is there a real difference

[Clairescurtains]

Is there a real difference in booking air travel with two different airlines and booking with a consolidator.

 

Looking at booking airfare one way from BHM to BCN. The rates are horrible for one way with the main carriers like Delta.

 

It looks like we could book US airways from BHM through CLT to BOS and then through Aer Lingus from BOS through Dublin and on to BCN.

 

We are going a day early and in Oct the likelihood of snow is low but other weather problems could arise of course.

 

If we miss any connections we are toast either way, correct????

[6rugrats]

If you are talking about booking two separate tickets, one on US for the first leg, and the second on Aer Lingus, yes, you could be "toast" if you miss the second flight due to problems with the first. If you book this on one ticket, and miss the connection, you will have more protection than booking separately.

 

Have you looked at the price of booking a round trip, and not taking the return? It could be cheaper going that way.

 

IME, usually you have more protection if you book directly with the airlines. For example, consolidator tickets often cannot be endorsed to another airline if there's a problem, and they come with more rules and restrictions.

[Sargent_Schultz]

I would think insurance would be available for a nominal fee that would reimburse for expenses if a flight is canceled or is you mis-connect, etc.

[Clairescurtains]

There will be insurance bought without question, we are getting too old to take those kind of chances.;)

Unfortunately the two airlines don't play well together so getting to BOS and then BOS to Dublin and BCN doesn't work out.

We are still considering the return tickets and tossing out the return flight but hate the thought of Delta for instance coming back to haunt us for several thousand dollars. That is why we were looking at the two different airlines as it would be ligit one way fares.

 

My first choice would be Delta from BHM to Atl and then to BCN, easy but very, very expensive for a one way fare. :rolleyes: It probably would be worth the higher cost for a round trip but not the one way price.:eek:

 

It will be a week or so before we can book this so I will stew over it for a while longer.:o

[alcpa1]

We fly out of Birmingham too and have flown to Barcelona on the direct Delta flight from Atlanta. It is so much easier to take this flight. At the time we booked the ATL-BCN was less expensive than the BHM-ATL-BCN so we drove over. Parking is less expensive in ATL too.

We neither book with the cruise lines or through a consolidator. We always get travel insurance, usually with one of the companies on Insuremytrip.com.

If you do decide to go the Aer Lingus route give yourselves plenty of extra time in Boston to make your connection. If you opt to fly US Air or Delta you should realize they will do little to help you with your Aer Lingus connection since that would be on a separate ticket.

Time is money and you should definitely consider the time it would take to leave Birmingham, with a connection to Boston, spend the time it would take to transit to Aer Lingus, make a connection in Ireland, and then on to Barcelona.

While I am not a fan of misusing tickets I'd certainly recommend you look into this. Our flights were open jaw since we left from Milan. One ways are outrageous.

Good luck.

[wcook]

I'm not sure how a consolidator helps. Can't you just book the tickets yourself?

 

If you fly on one ticket to BOS, then on another to BCN, there are a few drawbacks to consider

 

- In BOS, you will have to wait at baggage claim for your bags, then haul them over to the international terminal and check in again. With one ticket, you only have to check in at BHM and you are done.

 

- USAir is going to charge you for bags on the flight to BOS. If you fly on one ticket, you usually get a free checked bag even for the domestic portion of your flight. You may want to consider Southwest for the BHM -> BOS flight.. they are great for one way flights and don't charge for bags.

 

- If something goes wrong on the flight to BOS, Aer Lingus won't care.

[greatam]

1. Have you looked at JetBlue out of ATL??? Yes, you have to get to ATL BUT JetBlue sells codeshare tickets on AerLingus (so you would have total protection in case of irrops). A quick look for the first part of October 2011 shows less than $780pp one way from ATL/ORD/DUB/BCN ($692 USD-JetBlue ticket, then about $70 USD for DUB/BCN through October 12). You will have to purchase the DUB/BCN flight separately, then call AerLingus to have the two tickets put together (very easy). A phone call to JetBlue MAY allow you to book the entire trip from ATL on one ticket at one time. Can't do the intra-Europe from the USA until about 6 months out on the AerLingus website. But CAN book the intra Europe FROM DUBLIN today.

