Yet another air fare strategy question
 

When the lowest far you can find (through kayak and airfare.com) involves two carriers (SAS and Lufthansa), is there any reason to prefer a trip on a single carrier--in case of problems, say? In this case, we're flying open jaw, and the all-Lufthansa option (which is actually partly on United) is $50 more (for two tickets)--not a deal breaker. Also, I'm pretty sure people have had good experiences with airefare.com--is that right? And finally, we're talking open jaw flights to France next April/May in the $900-$910 range (apiece)--should I lock it in or wait?

Carol,

I just booked an open jaw Paris ticket for $550. This was into CDG and out of BRU from CLE. It is for travel at the end of the month.

You don't say where you are leaving from, but Orbitz shows the same trip I booked for mid April at $740 on Delta + Air France.

Can you tell me what city you are leaving from?

Kevin

If you have cross-checked airfares using sites such as www.onetravel.com and www.itasoftware.com and the fares are the same then waiting may or may not be worthwhile.

I notice the current Lufthansa sale to Europe is for travel before April. Does that mean the company does not feel the need to lower fares for the 1 April and beyond period?

We're leaving from Washington DC (preferably Dulles, very close to us; DC could be OK but we don't want Baltimore)and flying into Nice (11 April), then home from Bordeaux 21 May. We don't want the flight from Bordeaux that leaves at 6:25 AM; there's one at 11:50. (Extra money is worth it in this case.)I guess you pay more if the trip is longer than 30 days, too.
Carolyn

hehe...well that makes all the difference. Given that you are staying >30 days and flying into and out of non-normal international airports, the price you got sounds pretty good.

If price is at all important to you, you can do a lot to lower it. Since you are there for so long, you could easily start and end in Paris.

But, if price doesn't matter and you just want to know about $900 being a good deal...yes, for what you want to do it is :)

Kevin

It should not matter if you switch airlines as long as you are ticketed for one through trip. In my experience, it is just like changing planes on the same carrier except maybe more distance between gates.

Kayd, although Carol didn't explicitly say this, since the carriers were SAS and Lufthansa, I believe this is not a codeshare arrangement and she would not be ticketed from DC to her final destination.

That would (potentially) cause problems :)

SAS and Lufthansa very much used to have codeshare flights at least when I traveled on SAS (from Dulles) to Copenhagen and on to Berlin on an SAS codeshare flight on Lufthansa.

I'm not sure I follow your carriers, but I don't think it makes any difference if there are two different carriers -- one going and a different one returning. These are two completely different flights. I do prefer to keep on the same carrier/codeshare for a single direction, though, in case you miss a connection.

I fly on two different carriers quite a bit when I do open jaw, because usually a different carrier has better prices and options out of the other city.

The flights in are SAS 926 and 793, changing in Copenhagen. The flights out are Lufthansa 4341 and 414, changing in Munich.

As Christina said, different carriers in and out are no problem. It is only when 2 (non-codeshare) carriers take you in one direction that you could possibly have problems.

Thanks, that makes sense.

There's no reason she could not get a Dulles-CPH-FRA ticket with a change of carriers in CPH. It is done every day. I flew on a single itinerary (bag checked all the way through) from Seville on Spanair to Barcelona, Lufthansa to Frankfurt, to Dulles on United. No need for a code share or even that they all be in the same alliance (thought SAS, United and Lufthnsa are all Star Alliance)-- the oldline carriers have agreements for ticketing, baggage handling, etc., with all the other legacy carriers.

Where you would have trouble is mixing legacies with upstarts -- Southwest et al do not have interline agreements and you would have to purchase the segments separately, handle your baggage at the connection airport and lose your seat on the second flight if the first one lands late.

Kayd, agreed. My point was just that if she is mixing non-codeshare carriers and misses a flight due to delays, it will be easier to rectify if she is ticketed all the way thru to her final destination instead of switching (non-codeshare) carriers.

Code-share offers no benefit -- all she needs is to have the entire ticket on "interline agreement" airlines. That's what gives protection in the event of a missed connection.

Kayd, I'm not going to continue this :)

I think we are saying the same thing, but maybe not. Anyway, it is moot as it does not apply to the OP's situation.