Nested tickets

Old Sep 20, 2012, 12:34 am
  #61  
 
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Originally Posted by 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.
I believe you have misunderstood the situation. There is no October ticket that has been purchased at this point.

Current ticket is Sept 17. USA-BLL, Sept. 28 BLL-USA. I need to leave Sept. 29 though instead of the 28th.

I must come to the EU again beginning of October, so another roundtrip ticket must be booked USA-BLL, Oct. 7 & BLL-USA Oct. 12.

After pricing out options, I can either change my flight from Sept. 28th to the Sept. 29th at a cost of about 15000 DKK.

OR I can buy a new ticket BLL-USA Sept 29, USA-BLL October 7 for about 9000 DKK. I can then change my Sept 28 original flight to October 12 at a much lower cost as this doesn't book into an M fare like the Sept 29 was trying to do.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 1:32 am
  #62  
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You seem to be looking only at the price of the first ticket. The M fare on the 29th for outbound on the second ticket will increase its price greatly compared to what it otherwise would cost, even though if it hasn't been purchased yet, you avoid paying the change fee on this ticket. It's hard to see how this does very much other than shift a lot of the expense from the first ticket to the second ticket. You still pay the M fare for travel on the 29th if that's the cheapest inventory that's available for that date.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 1:53 am
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Originally Posted by tmontemb
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.

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.

Please comment!
Get authorization to call Delta yourself. I can't be exact because you only say "USA", but there is sub-M availability on BLL > AMS on the 28th -- from there AMS > DTW has sub-M, AMS > ATL looks tight, AMS > MSP has only a few sub-M seats left.

From DTW and MSP I'm assuming you can get home. Also, since it says you're a GM, remember that once you complete your TATL leg they will let you SDC (even with checked bags) for the domestic segment, so don't be afraid to book a last-flight-out-better-fare-bucket domestic connection and SDC to the earlier flight.

The Delta phone agents have worked availability magic for me for my last two INTL trips (both ex-EU, one to DXB one to USA) -- where both expertflyer and the website said it couldn't be done, they somehow picked off a seat in a fare-bucket lower than what I was seeing. Since I am seeing sub-M availability they might be able to go one or two ticks lower.


As an aside, I would echo what javabytes said -- which is why you would see such a difference in a change vs. a new ticket??? This doesn't sound kosher to me.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 4:46 am
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while i can't speak for int'l trips, i used to buy nested tickets on delta all the time when i was flying between LAX and ATL every week or two. i'd buy an LAX-ATL roundtrip with my return in one month, and then buy an ATL-LAX roundtrip entirely within that month. it was never an issue.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 4:27 pm
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Just to update the situation for everyone, this saved us about $1700 all in. It would have been more but October 12/13 are Danish holidays and prices and flights are nearly already sold out.

Worked a-okay.

Thanks for all of your answers. If people are still curious as to how it actually saved money I can go into greater detail.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 4:29 pm
  #66  
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Originally Posted by tmontemb
Just to update the situation for everyone, this saved us about $1700 all in. It would have been more but October 12/13 are Danish holidays and prices and flights are nearly already sold out.

Worked a-okay.

Thanks for all of your answers. If people are still curious as to how it actually saved money I can go into greater detail.
Please do. It sounded to me like you were basically just moving the M segment to the other ticket.
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 5:08 pm
  #67  
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Originally Posted by MSPeconomist
Please do. It sounded to me like you were basically just moving the M segment to the other ticket.
He explained upthread that by purchasing the RT ticket originating in BLL it was significantly less expensive than just changing the return date of his first ticket by one day. RT BLL-USA-BLL with M outbound could easily be much less than changing the return date of a US-originating ticket to M class, which incurs both a change fee and an upsell to M class.

It is very logical that it could save this much money. Remember, round trip fares originating in the USA to BLL are not the same as round trip fares from BLL to the USA (or to/from any international city for that matter).
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Old Sep 20, 2012, 5:17 pm
  #68  
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Originally Posted by fti
He explained upthread that by purchasing the RT ticket originating in BLL it was significantly less expensive than just changing the return date of his first ticket by one day. RT BLL-USA-BLL with M outbound could easily be much less than changing the return date of a US-originating ticket to M class, which incurs both a change fee and an upsell to M class.

