Can you buy a "Direct" flight by purchasing a connecting flight?!

jumperabv3

I was looking (just as a test) for flights from Hong Kong to Vancouver, and when searching for ones available the cheapest DIRECT ones I came with were for 600 GBP:



Whilst on the other hand - if I would be looking at the same dates for flights from Hong Kong to Los Angeles then I would be offered a cheaper price for "direct" flight with Air Canada to Vancouver!!!!



So supposedly, hypothetically speaking ... if a person wants to fly from Hong Kong to Vancouver, can he book this flight to LA, and fly with Air Canada all the way to Vancouver, tell the airline to drop his luggage there, and return from there as well ... simply by "forfeiting" the LA flight?!

Why Air Canada cannot offer a direct flight when I searched for it between HKG to YVR?

michele-p

Hi, I'm no expert on this. I think it would be OK one way, when you start the flight are the first connection. But if you try to pick up the flight after the connection, if you don't arrive for the first flight they would cancel all the sectors.

jumperabv3

michele-p wrote: »

if you don't arrive for the first flight they would cancel all the sectors.

What if you call Air Canada in advance, and tell them you need to board from Vancouver instead? You're just saving them a passenger to fly from LA to Vancouver, so why would they refuse?

tomtontom

No, this will not be permitted. As soon as you miss the YVR - LAX flight the rest of your ticket will be cancelled.

jumperabv3

Found this online ...

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/skip-leg-return-flight-2012-1

Seems like a BAD idea.

Caz3121

the other thing to bear in mind (for anyone considering on a one-way ticket where the effect of the remaining sectors being cancelled is not an issue but note it still breaches the conditions of the ticket) is that the contract would be from HKG-LAX. If there was delay on the departing flight they can reroute you on a different airline/through different city to get you to LAX

It is frustrating that for your dates Air Canada want £880 to YVR but £515 to go on the same flights but continue on to LAX. The reasoning will be that Cathay offer direct HKG-LAX on those dates for £619 so the fare has to be enticing enough for someone to choose an indirect flight over a direct one

duchy

I've done this - however if you tell the airline you want to get off early they *can* recalculate te fare before you board.

The best way is to travel hand luggage only (I hate hanging about for luggage so can pack for a week in a bag acceptable to US/Canadian carriers if not Ryanair ) or to book with a decent layover in the connecting city "Please just check my bag to XXX as I'll want to have a shower and change my clothes before flying on" a layover can be up to 24 hours on most fares anyway and the longer layover tends to avoid reroutes that end you up in your ticketed final city rather than your intended final city.

I've had layovers that have given me an entire day of sightseeing in a city before now by choice -it isn't that unusual -plenty of people do it to fit meetings in en route too.

If you "miss" your last leg of a ticket once the airline won't notice, if you do it on a regular basis - especially with a FF number in the booking the airline WILL notice and there have been instances of them taking action especially in the US.

Once you miss a flight the rest of any journey on that ticket is automatically cancelled as TomTom stated.