Expedia pushing me to accept 22 hour layover

[greatam]

Booking through Celebrity choice air - nonstop flight through United but it's an ANA flight. Cheaper than my flights with expedia, will cancel my flights with them. It will cost me nearly $200, but it's worth it to have a nonstop flight and be done with trying to deal with expedia.

 

I didn't know the United flight was only managed by United but actually an ANA flight. This was a royal pain that actually worked out for the best, better than my original plan. Thanks again to all for your help.

 

So you are going to go from one TA to another TA???? Not a particularly smart move in my book.

 

Doing a search in both SABRE and ITA, the one stop SQ flight through LAX combined with AS is about 1/4 the price of the United/ANA flight nonstop. Asiana through ICN (Korea), then non stop to Seattle is about the same price as the SQ flight. Approx 92000 yen (why are they pricing in yen-does somebody know???).

 

So if the United/ANA flight is cheaper on Choice Air, you are definitely getting consolidator tickets. On a nonstop, this won't matter much unless the flight is cancelled or oversold. Then, be aware that you are at the bottom of the barrel for rebooking with your Choice Air tickets. So there is the possibility that you may be spending more time in Tokyo than you wanted.

 

I would take Globaliser's advice and fight for the fee free cancellation if cancellation is what you are going to do. IF you get stuck with the $200 in fees, I would just suck it up and take the $200 you were going to loose and buy the AS tickets to Seattle. First available flight to Seattle on AS after landing at LAX on SQ is 3+ hours later. So as a general rule, plenty of time to go through Immigration and Customs and change terminals.

 

You do realize if you buy separate tickets, you will have to pay for luggage on your domestic flight. With your international ticket, your bags will fly free on the domestic leg.

 

You could even fly Southwest to SEA (you won't save any money but your luggage will go free), although Terminal 1 at LAX is the MOST crowded in the entire airport and for that reason, I wouldn't even attempt such a connection.

 

And spending the night at LAX can be a very cheap proposition-much cheaper than paying $200 to Expedia to cancel. The Hilton and a lot of other 3-4* hotels can be booked via Hotwire/Priceline and other venues for generally less than $100 per night. Might make a nice rest from your long overnight flight, particularly if you didn't sleep well. By my calculations, you have at least 7 hours AFTER your flight lands at LAX before you get to Seattle. So basically, another full day of traveling before you get home.

 

LOTS of things to think about. CHOOSE CAREFULLY. I am a very frequent flyer but all your back and forth with Expedia is making me very tired. I can't imagine how you feel. One big reason 95% of my bookings are done direct with the airline. EASY to change myself, without trying to put a third party between the airline and me.

[Globaliser]

Asiana through ICN (Korea), then non stop to Seattle is about the same price as the SQ flight. Approx 92000 yen (why are they pricing in yen-does somebody know???).

I expect that this is simply because it's an ex-JP itinerary. The fares will be filed in JPY, and converted to foreign currencies as and when a ticket is sold via a non-JP POS. Hence the small variations in base fare quoted for the OP's original SQ-VX itinerary (all around the USD 510 mark) - different conversions on different days of the same underlying JPY fare.

[Zach1213]

This is not a personal criticism, 'cause many people do, but I just cannot fathom why one would book air with any OTA. Book directly with the airline, cut out the middle man, then when these issues crop up it's much easier to regulate.

 

In a few rare cases, I have used OTAs for flights and had good results...but never ran in to IRROPS to test it. For example I still use CTrip for domestic China flights and love them, and I have used Expedia for a domestic India ticket once when Jet Airways just flat out refused to accept my credit card for gosh knows what reason. But 99% of the time, I always go straight to the airline. "60% of the time it works, every time".

 

Edited July 9, 2014 by Zach1213

[greatam]

I expect that this is simply because it's an ex-JP itinerary. The fares will be filed in JPY, and converted to foreign currencies as and when a ticket is sold via a non-JP POS. Hence the small variations in base fare quoted for the OP's original SQ-VX itinerary (all around the USD 510 mark) - different conversions on different days of the same underlying JPY fare.

 

Thanks Makes sense I didn't think about ex JP.

