Booking 1+ stop flights but only using some legs?

wadewadewade

Hi there,


So, after hearing some things from colleagues about how flights to certain places (in this case, the USA) were cheaper from Europe, I thought I’d do some digging and see if it would be cheaper to go via Europe.

The first place I checked was from Dublin – and indeed, the flights were £342, around £50 cheaper than from the USA. Whether flights to Dublin would be cheaper & the hassle would be worth it is a separate discussion for now because the flight from Ireland has one stop...at London Heathrow. Interesting.

Here comes the question: Is it possible to book flights that go Dublin – London – New York but only catch the London – New York leg both ways? This would make it cheaper and it’s with a better airline.

I did search the site & forum but didn’t see anything about it on there...has anyone tried and/or thought about this?

Thanks,
Chris

EDIT: Found out this is called "point beyond" ticketing. AA are very much against it and generally it's unadvised - partly because it's unethical (that part doesn't bother me so much) but also because the return part of the ticket may be cancelled, it will hold up other passengers if you don't board certain legs and it's impossible if you check baggage (I don't, some might) - overall, I won't be going for it.

Incapuppy

I'm only guessing but I highly doubt it - if you didn't show up for the Dublin-London section I would have thought the rest of the journey would be cancelled.

cte1111

I think once you didn't check in to the first part, they would cancel the second part.

It does seem crazy though really. A friend was telling me he went to a conference in China recently and had to change in Denmark, as this was the cheapest flights by some way. He met some Danish colleagues there who had flown via Heathrow, as it was cheapest for them. Madness!

wadewadewade

Good point on not checking in - although if I checked in online...

Mands

wadewadewade wrote: »

Here comes the question: Is it possible to book flights that go Dublin – London – New York but only catch the London – New York leg both ways? This would make it cheaper and it’s with a better airline.

No: if you don't take flight #1 then #2, #3 & #4 will all be cancelled.

jpsartre

It's not really crazy. Airlines have to dump prices on non-direct routing options in order to make flights attractive compared to alternative non-stop options offered by others. That's why flights from A to B are sometimes more expensive than flights from A to B to C.

jpsartre

wadewadewade wrote: »

Good point on not checking in - although if I checked in online...

It's not the check in that matters, what matters is that you will be a no-show on one of your flights. That results in the rest of your ticket being cancelled.

signol

As has been mentioned, no.
You could get to Dublin to start the journey, and get off in London on the return, but not with any checked luggage - it will get offloaded, delaying the flight and all passengers, and there's no way to get it back to you.
Ireland has cheaper taxes than the UK, one of the reasons for this. Try booking an "open jaw" return flight, departing Dublin (or Paris, Brussels, Italy...) to the USA destination, returning to Heathrow. I did this going to South Africa last year for a big saving, departing Milan. (Paris or Brussels would be good departure points as the Eurostar is easy and not delayed so much).

Hope this helps a bit!

signol