Throw Away Ticketing on Awards
Mar 10, 2018, 5:58 am
#5
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Mar 10, 2018, 9:14 am
#7
formerly known as felinaar
Join Date: Jan 2010
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I agree with others. It’s not clear why you would book but not fly the last segment. It’s either the same price or cheaper to just not book it (or cancel the last segment and keep the rest).
But it if you insist, probably nothing will happen. Make sure you don’t check any bags because they will go to the original destination
But it if you insist, probably nothing will happen. Make sure you don’t check any bags because they will go to the original destination
Mar 10, 2018, 10:32 am
#8
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There are reasons, but with pretty much every award now available as one way that includes a stopover, they would probably be quite limited. (Are there any partners remaining that require RT travel - or that OW prices as RT if you just want OW?)
AS awards generally permit either an open jaw OR a stopover. I will provide a sort of real life example of a reason to throw away a final segment. This is when AS had one flight a day SFO/LAX quite some time ago, and OW partner awards weren't a thing.
Partner award SFO (AS) LAX (YY) AAA - stopover (YY) BBB - final destination (YY) LAX (AS) SFO. (YY is generic airline and AAA BBB are generic airports).
Even if one didn't want the final LAX/SFO segment on AS, it was considered an open jaw by not returning to SFO and even though the partner award was a full RT (with a stopover). With AS' one flight a day, the return required a 14 hour or so connection @ LAX on the return. Or, one could just purchase a LAX/SFO and get home 10+ hours earlier.
So, if you wanted the outbound SFO/LAX (because the timing was good), you had to ticket the return LAX/SFO, even if you didn't care to have it, and even though AS could have sold the seat to someone else.
AS awards generally permit either an open jaw OR a stopover. I will provide a sort of real life example of a reason to throw away a final segment. This is when AS had one flight a day SFO/LAX quite some time ago, and OW partner awards weren't a thing.
Partner award SFO (AS) LAX (YY) AAA - stopover (YY) BBB - final destination (YY) LAX (AS) SFO. (YY is generic airline and AAA BBB are generic airports).
Even if one didn't want the final LAX/SFO segment on AS, it was considered an open jaw by not returning to SFO and even though the partner award was a full RT (with a stopover). With AS' one flight a day, the return required a 14 hour or so connection @ LAX on the return. Or, one could just purchase a LAX/SFO and get home 10+ hours earlier.
So, if you wanted the outbound SFO/LAX (because the timing was good), you had to ticket the return LAX/SFO, even if you didn't care to have it, and even though AS could have sold the seat to someone else.
Mar 10, 2018, 5:16 pm
#12
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
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Posts: 3,215
No checked bags, obviously. I’m just wondering if there are any rules prohibiting throwaway ticketing on the last segment of awards. That’s it.
There are lots of reasons people would get off early on different awards. I will give one example, though this isn’t the reason I’m asking. Cathay 888 from HKG-YVR-JFK is sometimes available HKG-JFK but not booked as HKG-YVR, and if I wanted to get off in Vancouver, as an example.
Last edited by NWplatinum; Mar 10, 2018 at 5:35 pm
Mar 10, 2018, 5:53 pm
#13
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The way AS prices it's own award tickets....there are quite a few times you may want to book an award flight and drop the last segment if you're looking at using fewer miles. For example, I recently wanted to fly DEN-SEA-PDX (one-way) and it priced out at 7.5K miles but if I added a PDX-BOI segment after a "stopover" in PDX a few months later, my trip priced out to 5K. It would save you 2.5K miles just to drop the last segment although in my case, I wanted to go to BOI so I'm not going to drop it and to be honest, even if I didn't want to fly the last segment, I'd probably find a reason to go just because I can't stand to let a plane ticket go to waste, but I'm just saying that there are times when it makes sense to drop the last segment.
Mar 10, 2018, 6:22 pm
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: Seattle
Programs: AS MVP100K, Hilton Diamond, IHG Gold
Posts: 3,215
The way AS prices it's own award tickets....there are quite a few times you may want to book an award flight and drop the last segment if you're looking at using fewer miles. For example, I recently wanted to fly DEN-SEA-PDX (one-way) and it priced out at 7.5K miles but if I added a PDX-BOI segment after a "stopover" in PDX a few months later, my trip priced out to 5K. It would save you 2.5K miles just to drop the last segment although in my case, I wanted to go to BOI so I'm not going to drop it and to be honest, even if I didn't want to fly the last segment, I'd probably find a reason to go just because I can't stand to let a plane ticket go to waste, but I'm just saying that there are times when it makes sense to drop the last segment.
Mar 10, 2018, 6:34 pm
#15
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