Originally Posted by
YVR Cockroach
Seat wholesaling method often used by cruise lines: Get (cheapest) seats from whatever airline they can closer to date of travel. The fare (especially back cabin) may result in no miles, extreme rigidity in rebooking, and no flexibility even in the event of prospective (or even likely) circumstances where airlines offer proactive waivers.
This is why I never buy flights from the tour company/cruise operator. I'm a bit of a control freak. I also like to book overnights en route for very long trips. A few caveats:
1. The tour/cruise company takes no responsibility of you arrive late and have to find some way to join the group after it's left.
2. If you schedule an overnight you WILL have to retrieve and re-check bags, and go through Security again unless you stay in some rare hotel inside the airport; years ago DTW had a hotel with direct airside access but I don't know if they do anymore.
3. Try and do the whole trip on the same airline alliance, preferably the same PNR. That way if you arrive too late to get your connection they'll accept responsibility. If United gets you to London too late to get a BA connection to somewhere else, you're SOL.
I like to do the overnight after the mission-critical transatlantic flight. Most recently I flew from MCI-ORD-LHR, overnighted at LHR and flew to Tirana the next afternoon.