[Alaskanb]

Sounds like my only experience with Expedia on sets of flights with unconnected airlines. At the time I was very inexperienced in ways of booking airline travel. My phone battery ran out on several occasions during one of their holds. I eventually got them to cancel the flights at no cost to me and booked directly with each airline.

We have flights to NZ/OZ next year and have planned overnights in LAX on each leg of the journey. Lots of hotel choice on Tripadvisor. I think we will feel better after a nights sleep and a meal for the next flight.

[TruckerDave]

Booking through Celebrity choice air - nonstop flight through United but it's an ANA flight. Cheaper than my flights with expedia, will cancel my flights with them. It will cost me nearly $200, but it's worth it to have a nonstop flight and be done with trying to deal with expedia.

 

I didn't know the United flight was only managed by United but actually an ANA flight. This was a royal pain that actually worked out for the best, better than my original plan. Thanks again to all for your help.

 

United and ANA are both members of Star Alliance. It happens often, you book a flight from point A to point B and read the small print and you are actually on a SAS, Lufthansa , Air Canada, etc etc etc flight for all or part of the trip. ( one of the benefits of alliances. No need, for example, United to have flights to many cites in Europe when LH and do the "local" stuff in Europe and the same in the USA. Lufthansa takes you to a United hub then you take a United flight to your "local" destination.

 

Prob a good idea that you are (did) change to the direct flight. Direct flights are almost always best. (exception if you are a millage runner). Get on the plane in Tokyo and the next land you see will be home...always a good thing. There is a lot to be said for just keeping it simple. (even if it does cost a tad bit more.)

[Zach1213]

United and ANA are both members of Star Alliance. It happens often, you book a flight from point A to point B and read the small print and you are actually on a SAS, Lufthansa , Air Canada, etc etc etc flight for all or part of the trip. ( one of the benefits of alliances. No need, for example, United to have flights to many cites in Europe when LH and do the "local" stuff in Europe and the same in the USA. Lufthansa takes you to a United hub then you take a United flight to your "local" destination.

 

Prob a good idea that you are (did) change to the direct flight. Direct flights are almost always best. (exception if you are a millage runner). Get on the plane in Tokyo and the next land you see will be home...always a good thing. There is a lot to be said for just keeping it simple. (even if it does cost a tad bit more.)

 

Unless you're in a window seat and cross in to Canadian territory first ;)

Edited July 9, 2014 by Zach1213

[CanWeGoYet?]

Booked through Celebrity choice air because it's a nonstop flight at nearly the same cost as my 2 leg one before. No layover, no schlepping bags through customs & then putting them on the next flight. If I could have found a nonstop flight under $1000 booking direct with the airline, I would have.

 

It isn't just a matter of laziness, I had a major back surgery go wrong a couple years back so dealing with luggage & airports is a problem for me now. I'll have my son with me but I'd just rather not have to deal with it - I can't even predict if on my flight day I'll be ok or need a wheel chair assist from the plane.

 

Hoping for a waiver of fees on the cancellation - per expedia rep it's been requested & now I wait for a call or email for the decision.

[Globaliser]

Booked through Celebrity choice air because it's a nonstop flight at nearly the same cost as my 2 leg one before. No layover, no schlepping bags through customs & then putting them on the next flight. If I could have found a nonstop flight under $1000 booking direct with the airline, I would have.

One-way long-haul flights are very often very expensive if bought at published fares (which is what you will almost always get if you book directly with the airline). So this is one situation in which the cruise line's air travel can make sense, even though it comes with some potential disadvantages, because the advantages can outweigh those disadvantages in these cases.

 

Given your personal circumstances, I can understand the attraction of a nonstop flight, so it sounds like you're getting towards a good solution to your problem.

[Bowie MeMe]

Well, as Flyertalker so aptly explained, they are right. It's just that they're not fully explaining the procedure.

 

 

 

Because keeping it on one ticket protects you in case of a delay of your first flight. If they're one ticket, the airline has to rebook you on another flight if you miss the connection, but if they're 2 completely separate tickets, then they have no such obligation, you are considered a no-show for the 2nd flight, and you potentially could have to buy a new ticket to complete your journey.

