Back to Back or Nested Ticketing For Europe Travel Within OneWorld

[SelectSys]

I have two trips planned that take me to Europe next year in the late Spring / early Summer 2024.  One is for a river cruise and another is for a land vacation.  Flights originating from Europe - especially Eastern Europe seem to be much cheaper than those originating from the US.  Rather than booking two tickets from the US, my thought is to book one trip originating from US and another from Europe.  Based on some preliminary searching, the savings can be substantial for business class fares.

 

How do the carriers (especially AA and BA) view this currently?  I could book one ticket via AA and the other through BA.  I used to occasionally use this strategy a long time ago for domestic US flights on AA and never experienced an issue.  How about today?  Are the risks substantial?  Does splitting the ticketing between AA and BA lower any risk of problems?

 

Thanks for any thoughts.

Edited November 27, 2023 by SelectSys

[Globaliser]

5 hours ago, SelectSys said:

How do the carriers (especially AA and BA) view this currently?

 

AIUI, BA doesn't care.

[CDNPolar]

Let me clarify, so instead of booking one ticket with AA from home city, to final destination, with a connection somewhere in Europe, you want to book AA to the first European city, then book a separate ticket with BA to the final destination?

 

We do this flying to China.  We book the long haul flight from Toronto to Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, and book the short flight within mainland China to my husbands home city with a Chinese Airline at substantial savings - sometimes.  The question is always is it worth the extra hassle?

 

If that is the case, then, if you can save money, that is great, but...

 

1. You will have to claim your luggage at your first European city and then check it to your new flight and go through all the security again.  This may require a long layover.
2. If anything happens to your first flight - late, delayed, cancelled - you are on your own with the second flight because they are not in one reservation, and you either miss that flight and or pay change fees, or whatever...

The question is, is it worth the risk or the extra hassle?

[Host Mike]

My understanding is you will buy 2 round trips but split them.

Example – San Diego to London on January 1 and return June 15

Then you have another ticket London to San Diego January 15 then back to London June 1.

When I lived in the States traveling to Prague I did this a lot.  At one point I had 3 tickets on 3 different airlines.

 

[Globaliser]

3 minutes ago, CDNPolar said:

Let me clarify, so instead of booking one ticket with AA from home city, to final destination, with a connection somewhere in Europe, you want to book AA to the first European city, then book a separate ticket with BA to the final destination?

 

No, I think that the idea is to book something like:

Ticket 1: San Diego - Budapest // Vienna - San Diego

Ticket 2: Budapest - San Diego // San Diego - Vienna

 

The cities are arbitrary, but chosen for clarity.

 

The idea is to fly the bolded parts of tickets 1 and 2 first, to make a San Diego - Budapest - San Diego trip, then to fly the remainder of ticket 2 and finally the remainder of ticket 1 to make a San Diego - Vienna - San Diego trip.

 

This takes advantage of the cheaper price that the OP has found for trips originating in Europe.

[SelectSys]

7 hours ago, Globaliser said:

AIUI, BA doesn't care.

Good to hear.

 

7 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We book the long haul flight from Toronto to Beijing, Shanghai, or Hong Kong, and book the short flight within mainland China

This is a reasonable strategy but does not describe what I am trying to accomplish which are 2 separate trips from the USA to Europe.

 

6 hours ago, Host Mike said:

you will buy 2 round trips but split them

Correct.

 

6 hours ago, Globaliser said:

This takes advantage of the cheaper price that the OP has found for trips originating in Europe.

Correct, the prices for my sample itinerary were 50% less when originating in Europe versus originating in the US for the exact same city pair.

[CDNPolar]

Ok... now I get it... I think that we are doing the same bringing my mother-in-law to Canada from China.

 

My husband is flying home to accompany her in May of next year.  He booked his ticket Toronto to China in May returning to Toronto in August.

 

In between, we have two tickets (husband and mother) coming China to Toronto later in May return to China prior to his previously booked return ticket.

 

Unfortunately for us, the was no cheaper, just easier to coordinate the travel, seat selection, etc.

 

When it is cheaper for us is when we book long haul to Beijing paying in Canada, and then buying the inter China trip on his sister's credit card in China.  

[FlyerTalker]

This technique of interlocking round-trips was a frequent way for business travelers to get around the saturday night stay requirement.  With the demise of saturday stays, this has fallen out of wider use.

 

Definitely works, and since you are not evading fare rules, you should be quite fine.  If you want to be on the "safe side", do one with AA and one with BA.

 

And for everyone else, I believe the concept being asked about was this:

 

AAA to BBB on Ticket #1 (first half of r/t)

BBB to AAA on Ticket #2  (first half of r/t)

AAA to BBB on Ticket #2  (second half of r/t)

BBB to AAA on Ticket #1  (second half of r/t)

 

So ticket #1 is written as AAA-BBB-AAA, while ticket #2 is BBB-AAA-BBB.

 

Have I got it right?

 

 

[SelectSys]

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

business travelers to get around the saturday night stay requirement

That was my previous use while working on a consulting gig many years ago.  AA never denied me boarding.

 

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

Definitely works, and since you are not evading fare rules, you should be quite fine

That's what I was worried about - violating some airline rule.  I took a quick glance at the AA contract of carriage and it seemed all the language was oriented towards a single ticket rather and seems silent on multiple tickets.  Of course, the AA contract is impossible to read quickly so who knows what terms I might have missed.

 

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

to be on the "safe side", do one with AA and one with BA

That's my plan assuming the costs are equivalent. 

 

2 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

So ticket #1 is written as AAA-BBB-AAA, while ticket #2 is BBB-AAA-BBB.

In my case it's  actually 2 open jaw tickets as the river cruise is one way across Europe and my land vacation also goes between cities.  This means more airports are involved.  The specific flight sequence and how it relates to the tickets is as follows:

 

Flight 1:  A to B on ticket #1

Flight 2: C to A on ticket #2

Flight 3: C to D on ticket #2

Flight 4: E to A on ticket #1

 

Thanks to all for their feedback.  I will go forward with this plan as the savings can be significant.

 

Edited November 27, 2023 by SelectSys

[Globaliser]

26 minutes ago, SelectSys said:

Flight 3: C to D on ticket #2

 

I think you mean "Flight 3: A to D on ticket #2"? 😉

[SelectSys]

17 hours ago, Globaliser said:

 

I think you mean "Flight 3: A to D on ticket #2"? 😉

correct