Custom Air and ”married” schedules

[WorldTravelers56]

Here is something we were not really aware of. Regent Custom Air seems to often choose so called “married” flight segments for their itineraries. This means all flight segments for a trip are linked to each other and cannot be changed without cancelling the whole itinerary.

We ran into a problem where the airline changed the schedule of one flight resulting in a very short connection time to the international flight. When we called the Airline and Custom Air about putting us on an earlier flight, we were told they can only do this by first cancelling the whole trip since we have married flight segments. But now there are no more business class seats left on the international flight so we would completely lose this flight. Now we are stuck with this short connection time.

The bottom line, avoid married flight segments at all cost.

[Kwaj girl]

6 minutes ago, WorldTravelers56 said:

Here is something we were not really aware of. Regent Custom Air seems to often choose so called “married” flight segments for their itineraries. This means all flight segments for a trip are linked to each other and cannot be changed without cancelling the whole itinerary.

We ran into a problem where the airline changed the schedule of one flight resulting in a very short connection time to the international flight. When we called the Airline and Custom Air about putting us on an earlier flight, we were told they can only do this by first cancelling the whole trip since we have married flight segments. But now there are no more business class seats left on the international flight so we would completely lose this flight. Now we are stuck with this short connection time.

The bottom line, avoid married flight segments at all cost.

 

That's not always an option. Sometimes building in a longer connection can "break" the fare resulting in a higher cost for the itinerary.

[papaflamingo]

Married flight segments are dictated by the airlines, not Regent.  The only way for Regent to separate them is to cancel the booking and book each segment as separate flights.  That results, generally, in large fare increases as the flights are two separate flights.

Edited November 15, 2023 by papaflamingo

[Snore42]

To add to Papflamingo's comment, this also would mean if you miss the connection, the airline won't be responsible to rebook you.   Their system would see it as two separate bookings and not their problem you missed the connection.  Also I believe the checked luggage may have to be rechecked between segments, depending on the airline.   

[Kwaj girl]

1 hour ago, Snore42 said:

To add to Papflamingo's comment, this also would mean if you miss the connection, the airline won't be responsible to rebook you.   Their system would see it as two separate bookings and not their problem you missed the connection.  Also I believe the checked luggage may have to be rechecked between segments, depending on the airline.   

 

No.....it Canberra a single through reservation on a single ticket but might be more than one fare basis resulting in a higher overall price