FC flyer

So what I am understanding is that we break the rules all the time. Live 2 weeks per month in MSP, two weeks per month in PHX. Often when in one city, something comes up in the other and we have to fly back. So in the middle of a MSP-PHX ticket, we fly PHX-MSP and back on a seperate ticket, purchased later and last minute. Illegal? Never heard a word from Delta that we can't do this when it takes our money for the flight.

gator21

I've done aaa->bbb ticket #1
bbb->aaa ticket #2
aaa->bbb ticket #2
bbb->aaa ticket #1
before with no issues. In fact sometimes there is a ticket #3, 4, 5, 6 before the return of #1 is used.

I'm currently on a aaa->bbb ticket #1
aaa->bbb ticket #2
bbb->aaa ticket #2
bbb->aaa ticket #1
because I drove bbb->aaa after ticket #1 and aaa->bbb before using the return on ticket #1.

Sometimes the best thing to do is "just do it" and play dumb later.

baccarat0809

While I believe that RPU still exists, I don't think they have as large of a presence as they used to.

mfdesquire

Tiki, you got the wrong answer from the DL rep. There is nothing at all against the rules with what you want to do. As others have posted, so-called "back-to-back ticketing" is technically against the rules, and if you do it consistently, you may get a slap on the wrist and possibly be asked to pay the higher fares. I think the agent may have thought you were making a RT back to your city of origin within your trip -- that would be a problem.

When you need ticket #2, just go to delta.com and book it. You'll have no issues. I've done this sort of thing several times.

monkeshine

I can't imagine you will have any problem as long as you don't try to travel on a different ticket than you booked.

SEA to ATL Ticket 1 Leaves on date before all below .
ATL to XXX Ticket 2 Leaves after above and before all below
XXX to ATL Ticket 2 Returns before below
ATL to SEA Ticket 1 Returns after all above.

Should be OK as long as XXX is not SEA.
I've done this many times, including with international eg first LAX to JFK, then separate ticket JFK-Canada-JFK, then return JFK-LAX after coming back from Canada.
Like said above they just don't want you to try to violate Sat night stay rules by booking 2 tickets each with a sat stayover, then using the return of ticket 2 to go home on ticket 1, and then go back on ticket 2 and return on ticket 1.

tikiboy

Sounds like a good idea. I don't see savings when buy a round-trip these days.

discstickers

I want to fly SEA-PHL-DUB-SEA, with a couple of days between PHL and DUB.

I was thinking of buying SEA-PHL-SEA (or JFK), then booking a reward ticket JFK-DUB-JFK. Is that a nested ticket?

MSPeconomist

You do realize that domestic connections can be added to award tickets at no additional cost in miles provided that the same type (low, medium, high) of inventory is available. You are also allowed one stopover and one open jaw on an award ticket.

You could fly SEA-PHL open jaw/train to NYC JFK-DUB destination DUB-SEA or SEA-JFK stopover JFK-DUB destination DUB-SEA.

HongKonger

MSPeconomist is right, but to answer OP's question, it's not a nested ticket.

tmontemb

Hey all - Struggling to get a full grasp of the nested ticket concept after some brief searching. Also as I am already underway this may or may not fall under the idea of a nested ticket so here I am.

The situation - I have already completed my outbound : USA-USA-AMS-BLL. I have a return coming up BLL-AMS-USA-USA 28 September. Due to late Friday meetings I have been asked to push my return until 29 September, however this is pricing out at 15000 DKK (>2500 USD) to change.

I have another trip coming up 7 Oct - 12 Oct USA-BLL, BLL-USA.

The solution at a bit of a price savings and thus approved by my employer:

Book a round trip ticket ex: Denmark for 29 September DK-USA. Book the return portion for 7 October, USA-DK.

Change my current ticket that is Sept. 28 to October 12.

Is this nested / violating Delta's rules?

FWIW last summer during my internship I had originally booked a Delta multi-city USA-Denmark (May departure), Rome-USA return (August return).

Shortly thereafter it was decided that I would not spend 3 months straight in Denmark (after I completed the outbound in May) and I was booked a plethora of flights back and forth on Delta (same carrier) in between and never encountered any problems.

This is slightly different situation but still comparable.

Please comment!

javabytes

I'm having trouble understanding how changing your return to September 29 can be so expensive but you can buy a new ticket for a lot cheaper on the same date... who priced out your ticket change? Was it an agent, or the website?

tmontemb

In house travel department. 29th is booking into an M fare. Doesn't make sense to pay the upshot of that for a change and then another round trip on top of that. Buy booking that M fare roundtrip its a few thousand USD cheaper.

FWAAA

What you're doing is perfectly OK. Why? Because you will have satisfied whatever minimum stay your original USA-BLL-USA ticket required. Once you have satisfied the minimum stay, you can book back-to-back tickets if you want. Which is exactly what you did.

In the old days, clever business travelers would book back-to-back tickets so that they could evade the minimum stay. Suppose your boss says "fly from LAX to ATL on Wednesday and return back to LAX on Friday." That ticket might cost multiples of one where the return was on Sunday morning (because Saturday night stay tickets were presumed to be geared to vacationers, not business travelers).

So the clever frequent flyer would buy a ticket for Wednesday outbound and return some days or weeks later. They would also buy a ticket from ATL to LAX departing Friday and returning in the future. If they planned carefully, they might be able to use all four parts (both outbounds and both indbounds). But because of the huge savings, they might throw away the parts they didn't want, and still save big dollars.

You (with permission from the boss) are looking to utilize the classic back-to-back strategy with one wrinkle: you're not doing it to evade the minimum stay.

Smyrnaflyer

This back-to-back strategy, of course, technically violated the rules of carriage. However, what you're doing does not. You have a round trip USA/BLL. What you do while you're there, including flying back to the USA and returning, is your business.

MSPeconomist

I'm still having a hard time seeing how what you're doing will save a lot of money. If you fly on September 29, if M is the lowest fare class available on that date, you will be buying the M fare in one direction. You will have a change fee on the first ticket as well as a change fee on the October ticket that you've already purchased, probably $250-400 each.

A better strategy might be to try to change the return from the 28th to the 29th after you fly the outbound......Sorry, you're already doing this, but somehow changing the return date is causing the entire ticket to be refared. Could you be exceeding the maximum length of stay on the first ticket? If so, moving it later won't help. Could your fare only be valid for certain days of the week? Again, unlikely that this could make such a large difference.

Before doing anything, you should try to understand why this is being priced as your corporate travel agent claims. There could be a major mistake here.