Booking flights with overnight layovers?
Dec 16, 2018, 8:34 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2018
Posts: 1
Booking flights with overnight layovers?
Hoping someone can help me out with a problem that has me stumped. I'll try to explain it as succinctly as possible.
- I want to fly to Cancun with my wife and son. I want to pay in dollars for my ticket, and in miles for their tickets.
- The best combination of miles/convenience for the miles tickets has an overnight layover in Atlanta on the return trip.
- If I try to book those flights with miles, and then search for the same flights in dollars (to pay for my own ticket), I'm not offered those flights in the search results. And if I build it as a multi-city, the price is outlandishly high.
- I called the premier help desk two days ago, and they said they could sort it out for me; but when I called tonight, they said if I don't see it my search results, there's nothing different they'd be able to do.
In other words, the set of flights that shows up if I am paying with miles is different from the set of search results if I'm paying with dollars. That bit is not surprising. But conditional on being able to book the flight with miles, shouldn't I also be allowed to book it with dollars?
Anyone have any explanations and/or suggestions?
thanks
- I want to fly to Cancun with my wife and son. I want to pay in dollars for my ticket, and in miles for their tickets.
- The best combination of miles/convenience for the miles tickets has an overnight layover in Atlanta on the return trip.
- If I try to book those flights with miles, and then search for the same flights in dollars (to pay for my own ticket), I'm not offered those flights in the search results. And if I build it as a multi-city, the price is outlandishly high.
- I called the premier help desk two days ago, and they said they could sort it out for me; but when I called tonight, they said if I don't see it my search results, there's nothing different they'd be able to do.
In other words, the set of flights that shows up if I am paying with miles is different from the set of search results if I'm paying with dollars. That bit is not surprising. But conditional on being able to book the flight with miles, shouldn't I also be allowed to book it with dollars?
Anyone have any explanations and/or suggestions?
thanks
Dec 16, 2018, 8:59 pm
#4
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 23,056
You can't really make any assumptions. It could be that DL has not made any inventory available for the flights to be booked together on a revenue fare, but has chosen to make some available for award flights. Or it could routing restrictions on the revenue fares which do no apply to the award fares. It should be possible to check revenue bucket availability on ExpertFlyer if you provide the flights and date. Or it could be there is inventory, but the Delta web search is just choosing not to list the combination in it's results for revenue fares. Did you try searching on other websites? Multi-city search on delta.com does not attempt to combine segments on a single fare even if there is married segment bucket availability, so it doesn't really help to use that.
Dec 16, 2018, 9:07 pm
#6
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ITA has issues with married segment availability when using multi-city search. Be aware that it may give incorrect results as it only looks at inventory availability on the individual segments and not the married segments when quoting fares. Google Flights now has a fix applied where they do secondary inventory check on the married segments after all flights have been selected.
Dec 16, 2018, 9:32 pm
#7
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That's a low effort way to get this done. I wonder if lowest award pricing demands a round trip, however.
Dec 16, 2018, 9:37 pm
#8
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Dec 16, 2018, 10:21 pm
#9
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ITA has issues with married segment availability when using multi-city search. Be aware that it may give incorrect results as it only looks at inventory availability on the individual segments and not the married segments when quoting fares. Google Flights now has a fix applied where they do secondary inventory check on the married segments after all flights have been selected.
Dec 17, 2018, 12:26 am
#10
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OP should call DL and ask the agent to put together a ticket (to be paid with money) having the desired segments, given by flight numbers and dates, assuming that everything would be legal connections and under 24 hours on the overnight. It might help to do some research in advance for fare class availability and fare rules. Have several alternatives.
I often have to call to get overnight connections rather than flights at inconvenient times.
When you search for award tickets, often DL presents itineraries with awkwardly long connections first, either because this is what RM has released for miles or because delta.dumb sometimes seems to think it can trick you by showing you the flights it wants to sell (because they're undesirable schedules) at the top of the list. This is called Best Match.
I often have to call to get overnight connections rather than flights at inconvenient times.
When you search for award tickets, often DL presents itineraries with awkwardly long connections first, either because this is what RM has released for miles or because delta.dumb sometimes seems to think it can trick you by showing you the flights it wants to sell (because they're undesirable schedules) at the top of the list. This is called Best Match.
Dec 17, 2018, 12:59 am
#11
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A lot of time DL system don't like pricing valid overnight connections correctly. I run into this frequently coming back from JNB to LAX. There's a flight 5-6 hours after JNB lands in AMS and one 23 hours 30 minutes later. Both being under 24 hours are valid connections, but unless agent manually prices it, it tries to break the fare. Aggravating.
Dec 17, 2018, 2:20 am
#12
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It may have been that the first agent with whom the OP spoke was trained on the legacy Delta system while the second one is only proficient on one of the dumbed down interfaces that might not have such functionality.
Dec 18, 2018, 7:23 pm
#13
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I have encountered similar issues in booking itineraries to Bermuda, where it is often helpful to have an overnight connection to and/or from there.
The website won't always show award tickets with a last-in, first-out overnight stop, but agents are able to see them. Such flights generally cost about the same as itineraries not involving an overnight.
The website won't always show award tickets with a last-in, first-out overnight stop, but agents are able to see them. Such flights generally cost about the same as itineraries not involving an overnight.
Dec 18, 2018, 10:12 pm
#14
Join Date: May 2017
Posts: 2,279
It might not try to combine segments in the search, but doesn't delta.com revalidate before purchase to enforce any married segment rules? So OP could choose the individual flights in the search, and if married segments apply should be forced into that fare?