Has anyone here any experience with 1stair.net?

I've been checking some possible upcoming routes for me and the fares in First or Biz have been excellent, usually 1/2 off the published fare. Air Canada via YYZ and United are two airlines that come up frequently for me.

Yet I'm weary to book through this service. Is it a consolidator? Will the fares earn full elite qualifying miles, including the class of service bonus? Can you upgrade from Biz to First using certs or miles on these fares? Any other "bewares"?

-BizJet

Bizjet, this is the 1st time that I have heard of such site. Hopefully some FTs will have experience with this site

Al

Searchin General TravelTalk and/or The Buzz will reveal multiple threads.

Have booked two biz Class tix through 1st-Air.net. Both were booked in C Class (not "discounted biz)...and both earned full frequent flyer miles and I even used my UA SWUs to secure F Class seats.

They saved me about US$2000 off an ORD-NRT-PVG-ORD ticket and then about US$1700 off a one-way HKG-ORD flight.

I don't use the website. I e-mail specific itineraries to them with the exact flights and times that I want and then give them all of the parameters to work within. Both times they were able to match my suggested itineraries to the letter AND save me big bucks.

Beware: both times, I found out that my tickets also involved "hidden city" ticketing. The HKG-ORD flight actually continued on to YVR a few days after I got back to Chicago, and the multi-segment ticket above started in YYZ (but on Air Canada, when I was flying the rest of the segments on UA metal).

In both cases, I was NOT able to E-Ticket. That NRT-PVG ticket above was bought in Mexico--in pesos. The HKG-ORD ticket was bought in Canada, obviously in Canadian $'s. Seems that they save money buying tickets in foreign countries somehow.

AND, when I received the physical tickets, all of the Canadian segments were missing...the only way I ever found out about them was because I called the airline directly to reconfirm and upgrade seats.

The verdict: be careful. Everything's not exactly on the up and up, although they do seem to deliver cheap C/F tickets with all of the benefits.

I would have expected UA's computers to have flagged that you missed the first segment (YYZ-ORD) and flagged your ticket when you checked in at ORD. Maybe the fact that it was on AC metal rather than UA metal helped you get away with it....

pshuang:

I would also assume that your assertion above is correct. 1st-Air.net never made an issue of it (the hidden city), so I have to assume that they knew it would never become an issue--or they'd have A LOT of really angry premium class travelers getting their tickets cancelled. I surmised that the Air Canada segment was what would make the difference in the end.

However, I didn't want to leave that to chance. I simply called UA and told them that I needed to come back from YYZ a couple of days earlier and would therefore like to begin this ticket at ORD. No problem. In fact, the 1K res. agent wanted to go out of her way to re-book me on another AC or UA flight two days earlier. I thanked her for her kindness, but declined the kind offer.

I don't like having to play these games--even saving that kind of money. Now if it were on my dime...maybe that'd change things.

I had a similar situation as Johnny's. My itinerary was SJC-NRT-BKK-NRT-SJC on AA. I also wasn't made aware of YVR as a hidden city except that when I went to AA in SJC to upgrade from C to F. The AA city ticket office agent caught the anomaly and refused to reticket with the upgrades. According to the AA agent, the anomaly (or technicality) was that the ticket was originating in YVR and yet the ticket was priced in US$. She also put some comments in the computer alerting check-in agents about a possible hidden city violation. I had to scramble at the last minute with 1stair.net and although they came through (replacing the tickets so that they were now denominated in US$ and rebooking the whole itinerary so that the negative comment was eliminated), the whole experience made me realize that as Johnny said, they are not on the up and up.

I've just completed a SFO-HKG trip with tickets from them. Their fares seem very competitive although it is difficult to get the exact times you want. I got a 1st Class ticket for $3200 but had to fly Korean thru Seoul. I did get Delta points and - to preempt any comments - the service was superb. 777 SFO - SEL and 747 SEL-HKG - none of the pilots bounced the plane on landing!

I've tried to book some European trips but they don't seem to have any deals to London HOWEVER, they have great 1st Class fares to MAnchester so if your schedule is a little flexible you could use them to MAN then jusst buy a MAN-LHR ticket and you'd come out way ahead.

It seems that much has changed in the travel world since this last post. I called 1stAir.net and spoke to Rafael Resendiz a week ago to go over some of the posts that have been listed here, and exactly how they are obtaining their discounts. He told me at one time many years ago 1stair.net did have a rogue employee that engaged in some questionable tactics but most of their values these days are strictly through contract fares. He also explained that for travel to Europe booked more than 2 months out they are likely not the best source. He also indicated that 1stAir.Net is strong for Africa, Australia and short term travel in business and first

I have used them over the past few years with positive results. I will report if anything is on the contrary

When I see an eight year old thread being bumped it sends off alarms and signals.
If one wants to start a thread relating to the original topic that would be lovely. In the meantime, I am putting this thread to bed.
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator