Airline ticket tips

[Kiwifruit 0]

Hi folks

Kiwifruit here, your funny foreign fruit with a few tips from years in the airline industry to help you out

Things to know

- A return ticket (round trip) is always marginally more expensive than a one way and offers more value for money, it offers you up to a years stay so you have a way to get home if need be and you can claim back unused taxes if not required.

- Airlines sell "published" fares which is what average Joe Blow buys from the airline directly or from a travel agent

- Airlines also sell what are called "nett" fares (aka IT, BT or contract fares) to travel agents aimed at certain markets e.g. STA travel, Trailfinders in the UK etc. They are sold in bulk for a discount off a published fare under a contract.

- Nett fares can used in your favour, they often allow for free date changes but are restrictive in that you need a certain booking code for seats (often the lowest possible) which can sell out quick

- Bookings made through a travel agent must be serviced by the agent prior to departure and any refund even after departure must be referred back to them

- Flights are held in the airline systems for one year (to save costs) and this is called "system range" anything outside that, is called outside system range.

- Lets say you buy your ticket to depart in January but you can't book 12 months to next January because its outside system range and you book as far out as possible, some airlines will say you have to pay a fee for the date change to get your right of 12 months validity and some will not.

- If this happens to you and you cannot book 12 months out at time of booking and book as far out as you can but do not show up for the return flight without changing it you run the risk of having the ticket cancelled and value lost.

- Some airlines allow you to place the ticket into credit i.e. "open date" the return portion once you have travelled, which mitigates the system range problem, some do not. All will charge you a fee for changing a ticket from stored credit.

Things to Ask

- Can this ticket be stored as a credit after departure?

- Does this ticket allow a free of charge (FOC) date change if return date is not in system range?

- What is the change fee?

- Do I have to pay any fees-for-service to change the ticket through your airline or agency?

If you can book up to 12 months out from date of departure

- Ask can the ticket be placed into credit

If you cannot book up to 12 months out from date of departure

- Ask can the ticket be placed into credit, if so go with whatever is cheapest

- If not, ask a travel agent about a nett fare (contract fare) which allows an FOC date change for outside system range

- If none exist, find whatever has a lower change fee

Airlines

Some are better than others, trust me on that!

- From UK/Europe check with BA first, they generally allow all tickets to be placed into credit and Emirates as they generally allow an FOC date change on published fares and have lower fees. Not to mention a stop in Dubai!

- From SW Pacific/AU check with QANTAS, they allow all tickets to be placed into credit but do not offer an FOC date change on their published fares, they generally do on the nett fares sold through travel agents

- From Asia check with Cathay and Singapore Airlines first.

Hope that helps, any questions let me know!

[mattene 13]

Certainly in my experience, & I think most other airline travellers, a round-trip (departure/return) is much cheaper than a one way ticket. This disproves your first point. I don't know how you aren't aware of this if you work in the airline industry. If I'm wrong I'm ready to be enlightened. Matt

[Casprd 167]

In my experience, round trip tickets are rarely cheaper than a single one way ticket. Only one time in the past ten years was it cheaper to get a round trip when I needed just one leg and that was Bangkok to Chengdu. Round trip is definately cheaper than two one way tickets, but open jaw or multi city tickets tend to be the least expensive of all (i.e. New York to London - Paris to New York)

[cardinal 1]

I think it largely depends on airline and route. US to west Africa tix on AF are routinely $400 more for a one-way than for the entire RT (2650 vs 2250 for a ticket in the same booking class). This makes absolutely no sense to me, but it is what it is (And fyi for others flying these routes, AF will only let you book 3 months out).

Transatlantic flights, intra-Europe flights, and esp domestic flights I have had more luck with cheap one-ways.