Round trip ticket but miss a leg

[Pontius Navigator]

What can you advise about booking a round trip ticket but missing a leg?

Delta, Toronto to Humberside via Schipol - £633. And then picking up the return flight at Schipol rather than Humberside?

A ticket from Bristol to Schipol is only £23. Total cost £658.

Alternative is to fly to Schipol and take a one-way ticket to Humberside at a cost of £499.50. I haven't bothered to check the Toronto- Schipol return as someone is clearly having a joke at our expense.

If it is too difficult to join at Schipol rather than Humberside for the return then a £27 train ride back to Lincolnshire would be necessary.

Cheap air travel? Pah! Time to spare, go by air :(

So, can you join down route with no penalties?

[Capetonian]

Most carriers have a policy which states that 'full and sequential use of flight coupons must be made.'

The risk is that if you fail to use a reservation on any sector, the subsequent ones will be cancelled.

I would suggest that you try to book an open-jaw, leaving a surface segment between Humberside and Amsterdam. You may not be able to do it on a website but the airline's ticket office should be able to advise you whether the two fare types are combinable.

[Pontius Navigator]

Thank you. BTW, we shall be in the Proteus President in 3 weeks time :)

[ExXB]

Despite what Capetonian says about sequential and complete use why not just call the airline and ask them if you can do that? Or if you can reroute your original journey by replacing Humberside - AMS with BRS-AMS? (I'm assuming that you are traveling KL and I think they fly both sectors).

The answer may very well be no, but it costs you nothing to ask (other than the cost of the phone call). Airlines get most upset when passengers try and do this without their knowledge.

If you do call, let us know what they say.

[Pontius Navigator]

ExXB, if it was me I would but I am acting at 3rd hand for a Canadian. We have advised the simple return to Humberside and either bus or train return for Bristol. Not much diffence cost wise, just a PITA.

[Rusland 17]

A quick look at Travelocity would have shown you that Delta/Air France/KLM offer an open-jaw return from Toronto to Humberside and returning from Bristol (via Schiphol both ways) for about the same as a straightforward return ticket to Humberside.

[Pontius Navigator]

Rusland, thank you. Never having heard of open-jaw until it was mentioned above. I shall pass the tip on. Thank you.

[Capetonian]

Just for clarification, open jaw means that you have a break of journey between two fare components. It is only possible if the fares for each component are combinable on a half round trip basis with each other, and this is stated in the Fare Rules/Tariff Conditions. If not then it's two one way fares which is usually more.

By (over-simplified) illustration using fictitious figures and assumptions:

LON - MAD - LON weekend excursion fare is £400
LON - BCN - LON midweek excursion fare is £300

The two fare types are combinable so to form an open jaw journey :
LON - MAD (surface) BCN - LON the fare would be 200 + 150 = 350.

That journey would be a single open jaw
A double open jaw would be for example LON - MAD surface BCN - GLA.

When two fares are combined in this way, the conditions of the more restrictive generally apply to the whole journey.

Of course none of this applies with the LOCOs as each segment is a stand alone.

[Anansis]

It is possible to book a flight which returns from/to a different airport on the KLM website. The icon to do it is right underneath the space where you type your destination in. Might be worth trying that to see if you can get a decent price.

[OverRun]

Adding to Capetonian's words Most carriers have a policy which states that 'full and sequential use of flight coupons must be made.' The risk is that if you fail to use a reservation on any sector, the subsequent ones will be cancelled.
Most airlines have this built into the computer system so the cancellation is instantaneous and automatic if the coupons are used out of sequence, or if one in the middle is not used. So this is better described as a 'certainty' rather than a 'risk'.:ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

TY, she will be going to the TA today with a copy of the open-jaw advice from here. If the TA gets it wrong then she is covered.

If I find out I will let you know what she does.