OK, I know better than to book plane tickets through 3rd party vendors; been there, done that.
But: When I put our upcoming itinerary into United's website, I get a certain price. When I put the same itinerary into Kayak, it gives me a price about $1000 less, and when I select it, I'm sent to United's website to complete the transaction.
Is this possible? Is there a trick? What am I missing?
Is it the same class of service - is one economy light vs standard economy vs refundable economy, etc?
Same class of service, same dates. Multi-city, Tulsa - Gdansk, London - Tulsa
This is quite common in some of these other travel sites show you more options and connections than the major airlines. I seen this often times when i search on Google flights. If I search on United (which is what i mainly fly), I don't come up with the same routings and options. In this case I go back to goggle flights, click the link to get to United, and then book there.
So long as it is ticketed by UA (ticket # starting in 016), I'm happy. I have done this many times.
And United will clearly tell you if it is a basic econ ticket or not before you ticket it.
Not pertinent to your situation, but I have learned to be careful on this with AA. Sometimes Google flights will tell me a price cheaper than on the AA site for, say, premium economy and only one leg is PE and the rest is Economy (sometimes even for Business).
I have had this happen with google flights and United. I think that if you pull up the exact same flights for all legs on United, it should be the same.
Do you get the same result using Google Flights? Also, have you tried using an incognito browser to search both? Or cleared out your browser cookies? Sometimes those things help (but sometimes they don't).
And if it is indeed exactly the same and you book through Kayak, I believe you can link the purchased itinerary in the United platform so it knows the ticket belongs to you. I've done this in the past for bookings my parents unknowingly made on a third party site. Thankfully that process identified their purchased flight had been changed to seven hours earlier (which is why booking directly is preferred).
I've had experiences similar to Arnold's but on OneWorld carriers. I recently snagged a round trip (open jaw) ticket to Europe for $1,800 in business class that was on Google Flights, but I couldn't construct it on the carrier's site. I also called in because I had a credit that could only be applied by an agent—but she couldn't build it either. At that price, I'll save the credit for later!
Also, have you tried using an incognito browser to search both? Or cleared out your browser cookies? Sometimes those things help (but sometimes they don't).
This is a myth that's been broadly debunked.
Arnold, it seems to be a United ticket, and the same class, so I think it's the same kind of thing you've seen, and legit.
TexasTravelMom, thanks for the "heads up;" I'll be careful.
CL and Scudder, I don't know if it's a myth or not, but it's my husband's computer, and he doesn't want me to clear out the cookies.
I'm also getting unusual result with with other airlines: outrageously high flights with Delta (60% higher than anybody else,) British letting me do a round trip to Gdańsk, but not a multi-city returning through London; American having flights to Gdańsk that take 2 full days. Oh, and American won't let me book multi-city from either our laptop or tablet, it will from my phone. Or if I go through Google flights.
Weird. And frustrating. It seems like I'm spending way too much time on this.
Yes, Yes, Yes, third party sites can find fares not discoverable via the airline site search feature. Go ahead and buy (after rolling over to the United website).
Thanks, Tom_MN, I think I'll do that. I checked again, and the price is as much as $1700 less than what shows on United's website. That's for 2 tickets, not just one. Now I need to commit to a return date...
And now the United website is showing the same rate that Kayak had yesterday, about a dollar cheaper, in fact. Huh.
And the fare on Kayak hasn't changed.
Trying to find flights to Gdansk might make things a lot more complicated. You can also consider booking a flight to Warsaw and take the train to Gdansk.
Badger, we did think of this, but the timing doesn't work well. All the ways I tried would have us arriving in Gdańsk late Saturday night, unless we spent a night in Warsaw.
And Stan thought flying into Warsaw would be cheaper, with fewer connections, but that didn't work either,
Thanks for the idea, though.
