Possible to tie two somewhat different itineraries together ?

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drsmithy

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I am trying to co-ordinate a holiday for next year where half of it will be spent with my parents.

My wife and I are going to Niseko skiing in January.
My parents want to visit Singapore again, but do not feel confident travelling on their own.

So, I am planning that we accompany them for a week in Singapore, then they fly back to Australia and we fly on to Sapporo (then back to Australia).

So our itinerary will look like: BNE-SIN-CTS-[NRT/HND]-BNE
And theirs will be just: BNE-SIN-BNE

Is it possible to tie these together in some way, so we can all benefit from my wife and I's WP status to preselect seats (ideally exit rows) on at least the BNE-SIN leg ? (Obviously just getting on the same flight is easy even if booked completely separately.) Note that I haven't actually booked any flights yet, but was planning to tonight.
 
If there's no penalty to book one-way flights, you could book BNE-SIN together for everyone, allowing for seat selection. Then book the remaining flights as two separate itineraries, which means they wont get seat selection for free, but it covers the first leg at least.
 
Is it possible to tie these together in some way, so we can all benefit from my wife and I's WP status to preselect seats (ideally exit rows) on at least the BNE-SIN leg ? (Obviously just getting on the same flight is easy even if booked completely separately.) Note that I haven't actually booked any flights yet, but was planning to tonight.

You cannot pick exit rows for free as a WP.

You can be on separate bookings and still be able to preselect seats for them using your WP status for QF51. They won't be able to preselect seats on QF52 however as you will not be flying with them. You will need to ring up to do this though (preferably speak to the premium desk).
 
I am trying to co-ordinate a holiday for next year where half of it will be spent with my parents.

My wife and I are going to Niseko skiing in January.
My parents want to visit Singapore again, but do not feel confident travelling on their own.

So, I am planning that we accompany them for a week in Singapore, then they fly back to Australia and we fly on to Sapporo (then back to Australia).

So our itinerary will look like: BNE-SIN-CTS-[NRT/HND]-BNE
And theirs will be just: BNE-SIN-BNE

Is it possible to tie these together in some way, so we can all benefit from my wife and I's WP status to preselect seats (ideally exit rows) on at least the BNE-SIN leg ? (Obviously just getting on the same flight is easy even if booked completely separately.) Note that I haven't actually booked any flights yet, but was planning to tonight.

You may want to speak to a reliable TA about it & ask them firstly:

a) cost of a JL ticket BNE/SIN/HND NRT/xSYD/BNE for you & your wife
b) cost of a QF ticket BNE/SIN/BNE for the 4 of your (albeit different return date for you & your wife)
c) if you have QF ff points to burn check out the cost of award tickets SIN/HND or CTS (for Niseko)/SIN

Checkout fares on Matrix - ITA Software however you can't book via this site so you'd need to go to Zuji, Kayak, Expedia etc.

As well as looking at return fares in the same transaction on the same carrier it's also worth comparing two one way fares eg ring JAL & get a quote one way for a BNE/SIN/HND or CTS airfare that should permit a free stopover in SIN. A lot of websites will charge you a lot more because some may charge you sector fares BNE/SIN then SIN/HND or CTS so do a comparison first before buying.

For coming home checkout other options eg one way fares on KE CTS/xSEL/BNE, BR CTS/xTPE/BNE or CTS GK NRT JQ OOL (or CTS JL NRT & NRT JQ OOL).

Good luck & let us know what you end up doing.
 
You may want to speak to a reliable TA about it & ask them firstly:

Can't say I know any TAs, reliable or otherwise - never used one. :)

I can get our BNE-SIN-CTS-BNE flights (QF+JL) for about $1200-1300pp, which seems pretty good when a standard return to CTS is nearly that much on its own.

BNE-SIN-BNE on QF came out to about $1000pp.

Will check out tying together some one-way fares as well, but my impression has been that except for flying to NZ, one-way fares ex Australia always seem to have a substantial premium attached.

Trying to keep it on Oneworld, but since we have basically zero chance of requalifying for WP with our planned travelling this year, I don't mind spreading the love around a bit. :)
 
Can't say I know any TAs, reliable or otherwise - never used one. :)

I can get our BNE-SIN-CTS-BNE flights (QF+JL) for about $1200-1300pp, which seems pretty good when a standard return to CTS is nearly that much on its own.

