A Full AND Complete "Buffet Serving" of The Big Apple...err "The Apple DO"...plus a "forced layover" as my selected side dish (for dessert).

Tvl4free traipsed off to NYC this
past weekend to do "The DO".

While still in the trip planning stage, I decided to really make "a weekend of it" - and "just for the fun of it" - to hone and practice my FT rules and booking skills - and in the process, to maximize the 10 segments which could be harvested on "the DO" trip, in exchange a whooping $ 4.75 round trip airfare "out-of-pocket" investment.

In preparing what was to be "just a trip report", I discovered that perhaps there's a rule lesson which could be reviewed here... a topic which has been previously mentioned... but I don't recall an actual example having been presented. So I give you now another chapter for "The Primer"... a "newbie" Lesson in "forced layovers" so to speak, which has been combined with the trip report. Humm, where should this report be properly posted...the Buzz since it's a lesson, or Trip reports...maybe General Travel Talk...??? With your indulgence, I'll take a stab at one of these... I still have a few minutes B/4 I decide.

Although lengthy, perhaps there's food for thought here that someone might find useful...I do hope you enjoy... and perhaps we all can learn something along the way! It's time we all talk TRAVEL, once again!

Tvl4free considered fares in the ABQ-NYC market to be excessive for a non-business, leisure type event. Two tkts were pricing at just over $600 apiece. Therefore, I decided to take advantage of the Southwest effect and booked two RTs ABQ-PVD for $ 254.00 per person. This $254 could have been discounted even further with a UA 15% discount coupon to $220 and change, including tax. Instead, I elected to apply a Customer Service voucher of $250 per tkt. These vouchers were the result of United's generosity from the four "Crazy Fare" tkts I had purchased to Paris. Total out-of-pocket cost, $ 4.75 - nine dollars and change for the two. Unfortunately, using both the discount and the voucher could not be accomplished. Tvl4free whispered, "bummer, oh well!" - and so I did not entirely live up to the lofty ambition that my moniker implies! OK...so I'm hearing you cry, "fowl!". Anyway, four seventy-five is almost free. So get over it! But the best news is that according to the CS voucher, full MP credit will be due.

The $ 254.00 fare that I purchased allowed four connections in each direction - and a potential of 10 total allowable segments to be havested. You will note that this is the maximum allowable on UA's domestic fares. However, in order to accomplish 5 segs on the way up to PVD, I would have had to depart very early in the day. Since I had some early morning work to do, I decided to build in a "forced layover" into my itinerary.

Tvl4free thinks that forced layovers are a good thing for FTers to know about!

Previously, I've been somewhat admonished on this board for "pushing the envelope" in terms of harvesting the maximum number of segments permissible under any given fare. Well, my official response to that is now well developed... If two of us visit an "all you can eat" fixed price buffet and you chose to visit only the salad bar, and I have the entre and dessert bar as well... would you owe any less than me? Does tvl4free owe any more than you? I simply partook of all that was permited and offered for the fare. Nothing more, and sometimes I eat less! Sometimes airlines offer me nothing to eat at all, and I pay full Y fares. (Surely there must have been a sometime...???).

Here was my itinerary, which has been altered slightly to protect the guilty and to avoid the potential "hanky panky" that is now being reported in other threads:

1 UA1124W 21MAR ABQDEN 133P 250P/O
2 UA 450W 21MAR DENDFW 345P 632P/X
3 UA1562W 21MAR DFWORD 720P 930P/X
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4 UA 160W 22MAR ORDIAD 600A 849A/X

5UA7636W 22MAR IADPVD 105P 230P/X
6UA7633W 28MAR PVDIAD 630A 800A/O
7 UA 881W 28MAR IADORD 940A 1043A/X
8 UA1707W 28MAR ORDDFW 1158A 230P/X
9 UA1183W 28MAR DFWDEN 410P 511P/X
10 UA 781W 28MAR DENABQ 550P 702P/X

(I purchased a "thru fare" from ABQ to PVD. No stopovers were allowed on this fare. Note that the X after segment 4 indicates that ORD was a connection).

In essence, "forced layovers" permit a "free stopover" when none are allowed on the rules on the fare. "Forced layovers" are most useful for late in the evening business meetings or better yet, for late nite dinners with friends and/or FT gatherings at intermediate cities. Also it can save one "a chunk of change" - and avoid a much higher "broken stopover fare" - if one knows how to use the rules to one's advantage.

Most folks think that one must depart a connecting point within four hours. However, this is not necessarily the case. From UA's Contract of Carriage, I give you the domestic stopover Rule:

A stopover, as used herein, will occur when a pgr arrives at an intermediate or junction transfer point on a flight of any carrier, and fails to depart from such an intermediate or junctiion transfer point on:
[i]
1). The first flight on which space is available; or,
2). The flight that will provide the psgr's earliest arrival at intermediate or transfer points or destination point...

To arrange a forced layover, one simply has to arrive at "the desired" connecting city (the "forced layover" point) so that there are NO MORE flights out to the destination which MEET THE MINIMUM ALLOWABLE CONNECTING TIME (MCT) AND/OR THE NEXT AVAILABLE FLIGHT RULE. In other words, there have to be no more "available" flights out to the destination OR IF THERE IS A FLIGHT OUT, it must NOT meet the MCT required OR it must NOT be "available". To further expand on this rule (just for those who are technical buffs like me) there CAN actually BE another flight out. However, it must NOT be "available" (ie. the class of service that you need is NOT available on any remaining flts out, they're fully booked IN the COS that you will be using, "W" for example. Note that this does NOT mean that the flight is totally zeroed out), so you would be allowed to skip that flight, since the rule states that one must take THE NEXT AVAILABLE flight. In short, just think of it as "there are no more flights out" that evening - but it can be a little more than that - as was described above. In theory then, one could take a morning flight out to say NYC with a cxn in ORD. Once arriving in ORD, if the flights are fully booked for the COS that you need, you could layover there virtually forever, exceeding the four hour stopover rule, until the COS that you need is available. This would be the next "available" flight. But in general, a "forced layover" will require a departure from the originating city late in the day so that the last flight out to the destination is missed in the connecting city.

I wasn't going to, and I am confident that I am going to regret it, but you know that I'm gonna anyway, open a can of worms, that is! Note that the COC states that one MUST take the next available flight when passing thru a connecting city. It does NOT state that one may arbitrarily layover in a connection city for UP TO 4 hours. Therefore, if one arrives at 12 noon and there is an available flight out at 1PM, one MUST technically take the 1PM departure, and not the 3:59PM departure, for example. Some airlines (sometimes) strictly enforce this rule (CO & TW), while others don't (UA). If one is building an itinerary segment by segment online, as long as the connection is within four hours the itinerary will price, and so I wouldn't worry about it all that much. OK! OK! I know! I know! Just remember, I am not the message, just the messenger!

Next edition:

About my Flights
Personalities at The DO
Frequent Flyers Anonymous