tamhawk1969

Hi,

I live in the USA and have family come over pretty much every year. Whenever we look at flights we always notice that the one stop flights are less expensive sometimes but a considerable amount.

An Example would be that a flight from Manchester to Atlanta could be 800GBP direct but a flight from Manchester to Jacksonville via Atlanta could be 500GBP. This is when still catching same flight from Manchester to Atlanta but just connecting.

1, Is there a reason behind the flight price differences?

2, What stops people from booking a one stop flight but then clearing immigration and customs in Atlanta and exiting there, so no connection?


Any knowledge or advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Tamhawk1969

chawkins99

No idea why, but this related story is very interesting:
How a 23-year-old beat United Airlines - Dec. 31, 2015

dj6372

You are paying for convenience!

When Mrs DJ and myself were dating I would fly any route that was cheap

LHR to JFK to ATL to LAS my worst, think it worked out close to 22 hours from start to finish

I even booked short notice package deals with hotel included, these bizarrely enough worked out cheaper than a flight alone, Virgin used to have screaming short notice deals

But booking an indirect flight has been the savvy travellers way of getting a cheaper flight, fly to the 'stopover' destination but not continue further

I have a sneaking suspicion airlines cottoned on and were reflecting that in the pricing

sir_eccles

Isn't it call open jaw?

Pulaski

If you don't complete the flight the airline cancels all onward/ return legs. It can be done on a limited basis on the return leg if you can get hold of your luggage, but you're playing with fire if you try it on the outward leg.

A family friend tried to use the return leg of a ticket that he had not used the outward leg of, and found himself stranded in California with no way to buy a ticket - one way tickets cannot be bought by non-US citizens, or at least they couldn't then, in the years shortly after 9/11.

dj6372

Its not so much the return portion

For example I want to fly to Atlanta it costs $1000, if I fly to Vegas via Atlanta it costs $800

So I book the Vegas trip but get off at Atlanta

It tends to work better international because you have to physically claim your luggage at POE

If you fly internally take carry on only, otherwise your hold luggage will automatically transfer to wherever your final destination was

As I said I think the loophole has been 'adjusted'

tom169

I didn't know that was the case.

I personally try to go for whatever route has least transfers.

A) I don't trust luggage handlers if I was forced into checking luggage. I try do all my trips just on hand luggage allowance if I can help it.

B) I never trust how long the customs / immigration line is

Pulaski

But if you book UK- Vegas- UK, but get out at Atlanta and not fly to Vegas, how do you get home?

dj6372

Your only using one portion of the ticket

Mrs DJ used to fly like this

Book previously mentioned ticket, get out at Atlanta, fly on another ticket to perhaps Dallas

She would have meetings around the US, using various 'portions' of tickets, its a complete faff, but saves companies a ton of money

She would never go to Vegas and may not even return to Atlanta

As you know returns are cheaper than singles, and the return portion not used, standby flights become available

Her itinerary was a crazy binder of flight bookings

Like I said its for the savvy traveller, and a great way to save cash for the frequent flyer

Giantaxe

Indeed.

Really this trick only works on the return portion or one-way tickets, or if you simply don't want to take the return. I toyed with the idea of doing it on a return to San Francisco last year, as the layover city turned out subsequent to buying the ticket to be somewhere I would have liked to have been and it would have saved me $$ just to skip the last leg back to SFO. But... the airline then changed my flight to a non-stop to SFO! The bottom line is when you buy a ticket, the airline is contracting to take you from point A to point B; they are not contracting to take you via a specific point C even if that is what was originally ticketed.

dj6372

Yup that happened to Mrs DJ, also missing your connector because of delays, especially if the connector is something you booked, the airlines will do little to help, as far as they are concerned you arrived in time for their connector

She got upgraded to business..........was over the moon, but changed to direct...... oh lordy lol

As I said a faff! I had more than one phone call from Mrs DJ, helping her via Skyscanner/Expedia/Travelzoo, I got pretty good at it!

Pulaski

Right, but buying two transatlantic returns isn't going to save the OP and money, so while it can be a viable strategy for domestic flights within the US (which I didn't mean to deny), it doesn't help the OP at all.

dj6372

Maybe I went a little off tangent at some point, just a little

Pulaski

You're probably the first person ever to do that on BE. Probably.

dj6372

Anyway off fishing