koppelman

November 2003 was the last time I remember only a Saturday night stay required for the most economical fares to Asia. At that time, there appeared to be a major policy shift in restrictions for Asian leisure fares.

It always seemed inconsistent to me why the airlines only require a Saturday night stay to be eligible for the most economical fares from US to Europe, while they require a 6 day minimum for the most economical fares from US to Asia.

koppelman

merlin

This is a long-standing fare, with a 3 day minimum stay.
-WXPRO10/WWPRO10 fare basis.
-Curiously, AA and NW have the same price, but 6 day min. stay

kb1992

UA does not serve CAN.

ORD-CAN involves Air China code share and the fares are at least $1100 or more.

lotalota

From these comments I am assuming that (1) There sometimes are 3 day mins on NWA/Skyteam flights to Asia, but not right now, and (2) Prior to 11/03 there were affordable quick turns to Asia on NW/Skyteam but no longer.

Yes, if I find one I will definitely post it. And thanks much for all the help and interesting discussion.

merlin

Sorry, I never tried to price an itinerary using this particular fare. Of course you are right that it is not bookable.

I realize UA doesn't fly to CAN...yet However, the published routing which allows travel HKG-YY-CAN, takes that into account and that's why I mentioned the fare. For mileage run purposes, one would get UA flights as far as HKG for $558+tax.

But after more careful checking, it seem that the Flight Application part of the Fare Rules require travel on UA1-UA1699 within Region 3, which effectively renders this fare useless. Maybe some political motivation on UA's part(what a great benefit to the public it would have been if the DOT awarded SFO-CAN to UA), or just an oversight?

If the Flight Application limitation is just a mistake, then by bringing it to the attention of the Rate Desk one might have some success....who knows.

ycc777

One thing I found is that some Asian airlines don't have minimum stay requirement for US-Asia flights. One example is Delta's partner - China Airlines. However, you don't get MQM and certainly get nothing on NW WP. My guess is that you can fly to west coast cities that KE serves to, such as SEA, LAX, and SFO, and take their flights to Asia. I did try to find their fare rule but the rule only indicates max stay. Worth some further investigation if that's what you want.

lotalota

Interesting idea, which hopefully will be fruitful for someone else. My main goal is a straight MR for WP EQMs. A SIN MR is often talked about on this board, and it's something I'd like to add to the list of things I've done.

thefareguru

Call your travel agent [I am one.] and ask for CONSOLIDATOR fares on Air Canada to cities served by AC like HKG, NRT, KIX, BJS, PVG, etc.?

In addition, they are priced at less than published fares. I was checking these out for doing a MR myself and can tell you that they were there all of 2006. Because of scheduling, I found that for HKG that you will have to spend one night there and fly out the next day - and prices in HKG are not for believing, that is, ultra-high.

These are eligible for accumulation on Mileage Plus AFAIK.

3timesalady

Steve, are you suggesting doing a run from say, NYC-SIN on skyteam, leaving on a Friday and coming back the following Sunday (Day 1 and Day 10), with a second run scheduled from SIN-NYC on oneworld, leaving on Sunday and returning on Friday (Day 3 and Day 8), so that you would -- in theory -- be able to work during the week without taking time off?

That's pretty clever, albeit intense! If your city pairs differed (e.g., SIN-CHI nested inside NYC-SIN), you should be able to do this on the same alliance, right?

I'll re-ask the question -- has anyone ever done this??

tazan007

I haven't but it is perfectly legal since the "tariff rules" would not apply across different airlines. I stilll call it BS that they crack down on back to back ticketing, since I can easily take another airline back, their lose. The only problem being finding a decent price on the SIN-CHI (or SIN-NYC) ticket. Anyone know if the consolidator fares from Asia to US earn miles and where I can find them online?

kb1992

Is this legal, both tickets are on UA?

Ticket 1.

1/1 BOS-PVG
3/1 PVG-BOS

Ticket 2.

1/3 HKG-BOS
2/25 BOS-HKG

ja_user

Why don't you just make ticket two, PVG to PVD? This way you aren't returning to BOS, your end-to-ending to providence.

tazan007

I guess it depends on United. Since it is not a strict A to B and B to A scenario, you might be able to get away with it. However, if they hassle you at the airport, you could always say your only other option was to take another airline, see what they say. But technically, you are still using the tickets out of order so not sure if they even look for this with differing airport codes. Probably easy to spot though.

kb1992

I know... changing BOS to PVD in ticket 2 won't affact fare much, if any.

But it's going to cost me $$ to get back from PVD airport to home.

From BOS, the Logan Express is handy and affordable for $10. :-:

kb1992

Good tactic.. see what UA can say if I claim that my only other option is to fly NW.

Seriously, if I change the ticket 2 as follows

HKG-PVD
PVD/BOS-HKG

then the end-to-end rule is no longer violated right?