New EK policy on long Dubai "stopovers"?
Jul 12, 2019, 12:27 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Dubai
Posts: 54
New EK policy on long Dubai "stopovers"?
As someone who lives in Dubai, has family in the UK and has regular business reasons to be in S-E Asia, in the past I have often saved a huge amount of money by organising my (biz class) flights so that they are LON-DXB-Asia-DXB-LON rather than two separate returns (LON-DXB-LON and DXB-Asia-DXB). This has always seemed to work nicely even if the first leg or the last leg are many weeks or even months away from the middle two legs. But I've been trying to price up a couple of similar trips today and it seems that there is a new hidden "policy" which is that if any of your legs is more than 14 days away from the previous or next leg then the pricing reverts to something like the price of separate prices: eg moving to day 15 makes the ticket price move from £2k to £4k!
Has anyone else come across this? If I booked the flight dates I wanted for the first 3 legs and then a nominal (<14 day) date for the last leg, could I just no-show or cancel or date change the last leg after I've flown all the prior ones, without incurring large costs? It would still be worth it just to throw away the last leg and get back to the UK on an upgraded Y ticket (or in Y).
Has anyone else come across this? If I booked the flight dates I wanted for the first 3 legs and then a nominal (<14 day) date for the last leg, could I just no-show or cancel or date change the last leg after I've flown all the prior ones, without incurring large costs? It would still be worth it just to throw away the last leg and get back to the UK on an upgraded Y ticket (or in Y).
Last edited by Bossarb; Jul 12, 2019 at 12:33 am
Jul 12, 2019, 12:45 am
#2
A FlyerTalk Posting Legend
Join Date: Jan 2002
Posts: 44,586
Not so much a policy, just a restriction on stopovers in the fare rules
Looking at August for LON-BKK r/t
The H class fare charges GBP200 for a stopover and it may not exceed 5 days
The O class fares allow free stopover but max 14 days
The I class fares allow free stopover but max 21 days
The C class fare allow free stopover but max 45 days
The chespest J class fare allow free stopover but max 60 days
The remaining J class fares have no stopover time limit restrictions
Looking at August for LON-BKK r/t
The H class fare charges GBP200 for a stopover and it may not exceed 5 days
The O class fares allow free stopover but max 14 days
The I class fares allow free stopover but max 21 days
The C class fare allow free stopover but max 45 days
The chespest J class fare allow free stopover but max 60 days
The remaining J class fares have no stopover time limit restrictions
Jul 12, 2019, 12:49 am
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: Dubai
Posts: 54
Not so much a policy, just a restriction on stopovers in the fare rules
Looking at August for LON-BKK r/t
The H class fare charges GBP200 for a stopover and it may not exceed 5 days
The O class fares allow free stopover but max 14 days
The I class fares allow free stopover but max 21 days
The C class fare allow free stopover but max 45 days
The chespest J class fare allow free stopover but max 60 days
The remaining J class fares have no stopover time limit restrictions
Looking at August for LON-BKK r/t
The H class fare charges GBP200 for a stopover and it may not exceed 5 days
The O class fares allow free stopover but max 14 days
The I class fares allow free stopover but max 21 days
The C class fare allow free stopover but max 45 days
The chespest J class fare allow free stopover but max 60 days
The remaining J class fares have no stopover time limit restrictions
Jul 12, 2019, 2:12 am
#4
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 9,307
Not lucky with previous bookings, just you've now fallen foul of a recent change in what EK is offering, so really it is a (fairly) new policy. It's been discussed a few times on here as other posters have used the same technique. Hopefully one of them can suggest the latest preferred method.
Jul 12, 2019, 4:27 am
#5
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: MAN DXB ✈️
Programs: Skywards Gold
Posts: 6,831
As someone who lives in Dubai, has family in the UK and has regular business reasons to be in S-E Asia, in the past I have often saved a huge amount of money by organising my (biz class) flights so that they are LON-DXB-Asia-DXB-LON rather than two separate returns (LON-DXB-LON and DXB-Asia-DXB). This has always seemed to work nicely even if the first leg or the last leg are many weeks or even months away from the middle two legs. But I've been trying to price up a couple of similar trips today and it seems that there is a new hidden "policy" which is that if any of your legs is more than 14 days away from the previous or next leg then the pricing reverts to something like the price of separate prices: eg moving to day 15 makes the ticket price move from £2k to £4k!
Has anyone else come across this? If I booked the flight dates I wanted for the first 3 legs and then a nominal (<14 day) date for the last leg, could I just no-show or cancel or date change the last leg after I've flown all the prior ones, without incurring large costs? It would still be worth it just to throw away the last leg and get back to the UK on an upgraded Y ticket (or in Y).
Has anyone else come across this? If I booked the flight dates I wanted for the first 3 legs and then a nominal (<14 day) date for the last leg, could I just no-show or cancel or date change the last leg after I've flown all the prior ones, without incurring large costs? It would still be worth it just to throw away the last leg and get back to the UK on an upgraded Y ticket (or in Y).
you could throw the last leg but thens you’d be on expensive ex Dxb prices - you can’t break the fare rules so you’d have to cancel it if it went beyond the permitted stopover.
i feel your pain I used to do multiple man Dxb Asia trips and it worked well as 3 month returns and now the next flights I’m looking at with long stops at £10k - used to get the Same in F for a lot less but it’s still a little cheaper then booking man Dxb and separately Dxb Asia and you get a more flexible ticket