Buying plane tickets & checked bag fees
 

Hello. I haven't paid much attention to ticket costs & checked bag fees until now.

My scenario: Ticket from A to C has a layover at B, and each of the 2 legs is a different airline. Ticket from A to C costs $400. But if I apparently buy tickets A to B and B to C seperately, the total is more like $300. Why? (I'm guessing it's the cost of putting in less work). Are there disadvantages to buying the 2 seperately, such as more hassle at the airport or something?

And what's the checked bag fee situation? Is there only 1 checked bag fee with the larger, more expensive ticket (unlikely since I'm still flying with 2 different airlines), versus 2 different checked bag fees having booked seperately with 2 different airlines (let's assume all the airlines ARE charging a checked bag fee : ) It appears Kayak.com has a nice list of which airline charges how much for everything.

Thank you.

If you buy the tickets separately, you are not protected in case of a misconnect. If your A-B flight is delayed so much that you miss your B-C connection, the second airline will regard you as a no-show. You'll be out the money you paid for that ticket, period, and will have to buy a last-minute fare from B to C. That would turn out to be very expensive.

Even if the flights are on time, you'll still have to retrieve your bags at B, check in with the second airline there, and go back through security.

But if you buy A-B-C-B-A roundtrip all on one ticket, and your first flight is late, the second airline is obligated to get you to your final destination on a later flight.

I can;t answer the question about the fees for checked bags.

It depends. There is a lot of risk if your AB flight is late.

If the airlines share a checked bag agreement then you may be able to check your bags all the way from A to C for the price of ABs checked bag fee. If not then you'll need to retrieve your bags at B & drop them off with the BC airline.

If flight AB is late and you miss the checked bag cutoff or miss the flight totally (assuming you've checked in online with BC), then you'll probably need to buy a whole new ticket from B to C ad considerable cost.

Also, with 2 sep. tickets, if you miss your B to C flight, your return ticket from C back to B will be invalid, since you would have been a now show on the first leg. So you will end up buying a completely new roundtrip tickets B to C to B at last minute for big $$$. And what if the flights are sold out? How will delay in travel impact your trip and plans in C?

Sometimes it just isn't worth the $100 "savings"

Deb

Thank you for the info. I wanted to spare you boring details so I didn't share that it's really 3 1-way routes: US to Iceland (via a stop in US somewhere), Iceland to Ireland (probably via a stop in London), & Ireland to US (prob via a stop in US somewhere)...but I don't see how that much changes the great advice you 3 gave. Technically, since it's for 2 people, the cost difference is roughly $700-$1000 in savings for us, the seperate tickets on each leg being cheaper by $100-180 each.

I'd love to save the $, but there are a lot of unforseens that can mess up our trip that's gonna be costly anyway. I guess one thing I can do it try to figure out how much time I'd need between flights & see if layovers are long enough for the seperate option.

It's probably safe to assume all airlines will charge for checked bags. Why wouldn't they, right?

Instead of buying 3 one-way tickets have you priced out a multi-city option for the entire journey? Travel search engines like www.kayak.com let you enter 6 separate legs. Even if you are flying different airlines from A to B then B to C (Iceland), if you buy them as one ticket you're protected should something go awry.

J62,
I have tried that, and just tried again to double check, and I can't get a single result on flights/legs I KNOW are available. Strange.

Do not assume anything about paying bag-check fees. I think that most US carriers charge the fee only for domestic tickets. I paid nothing on an international itinerary that included a domestic segment, but would have been charged the fee if I had taken only the domestic trip on the same airline.

Is it?

A=origin in US
B=Iceland
C=Ireland

or

A=origin in US
B=connection in US
C=Iceland

Kayd,
I was just saying in my early budgetary estimates I should plan on needing to pay lots of checked bag fees. As I get more research in, I'm getting more facts. I've heard of what you said, which is a positive. A negative is that Aer Lingus charges a few $ more than the US (not a big deal though), and checked bags can only be up to 44 lbs at that standard weight (now that's painful to my ears :)

Patty,
You're 2nd idea is partially right...My 1 big trip consists of 3 main 1-way parts:

1-US (A) to connection in US (B), then US connection to Iceland (C),

2-Iceland (A) to connection in London (B), then London to Ireland (C),

3-Ireland (A) to connection in US (B), then US connection to Home in West US (C).

Thanks again for all the help. I'm getting reconciled to having to pay an extra $1,000 for the whole ticket scenario, but now I'm frustrated that most of the options given me when I just search from A to C are pretty crappy: too early, or 2 connections instead of 1, or getting there 1/2 a day late, or leaving earlier than really want to and sitting somewhere for 7 hrs. I really want to look into the risk of booking seperately. Maybe I can get more of what I want & still have nice robust connection times to help me make my 2nd flight.

Have you talked to a travel agent? By booking 3x one way flights you may be incurring unnecessary added cost. The 6 flight itinerary may be too complex for an online search engine to find, but a TA can book this as one big multi-city/round trip and get the benefit of round trip pricing rather than 3x one-way itineraries.

This may be a case where enlisting the help of a travel agent is worthwhile.

There's still something here I don't understand: Your final destination is Ireland, right? Do you plan to stop over, in other words, spend at least one night in a hotel, in Iceland? Or would it be just a place to change planes?

As for what you said:

"Most of the options given me when I just search from A to C are pretty crappy: too early, or 2 connections instead of 1, or getting there 1/2 a day late, or leaving earlier than really want to and sitting somewhere for 7 hrs."

You are already considering adding extra connections, time, and inconvenience when you bring Iceland into the whole thing, so I don't understand why US-Ireland-US seems less convenient to you.

After Part 1 of your itinerary, the airline (I take it it's Icelandair) will assume your trip is over, because that's all your ticket with them will say. They will offload your bags, and you will have to go through passport control for Iceland, retrieve your bags, go through customs, and then check in at the airline counter. You then will need to clear security and go to the gate for your Part 2 flight. What's in your favor is that Keflavik Airport is not difficult to negotiate (It's not Heathrow), but still, this seems like extra hassle.

So, honest? You think this is a more convenient option than trying to go from USA to Ireland? Even with a connection in London, which it sounds like you are prepared to do anyway?

After reading through this and his/her other threads, I think QT is planning this trip

1. Western US (city remains unnamed) to Iceland; spend a few days in Iceland
2. Iceland to Ireland. Spend some time in Ireland.
3. Ireland to Western US.

There is mention of a US stopover, but I'm now assuming that means a connection without an intent to leave the airport or spend an overnight. The location of the gateway airport does't matter.

He/she is planning to book 3 separate one way tickets, rather than a multi-city and is having concerns about the cost. Or maybe even 6 one way tickets, two for each of the 3 legs.

Did I get that right?

If so, you think you need to seriously look at one single ticket, with a multi-city itinerary.
Home - Iceland
Iceland - Ireland
Ireland - Home

If you can't find an itinerary you like online, then it's time to use a travel agent, who can easily mix & match airlines and still get you fares that aren't priced as one-way.

<<I guess one thing I can do it try to figure out how much time I'd need between flights & see if layovers are long enough for the seperate option.>>

Even so, what if any of your flights are cancelled or significantly delayed?