TrayflowInUK
Oct 30, 09, 5:31 pm
Our little family (me, Mrs. TrayflowInUK (alter ego “Lynne”) and 22-month old Baby TrayflowInUK (“Bella”) took an 11-day trip around Finland, Hungary, and Estonia a couple of months ago, and I decided to write a trip report about it as it involved (some) premium class flying plus three new airlines for me.
Shameless self-promotion/Links to previous trip reports:
MH MAN-KUL-AKL and return in F/C (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=550034)
Annual Leave: CO/NW MAN-EWR-CLT-MSP-ANC-MSP-IND-LAS-EWR-MAN, all sorts of classes (w/ pics) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=595332)
A Skyteam Visit to the USA: 17 Days, 16 Flights, 5 Airlines, 12 Lounges (w/ pics) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=856131)
Family compares AF vs KL Economy Long Haul, UK to Brazil (w/ pics) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=881561)
Europe’s Extremities: MAN-LCA-SKG/ATH-MAN (OK J, CY Y & AF Y, Pics) (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/904588-europe-s-extremities-man-lca-skg-ath-man-ok-j-cy-y-af-y-pics.html)
Hope you enjoy!
TrayflowInUK
Oct 30, 09, 5:35 pm
Well, it started small enough. The buzz around FlyerTalk about ČSA Czech Airlines (IATA code “OK”) being on the skids, potentially getting bought by LH, suspending transatlantic service, etc., scared me into booking “one last trip” on what I consider to be one of the EU’s best legacy carriers.
Plus, we had the August bank holiday weekend free. We had originally wanted to go to the Faroes, but the cheapest fare on Atlantic Airways (which was still an exorbitant $900 for the three of us) plus the 3.5-hr trek down to Stansted, the parking hassles, and the shockingly-priced places to stay scared us off booking this trip.
A quick check for Z space on www.seatcounter.com (I’ve let my ExpertFlyer and KVS memberships lapse… too damn expensive) and a call to the WorldPerks desk got the open jaw booked: MAN-PRG-HEL on the Thursday before the bank holiday, by ferry to Tallinn on Saturday, returning TLL-PRG-MAN on bank holiday Monday. Two more countries to see only with two days’ holiday… not too bad.
The following week everything became topsy-turvy. Turns out I was required for a business meeting in Budapest Tuesday morning through Thursday night.
I figured this would be no problem, as I could just split my PNR from Lynne and Bella and return home separately from BUD the following Friday. Then I just needed to buy a one-way ticket from TLL-BUD.
Not so easy. I found the flights I needed (both KL and OK had all the flights in Z), so I went to nwa.com to change the ticket. Their wonderful web system let me get all the way to final ticketing when I got an error message: “Call Us.”
A quick phone call to the WorldPerks desk revealed the issue: you can not open jaw more than 300 miles within Europe. This obscure rule is not printed anywhere on the nwa.com or delta.com websites, and is not printed in the fare rules.
Honestly, what a ridiculous load of rubbish. Why on earth would NW want to prohibit open jaws >300 mi? Why not just apply the same open jaw logic as everywhere else in the world, i.e., as long as the shortest distance in the itinerary is the open jaw, it’s allowable.
Plan B was to fly TLL-BUD for the meeting on a paid ticket, then BUD-MAN on a separate ticket. Although the company was paying, the pricing was too much for me to stomach; well over $1000. Plan C was to fly on the return leg of my award ticket as far as PRG, then skip the PRG-MAN flight leaving the wife and baby to fly to MAN alone while I grabbed a PRG-BUD flight. Total cost for this was still $800.
So I went with Plan D: take the family on business! We would extend our stay in Finland for the entire four-day weekend, fly HEL-BUD on Monday, spend Tuesday-Thursday in Budapest, and fly BUD-HEL-TLL to resume our holiday on Friday. This option gave an extra two days in Finland and still let us have a two-day weekend in Estonia. The girls could live it up in luxury in a five-star hotel and wander about in Budapest (one of our favourite cities) whilst I slaved away in windowless subterranean conference rooms. Plus, we would get to try three new airlines: Malév (HEL-BUD), Finnair (BUD-HEL), and Finncomm (HEL-TLL).
I checked that award availability was still there for TLL-PRG-MAN on the following Sunday (seatcounter.com showed Z9), and booked the HEL-BUD/BUD-HEL-TLL tickets on Expedia.
Then I phoned WorldPerks to find out there was a problem… according to them, TLL-PRG was only Z2. I thought it was strange that seatcounter.com only ever showed 9s or 0s for Czech Airlines… something to be aware of in future. The helpful agent was able to book Baby TrayflowinUK in E class (award economy) for that leg and Z (award business) for the following leg. If it was any other airline, I would have been a bit concerned, but as it was OK I knew they’d understand.
Final itinerary:
OK 647Z DAY01 MANPRG 0715 1025 735
OK 480Z DAY01 PRGHEL 1250 1600 320
MA 743L DAY05 HELBUD 1645 1810 73G
MA4740V DAY09 BUDHEL 1140 1500 320 #AY754
AY3929V DAY09 HELTLL 1655 1725 AT7
OK 879Z DAY11 TLLPRG 1515 1625 735
OK 646Z DAY11 PRGMAN 1940 2100 734
I’ll not pontificate much further, instead relating the key aspects of each flight.
Eagerly awaiting follow up