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Ticket Tricks
ChrisCrossings · December 16, 1999

Q: Sure, the airlines want to "outlaw" back-to-back ticketing. That's because it cuts into the profit margins earned on business travel. In my previous position as a corporate auditor, I traveled from St. Louis to the West Coast each week for 4 to 12 weeks at a time. As my travel plans nearly never changed from week to week, I booked back-to-back tickets as a general rule.

Once at SNA, the customer service manager for TWA looked into my reservations and "caught me" with a back-to-back ticket. He started to raise a real stink. I told him that I had one other option on this route. I could book the outbound flight on TWA. Then I could book the inbound flight on Continental, Northwest, or American. At that point, he dropped the subject and said "Thank you for flying TWA."

Any travel agent could book two tickets for their client on separate airlines and not run into any problems. However, again, agents generally will not do this as it results in a lower commission.

-- Joe Luehrmann

A: Ah, the legendary Mr. Luehrmann. We haven't heard from you since you ruffled readers' feathers by suggesting that we should all fire our travel agents.

Some of the middlemen fought back the following week, claiming that you didn't really exist, but were a character created by the airline industry. After this week's note, I kind of doubt it.

You're a troublemaker, but I like your kind of trouble. Your letters make us think about some of the assumptions we make. For example, it's easy (and sometimes convenient) for an agent to tell a client that back-to-back tickets are illegal, but if it's on two different airlines, who's gonna know?

For those of you just tuning in to this discussion, a recap. Back-to-back tickets are a great booking trick that could help you save hundreds of dollars. When you buy the tickets, you're trying to get from point 'A' to point 'B' without staying over a Saturday night. As a result, the price for a regular round-trip ticket is outrageously high. (Carriers raise prices for itineraries that don't stay over a Saturday night because the passengers that book these tickets - business travelers - usually have money to burn.)

So your agent books you two sets of round-trip tickets - which are still less expensive than the first flight - and you simply throw away the unused portion of the itinerary. Unfortunately, airlines have begun cracking down on agencies that do back-to-backs, socking them with so-called debit memos that demand they pay the difference between the less restricted fare and the back-to-back. If they don't pay up, the agents could lose their plates, effectively stripping them of their ability to book a ticket. Needless to say, that would put many of them out of business in short order.

Joe's observation that you can still do a back-to-back ticket as long as it's on two separate airlines, is something that the creative, bargain-conscious self-bookers among us should note.

An itinerary like that can't be tracked by an airline, and your travel agent can't get in trouble for it. I should take a moment to say that there are people like Jim Haynes of the Commercial Travelers Organization who are working to undo nefarious airline Saturday-night stayover requirements that make these booking shenanigans necessary in the first place. If you're a frequent traveler, you should consider supporting Jim's cause.

The real issue here isn't whether back-to-backs are possible or even harmful to travel agents - it's the implication that agents won't book that kind of itinerary because they'll end up with less of a commission. I'm not sure if that would always be the case, but certainly some of the time (like when an agent isn't dealing with a preferred carrier) he or she will end up with a reduced bonus.

I think it goes without saying that your assertion is going to irritate a lot of travel agents. And that's OK. The ones that get the most upset are usually the ones who are doing it the most. The good agents don't have anything to worry about, and are invariably happy when the bad ones get a big spotlight shined on them.

But this isn't a question of what's good for travel agents, but travelers. I think generally speaking, back-to-backs are a good thing. If your travel agent can't or won't book one, then you ought to find someone or something that can.

If you know enough to ask for a back-to-back ticket, then you know the risks of booking such an itinerary -- and should be allowed to.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.