Flights - weird pricing ..

198321

Just want to ask ..

we bought flights Dublin - Havanna for 770euro

and the flight is Dublin - Paris CDG, Paris CDG - Havana with air france.

But if I checked flight from Paris CDG - Havana (we could take airlingus or ryanair to Paris) so just 1 flight the price was over 1000e.

Also we checked before we bought it, Air Canada

flight: Dublin - London, London - Toronto, Toronto - Havana and the price was 680e, however if I put in only London - Toronto, Toronto - Havana the price was over 1000e.


So with 1 extra flight from Dublin to either London or Paris, ticket is actually cheaper than without this extra flight.

(I checked and dates, times and travel class and group were exactly the same)

Isn't that weird ?

BuffyBot

Nope, quite usual.

Take this example:

Aer Lingus fly to New York for €750. In order to attract traffic away from Aer Lingus, British Airways might offer a flight via Heathrow for €650. The person next to you on the Heathrow to JFK flight might have paid £700 for it.

Airlines do this all the time to undercut the competition.

Also factor in that sometimes there may also be offers available to passengers originating in one market (i.e. a sale targeting Ireland specifically).

keithclancy

198321 wrote: »

Just want to ask ..

we bought flights Dublin - Havanna for 770euro

and the flight is Dublin - Paris CDG, Paris CDG - Havana with air france.

But if I checked flight from Paris CDG - Havana (we could take airlingus or ryanair to Paris) so just 1 flight the price was over 1000e.

Also we checked before we bought it, Air Canada

flight: Dublin - London, London - Toronto, Toronto - Havana and the price was 680e, however if I put in only London - Toronto, Toronto - Havana the price was over 1000e.

So with 1 extra flight from Dublin to either London or Paris, ticket is actually cheaper than without this extra flight.

(I checked and dates, times and travel class and group were exactly the same)

Isn't that weird ?

Not weird at all .. checkout how much a 1 way flight is compared to a return

tatli_lokma

also, they need to apply some discounts on some routes to encourage people to have a stop over. It is not always the way, but sometimes a route with 1 or 2 stops will be cheaper than a direct.

198321

So could somebody flying from Paris to Havana buy flights from Dublin (through Paris) to havana and just get on flight in Paris ? Money wise it is much cheaper ..

I also noticed that often flights to Hong Kong (with emirates through Dubai) are cheaper than flights to Dubai. Can somebody just buy flight to Hong Kong and request stopover in Dubai, and don't show up for flight to Hong Kong ?

Lapin

198321 wrote: »

So could somebody flying from Paris to Havana buy flights from Dublin (through Paris) to havana and just get on flight in Paris ? Money wise it is much cheaper ..

Nope. You must check in at the airport where the booking originates.

Rearranging check in at Paris will end up costing extra.

198321 wrote: »

I also noticed that often flights to Hong Kong (with emirates through Dubai) are cheaper than flights to Dubai. Can somebody just buy flight to Hong Kong and request stopover in Dubai, and don't show up for flight to Hong Kong ?

Yes, but requesting an overnight stopover may cancel out the cost of getting the onward flight to Hong Kong.

If you simply decide to stay in Dubai without declaring it, your luggage will be on its way to China.

If you do decide to stay you may be questioned by immigration. Assuming you have visas in order, you should be ok but you may be charged to retrieve any luggage you have.

tatli_lokma

As Lapin explains above, it would be more complicated for places like Dubai, but within Europe I know a that a lot of Eastern Euopean tickets are cheaper if you have an onward to Sweden or Denmark. A number of my eastern european friends buy tickets to Sweden, with a stop over their country and just don't use the Swedish leg of the flight. They do have to only bring carry luggage on though!

athtrasna

198321 wrote: »

So could somebody flying from Paris to Havana buy flights from Dublin (through Paris) to havana and just get on flight in Paris ? Money wise it is much cheaper ..

I also noticed that often flights to Hong Kong (with emirates through Dubai) are cheaper than flights to Dubai. Can somebody just buy flight to Hong Kong and request stopover in Dubai, and don't show up for flight to Hong Kong ?

In brief, no! If you don't show up in Dublin your entire booking will be cancelled. Airlines are wise to such tactics.

As Lapin said, if you don't show for your flight from Dubai to Hong Kong your baggage would be en route to HK. As above, the rest of your ticket would be cancelled so you would be stranded in Dubai and have to buy a new ticket home.

Gatica

this also applies to return leg of a ticket. If you don't show for the outgoing flight, your return flight will be cancelled by the airline.

This is all usually part of the T&C's of an airline, and they don't like it. Usually it's against their T&C's to use these tactics and for those who abuse the system too much, they may bar from flying with them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_booking_ploys

198321

Gatica wrote: »

this also applies to return leg of a ticket. If you don't show for the outgoing flight, your return flight will be cancelled by the airline.

This is all usually part of the T&C's of an airline, and they don't like it. Usually it's against their T&C's to use these tactics and for those who abuse the system too much, they may bar from flying with them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_booking_ploys

Thanks, I am no way going to do this, was just wondering how it works .. that article on wikipedia is very interesting ...

I still don't think it's fair, often price works out lower from Dublin than from main cities like London or Paris so I am not going to complain :rolleyes: