orbitmic

I'm perfectly happy to accept that some AF sales agents do that, but it does not have any bearing on the chances of a future policy change. Enforcement of these rules do not come from sales people, they come from revenue management people. If RM people decide that they want this enforced (at least from a certain level of offending), sales will have no say in it.

To be honest, at this stage I would not want to make any guesses involving 'never' about AF or assuming the constancy of any current AF policy (whether on throw away segment leniency or anything else good or bad): the scope of the restructuring of AF's internal organisation in coming months is simply huge. Everything (and I mean everything) is being reshuffled, with some services that stand to lose a lot and others (such as RM) which stand to most significantly gain importance in 'La Maison AF' as one of the few remaining cross-division units. AF has already broken quite a few of its past 'never's' in recent months (upgrades for sale, a generalised status match campaign, etc) so what remains the same and what changes about pretty much anything over the next 5 years is pretty much anyone's guess.

jsfr

50,000 for ten cheapo segments? I wish!!!

More like 1,750 Miles...

Actually, they would care as I (and dozens of my colleagues with similar travel patterns) would either start to book more expensive flexible tickets or book more often at the last minute - more expensive...

Whilst occasionally throwing away return flights (and booking new ones) is the cheaper option, it is still money going to AF and it is still in line with their Revenue Management Pricing/Availability strategy.

BTW - yesterday I actually paid the modification fee for a return flight rather than throwing it away because that was slightly cheaper than booking a new flight... this time.... so it works both ways depending on how AF has set its pricing on a particular set of flights.

Guy Betsy

I've just realised that I have to change the last leg of my ticket due to a change of plans... I have LHR-x/AMS-HAM-x/AMS-LHR and on the return portion wanted to change to a later flight for AMS-LHR... only to realise that the entire ticket does not permit changes... I was willing to pay the change fees if permitted.

So in this case, I will fly HAM-AMS but have to forgo the last leg (which was to be 6 hours later) and have to buy a seperate oneway on BA in this case. I will only have carry on.

matthilein

I'll be flying TXL-CDG-JFK, LGA-DCA, and then IAD-AMS-TXL in a few weeks. I will travel with checked luggage. On the way back I want to to forgo the AMS-TXL segment (just flying IAD-AMS). Apart from the other implications mentioned in the post and despite IrishGuy's advice to never do this with checked luggage, is it possible to tell check-in at IAD to only check the luggage through to AMS (as opposed to TXL)? I mean, they can usually check luggage through even when traveling on different tickets so couldn't it also work the other way? The ticket is issued with Delta but IAD-AMS-TXL is all KLM. Thanks!

yno

There's very limited chance that they ill accept checking-in the luggage only til AMS...

carnarvon

Are you speaking out of experience in this matter?

irishguy28

I'm speaking from very recent experience!!!

matthilein - you won't be able to do this - unless (which is highly unlikely) you have booked an Amsterdam stopover (i.e. overnight) or layover of 12 hours or more.

I recently travelled on a ticket where I had booked a layover of over 9 hours in Amsterdam on the return. I specifically booked such a long layover to enable me to get my bags back at Schiphol. The Delta agent in New York was totally unwilling to engage with me, despite my pleadings (I'm platinum, it's a whole-day layover, there are Christmas gifts in my checked luggage that cannot travel as cabin luggage and which I need to distribute in the Netherlands, I am not skipping the onward flight [because I was using it to get back home to Ireland for Christmas] - all of which I thought were valid reasons for leniency). They would hear none of it.

I tried again at Schiphol, and the KLM agent was adamant that a fee of €225 would be payable in order for them to intervene in the baggage system and retrieve the luggage at Schiphol.

So, my advice is:
a) do not check baggage if you are not going to take the last flight
b) book a ticket that involves either an overnight stop in Amsterdam, or a stop of at least 12 hours (or a change of airport or a change of mode of travel (ie train) for those routes where this is a valid option).
c) see if you can change your ticket so that the last flight is moved to a different date - preferably to a date when you can actually use it! - though this of course will cost extra (a change fee, plus any difference in fare)
d) be prepared to pay €225 (possibly levied per bag) to get your luggage back at Schiphol.

Of course, you may have the good fortune to meet a sympathetic and/or inexperienced check in agent who will short check your bags for you. However, I really would not count on this. The agents I both spoke to about this seemed to be well informed about the matter. I was polite and friendly and even explaining my (at least in my opinion) good reasons for requesting a short-checking of bags, they really were not prepared to budge.

carnarvon

Morons! Worth suing them.

However, circumventing this rule in order to be able to skip the last leg would be quite easy, since any stop < 24 hours is not considered as a stopover in the fare calculation, so anything between 12 and 24 hours will allow both the fare one wants AND the bag drop in AMS.

irishguy28

Well, it's only easy when you already know that you need to do so!

(I had never seen the "12 hour" rule in writing, and didn't know it was specified - I guess I should have looked beforehand - but I really though an all-day 9 hour layover would be enough to validly request bags to be short-checked).

And it's perhaps not as easy as you initially think to book a ticket with such a long layover. The airlines' own websites tend not to show such long layovers (there are good reasons for doing so, I guess. Most people will not want to miss not just the first, but the second, third, fourth... etc onward flights, and instead book a ticket with an overnight and/or 12-hour layover in Amsterdam). I've noticed (on the BA website at least) that airline websites will often NEVER show options that involve an overnight stop at their hub (unless you force them to do so by using a "Multi City" type booking on different dates).

Using third party websites can make booking such tickets easier, and I did in fact buy that particular ticket on a third party website.

carnarvon

Neither had I.

AF web allows it easily by using multi-destination. Simply create the < 24 hour stop and the price won't change (that is until now )

Xandrios

This is not always the case. For example CDG-ATH-AMS-CDG (where I arrange a separate feeder to CDG, and do not fly the last AMS-CDG segment) it is not possible to move the flight to CDG to the next day. At least the heavy discounted fares will not allow to do so.

matthilein

Thanks everyone. I will take my chance at IAD and see what will happen. If they don't check it to AMS, I might just give to my partner who will be traveling to another destination. Will let you know whether it worked.

irishguy28

Yes, please do come back and let us know what happens when you take the trip.

And good luck!

Derbex

They may write what they want in their conditions and you may accept everything but there's no way they can charge you for not having flown a flight, this is just ridiculus.

Tell me, if in one close there was written "the passenger who does not fly the 2nd leg will be killed" and you accept the terms, would they be allowed to kill you? hahahah

yno

make a search in the forum, it has happened a few times. Apparently not yet on Af/klm though, but BA and Lufthansa.