On-line Booking with Airlines (Canadian)
Apr 9, 1999 | 5:05 pm
#1
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Join Date: May 1998
Location: Canada
Programs: AC SE 2MM, HH Dd, Bonvoy G; IC S; AA; DL
Posts: 14,496
On-line Booking with Airlines (Canadian)
I thought I would post this here as it has some application to other airline bookings on their web sites:
Today was not a wonderful first time experience for me trying to book a flight on Canadian's (CP) on-line booking. I normally use Expedia, Travelocity or go direct to a real person on the phone at the airlines but I thought I would take advantage of CP's 500 mile on-line booking and 500 mile virtual ticket bonuses.
I was doing a 4 segment open jaw round-trip booking (all CP) but it refused to give me the virtual ticket option (it only gave me ticket by mail as an option). I phoned the help line and they were at first confused as to why it would not go through. They finally figured it out after about 5 minutes -- open jaw creates another segment making it a 5 segment ticket which is not allowed under their virtual tickets!
This seems strange as they have 6 segment entry forms for doing the bookings in the first place. Any other airlines have similar restrictions on number of segments for virtual tickets?
I decided to do an end run on the system and booked two one-way fares and cancelled my open jaw round trip. This means I get an extra 1000 points (500 points for on line booking and 500 points for virtual ticket for each of the two one-way all CP tickets) over and above the 1000 I would have gotten for a return ticket.
It is slightly more expensive to buy the two all CP one-way tickets (about $30 U.S. more) but it has several advantages:
- it is cheaper (by about $120 U.S.) than the normal full fare ticket that I wanted so I could get a better schedule by mixing CP and AC flights because all of the CP flights are cheaper propeller DASH 8 flights. However, since they are Y (actually Y1) tickets, they can be exchanged for more expensive AC jet flights with the better schedule (at no extra cost)! I will still be flying 2 legs on CP but the 2 legs on AC will be in jet comfort rather than DASH 8 plus I get the cheaper propeller fare and double on-line ticketing and virtual ticket bonus points! It made up for my frustration at trying to do the original open jaw booking (if I get the points credited).
Today was not a wonderful first time experience for me trying to book a flight on Canadian's (CP) on-line booking. I normally use Expedia, Travelocity or go direct to a real person on the phone at the airlines but I thought I would take advantage of CP's 500 mile on-line booking and 500 mile virtual ticket bonuses.
I was doing a 4 segment open jaw round-trip booking (all CP) but it refused to give me the virtual ticket option (it only gave me ticket by mail as an option). I phoned the help line and they were at first confused as to why it would not go through. They finally figured it out after about 5 minutes -- open jaw creates another segment making it a 5 segment ticket which is not allowed under their virtual tickets!
This seems strange as they have 6 segment entry forms for doing the bookings in the first place. Any other airlines have similar restrictions on number of segments for virtual tickets?
I decided to do an end run on the system and booked two one-way fares and cancelled my open jaw round trip. This means I get an extra 1000 points (500 points for on line booking and 500 points for virtual ticket for each of the two one-way all CP tickets) over and above the 1000 I would have gotten for a return ticket.
It is slightly more expensive to buy the two all CP one-way tickets (about $30 U.S. more) but it has several advantages:
- it is cheaper (by about $120 U.S.) than the normal full fare ticket that I wanted so I could get a better schedule by mixing CP and AC flights because all of the CP flights are cheaper propeller DASH 8 flights. However, since they are Y (actually Y1) tickets, they can be exchanged for more expensive AC jet flights with the better schedule (at no extra cost)! I will still be flying 2 legs on CP but the 2 legs on AC will be in jet comfort rather than DASH 8 plus I get the cheaper propeller fare and double on-line ticketing and virtual ticket bonus points! It made up for my frustration at trying to do the original open jaw booking (if I get the points credited).
