Married segments - unsure what this means

[sanne]

Please could someone explain this as I'm not quite sure what it means.

i have read here of flights not being ticketed or cancelled. I don't want to make a mistake booking award flights to LHR.

Thanks.

 

[Danger]

Others with a better explanation will chime in but in the meantime I'll share what I know.

First, don't be concerned about making a mistake booking. If married segment logic is involved, you shouldn't be able to make the booking at all.

Here is a good thread on FlyerTalk. And here's an existing thread from AFF.

Married segments are a way that airlines manage inventory or seats between an origin and a destination.

The rule may apply to award tickets (most often) but also to revenue or paid tickets. I recently had an issue on a round the world fare where I wanted to fly from Maputo to Casablanca with a transit (less than 24 hour stop) in Doha. Qatar had availability in the fare class (or bucket) I needed from Maputo to Doha and from Doha to Casablanca but not when searching Maputo to Casablanca. As a result I was forced to include a stopover (at least 24 hours) in Doha, rather than travel straight through.

It is more of an issue with award flights, however, as generally speaking a transit at an intermediate point will not increase the overall number of frequent flyer points required for that journey whereas a stop will. Cathay is notorious for this. For example, you may want to fly from New York to Melbourne via Hong Kong. Searching for award availability New York to Melbourne and then a separate search for Hong Kong to Melbourne may show seats on each of the two separate flights. However, if you search New York to Melbourne, there may be no availability. This forces you to purchase two awards as you will be required to stop (again, rather than transit) in Hong Kong. Of course, that's more points and possibly more money.

 

[sanne]

Others with a better explanation will chime in but in the meantime I'll share what I know.

First, don't be concerned about making a mistake booking. If married segment logic is involved, you shouldn't be able to make the booking at all.

Here is a good thread on FlyerTalk. And here's an existing thread from AFF.

Married segments are a way that airlines manage inventory or seats between an origin and a destination.

The rule may apply to award tickets (most often) but also to revenue or paid tickets. I recently had an issue on a round the world fare where I wanted to fly from Maputo to Casablanca with a transit (less than 24 hour stop) in Doha. Qatar had availability in the fare class (or bucket) I needed from Maputo to Doha and from Doha to Casablanca but not when searching Maputo to Casablanca. As a result I was forced to include a stopover (at least 24 hours) in Doha, rather than travel straight through.

It is more of an issue with award flights, however, as generally speaking a transit at an intermediate point will not increase the overall number of frequent flyer points required for that journey whereas a stop will. Cathay is notorious for this. For example, you may want to fly from New York to Melbourne via Hong Kong. Searching for award availability New York to Melbourne and then a separate search for Hong Kong to Melbourne may show seats on each of the two separate flights. However, if you search New York to Melbourne, there may be no availability. This forces you to purchase two awards as you will be required to stop (again, rather than transit) in Hong Kong. Of course, that's more points and possibly more money.

Thank you for your very comprehensive reply to my question. I am hoping to do a one world 280,000point award flight so extra points shouldn't matter. Could I book BNE /HKG then book HKG/LHR without a stop over if the flight BNE/LHR wasn't available. Or is this not allowed even though in theory it will cost more in points.

 

[Danger]

To book BNE-HKG and then HKG-LHR without a stop and to avoid any potential married segment issues, you will need to mix the carriers. This means QF to HKG and then either CX or BA to LHR or CX to HKG and then BA to LHR. However, if CX is your preference all the way then certainly try that first. It's quite possible CX isn't applying married segment logic on the flights and date you chose (it is very fluid). If they do, then look for QF to HKG as the first flight or try routing through another Australian city first.

Finally, without going to too off-topic as there is a very lengthy and informative thread on the 280k award, you are limited to five stops with this product. Once you go over the flights are priced on a per segment basis which will likely be significantly higher.

 

[sanne]

To book BNE-HKG and then HKG-LHR without a stop and to avoid any potential married segment issues, you will need to mix the carriers. This means QF to HKG and then either CX or BA to LHR or CX to HKG and then BA to LHR. However, if CX is your preference all the way then certainly try that first. It's quite possible CX isn't applying married segment logic on the flights and date you chose (it is very fluid). If they do, then look for QF to HKG as the first flight or try routing through another Australian city first.

Finally, without going to too off-topic as there is a very lengthy and informative thread on the 280k award, you are limited to five stops with this product. Once you go over the flights are priced on a per segment basis which will likely be significantly higher.

Thank you Danger for your help with this. I actually only wish to get to England by the quickest, easiest route. I prefer the QF flight from Melbourne as it gets into LHR at a perfect time for us. But this year ( We have just arrived in Barcelona as part of a one world award flight ) only option was CX BNE/LHR.

Much as I liked CX the timing of this flight was not the best and the whole trip took far too long. So in the event there is no availability for QF and I am looking at other possibilities.

 

[Mattg]

Married segment logic is basically a way for the airline to maximise its revenue. But as Danger says, in practice this means that the booking is treated as one flight from the origin to destination, regardless of any stopovers.

As an example of where married segments come into play, I was looking recently for an award flight from LST to MEL. I wasn't able to find any on this particular day, however I was able to find an award from LST to SYD... via MEL. I suspect that the married segment logic came into play here.

It can also cause issues if you want to cancel one sector of a multi-sector booking. There was a thread a few weeks ago where someone had booked MEL-BNE-NRT on QF, and wanted to cancel just the MEL-BNE segment. As married sector logic applied, QF told them that they would have to re-price the entire itinerary based on flying BNE-NRT only, and a significant fare difference would have applied.