circky

Never knew this existed....but was it always possible for a flight award to only be available when the intended destination only shows up when it is part of a layover to a different destination? Based on what I've learned over the years, I always thought it was best practice to confirm availability of flights searching segment by segment.

The specific example I'm experiencing: I want 2 JFK-IST in business on TK. Only 1 seat shows up as available and Expertflyer confirms this. When I search for 2 JFK-ZRH in business on TK, it routes me to JFK-IST-ZRH and it lets me process payment on the site, so it's not phantom stock. Again, Expertflyer confirms 2 seats are available as well.

Anyone know if a phone agent would be able to book me the JFK-IST portion for two? I'd call Aeroplan in the morning to find out myself, but won't have time to make a call until later in the day.

asovse1

I'm new to this as well, so maybe someone more knowledgeable can chime in. I believe it's called "married segment logic". I believe it's up to the carrier issuing the seats which determines this logic so Aeroplan agent might not be able to fix it (but would be able to see both the single seat in the first scenario and both seats in the second scenario).

Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I don't know of any workarounds (but would love to hear of any since I'm struggling with my own married segment logic routing for a CX redemption)

CanadaDH

I've seen the same thing on previous reward tickets with TK many times. I had always assumed that married segments only applied to revenue tickets, but for the past few years, have been noticing it on reward tickets. Of course, it could very well have always been this way, and I only just noticed it in recent years. I was finding that YYZ-IST (and IST-YYZ) was frequently only available when continuing onward. Now, each of my cases, I was continuing on somewhere else, and IST was not my final destination. So, it worked out, but it totally changed how I search for rewards, and I have to do more than just search segment by segment. I don't know what would happen if you booked the 2 segment flight and then tried to call to change the ticket and drop the last segment. Now that we can cancel an Aeroplan booking for free within 24 hours, it might be worth trying.

asovse1

Not sure if anyone wants to experiment this with Aeroplan agents now that changes and cancellations are more lenient, but some traveller with BA married two one-way married segments in CX, then called in to merge them by cancelling the extra legs

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31345524-post85.html

canadiancow

I can pretty much guarantee that will work. You don't need space to cancel a segment. You just cancel it.

However, it means you need to adhere to routing rules, so you may not be able to do everything at once.