly scan through the results.
- To switch to the next week, click on “refine search” and add 7 days (or use the calendar) and search again.
- If you don’t find anything in that fare class, you’ll have to try other fare classes. You can leave the class field empty to get all classes, they are arranged more or less in decreasing price order (though it’s really more complex than that). You can also select a subset of classes to make things more readable and quick to scan.
For instance in today’s routing via IAH and ORD there’s availability down to K class, while tomorrow’s only goes down to W (which is 4 buckets higher than K). On Friday one routing is fully booked while the other only has availability down to V (one notch above W).
Once you’ve found something interesting, check on the UA site.
Fare rules are complex enough that this is not guaranteed to get you the best price, but it should be a step in the right direction. Hopefully!
Note for instance that your original fare could include restrictions such as a minimum or maximum stay, having to stay over a week-end, travelling only on certain days of the week, black-out periods, and more.
More post
- 📝 Are there any "gum wall" tourist attractions outside the US?
- 📝 Cheapest fare from Gatwick airport to Greenwich
- 📝 Flying London to Amman mid-May and returning Aqaba-Amman-London. Can I bring laptop on return flight?
- 📝 How many times can American Tourist re-enter UK in same 6 month period?
- 📝 Will the relocated Tsukiji have a larger auction and market areas?
- 📝 Turkish official denying exit for a foreign citizen trying to cross into Georgia
- 📝 Can airlines deny boarding for passengers who are visibly very sick or have disturbing body odour? Like they do with very overweight passengers?
- 📝 Is Colmar's railway station next to the city center?
- 📝 How to research cruise ship relocation trips properly?
- 📝 Can a holder of carta soggiorno travel to U.K. Without a visa With his spouse holding an Italian passport
- 📝 Internship in the UK/US as an Italian
- 📝 Canadian travelling with Americans to Israel
- 📝 What is the cheapest way to get to Laos / Thailand from the UK?
- 📝 Jamaica to St Kitts via Antigua - do I clear customs?
- 📝 What to wear in Switzerland in July?
- 📝 Can I enter Thailand or Malaysia or Indonesia with a one-way-ticket?
- 📝 What would be the best section in the plane to reserve a seat if you want to maximize the chance of not sitting next to anyone?
- 📝 China: Limitations on frequency of applying for L tourist visa
- 📝 Travel between Managua and Monteverde
- 📝 Invitation letters for my Indian parents coming to the Netherlands
- 📝 Frequent business travel to Schengen region - which visa do I go for?
- 📝 H-4 extension granted after moving out of US - can I reenter to visit?
- 📝 Do I need UK transit visa to move from Terminal 3 to Terminal 5 Heathrow?
- 📝 Street-sold laser through airport security
- 📝 How do I make a reservation for shipping a bicyle with Turkish Airlines?
- 📝 Can I search for a train ticket from A to C via B?
- 📝 When does UK visa ban start?
- 📝 What are the options for a non-EU national who wants to extend his stay in Switzerland (totaling less than 90 days)?
- 📝 Silvester Party in Bratislava
- 📝 5-hour layover in Denver
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Flight change: How to find cheapest return flight in time frame?
- 📝 How can I find the cheapest flights to a small airport that isn't in the ITA matrix (e.g., for a flight from Seattle airport to Point Hope airport)?
- 📝 How can I find the cheapest Spirit flight from my location to anywhere?
- 📝 How to find the cheapest destination for a meetup of friends from several countries?
- 📝 How can I change flight plan without using a travel agent?
- 📝 How can I ask for full refund to Ryanair if I don't want to change my flight for coronavirus?
- 📝 How do I find out whether I am allowed to / have to disembark from a flight that transits at an intermediary airport?
- 📝 How can I find out what is the cheapest taxi from Helsinki airport?
- 📝 How can I find the k cheapest stopovers between two airports, for a given date or range of days?
- 📝 Ryanair flight time change
- 📝 Air Asiana canceled return flight while on a trip. How to get most compensation (and a flight)
- 📝 How do I find an unknown flight reservation number?
- 📝 How to change flight dates without paying a high price?
- 📝 How do I travel on a return flight with a different passport from my outgoing flight?
- 📝 How to find cheapest parking options in Switzerland?
- 📝 How can I find out whether skipping the first flight in a booking will void the return?
- 📝 How much time needed for connecting flight at Schiphol - separate tickets
- 📝 How do I change the name of a person booked on a flight ticket booked through IRCTC?
- 📝 How much time to give myself to change airlines on Changi Airport with and without baggage?
- 📝 Lufthansa Rail and Fly, How much time I need to change from train to plane?
- 📝 Time needed in BKK airport to change from international to domestic flight (booked separately)
- 📝 How to find when a previous flight occured?
- 📝 Change flights in Vienna and time of Austrian Airlines flight
- 📝 How much transfer time for domestic flight arriving in LGA, transferring to JFK for an International Flight?
- 📝 How to find a Thomas Cook flight number?
- 📝 How much time should I allocate for transiting from the flight gate to the train station at Munich Airport?
- 📝 How can I find the time schedule of flights to/from a given airport?
- 📝 For multi-city flights, how can I find the cheapest flights if my dates are flexible?
- 📝 I'd like to book a flight transiting Dublin in order to use hidden-city ticketing. How can I find all flights transiting through Dublin from NYC?
- 📝 How does compare by time price and convenience bus and flight when transiting from Cambodia to Bangkok?