 

 

 

This is not a personal criticism, 'cause many people do, but I just cannot fathom why one would book air with any OTA. Book directly with the airline, cut out the middle man, then when these issues crop up it's much easier to regulate.

 

I agree with Globaliser - I'd be pushing for them to cancel for free. Well, actually I'd be booking a LAX hotel for my layover, but then I'm one of those crazy people that books 22-hour connections on purpose...:D

 

I too would love to have one ticket with long layovers not stopovers. I would like to do IAD to NRT (Tokyo) with a ten hour or more layover then on to CGK (Jakarta Indonesia) and back NRT to IAD 31 days later. My problem is that the non-stop Washington to Tokyo then either 1hour 10 mins or 2 hours 15 min layover. That is 15 hours followed by 7 hours :eek::eek: Want United for long flights in case have to go E+ which is way better than E if we don't get the points for BC first time experience. Please tell me how you get a long layover -- so far I can't get past the booking machine.

[Twickenham]

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I too would love to have one ticket with long layovers not stopovers. I would like to do IAD to NRT (Tokyo) with a ten hour or more layover then on to CGK (Jakarta Indonesia) and back NRT to IAD 31 days later. My problem is that the non-stop Washington to Tokyo then either 1hour 10 mins or 2 hours 15 min layover. That is 15 hours followed by 7 hours :eek::eek: Want United for long flights in case have to go E+ which is way better than E if we don't get the points for BC first time experience. Please tell me how you get a long layover -- so far I can't get past the booking machine.

 

Usually, international tickets will allow for an up to 24-hour connection (subject to the particular booking conditions of your ticket), however often the booking engine won't necessarily give you those options. The easiest way to force a long connection is to book an itinerary with only one or two flights between cities per day; if you book a connecting flight that arrives after that one flight leaves, the booking engine automatically puts you on the next day's flight. So, for instance, coming home from Rome 2 years ago, we booked a 3:30pm flight FCO-LHR on BA, connecting to a LHR-YUL flight; but as the only daily LHR-YUL flight with BA leaves at 3pm, the booking engine put us on the next day's flight, thus giving us 22 hours in London. Same thing this year coming home from Europe - ZRH-IST arriving at 6:30 pm, next day IST-YYZ leaving at 2pm.

[Globaliser]

Please tell me how you get a long layover -- so far I can't get past the booking machine.

First, you need to check the timetable to see whether there are any flights that would give you the kind of connection that you want. If the flights simply don't exist, then you're out of luck.

 

I can't now remember the details of what we found for you when you were first asking about this, but I seem to recall that you either had to take the short connection that you don't want, or to take the same flight 24 hours later so that the connection is then about 26 or 27 hours long (and may technically become a stopover).

 

If there are no other flights in between, then that's that. If there are other flights in between for which your fare does not qualify, then you will have to pay whatever extra money is needed to get one of those flights.

 

Or you may find a different itinerary altogether that has a connection of the desired length, but that may require you to forego flying on you preferred airline.

[greatam]

I don't know the price but you really should start looking at the Middle Eastern airlines, particularly Emirates. They have been running some absolutely STELLAR prices to/from the US to the Middle East. And there are a wealth of airlines that fly to Tokyo, Jakarta, etc. etc. out of the Middle East.

 

If you can piece together the two flights, you could actually stay in Dubai for a couple of days if you want to. Then fly on Gulf Air, Jet or one of the MANY other carriers on a separate ticket to wherever you need to go. Connections through the Middle East to China and other SE Asia countries are plentiful.

 

And by actually having your layover, you avoid the potential problems of missing the second flight with a two ticket itinerary.

 

There are so many ways to do your trip. And so many airlines flying out of Dubai to a lot of points in the area that this should be a very easy trip to get what you want at a reasonable price. Emirates just signed that HUGE Boeing contract. They need to provide decent fares to cover the HUGE increase in planes (even though they won't get the planes for a few years, they need money to pay for all the new planes).

 

Worth checking into. All of those "bargain" carriers flying out of Dubai are far better than what you get on a US airline for a domestic flight.

 

No, you may not get E+ for a bargain rate but it sure is worth taking the time to investigate. You may have a vacation that is MUCH MORE than just flying USA to Jakarta or Tokyo.