dcflyer10

I would like to go to Tokyo from Washington DC, but via Seattle. Not only do I get to see a new city but I can reduce the time of the long US-Asia segment to from the East Coast which I do not fancy. Seattle has the shortest flying time to Asia from the US. The issue is that the multi-city routing I have tried are all 1000 - 2000 more expensive than a simple round trip either non-stop, or through NYC, SFO, DFW, etc

Ie, --WAS - SEA, (stay 2 nights), SEA-NRT (stay 7 nights), NRT - SEA (stay overnight), SEA-WAS.

What is the alternative due to cost?

Is it allowed to book separate round trips that are nested to get the price down?

I.e, book a round trip to Seattle from Washington, and a seperate round trip from Seattle to Tokyo? Is that against the rules?

For example, I book a cheap round trip flight to seattle when I see a good deal on both segments. Then I book a flight from Seattle to Tokyo within those travel dates leaving time for a stop-over in seattle in both directions. I have flexibility regarding dates.

Is this kosher?? It would probably be with United and ANA, that would be the easiest from DC.

If this isn't allowed, what other alternatives are there to get a more reasonable fare on a multi-city trip with stop-overs in the NW USA?

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"what other alternatives are there to get a more reasonable fare on a multi-city trip with stop-overs in the NW USA?"

Use miles -- in programs that permit a stopover on roundtrip awards.

irishguy28

And I only just read a post, in a different thread a few minutes ago, from a poster saying that they never catch flights to Asia from the West Coast because the short flight times don't allow enough time for sleeping.

I guess everyone has their own preferences!!!

84fiero

Yes.

If you're worried about keeping the TPAC leg flight time down specifically, vice wanting to see Seattle in particular, flight time from SFO isn't appreciably different from SEA. LAX and SAN are only slightly longer.


I'd be in the same camp wanting slightly longer time on such a route. Or even TATL, ~6 hours on the overnight eastbound flight doesn't let me really sleep at all. I'd prefer a longer nonstop than a connecting flight, with messing around making the connection, chance for a mis-connect, and usually longer overall travel time.

Different strokes...

sdsearch

Yes, just definitely make sure you leave enough time at the stopover.

I don't recommend doing this, however, if you're not going to stop over in both directions.

Here's the problem you need to aware of (which is avoided by stopping over in both directions): If you book a flight all the way through (Washington-Seattle-Tokyo, Tokyo-Seattle-Washington) on one ticket, you are "protected", in that the airline that flew you Washington-Seattle has the responsibility to get you to Tokyo, even fi flight from Washington arrived in Seattle so late that you miss your connection to Tokyo.

But if you book your Washington-Seattle flight and Seattle-Tokyo flight separately with not long enough of a stopover, and the first flight is late, and as a result you miss the second flight, you're out of luck (neither whoever flew you Washington-Seattle nor whoever was going to fly you lSeattle-Tokyo has any responsibility for dealing with effects of the Washington-Seattle flight being late, because according to your Washington-Seattle ticket you were not flying any further than Seattle, and according to your Seattle-Tokyo ticket you were not coming from outside the Seattle area.


So only if you stop over long enough in Seattle in both directions to deal with any possible delays on your flight arriving into Seattle in each direction, does your plan sound "safe".

CDKing

If it's bookable as 2 separate tickets, a good travel agent should be able to get them on one ticket for a similar price.


If OP were to skip UA & NH and use AA + a Oneworld carrier on muiltiple tickets it would not be an issue. AA has a policy that you are treated as if its the same ticket.

http://www.aa.com/i18n/agency/Bookin...tkt_policy.jsp

aBroadAbroad

This.

That said, you might want to consider YVR, too. It's about 15-20 min shorter than SEA if I recall correctly.

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

sdsearch

And thanks to coming to us for suggestions, instead of simply suing the airline , as someone else who noticed some similar nonstop-vs-multicity priciing differences at another airline did:

Lawsuit Calls Delta’s Best Fare Guarantee “Fraudulent”

farbster

In my opinion, if you want to go to Japan, go to Japan. If you want to go to the Pacific Northwest, go there.

I'd go for the longer flight out of IAD that is non-stop. Spend more time in Japan or Asia.

sdsearch

Though with the specifcs you said it'll still work, in general it's all changing in a few days:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...e-tickets.html (in the AA-US consolidated forum)

CDKing

According to the referenced thread, AA to AA, US and Oneworld is still an exception to the new rule.

MSPeconomist

Some TPAC fares (not the very cheapest) allow one free stopover. For two stopovers, I'd do two different tickets since SEA-WAS is surely less than $1000-2000 RT.