What do you do if you want to throw away one segment outbound?

e.g. you want to travel one way SFO-ORD, and buy a cheap SFO-SUX rt that includes a nonstop SFO-ORD on the outbound followed by ORD-SUX. When you check in at SFO, how do you keep your suitcase from going to SUX and instead come out at ORD?

Since, as the original poster notes, this is really a question about the practices of virtually all airlines, I am moving this to TravelBuzz since it is not UA-specific.

Chuck
aka cblaisd
Moderator, United

I'm seeing, increasingly, where LCCs have a hold, that some airlines are now allowing discount one-way tickets. Example of this are the 'near' short-hauls Ex-LHR from BA and BD.

This does have its downside, however. As a business traveller, how can I justify a fully flexible ticket, when I can buy a one-way to where I'm going for, say �30, and then the return leg for �50 when I know when I'm going to be travelling? Before, that kind of travel would have cost maybe �350 for the Y ticket.

It also leads to some slightly strange outcomes. Because airlines tend to charge less for tickets originating outside their 'home' market, and because of currency fluctuations, it can be cheaper to buy two one-ways than a return. I do this quite frequently on BD on LHR-AMS.

Carry on insteasd of checking.

Most airlines tell you that if you throw away an outbound leg the rest of your itienerary will be cancelled.

Well, you don't need a "fully flexible" ticket when you know when you're going to be travelling. You are just circumventing the minimum stay requirement, which some airlines have either abolished or complemented with a 2-day min stay req without the need for a Sat night stay.

It's one of the ways to distinguish business travelers (presumably willing to pay more) from leisure travelers. Same with Saturday night stay, 21-day advance purchase, companion fare.

Southwest lets you get its cheapest fares without a round-trip purchase. AirTran, Spirit, and Independence Air let you book any of their fares without a round-trip purchase.

It's another way LCCs are pulling business travelers from legacy carriers -- in addition to lower last-minute fares and less costly (or nonexistent) change fees on nonrefundable fares.

Actually, if you do it on two separate airlines, then you haven't violated the terms of service of either airline. Therefore, you don't need to cloak your FF number on the first: you should earn full mileage on both airlines.

I used to do frequent two- to four-week trips to Chicago for business from MCI. I'd fly up on Monday on AA, back on Friday on UA. Up the next Monday on UA, back Friday on AA. Two very cheap tickets - about $100 each. Perfectly legal, no back-to-back action at all.

If I was going for an odd number of weeks, I'd evaluate other options including a no-Saturday fare, one-ways, or Southwest. At the time, I was careful to not break their little rules - our company was getting sweet discounts from AA and UA and I didn't want to rock the boat if they decided to audit.

For leisure travel, I've been known to have a hard time locating my connecting gate in CVG on occasion. Seriously, is there any O&D traffic at CVG, or do all locals just use Indy or Dayton?

Back on the topic of business vs. leisure travelers: I think one of the biggest challenges that the Big Six have is that they have yet to acknowledge that many companies are getting smart when it comes to the airfare game. More of them know how the game works, and realize that they can cut their travel costs drastically by applying a little bit of logic to how they buy tickets.

We call them LCC's, but in reality they are more like "fair cost carriers". The lowest, most restrictive fares on AA are usually about the same as the lowest fares on WN. The key difference is at the high-end - the full-Y fares. They really should call them FCC's and RCC's (Ridiculous Cost Carriers) instead of LCC's and "majors".

Since more and more companies are using the LCC's, that leaves fewer people willing to throw down $1000 for a one-way walkup fare. Therefore, the majors have to find a way to survive with a more Southwest-like model, at least in the US.

Add in a cheap LCC one-ways, and you can even do it on one airlines -

MCI-MDW on WN M
ORD-MCI-ORD Fri-Mon
ORD-MCI-ORD Fri-Mon
ORD-MCI-ORD Fri-Mon
MDW-MCI on Wn F

Of course MCI-MDW has flights just about every half hour on WN, so unless you were going to the NW suburbs, it would probably be best to stick with WN the whole way.

I did a number of trips from ORD-HPN. The M-F flights were around 1100, while F-M were $180. Even paying a $600 one way Y going out made and back made things significantly cheaper.

Though perhaps my favorite was when I was moving from Chicago to San Francisco. Cheapest one way I could find on any airline was $800. However, ORD-CDG-TXL-ZRH-SFO was only $600. Guten Tag Berlin!

I haven't had to do the two-week to monthlong runs to Chicago in a couple of years, but if I had to do it all over again, I think I'd just do the whole thing on WN. I'm not particularly a big WN fan, but this would be an ideal route on which to rack up a quick free ticket or two (vs. 2000, 2250, or 3000 miles per roundtrip, depending on status, on UA or AA).

No...check that...if I have to do MCI-ORD again, I'm calling you for advice on how to work a connection in Paris into my itinerary!

Just give me a call sometime after the summer and I'll be glad to help you out.

Though with the rationalization of fares, throwing in an international roundtrip has managed to get more difficult. However, there are still goodies, like ORD-MSP that checks in at over $500 each way. With the European fare sales a few months back, Europe could be had for a little more than half that, making for some real interesting expense report possibilities:
ORD-AMS-MSP + MSP-CDG-ORD + 2 cheap hotel nights+ budget meals
<
ORD-MSP-ORD

(Though it does produce a lot more jet lag!)