BNE-SIN-BNE on QF came out to about $1000pp.

Will check out tying together some one-way fares as well, but my impression has been that except for flying to NZ, one-way fares ex Australia always seem to have a substantial premium attached.

Trying to keep it on Oneworld, but since we have basically zero chance of requalifying for WP with our planned travelling this year, I don't mind spreading the love around a bit. :)

The QF/JL price seems pretty cheap particularly when it includes the SIN stopover ie not charging sector fares.

What website are you using to get that quote?

Also is the CTS/BNE routing via SYD on the way home on QF or JL metal?
 
The QF/JL price seems pretty cheap particularly when it includes the SIN stopover ie not charging sector fares.

What website are you using to get that quote?

Sorry, my bad, 2500pp. Looked at the wrong number in my notes. :oops:
 
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Sorry, my bad, 2500pp. Looked at the wrong number in my notes. :oops:

Is that pricing sector fares BNE/SIN & SIN/CTS or charging a through fare BNE/xSIN/CTS?

I would try costing a simple return fare BNE/xSIN/CTS/xNRT/xSYD/BNE ie with no stopover in SIN as you should have to pay any more for a stopover. If this fare is a few hundred dollars cheaper then I would ring whoever the agent is and ask them to price it correctly.
 
Itinerary details
I just priced the itinerary on ITA Matrix & it has priced each fare component BNE/SPK(CTS) & vv ie not charging sector fares. So would just need to take the fare construction below to a TA or ring around and see who can issue the ticket.

Note that on the return the JAL flights CTS/NRT are a codeshare operated by Jetstar Japan so I'm fairly certain you would need to pickup all your gear in NRT then recheck with JAL proper NRT/xSYD/BNE. You can fly on JAL metal CTS/HND but again you'd need to pick up your stuff then take the bus HND to NRT to check in again as bags can't be through checked when there is a change of airport enroute.

Itinerary

Brisbane (BNE) to Singapore (SIN) - Wed, Jan 14
JL.png
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. 7896Dep: 10:10AMArr: 4:00PM7h 50mAirbus A330Economy (S)
OPERATED BY QANTAS AIRWAYS LTD.
Singapore (SIN) to Sapporo (CTS) - Wed, Jan 21
JL.png
Singapore (SIN) to Tokyo (NRT) - Wed, Jan 21
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. 712Dep: 8:20AMArr: 4:05PM6h 45mBoeing 767Economy (S)
Layover in NRT2h 40m
JL.png
Tokyo (NRT) to Sapporo (CTS) - Wed, Jan 21
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. 3049Dep: 6:45PMArr: 8:25PM1h 40mBoeing 737Economy (G)
Sapporo (CTS) to Brisbane (BNE) - Wed, Jan 28
JL.png
Sapporo (CTS) to Tokyo (NRT) - Wed, Jan 28
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. 6114Dep: 11:35AMArr: 1:20PM1h 45mAirbus A320Economy (G)
OPERATED BY JETSTAR JAPAN CO., LTD.Layover in NRT6h 15m
JL.png
Tokyo (NRT) to Sydney (SYD) - Wed, Jan 28
Japan Airlines International Co., Ltd. 771Dep: 7:35PMArr: 7:20AM9h 45mBoeing 777Economy (L)
Layover in SYDThu, Jan 291h 45m
QF.png
Sydney (SYD) to Brisbane (BNE) - Thu, Jan 29
Qantas Airways Ltd. 512Dep: 9:05AMArr: 9:35AM1h 30mBoeing 737Economy (L)
Cost per passenger (including taxes & fees)AU$1,640.70
Total cost for 1 passengerAU$1,640.70


How to buy this ticket
Tickets cannot be purchased directly from ITA Software.
Provide this information to a travel agent to help them match the fares found.
Make sure to provide the exact booking and fare codes shown.

