Originally Posted by
sabbasolo
I need to fly MEL to IAH in July, as part of a RTW ticket issued on UA stock. My options are MEL-LAX and then LAX-IAH, but we all know how much fun it is to enter USA and transfer to domestic in LAX.
My wife suggested MEL-SYD on QF domestic, and then UA 100 SYD IAH, which is nice, but a few questions arise:
1) Will I be able to get UA to include a QF domestic sector on the RTW?
2) If I put MEL SYD as a ground sector on the RTW fare, and buy the QF sector as a separate fare - can it still be on the same ticket/PNR? If not on the same PNR, it seems to me that QF won't interline, and then it doesn't work. (Can't use airside transfer and not enough time)
3) If I buy the MEL SYD sector in Y, and the RTW is C/Z, what the baggage allowance on the QF sector?
thanks
1 - Maybe? If you can, you might not like the way it prices out. The RTW fares are pretty liberal in terms of combinations, and allow side trips with no restrictions. The problem is going to be finding a fare to cover MEL-SYD that UA can plate. This might require full Y (around USD$550). Basically, MEL-SYD would have to be counted as an embedded surface sector on the RTW fare and then as a one-way side-trip on the QF fare. And that assumes that you can get UA to sell you the ticket in the first place; they're not always keen to sell random non-*A flights.
2 - I don't see anything in the fare rules that would prohibit it from being on the same ticket, but that doesn't mean UA would sell it that way. Whether or not QF would interline across separate tickets is up to them.
3 - That's a very good question. If I had to guess, I'd expect it to be the Economy allowance for US-Australia travel, as that seems to be the most sensible way to combine the mixed classes of service with the US DOT rule that the luggage allowance has to be the same throughout the journey, but I'd defer to anyone who's actually tried it.