Sth America Flights- explain this?

Delboy05

Hi

checking out prices to Lima and back from Rio in August/September.
From dublin to Lima and from Rio to Dublin (all via madrid) with Iberia is 905euro.
But from Madrid to Lima and Rio to Madrid, it's 2,124euro - and this on the same trans-atlantic flights!!!!!

Was running this check to see if we could book our own cheap flights back from Madrid to Dublin. Seems to be the same story with KLM via Amsterdam. What gives?

BuffyBot

Airlines often give cheaper flights to people starting outside their home countries as it encourages traffic through their hubs. It's a common ploy for the canny traveller to fly to city X the night before then go City X - Airline's Hub - City Y to get a better fair. I'm pretty sure there was something on TV about it last year

Plus the classes of tickets that allow these connections are probably still available where as the equivelant classes for passengers coming direct from Madrid have probably sold out

kraggy

Delboy,

Word of warning.

If you're hoping to go at those prices i.e.905 with Iberia, book IMMEDIATELY.

I was intending on going with Iberia but cannot get a flight at any price in the last 2 weeks of July.

Business class only available.

So book soon if you can.

k.

breadmonkey

BuffyBot wrote:

Airlines often give cheaper flights to people starting outside their home countries as it encourages traffic through their hubs. It's a common ploy for the canny traveller to fly to city X the night before then go City X - Airline's Hub - City Y to get a better fair. I'm pretty sure there was something on TV about it last year

I can't really follow that, could you give an example?

pow wow

I watched a documentry on American Airlines once and they said they did the exact same thing - they secure a certain number of flights from Madrid to Rio (using the OPs example) at a ridiculously cheap price for transfer passengers (i.e. those who started their journey somewhere else) to encourage this kind of business and ensure people pick them for long haul.

Because of this they have a section in their T&Cs that would prohibit someone in Madrid booking the Dublin-Rio via Madrid flight because it's miles cheaper. It basically says if you book a multi stop flight from Dublin to Madrid to Rio you have to take ALL sections of the flight or face an upgrade to the fare from the point at which you actually start the journey (Madrid in this case).

BuffyBot

I can't really follow that, could you give an example?

For example, I'm KLM. I want people to fly KLM. People flying from Amsterdam to Tokyo for example will likely choose KLM because it's the home town airline and it's a direct flight.

However, KLM wants to get people flying from others places, into Amsterdam and then on their planes to other destinations. So flying from London to Tokyo via Amsterdam is often cheaper than flying London to Tokyo direct because KLM will offer cheaper fares to those starting their journeys at airports outside of the Netherlands to attract customers.

If there was a big enough saving (more likely in business class etc) some travellers will often fly to London the night before (one way) and then commence their journey from London to take advantage of the lower price.