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multiple tickets to long haul destanations

multiple tickets to long haul destanations

Old Oct 1, 2007, 4:53 pm
  #1  
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multiple tickets to long haul destanations

Gday everyone,

Im having difficultly finding out if its possible to fly to a destination on multiple tickets issued by multiple carriers and have the whole journey merged somehow. lets say for example I want to fly from Sydney to Belfast and I manage to buy a ticket from Sydney to Singapore (transit stop over) with one airline, Singapore to Frankfurt (transit stop over) with another and Frankfurt to Belfast with another. I make sure that each transit stop over has enough time to get to the next flight. Can I just book these flights with each carrier and got to the airport and request that my bags be forwarded to each flight?

Is this common or am i out of my mind? I am just sick of travel agents and I know i can do a better job than a travel agent.

All comments are welcome.

cheers in advance
2sweetau
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Old Oct 1, 2007, 4:55 pm
  #2  
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oh .. p.s is there a way to tell each airline upfront of my proceeding flight and get it merged into one resevation?? thanks again
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Old Oct 1, 2007, 4:58 pm
  #3  
 
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I have done this in the past and most airlines are usually accommodating with checking baggage straight through, etc.

As you do this try to book airlines in the same alliance (i.e. OneWorld, Star Alliance, etc.). This can reduce headaches if one of your flights is late, etc.

Be warned, however, than even though airlines usually are accommodating, they do not have to.
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Old Oct 1, 2007, 5:13 pm
  #4  
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Originally Posted by AAaLot
I have done this in the past and most airlines are usually accommodating with checking baggage straight through, etc.

As you do this try to book airlines in the same alliance (i.e. OneWorld, Star Alliance, etc.). This can reduce headaches if one of your flights is late, etc.

Be warned, however, than even though airlines usually are accommodating, they do not have to.
hmm.. interesting, i didnt think about how a late flight would be handled by a different carrier. now i am a bit worried and this might be too risky
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Old Oct 2, 2007, 7:22 am
  #5  
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Originally Posted by 2SWEETAU
I’m having difficultly finding out if it’s possible to fly to a destination on multiple tickets issued by multiple carriers and have the whole journey merged somehow. lets say for example I want to fly from Sydney to Belfast and I manage to buy a ticket from Sydney to Singapore (transit stop over) with one airline, Singapore to Frankfurt (transit stop over) with another and Frankfurt to Belfast with another. I make sure that each transit stop over has enough time to get to the next flight. Can I just book these flights with each carrier and got to the airport and request that my bags be forwarded to each flight?

Is this common or am i out of my mind? I am just sick of travel agents and I know i can do a better job than a travel agent.
Quick reply: Call the airline that you will check-in with (the first segment).

Long reply: It depends on something called the "Interline Agreements". These are agreements between carriers that allow pax to send baggage across different airlines. Not all airlines will do this for you, and some will restrict the facility to their alliance and codeshare partners.

For example if you were to go MAN-SKG:

MAN (BA) LGW (4U) ATH (A3) SKG - this can't work, since British Airways don't really interline with anyone outside Oneworld. Moreover, Easyjet are a LCC, very few of which have any sort of interline agreements.

MAN (KL) AMS (OK) PRG (OA) SKG - this will work because KL and OK are Skyteam allies, and OA codeshare with OK on the PRG-SKG segment. In this situation, if your luggage fails to arrive, it's the responsibility of the first carrier on your routing (in this case KLM) to sort it out and compensate if appropriate.
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Old Oct 2, 2007, 8:27 am
  #6  
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Your biggest issue will be if you have any irregular operations. Since they would be separate tickets, the airline is only responsible for getting you to the final destination on that ticket. Not your ultimate destination. Unless you are leaving a great deal of time to connect, it is a risky strategy.

The other issue... as graraps said... is the luggage issue.
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Old Oct 2, 2007, 4:18 pm
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Checking bags through may be the least of your problems if a flight is late and causes a misconnect.

The penalty for cheaper fare and more flexibility with separate tickets, is that potentially you are on your own if you misconnect for any reason.
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Old Oct 2, 2007, 5:54 pm
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Originally Posted by Kiwi Flyer
Checking bags through may be the least of your problems if a flight is late and causes a misconnect.

The penalty for cheaper fare and more flexibility with separate tickets, is that potentially you are on your own if you misconnect for any reason.
i see... so i can see myself lets say getting 2/3's the way on a ticket issued to a major hub and just getting a seperate ticket to do a city hop to the final destanation provided that all involved airliners are within an alliance. otherwise, its just up to me to talk to one airline and negotiate a trip myself.... just a shame cause i can save a small bundel of dollars if i got to each airline indivdual website and book tickets individualy to make up my own trip.... is there any suggestions on booking whole trips without travel agents?? i would just love to book my way and merge all flights into one reservation myself.
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Old Oct 2, 2007, 6:21 pm
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One possibility might be to just take carry-on yourself and ship the rest of your luggage separately to your final destination. This can be expensive, but if you really save a lot of money by buying tickets on separate airlines, you might still come out ahead.

Has anyone actually tried this? Can you pick up the shipped luggage at your final destination airport and take it through customs, and will it be reliably there? Or will this all be too uncertain or too much of a hassle?
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