mattyw

Kayak are selling what appears to be a DUB-JFK via LHR fare with an LCY-DUB tacked onto the front. The return is JFK-LHR via DUB.

Anyone seen this before? Similar flights/times starting from DUB pricing at about £1200 so a £250 premium for the LCY-DUB but £1,000 less than direct from LHR

lorcancoyle

Interesting, would alleviate any misconnect concerns for some here (though also preclude back to backs given MCT constraint I presume)

TheFrankFlyer

However, the question is with any hacker fare, are the flights to DUB from LCY booked on the same PNR. If not, a missed connection is still the responsibility of the traveller......

MPH1980

Based on my knowledge of kayak - it depends on the composition of the fare. It's highly likely that what you're booking is:

LCY-DUB-LCY via BA
DUB-LHR-JFK-DUB via American

Which means you're not on the same PNR.

Ldnn1

No, Kayak is simply selling two separate tickets here, hence why they call it a 'hacker fare'. They do the same in showing itineraries involving for example an easyJet flight connecting to a Ryanair flight. There is no additional protection; it simply allows you to compare DIY prices directly against standard fares.

Very interesting that it's showing a oneworld ex-EU one though; I've never seen that before.

MPH1980

I've been trying to replicate - but a selection of random inbound dates didn't show the same fare.

Sam Bee

There is no reason why they wouldn't book this on one PNR, it's the same as if you got your Travel Agent to book it, and yes it simply is a LCY-DUB return with DUB-NYC nestled inside it.

One ticket would be issued on AA, one on BA, so it would still be two tickets though, but with more security as both airlines can see all segments, issue boarding passes etc.

But it could still of course cause problems if BA or AA wanted to cause you problems as we have seen.

If Kayak was clever it would rebook the LCY-DUB-LCY in Y and save you another £150.

I'd say it's fine for a one off, but I suspect we're on the cusp of someone being smacked down for booking something like this!

MPH1980

Except for the fact that Kayak doesn't book anything - it's an aggregator - once you choose the fare - it shows you who you have to click through to book on.

mattyw

I closed the page and now can't find the 'Hacker Fare' for the same search so I don't know how in practice this fare is booked. Can anyone enlighten us?

HIDDY

Yes that seems to be how it works. The fare I tried to book sent me to two different companies I'd never heard of.
Not for the faint hearted.

Sam Bee

Oh - I had no idea having never used Kayak. So it has cobbled together two different bookings from two different OTA's and taken into account MCT? Clever technology if that's the case.

I can replicate the fare on a GDS, give or take £30. Get a travel agent to book it, use the excuse you're travelling to escort your elderly mother who lives in Dublin to America and back if questioned, and she's already booked those DUB-JFK flights!

In isolation, I couldn't anticipate this being an issue.

Often1

First, Kayak doesn't sell anything. If you find something you like on Kayak, you then need to go elsewhere to buy it. That could be anywhere from an air carrier's phone center or website, to a TA, an OTA or whatever. But, Kayak sells nothing.

Second, PNRs themselves mean nothing other than administrative convenience. It is tickets that matter and it is a common mistake on FT to interchange the terms PNR's and tickets. One PNR may contain multiple tickets and this one most likely would, if booked and sold as Kayak initially displayed. OTA's and aggregators often use the single PNR to disguise multiple tickets to the ultimate disadvantage of the consumer who reasonably believed that in IRROPS he would be protected, only to find that he was not and some series of downstream tickets were cancelled.

Bear in mind that there is nothing wrong with so-called xEU ticketing. E.g., routing oneself, LON-DUB-LON-USA-LON-DUB-LON on two tickets. The first LON-DUB-LON with a DUB-LON-USA-LON-DUB.

This only becomes problematic as hidden city fraud when passengers purchase a single LON-DUB at origin and no show for the final LON-DUB. The various and sundry BA crack downs all laid bare in excrutiating detail and not bearing comment here.

Accordingly, what OP posits in the first place isn't even a "hacker" fare, simply a good deal to be had.

nux

'Hacker Fare' is a Kayak.com term where two separate tickets are shown for one itinerary, usually for a lower price than a single ticket.

NickB

"Hacker fares" on kayak means simply that the total cost is arrived at by making different bookings. No single PNR or anything of that kind. Just a plain vanilla process of making separate bookings, with the risk that this implies for the passenger.

I must admit that this is a new one to me. the so-called "hacker fares" I usually encounter on kayak are simple one way with one airline and return with another on a separate booking (as in, for instance, LGW-NCE one way with BA and NCE-LGW one-way with U2). The suggestion of a "hacker fare" involving a connection between flights on separate tickets is not something I have come across yet and which rings the usual alarm bells for separately booked flights.

Calchas

Really? I am surprised IATA or the airlines allow this