ATOBTTR

One-way international fares tend to be pretty pricey.

For OP:
What about BOS-LHR-BOS booked on DL via DL and then book LHR-BOS-LHR as the embedded trip via VS, either on the VS flights or on the DL flights with the VS codeshare through VS's website. Might be a work-around and would still earn full MQMs and perhaps even better RDM earnings.

CKDGM

Just for grins, try booking it as a multi-city itinerary on delta.com. I did a dummy booking for SEA-LHR of a Mon-Fri in Oct followed by a Mon-Fri in Jan and it came out at $1731 all in for coach (DL flights, VS metal). If the airline will price and sell it as a single ticket, I think they'd be hard pressed to make a case that you improperly combined the flights....

nydave

just curious would they consider it still back to back if you used a coterminal on the b2b ticket?

C W

Yes, I think they'd even consider for non-coterminal open jaws. It's the intent to avoid the minimum stay or Saturday night stay that matters.

lovefly88

just for kicks I tried this suggestion. $1,432 in Feb on DL. $980 on DL flights but VS coded

fti

That used to be the case, but recently, especially to places like LON, you can find pretty affordable one way international fares. It might require an airline other than DL or non-stop, but perhaps not.

yohanson

Back in the DMQM days from STL, RDU, BNA, and PIT, I was traveling nearly weekly to LEX. I took advantage of the DMQM from BNA to fly a few different place over the weekend. For reasons I don't remember, I decided to book a one way to LEX for work the week I took my first vacation run. From then on, I booked round trip LEX-MSP-LEX over the weekend and flight costs dropped from the $600-700 range to the $350ish range. This was totally to the benefit of my employer but at the time, I didn't know there was anything "wrong" with it. Or maybe I did but I don't recall. This went on almost weekly for 2-3 months. I never heard a thing about it.

GrayAnderson

The case law would get interesting, to put it mildly, depending on how "out of the way" those tickets were. I know that under the ADA, US airlines have a lot of leeway to smack you...but I have to wonder about such rules for other countries. VS, for example, is subject to UK law.

So, the other thought here is using another city within a comfortable train ride of London (and perhaps one within a comfortable train ride of New York...so, say, NYC-LON and then PAR-BOS or MAN-WAS). Using an "other-alliance" carrier is an option, of course. I really have to wonder at that point what they could even do in practice...the Saturday night stay rule might block you from "nesting" on DL, but I'd be very hard-pressed to see an argument that you're under some sort of contractual obligation to actually physically stay in the city in question over that timeframe (and at the end of the day, if they can't compel you to not go from London to Paris, how can they compel you to not go to Boston or Washington in that timeframe?). But as noted, if you went to another carrier, trying to argue that you had a contractual obligation not to fly on any other carrier in the interim would strike me (Not Being a Lawyer) as a blatantly unreasonable interpretation of their rules.

@yohanson:
As far as I can tell, what you did was book the following:
(1) MSP-LEX (o/w)
(2) LEX-MSP-LEX (r/t)
(3) LEX-MSP-LEX (r/t)
(4) LEX-MSP-LEX (r/t)
(5) LEX-MSP (o/w)
With a few trips elsewhere randomly tossed in.

You didn't do anything wrong. I think any airline would be very hard-pressed to even try to sanction you for that. There is no rule or law saying that you need to base a round-trip ticket out of your hometown. The fact that you were "vacationing" at home is so far from being the airline's business that I suspect if they had come down on you, they probably would have lost that one in court since you weren't nesting the round-trip tickets within one another...and Amtrak isn't in an alliance with anyone, really. Now, if (1) and (5) were part of a round-trip (or if there were a throwaway leg in there) they might have a case...but per what you said, you didn't do that.

(This isn't to say that some genius in Legal might not have wanted to give it a try at some airlines over the years...but trying to argue that a legal booking that was done entirely within the airline's rules and which didn't clearly fall into one of those prohibited categories was a violation of the CoC would be a stretch.)

