[Senator]

@JordanD, I have a growing concern with ITA Matrix and something the airlines call “Married Segments”. It seems like ITA Matrix is not able to distinguished when an airline uses Married Segments on a certain route.

@TimFitzgeraldTC can probably explain this “feature” in more details, but essentially Married Segments is a way for airlines to manage inventories on a market-by-market basis. Consider the following example:

Swiss offers the route ARN-JFK via ZRH. I am looking for a business class ticket. If I punch in ARN-JFK in ExpertFlyer I could see the following inventory:
ARN-ZRH J8 C8 D7 Z0 P0
ZRH-JFK F6 A2 J8 C8 D7 Z0 P0
That entails that booking classes Z and P are sold out on the route ARN-JFK via ZRH. I want to book Z.

However, if I separate the segments something mysteriously happens:
ARN-ZRH J9 C9 D7 Z5 P5
and
ZRH-JFK F6 A2 J9 C9 D9 Z6 P6

Essentially, Swiss wants to sell more seats from ARN to ZRH and from ZRH to JFK and have not allocated more inventory to the Swedish market for ARN-JFK via ZRH.

Now, I am finding this more and more to be an issue with ITA Matrix. I have discovered this for Swiss, Lufthansa, Turkish and Finnair. So perhaps, this is the same issue for your QR example?

[JordanD]

@TimFitzgeraldTC – as ever, thanks for your guidance.

I was pricing up outbound Sun 09 Nov, inbound Sun 23 Nov, with the below from ITAMatrix:

LON QR X/DOH QR BKK 170.28OPE6MGB /-KUL QR X/DOH QR LON 190.55OPE6MGB NUC 360.83 END ROE 0.616616 XT 85.00GB 44.96UB 0.60PZ 12.50MY 158.00YQ

Indeed, it was the O class that I was looking at; not really interested in a DOH stop in either direction – QR looked interesting because it allowed the Open Jaw and thus not doubling back to BKK or KUL.

@Senator: you make an intreresting point; I do wonder about this as I noticed that it was throwing up the A319 as an option back from DOH in ‘O’ booking class – and I’m fairly sure that the A319LR was converted to an all J config for these flights!

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

Hi JordanD

Can get the below – but not on A380 and got the OXPROMO fare. but connection quite long in DOH on the way back (shorter connection doesn’t have O Class). A319 is all J.

QR 10 O 09NOV LHRDOH HS1 0905 1850
QR 822 O 09NOV DOHBKK HS1 2100 #0710
QR 845 O 23NOV KULDOH HS1 0925 1155
QR 5 O 23NOV DOHLHR HS1 1720 2200

Married segments is another thing all together – airlines have got cleverer with yield management systems so give different availability depending on the route you choose – and very hard to get round these days.

[Allen707]

You have probably spent more time dealing with this than the whole journey itself, so I hope it’s fun. Bon voyage!

[Charles-P]

Many years ago my wife was mistakenly given a BA first class seat when she had booked an economy fare. This was nearly twenty years ago when computer systems were not what they are today and it was only noticed about half way into the flight when the crew realised they did not have enough meals for First and spotted the error.

They were very gracious, gave her an economy meal and said she should do the pools that week as clearly she was lucky. She remained in First for the trip.

[LuganoPirate]

Eons ago, when tickets were often hand written, I bought an economy ticket to New York and the agent forgot to put “Y” in the relevant box, even though the fare was clearly shown. Cheekily I put an “F” there and amazingly enjoyed my very first long haul flight in First class.

[syclik5]

@Senator – I am assuming that the box ” Only show flights and prices with available seats – This may result in flight options that are not available for purchase.” is ticked? It should be, by default….

[MrMichael]

A few weeks ago when shopping around for next February business fares to Sydney I also browsed F. To my great surprise I stumbled upon an F fare return with Etihad for £2800 pp. I checked again the next day and it still came up with £2800 on the “on the fly” app. Right then, I will have some of that, two F’s in a decent airline to Oz was not to be sniffed at, and it included F in all sectors. Put all the details in and at the last page prior to
putting in my CC details in, up popped a total fare of £7,432 per person, a whopping 15k or best part of. Went back to my ex BA fare in C from Oslo. Nearly!

[Author]

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