"Open Jaw" Airline Bookings

[Roz]

This is a general type of question, but since this is my home board, I'll ask it here.

 

My first cruise was to Alaska on HAL - Vancouver to Seward. I did my airfare thru HAL for a couple of reasons, one of them being I just didn't know how to book flights where you land in one city (Vancouver) and leave from another (Anchorage).

 

When I attempted to research flights, I ran into problems with the one flight being international and other domestic. The only thing I could come up with was booking 2 one-way flights, but people on this board have said you don't book 2 one-ways, you do an "open jaw".

 

I don't want to sound like a ditz, but how the heck do you do that, either on a airline website or something like Travelocity or Expedia?

 

BTW, I was extremely satisfied with the flights, times, hotel, transfers, etc. that I got thru HAL. For a first timer cruiser traveling by herself, it made life so much easier. I was having enough anxiety attacks without worrying about those details.

 

Would someone please explain the ins and outs of "open jaws".

 

Roz

[MandyGirl]

I don't know how to do it online or if this is similar to what you are looking for, but I did book an airline ticket with three segments... (not sure if it was called openjaw since arrival/return city was the same)

 

Dallas to San Juan

8-day stopover for cruise out of San Juan

San Juan to St Croix

4-day stop over for land-vacation

St Croix to Dallas (change planes in San Juan)

Because I was using American AAdvantage miles for this trip, it counted as one rountrip Caribbean ticket. They do the stopovers 'for free' when using AA miles in certain cities, with San Juan being one of them since it is a major hub. I did this all over the phone, and it was a nice AA res agent who suggested it when I was trying to actually make a purchase for the SJU-STX (and back to SJU) portion of our trip - she said she'd just book it as a stopover in San Juan and it didn't cost me any more AA miles to do so. If you are using airline miles for this, you might want to check into that.

Otherwise, when looking at other trips to book with different cities, I've basically used Travelocity booking as "multiple destinations"... but have never actually booked (just at the research stage). But that's about the limit I know of openjaw.

[Globaliser]

I don't want to sound like a ditz, but how the heck do you do that, either on a airline website or something like Travelocity or Expedia?

What you're looking for is "multiple destinations" or "multiple cities" or something like that. On both Travelocity and Expedia, it will allow you to input From and To for each of your flights.

 

So you want to input:-

From "Music City" To "Seattle"

From "Anchorage" To "Music City"

 

Then see what options the engine returns.

[General Max]

You can also use frequent flyer miles to book open jaw tickets. As long as the return flight is more than 50% of the departing flight. We booked Orlando to Anchorage on the departing flight and Calgary to Orlando on the return flight. United Airlines and only 25,000 miles per ticket.

 

General Max

[Bill S]

Roz: just a couple of observations:

 

I had the same open-jaw problem last year for our South America cruise, and I found great results just by using the airlines' web sites, as opposed to travelocity or expedia. We used AA and saved $1100 over what HAL-arranged air would have cost and also got the times and itineraries that suited us.

 

Second, although, I do not think you mentioned it, if you choose to use frequent flier miles for your air travel for a cruise, and if for some reason the cruise cancels after you have arrived at the port/embarked on ship, your airline will probably not restore or credit your miles back. Even though the risk is small, it nevertheless remains a risk. This happened to friends of ours and their airline would not budge an inch.

[Roz]

Thanks for your replies. I thought "multiple destinations" were as Mandy described, a sort of triangular arrangement. Didn't know if that was open jaw or not.

 

Bill, I've had the same experience of finding better fares on airline websites and booking directly with them. I've never used frequent flyer miles, but that's handy information to know. I'd hate to lose all those hard earned miles.

 

Roz

[Globaliser]

I thought "multiple destinations" were as Mandy described, a sort of triangular arrangement. Didn't know if that was open jaw or not.

Well, even what you're wanting to do is sort of triangular, only one leg is by cruise ship not by air. But "multiple destinations" is definitely the way to do this if you want an open jaw ticket, flying A to B, and then C to A.

[jhannah]

I did this through an online airline ticket site for our upcoming Prinsendam sailing and saved $300 PP over what HAL wanted for the open-jaw flight. (Open-jaw simply means your flight originates in one place and begins its return from another place.) When we went to Alaska, the cruise line had a better deal than I could find online. Many factors were probably involved ... but I went with the ship's arrangements that time.

[akeka]

We purchased open jaw tickets via Expedia for our fall Panama Canal sailing. We saved $300 PP from the HAL air and there were eight of us.

 

Of course, we bought it in January for October. I have the same challenge in the summer for a Mediterrean cruise on Celebrity. I watch it and see if I can get a better deal than the cruise line. If not, go with the cruise line which includes transfers.

[Host Walt]

An "open jaw" is the term used when your outbound route lands in an airport that is not your return airport. Example: You live in Nashville and your cruise starts in Anchorage and finishes in Vancouver.

 

Your air transportation is "open jaw." There are occasionally ways that you can save money.

 

One of wich is to buy a round trip to Anchorage and buy a one way ticket from Vancouver to Anchorage.

 

Another is to buy a round trip to Vancouver, then buy a one way ticket from Vancouver to Anchorage.

 

However, generally speaking you are likely to do better booking through HAL because they can buy up space more cheaply than you can on one way flights.

[Cruiseoften]

Agree with all that's been said - as long as you are traveling in North America!

 

What happens if you're going from Canada - a.k.a. North America - to Europe and then from the USA - a.k.a. North America - back to Canada? :eek:

[Roz]

Walt,

 

That's another thing I ran into....the cruise lines had blocked out so many seats that it was virtually impossible to find airline tickets unless you were doing a roundtrip from Vancouver or Seattle.

 

On cruises that leave and return to the same port, I've always done better than the cruise line, but on itineraries like Vancouver to Seward, the cruise line may be the only reasonable option for purchasing air.

 

Thank you for your comments.

 

Roz

[Cruiseoften]

ROZ - that's the way the mop flops and the cookie crumbles! I've found too that you may well be on 'redeye' flights or have several changes - ye gits what ye pay for! :eek: no way around it! :)

[Globaliser]

Agree with all that's been said - as long as you are traveling in North America!

 

What happens if you're going from Canada - a.k.a. North America - to Europe and then from the USA - a.k.a. North America - back to Canada? :eek:

OK, there's actually a rule about open jaw bookings that limits the size of the jaw. I think it goes something like this: the length of the open sector (the bit that you're doing by ship) cannot be more than xx% of the length of either jaw. Someone with more up-to-date knowledge will have to supply the percentage, but IIRC it's something like 50%.

 

Also, the ability to do this does depend on the half round-trip fares for each jaw being combinable with each other into one fare for the entire trip.

 

The advantage of online engines like Travelocity and Expedia is that they should be able to auto-price the itinerary you've selected to show you the best price that it can be done for. It will rapidly be obvious whether you are being permitted to combine two cheap fares into one open-jaw trip, or whether you are effectively being charged two full-fare one-way sectors.

[Stevesan]

"ITASOFTWARE" is a convenient web site to easily view air travel. The web site lists most airlines and offers various options such as prices, departure times and segments. An "Open jaw" request is called a "multiple segment".

 

You'll need to register a user ID, but it's very fast and easy to use. It's not a purchase point, but I've found that it to be always accurate.

 

http://www.itasoftware.com/

[Globaliser]

You'll need to register a user ID, but it's very fast and easy to use. It's not a purchase point, but I've found that it to be always accurate.

It's a favourite of mine, too. The most direct URL into it is probably http://beta.itasoftware.com/.

 

You don't have to register, I don't think - you can use it as a "guest".

 

While it's accurate and very powerful for researching your options, it's worth remembering that it does have limitations.

 

First, it's only a research tool, with no booking facilities at all. That's because it is the test/demonstration site for the software house.

 

Second, it does not seem to have real-time access to the GDS systems or to airlines' inventories. So sometimes if you are chasing the last seat in a particular booking class for the lowest fare, it won't yet have caught up to the fact that the airline has sold it in the last 10 minutes, or hour, or whatever.

 

Third, there are some airlines' data which it simply does not have access to. If you're in the US, I think that one important omission is that US Airways simply does not display in the demo at all, because the site has no access to US Airways data.

 

But when it's good, it is good.

[digby]

Roz: just a couple of observations:

 

Second, although, I do not think you mentioned it, if you choose to use frequent flier miles for your air travel for a cruise, and if for some reason the cruise cancels after you have arrived at the port/embarked on ship, your airline will probably not restore or credit your miles back. Even though the risk is small, it nevertheless remains a risk. This happened to friends of ours and their airline would not budge an inch.

 

 

Why should they? If I understand what you are saying, they already flew you to the port and will have to fly you home. Why would they give you back miles?