Hope someone can help me out with a question regarding nesting / back to back ticketing. I did some searching, but I am not sure I understand exactly the rules.

I am contemplating a weekend trip where I would ticket to NYC for a weekend (Friday night with return on Sunday). During the weekend at NYC, a separate ticket for a trip to somewhere on the west cost and back, returning to NYC.
Basically, an entire trip inside a trip. Once back in NYC, I would finish up the first booking by returning home.

Is there anything against the rules about this type of scenario? Most of the nesting comments I found involve caution against overlapping legs of different bookings, not a whole itinerary inside a second itinerary.

Any assistance gratefully appreciated.

For background, this is a sort-of mileage run, but more interested in trying out UA's PS service then an all-out lowering of final cost per mile scenario.

in short, no problem with this scenario. ^

Well, one minor problem. One is dealing with the Northeast during winter. If your return flight to NYC is delayed, you'll miss your 'home' flight. Since you're not on the same PNR, you might pay a heavy fee.

Assume you'll factor enough time in between though.

No problem, but you should try to give yourself ample connect time in NYC. One misconnect and your MR could go up in smoke.

Factoring in the time is key. Your weekend squeeze makes me nervous. I'm sitting in Toronto watching the Doom 'n Gloom forecast ("biggest storm in 2 years coming tomorrow!") but my airline hasn't listed the Northeast as a weather change area, so changes now would be voluntary. I have to just sit.

Meanwhile, I'm wondering whether I'll actually get to FLL in time for my tight MR to LAX. *If* I leave YYZ within 20h of schedule and *If* I'm not delayed in jfk (hah!) then I'll get to FLL in time to board my MR.

If we had some ham, we could have Ham 'n Eggs! (if we had some eggs)

Why not book it all on one ticket? Are the fares not allowing you to do so?

I have never had much luck booking such a specific itin / routing using UA.com Every time I try the multi-city search, I end up with error messages.

I am just getting into the specifics / intricacies of the MR world, so I usually work with the routings that UA will allow on a regular search.

Hopefully, I will be able to attend a MR seminar this year to hone my skills and knowledge base. Just started using KVS and really happy with this tool to hunt out upgradeable itins.

Again, thanks to all for sharing your knowledge.

I'm new at this, but I believe if you were worried you could join the 2 PNR's together.

You can't on CO, someone else may need to chime in if you can on UA.

AFAIK not possible to join PNRs on UA (technically it may be possible, but no agent would actually do it even if it were).

Cannot combine two PNR's to become one.

Thanks for all the suggestions and information. I don't believe I am able to combine PNRs, so I would assume the risk for mis-connects. All part of the game, I guess.

If I manage to find some decent fares and actually get the trip booked, I will update with how it went.

There is no such things as "linked" PNR's on United. The most any agent can do is put a note in your PNR. That doesn't do squat basically.

In regards to your nested itin. we need to know the cities you are visiting in your itineraries. I don't see how someone can say it is or isn't without knowing which city you are visiting on the west coast.

If you are using the same city pairs for both itineraries it is nested ticketing if it results in you avoiding the fare rules. Thus if it is cheaper to book as 2 PNR's that is a good indication that you are avoiding some fare rules possibly. Please give the exact itinerary and dates.

I would fly from DAY to JFK and back, depart Friday night and come back Sunday.

In the middle of this itin, I would fly JFK-SFO and return, probably Saturday morning and returning Saturday night.

Thanks for your thoughts on this. I am really confused with route rules in these types of situations.