 

2. Look for some of Gardyloo's posts in this forum about one way award tickets on AA. You can purchase/transfer/get new credit cards for bonus miles, etc. etc. to accumluate enough AA miles to get from BHM. There are so many routings you could use-the logical one is the nonstop out of JFK to BCN but probably not a lot of availability.

 

3. Have you looked at United out of BHM to IAD? United also sells codeshare AerLingus tickets. IF you booked today on the AerLingus website, you can book IAD to MAD for $658. How you book the codeshares with United, I have no idea. But you certainly can book the IAD to MAD today on AerLingus for next October and figure out how to get to IAD and BCN later.

 

IF all else fails, allow PLENTY of time between flights. I book two separate tickets for myself and my employees all the time. I have only had a couple of "oops" in a lot of years of very frequent flying. TIME between connections is what is needed.

[Clairescurtains]

Thanks for all the info. I didn't know about the Jet Blue/Aer Lingus arrangement or about being able to hook them together by phone.

 

Parking in Atlanta for 28 days [we are B2B on Magic] might be too much to be a savings over the difference in the flight costs.

 

I have been looking at every possible scenario I could find, and will keep on with that until at least next week when we will be 330 out from our dates.

 

Southwest is a viable option to BOS or LGA and we can cab over to JFK easily, given lots of time.

 

I am not a fan of short connection times and will give ourselves lots of time between flights but sometimes the unthinkable occurs.:rolleyes:

 

We have gotten an AMEX Delta Skymiles card [helps with luggage charges] and really don't want another credit card, I think we are actually going to cancel the Amex when our free year is up.

 

In reply to Wcook:

"'I'm not sure how a consolidator helps. Can't you just book the tickets yourself?"

The consolidator tickets are much cheaper, I can and have booked myself but if you look at the airline's sites the prices are very different from what they are on the consolidator's sites.

[Gardyloo]

2. Look for some of Gardyloo's posts in this forum about one way award tickets on AA. You can purchase/transfer/get new credit cards for bonus miles, etc. etc. to accumluate enough AA miles to get from BHM. There are so many routings you could use-the logical one is the nonstop out of JFK to BCN but probably not a lot of availability.

I just had a look for October 2011 (don't know the OP's dates) and there are some seats on AA's nonstop from JFK to BCN (not every day but quite a few during the period I looked) but there are also seats available in both business and coach on Iberia's new nonstop from Miami to BCN.

 

20,000 AA miles per person would get a coach seat (50,000 for business class) going BHM - MIA - BCN, or any other route flown by AA or its partners, e.g. via Madrid or London. Through the end of this month AA has a 33% bonus offering - buy 6000 miles and get 2000 more, so a purchase of 18,000 miles (for $450 plus a $30 service fee and excise tax) would get you 24,000 miles. Just turn around and redeem them for the tickets.

 

(For business class the figure would be $1050 for 42,000 miles, then the bonus is 14,000 miles, for a total of 56K miles. Pretty cheap for a one-way business class ticket.)

[alidor]

Out of curiosity, although I don't know the exact date, I checked JFK-BCN for next October and found a consolidator (GASP!!!) fare of $427 on the AA non-stop and that includes all the taxes. The consolidator is highly reputable and only deals with travel agents.

 

All consolidators charge whatever the airline cancellation fee may be and put on their cancellation fee as well. If you are purchasing insurance, which you should, these fees would be covered if you had to cancel.

 

As for greatam's rantings about consolidators, take it with a grain of salt. She had her son get messed up by one and thinks all are bad.

 

Although consolidators may not be the correct answer for everyone, they certainly bear looking into along with regular offerings. A good travel agent can help you with this.

[waterbug123]

Parking in Atlanta for 28 days [we are B2B on Magic] might be too much to be a savings over the difference in the flight costs.

