flyerbaby19

Hi

I have a ticket through Ctrip for UA connecting to VY in CDG. As far as I can tell, Ctrip sold it to me together, but they are 2 separate tickets. The UA PNR does not show the VY flight segments on it. Does anyone know if I can check a bag through? What lounge can I use in CDG (if any) and will it be different on the outbound versus return? Will I have to clear customs and security during the transfer? What other questions should I be asking?

Routing is SFO-CDG-VCE and return VCE-CDG (overnight) -SFO

Thx!

jsloan

I don't see an interline agreement for UA and VY. Did ctrip disclose that they were selling you two separate tickets? They really don't seem to do a very good job of telling people what they're selling them.

Vueling (VY) is a low-cost carrier; I would be surprised if you would be able to check a bag through to them; if ExpertFlyer is correct, they don't have an agreement in place to handle this. I expect that you'll need to go landside at CDG, claim your luggage, and then proceed to the VY desk to check in. Any lounge access you have at CDG on the outbound would depend upon VY.

On the return, I doubt VY would interline baggage either, but with an overnight connection that might be preferable anyway. Your lounge access on the way back will depend upon your UA ticket.

flyerbaby19

Thx, that's helpful. They did give a very vague disclosure which I didn't understand until after I purchased the ticket then realized, "oh, they probably meant separate tickets"

mduell

If you choose to be a "travel hacker" (eyeroll when blogs call it this) and purchase separate tickets, there's no link between the two flights. It's just like you're arriving from the delivering carriers perspective. No baggage interlining, no IRROPS protection, etc.

flyerbaby19

Well, I mean, ctrip offered it to me as a single itinerary. So I'm not sure I'd call myself a travel hacker. I just went onto the app and put SFO-VCE and this is the option that came up cheapest. oddly, right after i booked, the UA segment showed up in my account as unticketed. Now it doesn't show up at all. I'm moderately nervous.

jsloan

Right, that's the problem. If somebody takes it upon themselves to buy separate tickets, well, they ought to do the research. But when a travel agent suggests it, they really ought to provide a certain level of service to say "here's what you're buying, and here are some of the pitfalls."

If you have the confirmation number, you can enter it on the website to look up the reservation even if it's no longer linked to your account. If not, you can call UA with the flight information and they can give you a status update and the confirmation number for future use. If it turns out not to be ticketed, you'd want to follow up with ctrip.

Juventini

It's a common practice for OTAs like Ctrip and Fliggy hold an seat unticketed, and later manually issue the ticket via a different POS to take advantage of lower fare, most commonly seen UA tickets paid in AUD or BRL. It sometimes comes with lower price but strict change/cancellation fees. But in terms of disclosure of separate ticket, IIRC they mentioned you are responsible for two change-fees but never mentioned no protection under irrops.

mozilla

How exactly does this work, this holding a seat unticketed thing, knowing that this reduces the availability of valuable inventory? Aren't most UA TTL's 24 hours nowadays? As far as I know, flight firming won't think twice about canceling unticketed reservations that are past the TTL.

Continuously booking/canceling/rebooking at every 24hr mark is also something that tends to be detected and may result in negative consequences for the TA.

flyerbaby19

Thanks everyone, very useful comments. Some more info:

It showed up in my account unticketed. Then disappeared. i called Ctrip and they said it can take 24 hours to ticket. At the 12 hour mark, I got an email that it was ticketed but I didnt' see it back in my UA account. It looks like it was a different confirmation number than was there originally and did not have my number in it like the first one did. So i manually added it and all is well.

Next, it did ticket it with a Brazil POS. I checked .bomb and sure enough, I could buy the same ticket directly through UA. But I don't think i'd ever check every POS in the system, so the value of CTRIP is finding the POS that has a cheaper ticket. It's a K fare round trip SFO CDG for $474 after tax and only $340 PQD, yikes. So there was value in they found something I couldn't. Is there any other site that will search every POS for the cheapest place?

There is a disclosure that says this is a self transfer package. It's small and you have to click a few times but it is there. It says you have to exit/enter Paris. It does say "if you can't make a transfer due to a flight change or cancellation made by the airline, we will ensure you get to your destination or offer you a refund."

Another odd thing - this ticket was only available for group bookings of 2 or more. Not sure why, since I can buy it from .bomb I just need to change my POS

I wasn't sure what all of that meant, I was actually hoping it was a bulk ticket so I could get way more RDM, and was disappointed that it was just a different POS.

Anyone know if I can earn miles with VY?

laxmillenial

You actually can't if I recall correctly. You can see the price, but when you go through and actually 'pay' for the ticket, it'll push back to US if your billing adderss is US.

jsloan

You will not earn UA miles with VY. Most low-cost carriers don't offer award programs, but they do seem to be an exception; it looks like you can earn Avios.

I wonder what's included in a "flight change" by ctrip's language. I hope it includes things like weather delays...

Did you check SFO-CDG for your dates on the US site? I see a $477 K fare for random travel dates in October. It's certainly possible that the K inventory is blocked for US purchase, although I doubt it's only visible in Brazil -- it's possible, but it's weird, since I can't imagine they expect to sell many SFO-CDG seats to Brazilian customers. Regarding the companion fare -- did you search for 1 or 2+ people when you looked on United? UA will occasionally publish fares that require accompanied travel. It's another way they try to enforce price discrimination between business travelers and leisure travelers.

Correct. UA uses your credit card billing address, not the location you select, for POS. Being able to switch the POS is, in fact, one of the advantages of a large multi-national travel agent, which ctrip has become.

Bluehen1

Used Ctrip a lot while I was living in China. The way that the purchase of the tickets is described is common for them. It appears that they bundle several people's tickets to get lower prices than you can find on the airline's websites.

If the trip goes sour, you'll have to work with Ctrip to get you rebooked. The airlines are not likely to take care of it themselves. Make sure that you have Ctrip's contact information with you just in case something does go wrong.

findark

Right - the US ticket origin means that a US fare table will be used. Changing the sales city to Brazil can only affect the inventory available on those flights - I agree it's weird to have better inventory ex-Brazil but it could be anything at that point.

WineCountryUA

Purchasing a ticket from ctrip using POS as Brazil for a SFO-CDG-VCE trip with two separate tickets using two airlines without an interline agreement)
Not sure I would really be comfortable with that combo -- and wouldn't be shocked if there are more surprises to come.

especially after being previous burned by Can ctrip sell a Basic Economy ticket? and the history on FT for ctrip, such as United ticket on CTRIP - help please

Juventini

They only need to do it once, not every 24hrs.
Curious as well, if they create that reservation just to hold the K fare, how do they be so sure that inventory will be theirs once they cancel the reservation and switch POS in the event that K1 or K2.
They maybe just created the fake/temp reservation just to fool the pax?