Nov 20, 2013, 7:48 am
Last edit by: Pat89339
Do not call the airlines under any conditions! This is the fastest way to kill the trick and bring unwanted attention to your itinerary! And do not post precious deals in this thread, this is by far the fastest way to kill the trick!
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
************************************************** ******
This is NOT the right place to ask: "Can you help me with a low fare for AAA-BBB?" This is not the beg-it thread, but the trick-it thread.
This thread deals with unique combinations of routes and booking tricks in order to lower prices on airline fares. Prices that would astound the general public are often achieved by the posters in this thread.
Many people, including airline representatives, monitor this thread. For that reason, it is unorganized, very content heavy, often lacking details, and written in shorthand. It takes patience and effort in order to understand the conversation and be able to participate as an active member.
We encourage you to read the entirety of this thread if you would like to get started and to experiment as soon as you understand the gist of Trick It. Lots of time spent reading, practicing, and learning is the only way to be able to reproduce our tricks and discover new ones yourself. There are many, many people who ask for advice here, so productive members are only able to help those who have shown a concerted effort and progress over a long period of time (months).
If you have no idea what this thread is about, a good place to start are various blogs' posts on the subject. At the very least, read the Rules for posting in this thread. They're also listed in the very first post, below.
Older portions of the thread have been separated into archive thread by year. They are listed below
2008 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2009 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2010 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2011 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2012 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2013 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
2014 Trick It / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Trick it / negotiate it / special savings lounge thread
Jun 2, 2017, 3:29 pm
#8311
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Here and there.
Programs: Brooks Beta Runner
Posts: 116
Jun 3, 2017, 9:36 am
#8313
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 149
I agree. ITA seems inconsistent at times. It wasn't like that before from what I recall, but in the past few months I have found the output not as comprehensive nor as reliable.
Jun 5, 2017, 1:49 pm
#8314
Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 149
Human contact on a tricked itinerary (again)
I know everyone advises that one should not (ever) check luggage on a tricked itinerary so as to avoid human contact as much as possible. I get it. It makes sense. Frankly, it would be sound advice to avoid human contact on any itinerary, tricked or not.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
Jun 5, 2017, 1:55 pm
#8315
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: NYC
Programs: DL ✈️
Posts: 638
I know everyone advises that one should not (ever) check luggage on a tricked itinerary so as to avoid human contact as much as possible. I get it. It makes sense. Frankly, it would be sound advice to avoid human contact on any itinerary, tricked or not.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
Of course, it's YMMV. Feel free to try your luck, I would recommend against it, as they keep "fixing" the fat removers, and that's not good news for the rest of us.
I did check a bag on a tricked fare, and didn't need any kind of human interaction (bag drop in JFK sometimes is self-serve)
Jun 5, 2017, 5:19 pm
#8316
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Here and there.
Programs: Brooks Beta Runner
Posts: 116
I know everyone advises that one should not (ever) check luggage on a tricked itinerary so as to avoid human contact as much as possible. I get it. It makes sense. Frankly, it would be sound advice to avoid human contact on any itinerary, tricked or not.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
Jun 6, 2017, 4:22 am
#8317
Suspended
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: New York Metropolitan Area 45 km from JFK
Programs: UA,AA,AS,BA
Posts: 4,607
There seems to be only 1 date left in 2017 for the New York - Europe OneWay $ 99.00 All-in fare.
Last edited by WingedWorldExplorer; Jun 6, 2017 at 4:29 am Reason: No trick so technically wrong thread for posting.
Jun 6, 2017, 4:33 pm
#8318
Join Date: May 2013
Location: west coast best coast
Programs: TINDER GOLD, STARBUCKS GOLD, COSTCO EXECUTIVE!!
Posts: 3,987
Jun 6, 2017, 8:21 pm
#8319
Moderator: Budget Travel forum & Credit Card Programs, FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2002
Location: YYJ/YVR and back on Van Isle ....... for now
Programs: UA lifetime MM / *A Gold
Posts: 14,423
Not the point of this thread, though some have done so.
Jun 7, 2017, 12:23 am
#8320
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: BG
Programs: BAEC Silver, TK Elite, Hilton Diamond
Posts: 827
I know everyone advises that one should not (ever) check luggage on a tricked itinerary so as to avoid human contact as much as possible. I get it. It makes sense. Frankly, it would be sound advice to avoid human contact on any itinerary, tricked or not.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
I have read on this forum about cases where flyers did have human contact and all went well. What I am curious about are cases where people have actually run into trouble with that, as a result of checking luggage, missing flights, missing connections, manual seat change requests, etc. I have read thousands of posts by now (I admit I haven't read all 3000+ pages), but I cannot recall reading about any actual issues. I know what could theoretically happen, but I am interested to hear about actual events during your tricked travels, or others' you know about.
Jun 7, 2017, 1:17 am
#8321
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: PRG
Programs: OW Sapphire, Herz Gold, Regus Businessworld Gold
Posts: 169
I broke most of these rules during the last flight. We flew with a child, instead of three passengers who flew at the beginning, only two continued. Checked out the luggage, using the status reserved twice upgrade, one approved, the other not. No problem. But knowing the risk and finally worrying that I might have overtaken it. When the supervisor came into business just tightly before take off and was physically looking for a child (canceled with the check-in agent before), the champagne began to be bitter ...
Jun 7, 2017, 9:45 am
#8322
Join Date: May 2007
Location: ORD, DEL
Programs: AA (Plt Pro; 1.5 MM)
Posts: 6,185
I think we should distinguish between the risk that your one trip will be disrupted and the greater risk to you as well as the ff community that after focusing on your ticket, the carrier will discover the trick you used, and block it from future use.
Jun 7, 2017, 10:29 am
#8323
Join Date: Sep 2016
Location: LON, PDX
Programs: DL PM, AS MVP 75K, HH/SPG/MR Gold, Amex Plat, PRG, CSR
Posts: 2,064
The rules here have been figured out by many people through much experience and it really can and does impact all of us when some are cavalier.
Jun 7, 2017, 1:07 pm
#8324
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: MSP, NYC, or WAS
Programs: AA CO DL
Posts: 717
This. It is pretty selfish to think that just because you want to check a bag and managed to get away with it that there couldn't be a wider impact.
The rules here have been figured out by many people through much experience and it really can and does impact all of us when some are cavalier.
The rules here have been figured out by many people through much experience and it really can and does impact all of us when some are cavalier.
Jun 7, 2017, 1:21 pm
#8325
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Africa
Programs: A3 Gold, Hertz Gold
Posts: 92
Very valid and important points. Don't be selfish.. or foolhardy. Like trying to upgrade using miles on tricked fares etc could lead to unnecessary scrutiny. On the other hand, simple interactions like checking a bag etc is generally not a problem especially if you fly from airports like I do in C5 where the check in agents are a handling company with poor education and an even poorer laissez faire attitude....so use common sense (although sometimes it feels not too common here).
