Argh. CO is selling EWR-IAH-NRT-IAH-EWR at $653 and IAH-NRT-IAH at $839. What would happen if I bought the former and got on and off at IAH? Would they try to charge me more or just cancel my OnePass account?

For starters, DON'T check any baggage, as the agent must check it to your final TICKETED destination. Next, be prepared for your return flight to be automatically cancelled when you don't board the IAH-NRT leg; the computer figures that if you don't go to NRT, then you won't be coming back! It does not selectively delete only the IAH-NRT leg, but all remaining legs. If you can think up a good excuse as to HOW you got back to IAH after "going" to NRT and back to IAH again without it showing you as "checked-in", maybe they'll let you on the flight (if you get an agent with a sense of humor AND come up with a REALLY good story)

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- Pat

[This message has been edited by Wiirachay (edited 03-29-2001).]

I believe you are reading the question wrong. He wants to go from IAH to NRT, and skip the EWR to IAH segment. That can be done, but you would need to call CO on the day of travel BEFORE your EWR flight to IAH departs and advise them you are already in Houston and would like to board there. The danger here is that CO could charge you for a new ticket, since you would be changing the routing. If so, you could be out alot of money. I personally would not risk it. Hope this helps?

Of course, you could book an open jaw, save almost $100, and simply not get on the IAH-EWR flight.

Maybe I'm old fashioned..... but......

I thought if you are supposed to begin in EWR, and you don't board in EWR, the entire reservation will be cancelled.

If you call the day before and tell them you're already in Houston, they'll happily reprice the reservation to the higher Houston fare, plus the ~$150 int'l change fee.

I'll at least fly up to EWR and begin from there. The return is more flexible since you can do a IAH stopover, or even just have the connection but claim your luggage in customs and miss the connecting flight. If you do the connection, I'd recommend forcing an overnight (less than 24 hour) connection because missing the IAH-EWR flight the next day would look a little less obvious than missing the 2 hour connection.

If you really don't want to go up to EWR at first, how about doing an open jaw IAH to NRT, NRT to EWR with the IAH overnight connection. You would average the $653 fare and the $839 fare for a $746 fare-- $93 more than starting in EWR but you save the IAH-EWR one way ticket, which would easily cost that much or more. You still save $93 on the Houston roundtrip. As an added bonus, you could fly outbound IAH-EWR-NRT, and get an extra 1450 miles vs. IAH-NRT nonstop.

not worth the risk. besides it is illegal.

Viajero Joven, is right. Old fashioned or not!
The computer will automatically cancel the entire trip when you don't board the first segment. This plan just won't work.

What is "open jaw"? I understood most of the thread until then.

Open jaw means:

A to B, then B to C

or

A to B, then C to A.

The distance of the missing segment has to be less than the distance of the two flown segments. Otherwise, it becomes two one-ways.

cigarman is absolutely correct as well. I know this from PAINFUL experience (it's a little different from what you described but the same result) ... I missed my outbound flight LGA-IAH-CZM, raced over to EWR to fly from there. I did manage to make the original connection IAH-CZM since the EWR flight was just an hour later than the LGA flight. But even though, theoretically, I did take the original connection IAH-CZM (it's just that I didn't depart from LGA), I later found out that since I did not actually depart from LGA, they canceled my return completely! I did not know that this would happen and I had to rebook the day of departure (on an overbooked flight I might add.)

Continental will also cancel your return if an outbound segment is cancelled (that's what happened to me).

I was flying HOU-IAH-DFW, then DFW-IAH. HOU-IAH was cancelled, and they bought me a taxi ride. IAH-DFW went through, but thank goodness I called them (for a different reason). Otherwise, my DFW-IAH seats could have been given away!

JS, thanks for your answer. : ) Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?

JS, thanks for your answer. Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?

JS, thanks for your answer. Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?