Do I have to be on Connecting Flights

jubarnes261

Hi there,

Hoping someone can help me, I'm looking at from Dublin to San Francisco and back ( dont necessarily want to fly from Dublin but its cheaper) and have found some really cheap and they have one stop in Heathrow then pick up a Virgin Flight to San Francisco - on expedia these Virgin flights from heathrow are showing as £926 but if my journey starts in Dublin the flight is £510 -so my question is - if i book the cheap overall flight from Dublin to San Francisco do I physically have to go to Dublin and do the first leg to Heathrow or could i just go straight to Heathrow and pick up the connecting flight? and likewise coming back from Los Angeles it is a one stop flight stopping at Heathrow before carrying on to Dublin - is there anything stopping me getting off from Heathrow and just going home? Or is it all to do with your bags being transferred?

Overall It will still be cheaper for me to get a cheap flight from Luton to Dublin and do it that way than to book the Virgin flight direct from Heathrow but it seems a bit pointless and if i could cut that bit out and still get the same price that would be great.

Any help would be gratefully received.

ttoli

Yes you need to fly from Dublin , If you don't check-in for the flight the rest of the Itinerary will be cancelled

jubarnes261

Thank you - i did wonder if it was too obvious a loophole !!

What about coming back though? if i get off at Heathrow it wont really matter if they cancel my flight to dublin, can you get your bags off? or is this all really dodgy?!!

ttoli

Try at check-in @ LAX , tell them that you wan't your bags checked thru to Heathrow NOT Dublin.

Bogalot

ttoli wrote: »

Try at check-in @ LAX , tell them that you wan't your bags checked thru to Heathrow NOT Dublin.

But be prepared for them to say no and have a contingency in place.

The airlines are becoming wise to the usual "I need to get something out of my bag" line.

dickydonkin

Bogalot wrote: »

But be prepared for them to say no and have a contingency in place.

The contingency simply being to request your luggage to be pulled from the system as soon as you arrive in the UK.

It would be unlikely your luggage would be short checked from the US.

richardw

Pick a flight from LON-DUB the day after the LAX arrival or later.
Btw if you don't fly this sector they may regard you as a 'fare abuser' and take action against you.

Btw have a read of https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5495502

bagand96

Short checking your bags can be an issue. I had a 21 hour connection overnight in Paris last year on the way home from the USA. Getting them to check my bags only to CDG and not all the way to the UK took a little persuading. Even though they could see I had a legitimate overnight connection.

One other idea... try it as a multi city search DUB-SFO then SFO-LHR. This can still save £££, although often not quite as much as doing the round trip to Dublin.

stevie11

bagand96 wrote: »

snip ...

One other idea... try it as a multi city search DUB-SFO then SFO-LHR. This can still save £££, although often not quite as much as doing the round trip to Dublin.

Agree with this, I usually book ex EU then return to Manchester ie. Dub-???-Man. Although the price is usually a little higher I do not have the worry of misconnecting the return Dub flight, plus I can then bring home the usually higher baggage allowance of the schedule airline rather than the smaller Ryanair allowance.

PeacefulWaters

Can you fly back to a different London airport than the one the final Dublin flight starts from?

That way the bags will be checked to London and not Dublin.

blindman

jubarnes261 wrote: »

Thank you - i did wonder if it was too obvious a loophole !!

What about coming back though? if i get off at Heathrow it wont really matter if they cancel my flight to dublin, can you get your bags off? or is this all really dodgy?!!

Look at V-Flyer thread for what others have done.

Some good suggestions in this thread

Another one is to have Hand Baggage only so their is no issue with suitcases in the hold.

Did this last year and flew
DUB-LHR-LGW-LAS

LAS-LGW

Went home

You may need to look at ITA Matirx to see what works\is cheapest.