 

A few more ideas:

 

Exactly how much would parking be for 28 days? $200-300?? (I'm guessing, so may be way off) When you look at the difference in flight cost, remember that you are multiplying your flight cost x 2 tickets, so the parking fee could be worth it. I can park at my local airport for $8/day; don't know ATL's rates but it'd be worth finding out before you assume it would cancel out the flight savings. You could also consider two one way car rentals between BHM and ATL. I know one way is usually pricey, but it's worth at least checking; could be less than 28 days of parking.

[greatam]

Out of curiosity, although I don't know the exact date, I checked JFK-BCN for next October and found a consolidator (GASP!!!) fare of $427 on the AA non-stop and that includes all the taxes. The consolidator is highly reputable and only deals with travel agents.

 

Tack on the TA fee, the flight from BHM to JFK (which is AT LEAST $150pp) and possibly a taxi from LGA to JFK and you are right in the same ballpark. NOT much savings and you still you have to find the TA that can work it all out for you. And did you read the fine print/fare rules on the ticket you found???

 

All consolidators charge whatever the airline cancellation fee may be and put on their cancellation fee as well. If you are purchasing insurance, which you should, these fees would be covered if you had to cancel.

 

NOT particularly true-quite a few travel insurance policies cover STANDARD (what the airlines charge) cancellation/changes fees. Higher than standard cancellation/change fees may or may not be covered. Again, all a matter of reading the fine print.

 

 

As for greatam's rantings about consolidators, take it with a grain of salt. She had her son get messed up by one and thinks all are bad.

 

Although consolidators may not be the correct answer for everyone, they certainly bear looking into along with regular offerings. A good travel agent can help you with this.

 

My complaint with consolidators has absolutely NOTHING to do with what happened to my stepson. It has to do with the bottom line of my business. IF I book a client's convention/trade show trip on a consolidator flight with a consolidator like Vayama, Cheapfares, Bestfares, 1-800-FlyEurope, etc. etc. and something happens to those flights (irrops) and my client misses the connection/flight to make the expected arrival date, our company is LIABLE BY CONTRACT to get those clients on any plane any way we can. IF it costs us $2500 per ticket additional to get them there, we LOOSE $2500 per ticket. NOT the way to stay in business.

 

What you are advocating is again another pitch to find a GOOD, suitable travel agent (and of course, solicit money into a TA's pocket).

[tnt10]

The only time I purchased 2 separate tickets, I left plenty of TIME also between connections. Also, I made sure that airline had at least one flight afterwards in case luggage didn't make it.

Example: Flight on X carriet SFO to LAX. (Flight on Y carrier SFO to LHR). Made sure carrier X had at least one flight after my flight that was arriving in LAX with time to make my flight on carrier Y (SFO to LHR).

Maybe my OCD was kicking in, but the last thing I wanted was for my luggage not to make it to LAX in time to make it to my LAX to LHR flight.

If possible, much less potential for mishaps if booked all the way through on one ticket.

TnT

[Clairescurtains]

The AA flight from BHM to MIA to MAD to BCN is looking better or Delta from BHM to ATL to BCN but the only way it is better is to book round trip and discard the return flights.:o Delta from BHM to BCN is only $54pp different than ATL to BCN so parking would probably be more plus we actually return to Galveston.

We are planning on renting a car to drive home from there. Might be good to drive to Houston :eek: and fly from there and then have our car in Houston for the drive home.

 

Sooo many options it boggles the mind.

 

Basically the way I see it the choice boils down to 1) book round trip and "miss" the return flight 2) go with a consolidator, or 3)spend very large amounts of $. :rolleyes:

 

The time to book our flights will not be for a few days so lots of time left to research.:)

 

Thanks again for everyone's input and ideas.

[alidor]

Just posting a good fare that's available through a consolidator and a consolidator NOT available online to the general public. It's a good company but only available through a travel agent. There other similar companies.

 

Most people posting on this board are concerned about ONE trip not several for multiple people. What may not be practical for some can be very practical for others. By the way, I recently used this company for 2 international tickets for my corporate people and no problems. I certainly would not jeopardize their trips.

