Some last minute changes to work is causing me to consider the following trip

already started itinerary

XXX - Home
Home - XXX

new itinerary inserted into the first
YYY - Home
Home - YYY

I know that if XXX=YYY this would be back-to-back ticketing or nesting of same city pairs which is not allowed. If XXX and YYY were in different parts of the country, I should be fine but in my case the two cities are less than 150 miles apart. Will United have a problem with this?

Thanks

I don't think you will have a problem, but not because XXX and YYY are different cities. I have NEVER had any kind of problem with doing back-to-backs. This may be because I always fly all the legs - not leaving any dangling, unused portions that would suggest I was doing the more classic businessman's version where you don't use the second RT.

I'm looking forward to hearing other comments on this - particularly from UA folks on FT. No CSR has ever looked at my record and said they could not book the second trip because it was nested within the first -- though I have always made two separate calls. In fact, I have even had the experience where I was in conversation with a nice CSR while booking the second trip and told them what I was doing because I needed to make two transcon trips for one day each on consecutive weeks to the same city - and they said back-to-backs weren't permitted......then booked the second trip for me.

What about the following scenario?

A. Home � XXX
B. XXX � Home

and, nested within this trip, on a separate ticket:

C. XXX � Home
D. Home � XXX

I�m using all the segments.

This seems to be a classic �nesting� situation, BUT, all coupons in both tickets are being used. (For those not familiar with nesting, the above scenario has the advantage of allowing two tickets with Saturday-night stays, but actually allowing you to be home over the weekend. The actual order in which coupons are used would be ACDB.)

Have done this on two different carriers without a problem. Would it be possible to do it all on UA?

That is the classic back-to-back scenario and the one I have used occasionally. It is also the one that is disallowed. Someone on FT will provide a sample of the rules, I'm sure, but in brief - they say you cannot intentionally start a second trip before completing the first if the destinations are the same. Of course, there is no problem with booking a new trip after you have begun one because then you would not get the benefit of the advance purchase, etc. And, of course, separate itineraries to other cities don't really sound any alarms, I believe.

By the way, in the new rules announced last month, one of the things UA said they would crack down on was back-to-backs booked by travel agents. The one I use for certain trips actually looks at your record to make sure you aren't doing that and will not make the reservation if so.

I think that you already know the answer to your question. But, if you run a search for the 'contract of carriage' on the UAL website, your question is specifically addressed on Page 12.

Sorry, this computer will not let me clip and paste from the UAL Adobe download today.



[This message has been edited by tvl4free (edited 10-26-2002).]

Just a quick question, what's the difference between end-on-ends and nested tickets?

home-aaa Jan
aaa-home Apr

with 2nd ticket as:

aaa-xyz Feb
xyz-aaa Mar

If no stay restrictions (say both are minimum Sat night and maximum 4 months or something) are circumvented, and the rules say "end-on-end permitted," is this allowed? I'm not sure if this would be any different than what sjunkerg posted originally, though.

Answered here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/Forum50/HTML/015058.html

I'm curious to the answer to this. Can you simply use an alternate airport to leverage this?

e.g.,

SFO-JFK (Ticket 1, Coupon 1)
EWR-SFO (Ticket 2, Coupon 1)
SFO-EWR (Ticket 2, Coupon 2)
JFK-SFO (Ticket 1, Coupon 2)

or if you want to be even "cleaner" about it,
SFO-JFK (Ticket 1, Coupon 1)
EWR-OAK (Ticket 2, Coupon 1)
OAK-EWR (Ticket 2, Coupon 2)
JFK-SFO (Ticket 1, Coupon 2)

Of course the cleanest approach would be to use two carriers. With the US-UA parternship, you get one UA ticket and one US ticket and it's very clean.

Is UA better off when you use another airline for the nested trip? Or back to back. In many markets, such as, DTW-ORD you can choose from 5 carriers.

Fossilized ageing corporations are paralyzed and die of hunger when their cheese has moved.

tvl4free, is this it:

From www.rulesoftheair.com

"United Airlines
Rule 100C
Use of coupons from two or more tickets issued at round trip fares for the purpose of circumventing applicable tariff rules (such as advance purchase / minimum stay requirement) is not permitted. United agents and authorized travel agents are prohibited from issuing tickets, commonly referred to as "back to back ticketing", under such circumstances when there is obvious intent to abuse and/or misuse restricted round trip fares. Agents found issuing such tickets may be liable for the difference between the fare paid and the fare for transportation used. United Airlines has the right to deny transportation to passengers found utilizing tickets in this manner unless the difference between the fare paid and the fare for the transportation used is collected."
Rule 100 C / 22nd revised page UA-7 / May 9, 1996

1K-SFO, thanks.

If you are doubtful if you have allowable nested/back to back ticketing - just show all your tickets to the CTA and ask, or ask to be checked through. Let's see what happens?