Creative Ticketing on CO
 

I fly CO every week for work to the same location, but I do what I would call “reverse booking” to lower my airfare. What I am trying to determine, is if this is against CO policy and is considered creative ticketing.

My normal weekly commute has me leaving on Monday morning and flying home Thursday night. My originating airport is A and my weekly destination is B. At the beginning of the project I purchased a one way airfare from a different airline (American) to get me to B. Then I started purchasing my round trip tickets from CO using my originating airport as B leaving on Thursday night for destination A, staying over the weekend, and then catching my return flight back on Monday morning to B. When the project is over, I will purchase one more one way ticket on a different airline to get me back to my actual hometown airport of A.

If I don’t do what I call reverse booking (making my final destination, my originating airport for the duration of my weekly commutes), CO charges $1,092 for the round trip (departing from A Monday and returning from B on Thursday). By doing “reverse booking” my airfare is down to $179.

I want to know if this is considered creative ticketing and if it puts me at risk for penalties if I get caught (loss of FF status, miles, etc)?

No problemo...
 

Also being in the consulting biz, i've done the same thing. Fortunately, in the market i'm in now (AUS-ORD-AUS), a Sat night stay doesn't change my fare.

What you've just described is perfectly legal. As far as CO is concerned, you're just flying "Home" each weekend and returning monday. You were extra cautious to purchase the one ways on a different airline but that also, IMHO, wasn't necessary.

Now the area i think they get uptight with is when your itineraries cross over other itineraries. I.e. Itin 1 is Mon out - Thurs return 1 week later, Itin 2 is Thurs out - Mon return 1 week later. But i've successfully done this also without any problems.

Reversed Ticketing
 

This practice is kina frown upon by the airlines.
When I worked at AA we would run random checks. And if we found that a travel agency was ticketing passenger the company would fine the agency and sometimes delete all the travelers frequent flyer miles. It really up to you lots of people do it (because of the cost savings). But you take the risk on yourself.

But fellow Texan....
 

Except for what I described at the last part of the message (the overlapping itineraries), what is illegal about what MgmntConsult74 did?

The closest thing I could find that would prohibit such ticketing is within CO contract of carriage under prohibited ticket practices.

1) Fares apply for travel only between the points for which they are published. Tickets may not be purchased and used at fare(s) from an initial departure point on the Ticket which is before the Passenger’s actual point of origin of travel, or to a more distant point(s) than the Passenger’s actual destination being traveled even when the purchase and use of such Tickets would produce a lower fare. This practice is known as “Hidden
Cities Ticketing” or “Point Beyond Ticketing” and is prohibited by CO.
2) The purchase and use of round-trip Tickets for the purpose of one-way travel only, known as “Throwaway Ticketing” is prohibited by CO.
3) The use of Flight Coupons from two or more different Tickets issued at round trip fares for the purpose of circumventing applicable tariff rules (such as advance purchase/minimum stay requirements) commonly referred to as “Back-to-Back Ticketing” is prohibited by CO.

I think prohibited practice number three is the closest to what I’m doing, but not quite. I’m not using flight coupons from two or more different tickets. Number one does not apply because I’m traveling to all points for which the ticket is published. Number two does not even apply.

Based on these rules, I’m doing nothing wrong, but I’m still violating the “spirit” of number 3.

I also have to ask, how can they figure out what I’m doing? Since my original and end of project flights are on another airline, they would get no info from analysis of tickets. They only check they could do, is to compare originating cities on your round trip tickets to your home address from your frequent flyer account.

I guess I’m still asking the question, can I be found in violation of creative ticketing rules based on what I’m doing?

No problem
 

Our company (an IT consulting firm) requires this of its employees.

When staffed on an out-of-town project, employees purchase a one-way ticket to their destination, and subsequently purchase round-trip tickets (project site as the origin, "home-town" as the destination) to get the Saturday night stay, and thus a significantly reduces airfare.

On the final trip back, employees purchase a one-way ticket.

