swede123

Hi,

while searching for flights from LPI to TYO I found the following - ending up in premium economy for less then "normal" economy, but the flight cannot be booked:

LPI-AMS on Sep 8 with KL1182
AMS-TYO on Sep 9 with KL0863
TYO-LPI on Oct 2 with KL0864/KL1183

Costs about 12600 SEK, premium economy on the flights to TYO. After entering the passanger details, the system just fails with a technical error. The phone service couldn't book either.

Even more fun is a connection where one goes from LPI via CDG ending in the same aircraft from AMS to TYO. That would actually be bookable and costs just above 13000SEK. Here one ends up in premium economy too for the fligths from LPI-CDG-TYO too, normal economy for the return.

LPI-CDG on Sep 8 with KL1182/KL2023
CDG-TYO on Sep 9 with KL1228/KL0863
TYO-LPI on Oct 2 with KL0864/KL1183

(more or the the same connection as above with just two additional meaningless legs to/from CDG)

However - an overnight stay in Paris does not seem to be that funny; (don't ask why it's more fun in AMS)

Any idea how one could book the first flight?

Seems that KLM/airfrance has a promo on premium eco during that time.

/M.

irishguy28

If the "phone service" couldn't book it, and your travel agent couldn't book it (did you ask?), then whatever website gave you this price for this connection must be lying to you. (Try asking THEM to book it)

offvoice

Happens quite often to me as well.

Lower price in W than in Y can happen, especially on flights with layovers. It may mean that cheap fare buckets are gone in Y but not in W. Doesn’t happen often, but definitely heard of (I one rebooked in J instead of Y because day of departure change was actually cheaper in J).

If the agent cannot book it though, it may mean you’re likely in front of a phantom fare : the system displays a fare that cannot be constructed and ticketed. I had an example no later than last week. Was looking at a CDG-ZAG//ZAG-CDG-CMN: AF (in that case, but the IT is the same for both I believe) website quoted 300€ but failed when trying to make the payment (I wasn’t able to go far enough in the booking process as to generate a PNR). I called AF and they didn’t see the fare I was looking at on the website. According to fare rules, it could only be purchased as 2 one-way, thus making it much more expensive (circa 2k). AFKL will often show fares that cannot be ticketed, hence the system will fail when you reach that stage.

You could try booking through an OTA if you see that fare there and see if they ticket it?

swede123

Yeah, it was actually KLMs and airfrance's homepage and App where you can find this. So - of course they lied to me, either on the web or on their booking-hotline

swede123

Ok, it was the first time for me. Interesting that the second connection I mentioned (LPI-CDG-AMS-TYO-LPI) seemed to be bookable via the KLM-homepage but not via the Airfrance-homepage.

I found the connection on booking.com too, but they failed too in the last step. So I guess, it is the problem you describe. Ticket pricing seems to be harder than traveling salesman

erik123

I bet the fare doesn't show when you search for LPI-TYO. Booking it as two separate legs is not possible as the system checks whether it is valid as LPI-TYO. Typical on many airlines.