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Passengers & SLF (Self Loading Freight) If you are regularly a passenger on any airline then why not post your questions here?

Is this allowed

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Old 29th Oct 2010, 12:52
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Is this allowed

A certain airline wants huge sums of money to fly myself and family return - essentially as not a full min 7 days away

I've just looked at buying a return, and then buying a return from where I want to go on holiday - in other words I would only use the outbound tickets and throw away the inbound. It works out at a massive 60% less doing this

Allowed or not?

I could do similar with 2 diff airlines so they would never know but only 1 has a good reputation
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Old 29th Oct 2010, 13:23
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This used to be common practice when the airlines had the 'Saturday stay' requirement to get cheap fares (seems some still do ?).

It's called nested ticketing and most airlines wised up and now theoretically ban it, although I don't know whether they actually do in practice. It's academic (over here) since the Saturday night thing is obsolete.

If you do it using two different carriers nobody will ever know .
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Old 29th Oct 2010, 13:53
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Back to backs

Is another term and I did if for many years. Airlines tried to stop it with little success. It seems somewhere in the XXX pages of your contract they did have a right to cancel your reservations in those circumstances.
I suggest you look at buying a one way out and then buy the return home. They really can't say anything at that point. You might even be able to extract a residual credit off the unused return.

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Old 29th Oct 2010, 14:20
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Our company travel agent does it all the time. At least 90% of flight bookings between 2 of our offices use "dummy flights" as they call them.
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Old 29th Oct 2010, 15:36
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Airlines tried to stop it with little success
Oh I don't know about that. My old airline used to be extremely good at stopping it. It just depends if you're prepared to check through the system and spot them - most airlines don't do that.
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Old 29th Oct 2010, 15:55
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If it really does work out cheaper, buy two lots of returns, each with the return leg next year. For example:

London-Barbados 10 November 2010
Barbados-London 18 October 2011

Barbados-London 16 November 2010
London-Barbados 12 October 2011

Carriers vary as to how far in advance you can book but its often 355 days (from day of booking). If you end up not being able to use the return legs of both tickets, you've still saved; if you are, you're quids in.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 10:55
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and people wonder why airlines overbook flights

So there are laws to protect the passenger if the airlines overbook you, but everyone thinks it is perfectly acceptable to book a flight with no intention of using one leg of the booking and just not showing for the flight?
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 11:07
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the market wins

isn't this an example of an efficient market at work (arbitrage), or rather how monopolistic interests try to stymie them ? Should be encouraged shouldn't it ?
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 11:14
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Angel

surely not.
Even though I don't actually approve of this practice, the passenger in that senario actually paid for the seats even if they didn't sit in some of them. So the airline has not actually lost out.

As you point out the airlines over book flights so, in this case mentioned above, may actually get two fares for the same seat in the end.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 11:58
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Betty, some of the posters above also suggest he claim a fraction of the ticket cost back for the unused sector, so the airline does have the potential to miss out, unless it was a fully non refundable, non endorseable, cheapo ticket.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 12:05
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> So there are laws to protect the passenger if the airlines overbook you, but everyone thinks it is perfectly acceptable to book a flight with no intention of using one leg of the booking and just not showing for the flight?

Big difference.

You buy a ticket and don't use a return? The airline has been *paid* for a service that you declined. No net loss to them as far as you are concerned - after all they have been paid.

You buy a ticket and airline bumps you because of overbooking? You are being *denied* a service for which you have paid.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 13:21
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Angel

surely not,

I see what you are saying but the huge savings being made by the original poster leads me to believe that this is probably, two non flexible cheap tickets versus a fully flexible ticket.

The problem with all of these scenarios is you get what you pay for. The more expensive ticket will be totally flexible and the cheaper option would not be at all flexible.

We will no doubt get yet another post, in the future, of people moaning that they can't change the date of their cheap ticket and how unreasonable this is. but that's life.

I find you usually get what you pay for, cheap is not always good.

Everyday I see passengers who have gone for cheaper options like buying connecting flights separately and not leaving enough time between the sectors but often it all comes undone when you get delays for weather or as at the moment French Air Traffic control.

Those that paid for the flight as one journey get hotel accommodation and automatically re-booked if they miss the connection but those that did DIY get no hotel, no refund and have to spend ages trying to book another flight themselves. As a crew member I see it all the time and it really is a false economy.

So as I say, in life you usually get what you pay for, the choice is yours.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 13:46
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BG

Seems fair, but does the large price differential justify this benefit/security ?
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 13:57
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Angel

I don't know but I suppose it's a supply and demand thing.

The aviation industry is very competitive nowadays and if you take away all the large taxes that have recently been put on by our government and then factor in the huge fuel costs we have at the moment, I think air travel is actually cheaper now than ever before.
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Old 1st Nov 2010, 14:02
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True enough

but it all reminds me of the pre-Freddie Laker days of national flag carriers and the bewidering array of controls and rules. I flew to Los Angeles in 1977 on a £200 rtn ticket and chucked the other half away (I was there for two years). Perhaps there's an industry hankering after the good old days .

If you buy two tickets isn't that two separate contracts: guess you might breach one but how does that breach the other ?
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Old 4th Nov 2010, 08:25
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I see what you are saying but the huge savings being made by the original poster leads me to believe that this is probably, two non flexible cheap tickets versus a fully flexible ticket.
Thanks for replies everyone, yes its the cheapest non refundables available.

ConstantFlyer - your idea of actually genuinely using them suddenly made every sense so now 1 holiday firm and a 2nd in October 2011 very likely.
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Old 4th Nov 2010, 13:48
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Buying returns which are cheaper than singles is a common practice. Part of the "overbooking" calculation takes this into account, so the carrier will know that a certain percentage of those on cheaper tickets never come back, and they take additional reservations to maximise their own revenue.

BA now offer both "cheapest fare" single and return pricing on their website. A while ago a return from London to St Petersburg, Russia, was £280, and the cheapest single (which is what I really wanted, as we were returning by car) on exactly the same outward flight and in the same class, was £1,200. If carriers wanted people to relate their bookings to their actual requirements, they would stop nonsenses like this.

"Yes, sir, fixed price menu for lunch, £15. But you didn't eat your pudding, you bad boy. In that case the bill is £45 please."
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