[frugaltravel]

Out of curiosity, although I don't know the exact date, I checked JFK-BCN for next October and found a consolidator (GASP!!!) fare of $427 on the AA non-stop and that includes all the taxes. The consolidator is highly reputable and only deals with travel agents.

 

Many consolidators who have contracts with airlines have fares from a plethora of cities. It would not surprise me if the OP could find such a consolidator with a fare from ATL or BHM for not much more than from JFK.

 

My complaint with consolidators has absolutely NOTHING to do with what happened to my stepson. It has to do with the bottom line of my business. IF I book a client's convention/trade show trip on a consolidator flight with a consolidator like Vayama, Cheapfares, Bestfares, 1-800-FlyEurope, etc. etc. and something happens to those flights (irrops) and my client misses the connection/flight to make the expected arrival date, our company is LIABLE BY CONTRACT to get those clients on any plane any way we can. IF it costs us $2500 per ticket additional to get them there, we LOOSE $2500 per ticket. NOT the way to stay in business.

 

1. The "good" consolidators are not vayama, cheapfares, bestfares, etc.

 

2. Last I heard, CC travelers are not liable under contract to get to a certain destination though they do want to arrive as close to scheduled arrival as possible.

 

 

What you are advocating is again another pitch to find a GOOD, suitable travel agent (and of course, solicit money into a TA's pocket).

 

I am all for working with good TA's. It has nothing to do with money into a TA's pocket. The best ones save you more than their fee (and there are still some that don't charge fees, at least on some tickets <mostly international> - airlines do indeed still pay commissions, just look at their financial statements).

 

Just posting a good fare that's available through a consolidator and a consolidator NOT available online to the general public. It's a good company but only available through a travel agent. There other similar companies.

 

Most people posting on this board are concerned about ONE trip not several for multiple people. What may not be practical for some can be very practical for others. By the way, I recently used this company for 2 international tickets for my corporate people and no problems. I certainly would not jeopardize their trips.

 

So if a TA makes money but I am still paying less than I would not using a travel agent, why would I NOT want to do that? I know of several consolidators that won't work with me as a passenger, but readily work with my travel agent (saves the consolidator money, believe it or not). I could also do my own logistics transport and if I look around hard enough I might find something cheaper than going through a third party like Great American. Is it wrong to use Great American? Not necessarily. Point made (but will certainly be disputed!!).

[greatam]

 

I am all for working with good TA's. It has nothing to do with money into a TA's pocket. The best ones save you more than their fee (and there are still some that don't charge fees, at least on some tickets <mostly international> - airlines do indeed still pay commissions, just look at their financial statements).

 

I understand perfectly what you are saying. The PROBLEM is FINDING those few TA's that actually know something about the airline business. And as you well know, those TA's are few and far between.

 

We have tried repeatedly to sub contract some of our convention/trade show business to various TA's. Last year's international food show in London was a nightmare-too many new customers wanted us to provide super budget air and hotels as well as all the logistics, freight transport, passenger transfer and rigging services we actually provide for the trade show itself.

 

My admin and the office manager spent more time looking for GOOD TA's who actually knew something other than how to book a hotel room or a cruise than if we would have just booked the stuff ourselves (which we mostly did). You would think in a city the size of Phoenix that SOMEONE would have more knowledge than the average person on the street and MAKE SURE anything they booked for our clients would fall within our contract provisions. Didn't happen-we had everything from A to Z-one well known Phoenix travel agency actually booked flights for a group of 4 on 1-800-FlyEurope AND charged us $50 per ticket for the privilege. When my admin started discussing this with her, she had NOT A CLUE that there was any difference in airline tickets. Her manager was just about as clueless. We rode that one out HOPING nothing happened but prepared to dig into our pockets if something did. NOT the way to conduct business.

