Originally Posted by
corporate-wage-slave
Thanks very much for that update, it's quite an important development.
Having only had one cup of coffee this morning I'm trying to work out the downsides to this approach of having a 2--4-1 split over two single bookings, which I suspect are quite small, but could it theoretically lead to paying more carrier surcharges? . The other downside would be if the trip had to be cancelled altogether then there would be 2 lots of cancellation / redeposit fees. Against that it would be easier to manipulate one of the bookings for changes and leave the other one untouched. Open jaw? I guess you have to be careful on zone selection?
I was pleasantly surprised to be able to do this a couple of months ago - I'd booked a 241 LHR-SCL, missed the return phoning up, but then booked GRU-LHR online when availability suddenly appeared later on in the day. I phoned up expecting to have to cancel and rebook the return as part of the 241 (there was spare availability), but they just refunded half of the Avios. There's no obvious sign that it's a 241 booking in MMB.
I added up the TFC and I think it's about £50 each more for two singles vs a return - there was no adjustment of those. I was happy just to accept what I had.
Not sure what will happen if I want to change the return to SCL-LHR if availability turns up, given the different zones.
Edit: I was slightly surprised to have to pay a surcharge on flights from GRU - I thought Brazil had banned then the same as Hong Kong?