BER Flyer

As long as the UK is part of the EU consumers are still protected by EU consumer protection law which is a lot better in this case as what offered in the USA. This particular scenario was brought to court here in Germany maybe 6-7 years ago, a company constantly doing this "nested ticket" thing was sued by LH - and the airline lost on all fronts. First: it as never "illegal" to do this in the true sense of the word. There never was a law forbidding this. Just airline regulations in their terms and conditions only there to max their profit. I don't think that their is an enforceable law in the US that can be used in such case. The court ruled that the part of the airline T&C's which are an "unilateral disadvantage" against the customer are always void. It would be indeed "illegal" if an airline would forbidding you to fly back before you used the 2nd part of their ticket. The court also ruled that an airline which acts as an "common carrier" ( like all major airlines do ) is required to sell you such nested or back to back tickets, they can not refuse to sell you another ticket before you used the 1st ticket in full. What the airline is allowed to do is requiring you to fly any ticket coupon in sequential order ( if you got an ticket with several segments ) and that part is now standard language in the T&C's. They are allowed to cancel the reminder of the ticket if you skip a segment of THAT ticket - but there is nothing the airlines can do if you use an 2nd ticket before the 1st one is fully flown. Even if it is from the same airline!
That of course applies to the EU only, not sure what legal recurse the airline are having in the US. Now - what the airline can do with your frequent flyer account in such case is a completely different matter as they have the right to do about anything they like with your miles/account.

Orange County Commuter

No it's not..

Definition of "illegal"

1.contrary to or forbidden by law, especially criminal law

There's no law about goat tending or nested ticketing.

Personally I have done what the OP wants to do and never had an issue. Would I do it every week, no. But once in a lifetime, sure! Delta isn't looking for one time "abuse" just repeated LOL!

xliioper

Apparently, back in the days of TA's, they used to issue "debit memos" against TA's who engaged in hidden city ticketing for their customers. I have not heard of any cases where they have gone after the end customer. Of course, there have been cases of where airlines have taken action for other forms of behavior (sale of miles/upgrade instruments, for example). There's also the famous case involving NW and the Rabbi from MSP.

CJKatl

Once I did have an issue, back in the Leo days, before the bankruptcy. It irked me enough to stop flying DL for a couple years.

I was in Reno for a conference and had purchased a r/t ticket from ATL. While in Reno, my boss had a heart attack. Her husband was flying to Reno on Sat morning, but I stayed an extra day until he got there. DL wanted over $1k to change the ticket, so I told them I was not flying the return and would go to the airport the next day. I went to the airport on Sat with no return ticket, but DL was selling o/w for under $1k. I explained the situation to the agent. She got a manager. He pulled me to the side and explained I could not just buy a ticket, they had to change the original ticket with the change fee and the higher fare.

We were next to the Frontier area. A man was obviously eavesdropping. He motioned me over and said his airline would fly me back to ATL and just get what they could from the original DL ticket. He was head Frontier guy in the airport at the time. The DL manager started yelling at him, and the Frontier manager quietly said, "Do you see where the carpet turns green? That's where what you say doesn't matter."

IME, things are very different now. Front line employees can solve problems, so I don't think anyone would have this problem today, but yes, it happened. DL tried to penalize me for not following the original terms of my ticket.

indufan

I straight copied and pasted the definition from Merriam Webster.

"not sanctioned by official rules"

I agree there are TWO definitions of illegal. There is no law on goaltending. It is, however, illegal in basketball.

drminn

I have been nesting tickets for the past 15 years. I fly to Europe about 4-5 times a year on a fairly predictable schedule. For pretty much all of the 15 years my round trips have been originating in Europe, so any other flight originating here is nested. Never had any issue with that.

xliioper

If your stays in Europe include a Saturday night, then it is not an issue. Simply nesting is not a violation. It's nesting to qualify for lower fares that require a Saturday night stay.