Booking individual segments for a flight

[ncgolferette]

I hope this does not become too confusing. Looking to make flight reservation from Raleigh to Copenhagen with only one stop. Looking at Air Canada or United. Want to go from point a to b in economy and b to c in business. On return want to go from c to b in economy plus and b to a in economy. I will have two tickets one for A to B and B to A and another ticket for B to C and C to B. By doing it this way I can save $445. Makes no sense but have played with the numbers on the web and repeatedly I get the savings showing up.

 

My question, will I be able to check in one time at the airport. That is show that I have tickets from point A to my final destination point C. I hate the idea of only being checked in to point B on my first ticket, collecting luggage, checking in to continue to point C and going through security again.

 

Any insight would help me with planning. Thanks.

[6rugrats]

So, on your outbound, you will be traveling on two separate tickets, and your return is on one ticket?

 

It's always risky traveling on two separate tickets, as you're doing on your outbound flight. The airline only has an obligation to get you from Point A to Point B on your first ticket. If you miss the flight from Point B to Point C, you could be forced to buy a new ticket, as the airline has no obligation to honor a ticket for a missed flight.

 

I am assuming you want to pay for economy only for your domestic flight, and then fly business to Europe.

 

I really suggest you call the airline directly, and see if you can get this on one ticket and reduce your risk.

[Globaliser]

Want to go from point a to b in economy and b to c in business. On return want to go from c to b in economy plus and b to a in economy. I will have two tickets one for A to B and B to A and another ticket for B to C and C to B.

So, on your outbound, you will be traveling on two separate tickets, and your return is on one ticket?

 

It's always risky traveling on two separate tickets, as you're doing on your outbound flight. The airline only has an obligation to get you from Point A to Point B on your first ticket. If you miss the flight from Point B to Point C, you could be forced to buy a new ticket, as the airline has no obligation to honor a ticket for a missed flight.

The way I read it, the plan is an economy ticket A-B-A, and a mixed business/premium economy ticket B-C-B. So the transfer at B is across two tickets in both directions.

 

It's worth reiterating the risk about two separate tickets. If your A-B flight is late and you miss your B-C flight, the second airline will treat you as simply having failed to show up for your B-C flight. It is within its rights to do this even if your bag is through-checked - it is liable simply to get taken off the B-C flight. You'll be as much at the mercy of the second airline as if you'd simply overslept in your hotel at B and failed to show up at the airport for that reason. It could easily be new ticket time, at the then walk-up fare.

 

If you want to play the system like this, you really need to have a very good idea of what you're doing, what your risks are, how you are going to mitigate those risks, and what your disaster plans will be.

My question, will I be able to check in one time at the airport. That is show that I have tickets from point A to my final destination point C. I hate the idea of only being checked in to point B on my first ticket, collecting luggage, checking in to continue to point C and going through security again.

This depends on the airlines and their policies. But increasingly, the answer is "Don't count on it". There are some airlines that will not through-check across two tickets even if the second flight is on the same airline, let alone a different one. So you will have to ask about this - and also take the risk that policies will change between the time that you buy your ticket and the time that you fly.

[pinotlover]

I understand your quandary. I just bought tickets to Copenhagen for next summer. I ended up buying on Air Canada since it was all their aircraft, instead of buying on United. I am traveling Business Class over and P.E. back . Both Airlines are Star Alliance members and will provide the connections as needed.

 

I take your quandary is you don't want to pay for the Business Class upgrade on the US to Toronto leg, but only for the over the pond haul from Toronto to Copenhagen. Best plan is to call Air Canada and tell them what you want to do and get them to price the entire itinerary for you.

 

United will NOT price Air Canada Premium Economy. I called and asked United and told me that they will only sell an economy seat on Air Canada, and then after having bought the ticket, I could call Air Canada and buy the PE seat from them. I found that to be a pain in the ~~~, and went direct to Air Canada to buy the tickets.

 

Call Air Canada direct, they are very easy to work with.

[TruckerDave]

I think this falls into the category of "making things much more complicated than they need to be"

[CantanaLobo]

Another thing to consider is if the airline reschedules a flight such that you would have an illegal connection if the itinerary was booked on one ticket. On one ticket, the airline would either have to fix it or refund your money. On two tickets? They can tell you to pound rope or pay a change fee. (Yeah, if the change was significant enough they'd let you reschedule for free, depends on airline, but they don't have to do it just because the "connection" is too short on two tickets.)

[ncgolferette]

Thank you all for the information you provided. I think I will suck it up and just pay the extra money for the convenience and peace of mind.

[Mr. Click]

Smart move to suck it up....for all of the reasons posted here. Last year we took a gamble going LAS to SFO to AKL to MEL and bought separate tickets for the LAS to SFO on United because I needed the PDQ there. The rest was one single ticket on ANZ. To be safe we allowed 4 1/2 hours to connect in SFO. It was likely over kill but..better safe than sorry. It all worked out and we had time to get some dinner at SFO. Oh, the return was a single ticket, ALK to LAX to LAS with a 2 hour connection in LAX. Did a lot of breath holding on that one but made it.

[em-sk]

Thank you all for the information you provided. I think I will suck it up and just pay the extra money for the convenience and peace of mind.

 

To accomplish what your asking for go onto the Air Canada website and select the multi-city option. That will let you select and price each segment, while still having it all issued on one ticket.

 

Better option is to phone Air Canada. The agents have a bit more flexibility than what is exposed on the web-site. They also have access to inventory on other airlines and can in most cases combine that with the Air Canada flights onto a single ticket.

 

This is one where the best thing to do is talk to a real person.

Edited September 2, 2016 by em-sk