Q: I will be traveling from Austin, Texas, to Bombay next month. But instead of a single round-trip ticket, I have one round-trip for Austin-Paris-Austin and another roundtrip for Paris-Bombay-Paris. I booked these tickets myself online. It cost me a few hundred dollars less this way as opposed to getting one ticket for the entire trip. The Austin-Paris-Austin leg is on Continental Airlines (code share with Air France) and the Paris-Bombay-Paris is on Air France.
Does this violate any airline rule that you know of? I did check thoroughly before booking, but recently, one travel agent told me this was back-to-back ticketing.
– G.S. Ganeshkumar
A: You did a good job saving money on your airline ticket. I think your travel agent is more upset about being bypassed than the legality of your ticket. Because the itinerary as you describe it to me isn’t a back-to-back; you’re just using two airlines to get to your destination.
What is a back-to-back, or b2b, ticket? It’s when you buy two cheaper tickets but only use half of each one, which still ends up costing less than booking a single, less-restricted ticket. Airlines say b2bs are violation of their tariff rules because they allow travelers to circumvent Saturday-night stay restrictions intended to force business travelers to pay hundreds – and at times even thousands – more per ticket. But a b2b can also be used by leisure travelers like you to get a better deal.
If this were a b2b, then you’d have two tickets from Austin to Bombay. You would use only half of each ticket – the outbound half on the first ticket and the inbound half on the second ticket. You’d then discard the unused portions.
Interestingly, a b2b would probably work on Continental and Air France. Even though the airlines are what are known as “codesharing” partners-meaning that they share certain flights, schedules, and frequent flier programs-chances are they don’t have the wherewithal or even the inclination to track one-time b2b offenders like you. So you could buy two separate tickets, use them, and never have to worry about whether your ticket was legal or not. Other airlines are known to share information like this across their computer systems. When they find a b2b reprobate, they can confiscate their mileage rewards and bill the difference between the cheaper illegal tickets and the more expensive ones.
It’s a good thing that you’re concerned about having a legal ticket. It shows that you want to play by the rules even though the rules don’t make much sense. I don’t necessarily share your sentiments. I believe that b2bs are often a necessary strategy, and I strongly disagree with airlines that try to describe them as illegal. They simply aren’t.
Last year, when I wrote about an airline crackdown on business travelers using b2b itineraries, my editors deleted large portions of the text because they believed the airline rhetoric and didn’t want to encourage readers to do anything wrong. But as I recently reported, b2bs aren’t illegal; they just upset the airlines that want to squeeze as much money out of passengers as possible. That makes the tickets inconvenient to the carriers, but not wrong.
The real issue here is what your agent told you, which is clearly false. There’s a special place in hell reserved for agents who take advantage of travelers who don’t fully understand the airline’s Byzantine rules and regulations – that use scare tactics to get new business and spread misinformation in order to meet their bottom-line goals. It seems to me you may be working with such an agent.
I would look for a new travel counselor before booking your next trip.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
One quite legal way to get around the b-2-b rule is to make the reservations on two separate airlines. For example, fly Chicago – LAX on United, and back on American. If they contact you about the unused portion, you simply need to inform them your plans changed and you did not use the return portion of whichever airline contacts you. It is none of their business how you got back home, and they cannot force you to answer.
Dana Baldwin
It seems to me that you may be jumping the gun on this agent. Before you condem this person to a special hell. Maybe you should think about the fact that not only did this person call an agency to get free information and then not use the agency, but you have no idea if this person was clear about their ticketing plans to this agent. I have been an agent for over 15 years and I would have no problem doing a ticket like this as long as the individual understands that if a change is nessecary you are talking about 2 change fees and if a schedule change occurs that causes a misconnect the airlines will not nessecarily protect you on flights booked this way. A good agent could have run a ticket like this on one reservation with 2 ticket numbers so the airlines would know what you are doing and also protect you from a potential costly misconnect.
Buying two tickets? Bad idea…
If your flight from Austin to Paris is delayed and you miss your connection, you are responsible for all costs (hotels, meals, change fees, new tickets, etc.). The same for your return, you misconnect in Paris and you are paying a lot of expenses.
As well, having to pickup your bag and recheck in takes time and if you do not allow sufficient time for this then you are responsible for missing your flight.
When a schedule change occurs and it interrupts your connection, again, there is no one to turn to – you are out any fees or expenses.
Bottom line, two tickets = bad idea.
As long as you have enough time to make the connections in Paris, there is nothing wrong with this, but if one flight is delayed or your baggage misplaced – because you will have to pick it up and recheck it yourself – you could have a problem and neither airline is responsible.
If I were planning to spend some time in Paris on the way, I would definitely do this, it is much easier than trying to schedule a layover. I also like the idea of getting my luggage to know for sure it has made it this far, so if it is lost or damaged the time frame and responsibility is more closely pin pointed.
By the way, I had a 12 hour layover in Paris with a continuously scheduled ticket and it was very easy to grab a cab and get into the city to visit a museum and have a good lunch. (Metro is efficient too but there were three of us or cab was not unreasonable) Luggage stayed with the airline at the airport, I do not know if you could do this with a change of airlines. Food and amenities at CDG were very nice so it is not a hardship to stay at the airport either.