US Airways Dividend Miles (Pre-FlightFund Merger) - award travel to Ireland

Is there any way to book award travel to Shannon or Dublin?

Nope.

edited to add: You can fly to MAN and swim across... http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 10-04-2002).]

I don't even think that new partner United flies to Ireland.

no, but fly to man or lgw and get cheap flight to ireland. there are several super cheap carriers. easyjet and ryanair

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by m60:
no, but fly to man or lgw and get cheap flight to ireland. there are several super cheap carriers. easyjet and ryanair</font>

From MAN, EI (www.aerlingus.com) fly to DUB around 6 times a day (BAE146) for fares in the $100-$120 region. With EI, you would be able to check bags through and would NOT need to reclaim them at MAN (you would clear both immigration and customs at Dublin, and just pick up a boarding pass at the transfer counter). There is a free shuttle between Terminal 2(US) and Terminal 1(EI), or you can walk it in 7-10 minutes via an enclosed moving walkway.

Alternatively, Ryanair (www.ryanair.com) have 5 or 6 flights a day from MAN (and use the same terminal as US). Southwest style service and 737's. Prices from $40 ($0 fare plus $40 taxes) to $200+ depending on how far out you book and how busy the flight is. Unlike EI, you wouldn't be able to check bags through, though they do use the same terminal as US at MAN.

From LGW, there's Ryanair and EI (all use the South terminal, same as US), same planes used (737's vs 146's) and same frequency of flights. In my experience MAN fares to DUB tend to be slightly lower but it all depends on availability. All the cheap fares have no minimum stay (unlike US!).

BA also fly from LGW, though 80% of LGW-DUB flights are codeshares on EI metal. Similar service and prices to EI.

Now that you can get US miles on UA, you could also fly UA to LHR and pick up EI or BD to Dublin (around 30 flights a day). Not necessarily more expensive than LGW due to the number of flights, mainly using A321's. That said, I would not wish a transfer through LHR on my worst enemy, so go for LGW or MAN, whichever is cheaper, unless you're desperate to try out UA transatlantic.

The one option that won't work is Easyjet - they simply don't fly to Ireland (Ryanair is based there and would rather run all their seats for free than let Easyjet get a foothold on home territory! - something similar would happen if Ryanair tried flying to Switzerland, an Easyjet stronghold)

[Edited to add easyjet comment]

[This message has been edited by House (edited 10-04-2002).]

[This message has been edited by House (edited 10-04-2002).]

[This message has been edited by House (edited 10-04-2002).]

Is it "legal" to fly US to Man or London on award ticket and then book another ticket to Shannon or Dublin?

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stimatr:
Is it "legal" to fly US to Man or London on award ticket and then book another ticket to Shannon or Dublin?</font>

why on earth would this not be "legal"?

Depending on the fares, it may also make sense to fly into CDG and then catch Aer Lingus to the Emerald Isle. This avoids the massive taxes on flying to the UK.

When/if you can redeem on United, another possibility may (or may not) up. UA places its code on British Midland flights from Heathrow to Dublin.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by stimatr:
Is there any way to book award travel to Shannon or Dublin?</font>

In July, I did award travel to LGW then took a $39 flight on BA to Dublin. Ryanair is cheap, cheap, but BA was close to matching them, and I was told that Ryan was pretty flaky - cancelling flights when not full enough, etc.

I think they also return from Shannon, but 1-way rental was a pain, so I did the cross-country drive (3 whole hours, iirc) to get back to Dublin for the LGW return

Last time I had to go to DUB, I got award travel on Sabena thru BRU. But that was 3 years ago, and U lost partners.

Once U joins star alliance, BMI or Lufthansa will get you there.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kv99:
why on earth would this not be "legal"?

</font>

This is called "end on end" ticketing and is certainly not a problem for the major US airlines. I have heard of some European airlines not liking this, but even then they would have to put "End on End: Prohibited" in the fare rules or something similar.

In short, you can do it and it's perfectly legal. I also agree with the post above recommending checking out the prices via CDG, continuing on Aer Lingus.

As far as Ryanair is concerned, they are usually not too bad but if I was making a connection I'd stick to EI or BD - the difference in fare will be minimal ($0-30)unless you're booking last minute (and you'll get free bar service and an assigned seat!). Both Ryanair and EI issue etickets through their websites (EI also offer paper ticketing) so no hassle in booking from the USA.

One last thing - if you want to fly to Shannon then your options are limited. EI only fly there direct from Heathrow - there may be BA regional jet service from LGW but I'm not so sure. EI will allow an open jaw itinerary that would let you transit from SNN via DUB on the outward or return legs (or both).

From MAN, BA also fly a couple of times a day to Knock (Irish West Coast), Waterford, Derry and Cork. These flights are often pretty pricey though due to high demand (family visits etc) and low frequency.

[This message has been edited by House (edited 10-05-2002).]

Yes, but for it to be end-on-end ticketing, it really has to be on the same airline to the same cities, for it to make any difference.

They're trying to prevent stuff like this, where the SFO-JFK-SFO R/T is nested within the JFK-SFO-JFK R/T to get around the Sat. night stay rules.

Week 1
Mon JFK-SFO
Fri SFO-JFK

Week 2
Mon JFK-SFO
Fri SFO-JFK

kv99, you are describing "back to back" ticketing.

What's wrong with this picture?

Now that USAir picked up a real code-share partner, they still can't get you to Ireland. United is a great addition, but does little for expanded travel in Europe.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by chexfan:
kv99, you are describing "back to back" ticketing.</font>

thanks chexfan, didn't know there was a difference.

i never thought there was an issue at all with the situation described here (i.e., "end-on-end" ticketing...)

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by TTT103:
What's wrong with this picture?

Now that USAir picked up a real code-share partner, they still can't get you to Ireland. United is a great addition, but does little for expanded travel in Europe.</font>

TTT-- true enough that they can't get you to Ireland, but they sure can get to a lot of other places that we couldn't get to before.

Most of Western Europe is now fairly well covered between US and UA (Ireland being the notable exception), and Hawaii/Asia/South Pacific is dramatically improved with the addition of UA. For those who will say that NW wa a viable option to Asia, did anyone ever try to get tickets?? Virtually impossible -- an almost useless partnership.

I think some real improvements on the Europe front will come about, if US ever makes into *A, with LH/SK/OS/BD all becoming partners.


[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 10-05-2002).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by House:
This is called "end on end" ticketing and is certainly not a problem for the major US airlines. I have heard of some European airlines not liking this, but even then they would have to put "End on End: Prohibited" in the fare rules or something similar.
</font>


When I checked in on my PIT-LGW award flight, I also gave them my BA LGW-DUB ticket. Much to my surprise, they gave me boarding passes for both legs, and checked my bags all the way to DUB. I checked at BA when I got to LGW and they confirmed that I was good to go. Aside from not being able to stand by on the LGW-PIT direct on the return (I was routed through PHL), it seemed no different than a domestic trip

I do this frequently when I go to India where I'll take USAirways from PHL to a European city (usually FRA or CDG...) and then connect on another carrier (separate ticket as it's MUCH cheaper), usually on Delta but sometimes others.

I've never had a problem checking my bags through and on the way out have gotten boarding passes for the other airline flight from US.

The only time I've ever had trouble with this is that AA had issued me a boarding pass for my US connecting flight leaving Maui last year. US wouldn't accept the AA-issued boarding pass at LAX and re-issued their own!

[This message has been edited by kv99 (edited 10-05-2002).]