This is LEGAL:
Ticket 1 ~$1000:
EWR-SNA Depart 4/19

Ticket 2 ~$300:
SNA-EWR Depart 4/23
EWR-SNA Return 4/26

Ticket 3 ~$1000:
SNA-EWR Return 4/30


This is ILLEGAL:
Ticket 1 ~$300:
EWR-SNA Depart 4/19
SNA-EWR Return 4/30

Ticket 2 ~$300:
SNA-EWR Depart 4/23
EWR-SNA Return 4/26

Mr Goat:....
 

So do you consider your 2nd routing illegal due to criteria #3 stated by 1974 above??

I still think this is an awfully gray area.

As long as I'm hitting every city on every itinerary that I purchase, how can CO complain??

As far as them checking if my flights or originate or terminate in my home city, PLEASE!?!?!?! I'll be happy to have their IT dept analyze this once they get EQM's and CO.com working.

How can it be illegal?
 

What you are doing is going from one place to another and back to one. It does not matter what your home base is and what your purpose is. If you home base is in point A and are going to point B and then returning to Point A, you're flying A-B-A...do it more often and you're flying A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B-A-B and so on...does it really matter what your purpose is? You flew from point A-B like you're supposed to & then are flying point B-A, like you're supposed to. I can see the airline frowning upon that - but your reason for your travel is just that - yours. They should not question your motives. As long as the fares you purchased are within the rules - it does not matter what you spend to get there and back. And your fares are within the rules. Worst case scenario is at the end of your assignment you don't use the last segment to return from A-B on your B-A-B ticket and they get angry about that - but that's unlikely, IMHO.

Nothing illegal at all. You are not doing back to back or throw-away. You purchased a full one way ticket and are doing all the required roundtrip travel.

BTW, it would be perfectly fine to do the first one way on the same carrier.

I agree. The key here is that you are using all flight coupons in order, as purchased.

Steve

Just for clarification, I believe everything MgmtConsult1974 is doing is legal.

I suspect scenario 2 in my previous post is illegal because, in CO's minds, it violates rule 1 posted by MgmtConsult1974.

1) Fares apply for travel only between the points for which they are published. Tickets may not be purchased and used at fare(s) from an initial departure point on the Ticket which is before the Passenger’s actual point of origin of travel, or to a more distant point(s) than the Passenger’s actual destination being traveled even when the purchase and use of such Tickets would produce a lower fare. This practice is known as “Hidden
Cities Ticketing” or “Point Beyond Ticketing” and is prohibited by CO.

To them, there is no difference in that scenario then as the one below:

Ticket 1:
EWR - IAH - 5.30am - 8.28am on 4/19
IAH - EWR - 1.15pm - 5.46pm on 4/20

Ticket 2:
IAH - SNA - 9.15am - 10.54am on 4/19
SNA - IAH - 6.45am - 12.01pm on 4/20

Is it f**ked up? Absolutely. Their stupid rules and exorbatant fares drive people (and organizations) to consider doing things like this.

This is end-on-end ticketing, and it's legal. In fact, if you want to get rid of the ambiguity, put them both on one ticket, it should fare the same.

Although, since it's legal, if it fares the same, might as well split it up and get two (2) online booking bonuses. :D

I don't see the problem here
 

As a consultant, I've done this too - the whole concept of the "Saturday Night Stay" reducing a fare is designed specifically to screw people like us - just like the whole "advance purchase" rules, and "refundable fares".

I don't see a problem with what you are doing at all. It just so happens that your home base is city A, and you are flying to city B each week for business - for all the airlines know - you live in city B, and are flying to city A for the weekends, to visit your wife, pet salamander, whatever...

...it's not their f@#@T^ing business where you are going and what you are doing - you aren't using throwaway tickets, or any other shady practice - so I don't see how they could possibly have claims against you.

But what do I know? :D

Paying the one-way fare is key. As stated, it could have been on the same carrier.

If you had put the very first and very last flight on a long round trip, your weekend trips home would be "nested tickets," and that might be a problem.

And if you want something gray, how about this:
Ticket 1 ~$300:
EWR-SNA Depart 4/12
SNA-EWR Return 4/30

Ticket 2 ~$300:
SNA-EWR Depart 4/23
EWR-SNA Return 4/26

Now you're fulfilling the saturday night stay requirements of both tickets.