United discontinues weekday flights in August

[DandyDon]

I was trying to shop United.com to make a trip with Award Miles, running into a lot of challenging offers, the best I could find was round-trip Lubbock-Cancun, spending the night in Merida on the return, then a 12 hour day in Houston Intercontinental - it's just silly. I might accept the Merida layover if I can talk them into 2 nights there so I can tour the area for the day between, but we'll see? They don't seem interested in doing anything my way.

I really wanted to try to find dates they'd let me use the least miles to fly round-trip Lubbock-Cozumel in late August, but kept hitting a lot of errors. Finally I jumped over to Matrix to shop one-way flights to/from Cozumel from/to Denver and Houston to see where the bottleneck might be, restricting searches to United only - and it looks like their last weekday flight from CZM to either is the 13th...!!

 

[Dave Dillehay]

my last three trips were IAH to CUN, yes bag drag! No big deal and my one way fare was $88 each time.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[DandyDon]

my last three trips were IAH to CUN, yes bag drag! No big deal and my one way fare was $88 each time.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

I bet I drag more than you.

 

[ggunn]

I bet I drag more than you.

I'll bet I drag nearly as much if not more, if you count my wife and her equipaje. We have cut down by one bag, though, since we don't each get two 50# bags plus carry ons free any more. That's one reason the bag drag is less attractive to me, I freely admit it. Traveling light isn't in our vocabulary.

 

[DandyDon]

I don't mind going thru Cancun so much. That airport offers free luggage carts to & from the bus lot, porters with their big tricycles are usually available in PDC & the Coz dock - with some exceptions for the first & last ferries (I was so happy to grab the last one on my late arrival last trip), and I don't have to share a sardine van. I think everyone still prefers flying in & out of Cozumel tho, sardine vans and all.

I don't think I can talk myself into using my Award Miles for this plan tho...

the best I could find was round-trip Lubbock-Cancun, spending the night in Merida on the return, then a 12 hour day in Houston Intercontinental

I've got enough miles with American for the trip, too, and they still show weekday flights in late August - my favorite time to go. They'll let me use the lowest rate and go each way in under 24 hours, but I can't talk myself into flying Lubbock to Phoenix to Miami for an overnight layover before arriving Coz the next day - plus similar returns with an overnight in DFW. I keep the accounts active to prevent miles expiring (American did that to me once!) with my occasional flights and online Walmat purchases, but I hate to waste them on lessor trips to avoid airport overnights - and they will not make it easy on me.

I'm thinking they'll make me collect my 100# in checked luggage to drag to hotels along with my roll-on & computer bag to & from airport hotels, and the whole idea becomes even less attractive. But then, using cash to book better flights makes me wonder too, at $667 round-trip! Cancun does look better at $402, with reasonable flight times and layovers.

I still wonder how he gets this, tho? I see the fares alright, and most of it is for taxes & fees, the airline only getting $32.

my last three trips were IAH to CUN, yes bag drag! No big deal and my one way fare was $88 each time.

Dave Dillehay
Aldora Divers

 

[Fin59]

Keep watching it and it work out. United often doesn't show flights if we're trying to book several months out. Sometimes I think maybe they aren't sure what they want to do on scheduling flights.

 

[DandyDon]

Keep watching it and it work out. United often doesn't show flights if we're trying to book several months out. Sometimes I think maybe they aren't sure what they want to do on scheduling flights.

Yeah, and I hate to book flights so far in advance as I expect them to change schedules on me, often leaving me with a long layover. Trying to use Award miles tho, so I thought I'd see if I could reasonably.

If demand increases for the flights showing, they may well add some.

 

[Bonuss]

You got me thinking (from Colorado) I cant find a Dec flight, but it looks like there are flights in January from /to Denver (Non-stop and through IAH)
Bob in CO

 

[DandyDon]

I cant find a Dec flight

Well, my eyes were tired when I posted that last night. I did change the colors on the photo to make it easier to read, but it's still challenging. This shows some non-stop United trips, but there are many more thru IAH.

 

[gopbroek]

I've got enough miles with American for the trip, too, and they still show weekday flights in late August - my favorite time to go.

For the last few years American has not run the daily DFW to CZM to DFW round trip flight (FLT 1256) on the last two Tuesdays in August thru the first Tuesday in October and has dropped the second Saturday flight during the same period. On all the remaining days flight 1256 is operated normally. Prior to that back around 2013 they also dropped the Thursday flight during the same period and the 'low' season stretched into November. I remember that in 2013 during the low season United also dropped down to a single Saturday flight per week. I have watched the load factors over the last several years and the low season is getting shorter and the planes seem fuller on Mondays and Wednesdays so I do not expect the schedule reductions for Tuesdays to last much longer on AA.
As a side note I met a couple gentelmen from England at Ohana's on a Saturday night in September 2013. They were a little upset, their dive bags missed the transfer on United in IAH. United told them 'no problem' they would be on the next flight, the following Saturday, which was also the same plane they were scheduled to depart on.