fwh

I was thinking of booking an itenarary that is like this:

AAA-BBB 3/10
BBB-CCC 3/10
CCC-BBB 3/17
BBB-AAA 3/17

Where AAA-BBB and BBB-CCC are round trips. Is this considered nested ticketing and against the fare rules? Booking AAA-CCC would cost $500 more.

teddybw

This is called end-on-end, which is totally fine.

The illegal ones are those nested trips to avoid min-stay requirements. For example

AAA-BBB 1/1, MON
BBB-AAA 1/4, THU
AAA-BBB 1/8, MON
BBB-AAA 1/11 THU

Instead of buying expensive AAA-BBB r/t 1/1-1/4, 1/8-1/11 separately, one could buy 1/1-1/11, 1/4-1/8 and thus satisfies Saturday night stay requirement that the cheap AAA-BBB fare requires.

100countrygoal

[QUOTE=teddybw;17954145]This is called end-on-end, which is totally fine.QUOTE]

I have no reason to think teddybw is wrong, and I'm sure hoping he is right. My take is: who knows? A ticket I was looking at last week certainly implied end-to-end fares were not permitted. I'm an intelligent, educated person, and I've read the fare rules to try to ensure that I don't break them. I reach the conclusion that there are too many ambigious points to be really sure. . . that is certainly true for any average person who just wants to buy a few airline tickets. Have crazy fare rules been litigated in a small claims courts to see how an airline would explain the rule jargon to a non-technical audience?

I actually don't have a problem with paying a higher air fare if that's what the rules dictate. It just bugs the heck out of me that the fare rules are not self-explanatory.

teddybw

You are right. I should have said end-on-end is usually fine unless the AAA-BBB/BBB-CCC fare rule prohibits end-on-end (and thus could not be put on one single PNR). Most fare rules I have seen allow end-on-end.

Generally speaking, if you could put all the flights you want on a single PNR, you should be fine.

[QUOTE=100countrygoal;17954359]

LAX

What's wrong with having 2 PNRs if the fare rules don't allow end-to-end?? The only downside I can think of is when the first flight is delayed, then one would miss the "connecting" flight. However, in situation like this, then it would be wise to book extra connecting time.

LAX

Often1

I don't think that the comment was intended to suggest that one should or should not use a single PNR. It's simply a question of whether one could use a single PNR. If one can, it's not likely a violation of the COC.

The real issue is not the routing, but the underlying fare restrictions. If the impact is to circumvent minimum stay, it will generally (although one needs to read the COC for the specific carrier) violate. If not, then not. The PNR alone isn't determinative and UA's anti-fraud software is much more sophisticated than in the past.