It is very logical that it could save this much money. Remember, round trip fares originating in the USA to BLL are not the same as round trip fares from BLL to the USA (or to/from any international city for that matter).
Thank you. I somehow missed the logic that one of the tickets would now originate in the EU rather than the USA.
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Old Sep 21, 2012, 5:29 am
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Originally Posted by fti
He explained upthread that by purchasing the RT ticket originating in BLL it was significantly less expensive than just changing the return date of his first ticket by one day. RT BLL-USA-BLL with M outbound could easily be much less than changing the return date of a US-originating ticket to M class, which incurs both a change fee and an upsell to M class.

It is very logical that it could save this much money. Remember, round trip fares originating in the USA to BLL are not the same as round trip fares from BLL to the USA (or to/from any international city for that matter).
Spot on. It became much more of a pain than I would have hoped, however we got it done. Looks like I will need to plan ahead a bit better when booking tickets next time.

Thanks to everyone that gave me sound advice.
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Old Sep 21, 2012, 5:58 am
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Originally Posted by 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.
Disagree that it is even a technical violation. Here is the rule:

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Delta specifically prohibits the practices commonly known as: "BACK TO BACK TICKETING" - the issuance, purchase or usage of flight coupons from two or more tickets issued at round trip fares, or the combination of two or more round-trip excursion fares end to end on the same ticket for the purpose of circumventing minimum stay requirements; "THROWAWAY TICKETING" - the issuance, purchase or usage of round trip excursion fares for one-way travel; "HIDDEN CITY TICKETING" - the issuance, purchase or usage of a fare from a point before the passengers' actual origin or to a point beyond the passenger's actual destination.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note that Back-to-Back (what we generally call nesting) is only prohibited if the purpose is to violate a minimum stay rule. For purposes such as avoiding changes, finding cheaper flights based on origin, avoiding YQ and such, it is perfectly OK.
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Old Jan 16, 2013, 3:03 pm
  #71  
 
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Question about "nested" round trips

I recognize this is probably a noob question, but I couldn't find an answer quickly. Apologies if it's been done to death. I haven't had to look a this before.

Is it legal for me to buy two round trips, one AAA-BBB and one BBB-CCC, which would schedule like this?

AAA-BBB
BBB-CCC
CCC-BBB
BBB-AAA

It's a lot cheaper than buying AAA-CCC round-trip.
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Old Jan 16, 2013, 3:57 pm
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Yes, and a lot of times you don't even have to buy them as 2 round trips, you can just book them using multi city and it prices out the same. You can see an example in this thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...28-2013-a.html
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Old Jan 16, 2013, 8:41 pm
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I did this, unintentionally, with the cheap fares IAD-IST. Bought that first, then tried to get myself to IAD via another airline's award ticket. Ended up finding cheap r/t to IAD on DL that I partially paid for with Amex MR points. So now I have exactly that, showing as two separate trips on DL.com. I'm afraid to ask them to combine them into a single trip, as the lovely DeltaMatic may reprice it and decide I owe them $50384590 in fare difference (plus $150 change fee).
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Old May 30, 2013, 8:30 am
  #74  
 
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Question Dumb ? re: nested reservations

Hi All -- I sure this is a somewhat dumb question but was wondering whether it is possible to make a "nested" reservation for DL travel? My BF will be visiting my family for the Christmas holidays (yes, I'm thinking in advance) and then we will be flying back to his family for Boxing Day. I'd like to book our seats out to see his family together. Would it be possible to book a RT ticket within the span of his RT ticket (as he would be flying back again later)?
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Old May 30, 2013, 8:58 am
  #75  
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Yes. I frequently do it, & it usually saves a little bit on taxes when they're booked all together, something about maximum taxes being allowed on 1 ticket, or something.

When I find a cheap fare, I'll frequently look for another cheap fare from that initial destinmtion, then return, then home...eg...

I found a cheap fare to TPA, then another cheap fare to SAT, so I flew PIT/TPA - 2 nites, TPA/SAT 2 nites, SAT/TPA 1 nite, then TPA/PIT & it came out $20 or $30 cheaper than if they were booked separately!



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