intuition

Thanks for replies!
Now, 12 hours after posting here, the transaction has appeared. Spookey... :-)

Steve_Hun

I have a rookie question.

When you guys book long haul J flights ex-EU for the obvious pricing reason, how do you book your tickets to have a long "layover" in Helsinki? Do you book it as a multi-city ticket on AY's website, or is there another way to do it?

kauppias

Why oh why does finnair serve meals in J still wrapped in folio or covered by plastic? It looks so tacky and cheap... I was so tempted to give the purser a dirty look and say something but instead I ordered more champagne ��

SPBanker

For me multi-city tickets via AY website always do the trick.

FFlash

I have also tried (not yet booked any of them!) searching multi-city and it has worked until I put a stopover at return leg too on top the outbound leg stopover. I don't know why.
Anyway, the second "problem" I have had is that the business ticket books into I, i.e. inflexible so that you need to know your return position date&flight too which can be a challenge to plan for months forward.

Well these issues has so far kept me back booking xxx-hel<dest>hel-yyy combos, which is not a problem for some I guess, YMMV

Steve_Hun

Thanks a lot SPBanker and FFlash!

intuition

AY tickets (or the booking engine?) does not allow 2 stops in HEL. With two stops in HEL, your Eu-trip probably is regarded as a side trip, which easily can be banned in the fare rules.

There is a thread, about a gazillion posts long, about tickets BNE-HEL-BER-HEL-RVN-BNE than can't be booked without using a Travel Agent, and the OP does not want to visit at Travel Agent...

WilcoRoger

I have had no problems booking xxx-HEL_stop_Asia-HEL_stop_yyy (where xxx is not necessarily equals yyy) with OTA - I use less the AY site. And it's a multicity itinerary.

As for the flexibility, I seem to recall that the tix are changeable for a fee, at least I did at least on one occasion move my final leg and paid 50€ (AFAIK)

BTW the same pricing works even with open jaws in Asia. To avoid Chinese visa, I'll do xxx-HEL-ICN//PEK-HEL-xxx and xxx-HKG//BKK-HEL-xxx, both in the 1,6k€ range. Of course the ICN-PEK and the HKG-CAN-BKK come on top of that but those are cheap. OK, this latter is not just for avoiding visa, but I actually have a week in BKK. Looking forward to try UL's C product from CAN to BKK - costs 40€ more than Y for a 5 hrs flight

PS The issue with our lady of BNE was that she wanted both BER and RVN on the same ticket.

Courmisch

In my experience, AY.com just fails completely for any itinerary with more than two stops. eBookers has worked for me for PRG-HEL,HEL-HKG-TPE,XIY-HEL,HEL-PRG (AY in I, CX in Y).

FFlash

Apparently, or some other reason anyway making it not easy.

I stopped reading that thread very early and ignored it completely, but now I regret that I passed away a lot of wisdom there

FFlash

I kinda guessed this and probably this is the best thing to do, if OTAs have even better rules about changes.
I previously avoided OTA like plaque but I must reconsider. Do they all provide a 24h cancellation too, or if mostly yes, which ones are the ones to watch out for not providing 24h free?

WilcoRoger

I often use the UK ebookers site and they have a 24h window - and also a reward program (+still earning miles as usual on flights)

Also some cashback sites give nearly 2% on flight bookings on ebookers. Talking of cashback - bookings on the AY site get 3€ cashback on shorthaul and 1% cashback on longhaul via the German igraal site (no residency restrictions)

clifford79

How are you able to book mixed classes (I, Y) using eBookers? I can only get either all-C or all-Y to show up.

Courmisch

I don't know. It just happened to do that. Maybe the FInnair I fare rules caused it.

miamiflyer8

I flew from DUS to HEL in Economy Pro. I received 3300 tier miles but 5300 all together. Anyone know why I got the 2K bonus?