FlyerTalk Forums - View Single Post - Back - to - Back using different airlines
Old Jan 11, 2002 | 7:57 am
  #14  
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No, this is back-to back. Here are some examples to clear things up (I hope):

Example A - Back to Back:

Ticket #1 (1/1 is not a Saturday)

1/1 XXX-YYY
1/9 YYY-XXX

Ticket #2

1/2 YYY-XXX
1/8 XXX-YYY

This allows you to make two 1-day-stay trips at the 7-day-stay fare. Most airlines' contracts of carriage prohibit this unless there are no minimum stay requirements.

Example B - Nested Tickets:

Ticket #1

1/1 XXX-YYY
1/8 YYY-XXX

Ticket #2

1/1 YYY-ZZZ
1/8 ZZZ-YYY

This allows one to travel from XXX-ZZZ with a stopover or just a plane change in YYY. This would be used if the XXX-YYY fare + the YYY-ZZZ fare is less than the XXX-ZZZ fare and the traveler could spare the extra travel time. Nested tickets are almost always permitted by all airlines.

Example C - Throwaway Ticketing:

Ticket #1 (1/1 is not a Saturday)

1/1 XXX-YYY
1/9 YYY-XXX

Ticket #2

1/2 YYY-XXX
1/8 XXX-YYY

Similar to back-to back but this time the traveler desires to take only 1 trip and avoid a Sat night stay. (S)he flies the XXX-YYY part of Ticket #1, the YYY-XXX part of Ticket #2 and simply throws away the unused part of each ticket. This plan would be used when the sum of the two tickets with Sat-night stays is less than the 1-day-stay XXX-YYY ticket. Throwaway ticketing is prohibited by most airlines' contracts of carriage.

Hope this clears things up!

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by outoftown:
Technically the scenario described is "nested tickets". As long as all segments are used, this is legal and ethical. Back-to-back usually means the second portion of each ticket is tossed. Airlines consider back-to-back against their rules. I have done nested tickets with DL and and other airlines several times and never had problems. I have done it for personal and business travel using my corporate travel agent and also for segment runs. Besides the problem claiming mileage on the same account with NW and CO, you have to watch getting invol bumped to the other airline. This happened once to me with CO and AA nested tickets.</font>
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