United vs Air Canada
 

I will be flying BOS to YUL round trip in March. Since the Air Canada website appears to be not working correctly to book flights (as least not for me), I pulled up flights on United.com, asking for both United and Air Canada flights be displayed. Something curious occurred-- for the return, the United flight (operated by AC Jazz) shows departing at 5:55. The Air Canada flight shows departing at 5:40pm. Despite the difference in flight departure times listed, I believe these to be the same flight/on the same plane due to plugging the flight numbers into the flight status checker on united.com and having it give me the same arrival time for the previous days. The price is exactly the same, whether it is booked as AC or UAL. My question is, is there any advantage to booking the flights as one carrier over the other? Has anyone else ever had it occur that 2 different departure times were listed for the same flight even though it is on the same plane-- just a code share between 2 carriers? I just find that strange . . . and am not sure which departure time to believe. I'm inclined to believe the AC time listed, as the flight is flown on AC metal . . . .Thanks

I've seen this before on the United website - for a Lufthansa-operated flight. Under LH flight number, it had one departure time and type of aircraft; under UA flight number, it had a different departure time and type of aircraft. What happened, in that case, was that UA hadn't loaded LH's schedule changes to its own flights. I'd probably tend to believe the time posted for the carrier's flight number - but who knows with united.com; it has issues. You might check another site like Expedia to see what schedule it shows.

I agree that it's the same flight, and UA probably just hasn't updated its schedule yet.

As for benefits, etc. If those are the only flights in your trip, I'll suggest booking with the operating carrier. If things happen that involve rebooking, reschedule, etc, it'll be easier to deal with just one carrier instead of two.

What exact date are you looking at?

Thanks. The date for the return is March 5. I think I will likely book it as the AC flight--seems best in this case. I have to use united.com though, as the AC website will not pull up any flights for me-- seems like the submit button is "broken"

On itasoftware.com, even UA flight numbers are shown to depart 5:40pm for 3/5 and other days in March.