Saver award space has all but dried up lately, with even last-minute seats no longer available. Even so, you may still be able to use married segment fare logic to find saver award space that would not be available otherwise.
How I Was Able To Secure Saver Award Space Via Married Segment Availability
I have Award Expert clients who live in Austin, Texas. They wanted to go to Vienna this autumn and are just getting started now with booking. With flights running full and airlines optimistic about loads in the coming months, almost all saver space has been held back, even on flights which are currently lightly booked. Even in late September, the traditional shoulder season, it is virtually impossible to find saver space.
I’ve offered a primer on married segments before, which remains accurate. You might wish to start here if you are unfamiliar with the concept.
Put simply, when two or more segments are married it means you can book the flights together, but not separately. Married segments exist to control fares and award seat allocations between an origin and destination.
> Read More: A Primer On Married Segments
Here’s the practical example. Lufthansa has a new Austin (AUS) – Frankfurt (FRA) flight. There was no award space on it in business class when simply searching from AUS to FRA. That makes sense, because Lufthansa figures it can charge a premium for this nonstop space and is thus holding back the release of such space to its partners.
Even searching one-stop space from Austin to Vienna with a connection in Frankfurt yielded no saver space in business class.
But with a second stop, in Graz, Austria (GRZ), suddenly the longhaul AUS-FRA flight could be booked in saver business class using United miles. Even AUS-FRA-GRZ was not available–all three segments were required.
Frankly, I thought it might be phantom space. It showed up on united.com, but not on Aeroplan or LifeMiles. I called United to attempt to book it before transferring over miles from Chase Ultimate Rewards to United and sure enough, the space confirmed.
The extra stop in Graz is annoying, but 77K miles for a nonstop from Austin to Frankfurt in business class is a superb deal, particularly during this time of very limited award space.
Theoretically, the clients could just step off the plane in Frankfurt and purchase a nonstop ticket to Vienna if they were not checking bags (this is known as throw-away or hidden city ticketing), but they will fly the itinerary as booked.
How To Find And Book Married Segment Space
There’s no easy way to look for this space and since routing cannot be customized any longer on united.com. You must still search from your origin to destination. If you don’t see it on united.com, you won’t be able to book it. Aeroplan agents, for what it is worth, could not see this space, though I think the issue is that united.com simply displays more options than Aeroplan or LifeMiles.
Thus, searching for this space will be a trial and error process. You can sort results by “business class lowest” and keep an eye out for saver space. Securing saver space is worth the extra stop, in my opinion.
CONCLUSION
Airlines are holding back saver space like never before. While that limits advance booking options, you may still be successful in finding space using married segment availability.
Have you had luck booking saver award travel using married segment fare logic?
image: Lufthansa
Interesting. I have found such things when searching, but didn’t really understand what I was finding. I don’t recall actually booking one as a saver award.
I’m presently in a pickle with a married segment. I have a flight coming up in about 10 days– a one-stop transatlantic flight. The problem is that if I look at the historical performance of this flight pairing, it doesn’t actually work all that well. Delays/cancellations, etc… the point is that the pairing is a little better than a 50/50 shot, and I’d like better odds, but I can’t change the pairing despite abundant availability. I didn’t realize it was a married segment at booking.
If you don’t mind sharing, what are the two segments?
Might be wroth proofreading before publishing.
You are korrect.
Maybe you and Lucky can exchange drafts for proofreading.
I both agree and disagree. I recently snagged two saver J seats on the inaugural SFO-BNE flight with a return via TPE on EVA’s new 787 then Polaris into SFO. There were plenty more seats on other dates/routes through Melbourne and Sydney. Maybe it was a glitch (it’s since gone away) but transpacific savers were gangbusters this past week. I called yesterday to adjust my departure city as new IN space had recently opened up but got told I was on a point to point married segments and couldn’t make any changes at all.
For transatlantic, I tend to agree with you. I’m SAN based and I’ve NEVER seen the Lufthansa flight to Munich (previously FRA) for business saver rates and and perhaps this is why. I doubt they’re typically full up front.
Also, I love how you’re still using the old search engine on United. The new search won’t do expert mode and it bugs me to no end.
Oh, I hate that horrible new search engine and I’ve let the programmers and developers at UA know, but no one cares. Each generation of the website gets worse. The old Continental system with the blue and yellow buttons was my favorite.
Anyway, click on “advanced search’ and then choose award search and you’ll still get the old display.
New display is so difficult to sort (same problem AA made…probably deliberately) or use calendar view.
Why oh why does United fix what is not broken?
I have been seeing this on AA quite a bit. As an example, a month ago was searching out WAS-CDG (which I ended up booking and flying on AF non-stop for around 80K). AA was showing me saver at 57.5 but with two connections, one in RDU, to JFK and than CDG. However, JFK alone would price at around 250K. I would have been fine just buying a cheap positioning ticket from DCA but, nope. It’s really quite frustrating and I just do not understand the logic (I know people have tried to explain it to me). I get less bothered by it if the connection is after the main segment, I’ll just bring carry-ons and abandon. But in this example I ended up having to book elsewhere.
Every time I search AA.com every saver option I see is always a BA flight through Heathrow with ridiculous fuel surcharges. A 2-stop for 57.5k that avoids BA is a win.
Agreed, at least when flying east.
Thank you Matthew. How is “step(ing) off the plane in Frankfurt” different than hidden city ticketing? Don’t the airlines look askance and/or is it a violation of the contract of carriage to step off a plane and then not step onto the connecting flight, regardless of a paid or award ticket?
It is a violation of the contract of carriage. That’s why I don’t do it with frequent flyer programs I care deeply about.
Thank you. Is it correct that “step(ing) off the plane in Frankfurt” and not getting onto the connecting flight on one award ticket is basically hidden city ticketing for an award ticket? Am I missing something? Do you perceive the risk to be different for paid vs award tickets? Is ” hidden city ticketing” an official airline or legal name or a made up frequent flyer term? Thanks again.
Hidden city is a real industry term and it can be implicated on award tickets too, as we see here. While there might not be legal recourse an airline has, it can garnish your miles or even ban you from future travel.
I am seeing same thing – CLT to MUC and MUC to CLT on Lufthansa never available in business class in 2023 yet adding in a VIE – MUC segment on either direction opens up saver space.
Matthew assuming this space is real as you confirmed with UA could I book with ANA and then later change the dates of the MUC – VIE segment which brakes the married segment? My sense is that could work if the MUC – CLT leg is already locked in it won’t go away if ANA just switches MUC-VIE to another date.
Oh – Also Matthew I believe this only works when the “other segment” is on Austrian not Lufthansa. By adding the Austrian segment (in your case Graz to Vienna or in mine Munich to Vienna) it triggers the business saver space to show.
Not quite. I just booked another ticket ZAG-FRA-ATL, where FRA-ATL was not available by itself – both segments on Lufthansa.
This time, I booked with Aeroplan.
Good to know. In my case I only see the married segment creating award availability on the OS segment and not on a LH segment for VIE – MUC.
Either way do you get the sense that this booked with ANA could then move the VIE-MUC segment to another day and still maintain the coveted MUC-CLT space?
Not a chance. They really are married and unlike no-fault divorce, what Starnet has joined together, let no man break apart! 😉
(I’ve tried to break married segments and failed)
Maybe you should reach out to Lucky and let him know about this concept. He seems to be experiencing difficulty finding award availability . . . 😉 (I’m kidding!)