 

We did find a man/wife team who own an agency in the Dallas area that has taken some of the excess burden off us for these huge trade shows. But those types of TA's are few and far between. And THAT is the catch. Unless the CONSUMER KNOWS the in's and out's of the airline business and the ramifications of consolidator tickets, they have NO WAY to know what they have been sold, much like the cruise/air packages so many TA's are so fond of. They TRUST the TA and BELIEVE they don't have a problem. The surprise could occur if and when a problem arises. NOT just any TA will do!!!

[greatam]

The AA flight from BHM to MIA to MAD to BCN is looking better or Delta from BHM to ATL to BCN but the only way it is better is to book round trip and discard the return flights.:o Delta from BHM to BCN is only $54pp different than ATL to BCN so parking would probably be more plus we actually return to Galveston.

We are planning on renting a car to drive home from there. Might be good to drive to Houston :eek: and fly from there and then have our car in Houston for the drive home.

 

Sooo many options it boggles the mind.

 

Basically the way I see it the choice boils down to 1) book round trip and "miss" the return flight 2) go with a consolidator, or 3)spend very large amounts of $. :rolleyes:

 

The time to book our flights will not be for a few days so lots of time left to research.:)

 

Thanks again for everyone's input and ideas.

 

I personally would be looking to get as many AA miles as I could in a very short time-2 AA credit cards with bonuses would do it. Pay off a good chunk of your cruise with the $750 per card REQUIRED purchase and that should do it. http://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/ads_bp_awnl_select-flights.jsp?Log=1&anchorLocation=selectAwardDatesHorzStatic-1&url=%2Fi18n%2Fdisclaimers%2Fads_bp_awnl_select-flights.jsp&_locale=en_US&repositoryName=MarketingMessageContentRepository&repositoryId=16125656&reportedTitle=Citi+AAdvantage+Cards&flash=false&estara=false

 

Buy miles, transfer miles, get the credit cards, etc. etc. 30,000 miles for a trip from BHM to DFW to JFK to BCN on AA. IF you look at the AA redemption schedule, there are open seats EVERY day the month of October EXCEPT the 11th. The schedule is open until the 12th. There may not be any seats available on the 14th (Friday-heavy travel day) BUT I will bet there are seats open on the 13th. Just a suggestion.

[kenish]

2. Last I heard, CC travelers are not liable under contract to get to a certain destination though they do want to arrive as close to scheduled arrival as possible.

 

Not true, if you think about it. :) All cruse passengers *are* bound by the cruise contract to arrive at the ship for embarkation by a certain time. Failing to meet this term has the liability of forfeiting the cost of the cruise or catching up to the ship at our expense (hopefully to be reimbursed by good trip insurance coverage).

 

So, a cruise or business travel are the same; a contractual obligation and liability to arrive by a deadline. Of course one is more fun than the other!

[frugaltravel]

Not true, if you think about it. :) All cruse passengers *are* bound by the cruise contract to arrive at the ship for embarkation by a certain time. Failing to meet this term has the liability of forfeiting the cost of the cruise or catching up to the ship at our expense (hopefully to be reimbursed by good trip insurance coverage).

 

So, a cruise or business travel are the same; a contractual obligation and liability to arrive by a deadline. Of course one is more fun than the other!

 

My tongue-in-cheek comment went right over your head :D

[erdoran]

A few more ideas:

 

Exactly how much would parking be for 28 days? $200-300?? (I'm guessing, so may be way off) When you look at the difference in flight cost, remember that you are multiplying your flight cost x 2 tickets, so the parking fee could be worth it. I can park at my local airport for $8/day; don't know ATL's rates but it'd be worth finding out before you assume it would cancel out the flight savings. You could also consider two one way car rentals between BHM and ATL. I know one way is usually pricey, but it's worth at least checking; could be less than 28 days of parking.

 

Here's how to save $$$$ on the parking--do a one way car rental from your house to the airport and return the car at the airport. Voila! You pay for the one day rental! You should check rates carefully, sometimes it is cheaper to rent overnight or a few days than for a single day (same as one way flights) so depending on how things fall you might have the rental car sit at your house for a couple of days, or even use it!

 

When you get home, same thing in reverse!