Fare 1: Carrier JL SRTJAU1 BNE to SPK (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code S, G
Covers BNE-SIN (Economy), SIN-NRT (Economy), NRT-CTS (Economy)
AU$675.00
Fare 2: Carrier JL LRTJAU1 SPK to BNE (rules)
Passenger type ADT, round trip fare, booking code G, L
Covers CTS-NRT (Economy), NRT-SYD (Economy), SYD-BNE (Economy)
AU$775.00
Australian Passenger Movement Charge (AU)AU$55.00
Australian Safety & Security Surcharge (WG)AU$4.91
Australian Int'l Passenger Service Charge (WY)AU$24.13
Singapore Passenger Service Charge (SG)AU$18.70
Singapore Aviation Levy (OP)AU$5.80
Singapore Passenger Security Service Charge (OO)AU$7.50
JL YQ surcharge (YQ)AU$7.80
Australian Domestic Passenger Service Charge (QR)AU$3.79
Australian Domestic Passenger Service Charge (QR)AU$6.45
Australian Int'l Passenger Service Charge (WY)AU$27.62
Japan International Passenger Facility Charge (SW)AU$23.20
Passenger Security Service Charge (OI)AU$5.80
Subtotal per passengerAU$1,640.70
Number of passengersx1
TOTAL AIRFARE & TAXESAU$1,640.70

  • This ticket is non-refundable.


Fare construction (can be useful to travel agents)
BNE JL SIN S92.93 JL X/TYO JL SPK Q232.34 302.05SRTJAU1 JL X/TYO JL X/SYD QF BNE Q232.34 487.92LRTJAU1 NUC 1347.58 END ROE 1.075979 XT 55.00AU 10.24QR 4.91WG 51.75WY 7.50OO 5.80OP 18.70SG 5.80OI 23.20SW 7.80YQ





 
Itinerary details
I just priced the itinerary on ITA Matrix & it has priced each fare component BNE/SPK(CTS) & vv ie not charging sector fares. So would just need to take the fare construction below to a TA or ring around and see who can issue the ticket.

Awesome ! Thanks for your help, will have a bit of mess around with that and see what I can turn up.

Not used to these sort of multi-city trips. We usually just do simple returns or DONE4s. :)
 
Is it possible to tie these together in some way, so we can all benefit from my wife and I's WP status to preselect seats (ideally exit rows) on at least the BNE-SIN leg ? (Obviously just getting on the same flight is easy even if booked completely separately.) Note that I haven't actually booked any flights yet, but was planning to tonight.

Must admit I did this, but it was back in 2008.

Wife and I were living in the UK and back then I was a platinum. We flew LHR-SYD-BKK-LHR and booked my mum SYD-BKK-SYD and had the bookings linked. Was able to select seats together on the BKK-SYD flight, and not only that all 3 of us got upgraded from economy to business class. It was good Friday, so guess plenty of tourist pax and not as many business travellers. Oh and mum got upgraded on the way home too and was given a personal escort from check-in to her seat. It did help my wife is Thai and asked the check-in agent if someone could do it. She said sure come back when check-in closes, thats when she gave her the new seat. We had the same agent a few hours later for the LHR flight and she was most apologetic she could only get as a premium economy upgrade. Better than nothing of course.

But as I said that was in 2008 so things may have changed.
 
Must admit I did this, but it was back in 2008.

Wife and I were living in the UK and back then I was a platinum. We flew LHR-SYD-BKK-LHR and booked my mum SYD-BKK-SYD and had the bookings linked. Was able to select seats together on the BKK-SYD flight, and not only that all 3 of us got upgraded from economy to business class. It was good Friday, so guess plenty of tourist pax and not as many business travellers. Oh and mum got upgraded on the way home too and was given a personal escort from check-in to her seat. It did help my wife is Thai and asked the check-in agent if someone could do it. She said sure come back when check-in closes, thats when she gave her the new seat. We had the same agent a few hours later for the LHR flight and she was most apologetic she could only get as a premium economy upgrade. Better than nothing of course.

But as I said that was in 2008 so things may have changed.

None of those stories re upgrades and BKK come as any surprise. I know of an airline person who flies TG quite a bit on what are supposed to be non-upgradeable ID travel interline tickets and everytime a 'fee' $50.00 is forthcoming he receives a J class boarding pass in return and this is long haul stuff eg BKK to USA by the way. He's had a 100% success rate ie never flown whY.
 
None of those stories re upgrades and BKK come as any surprise. I know of an airline person who flies TG quite a bit on what are supposed to be non-upgradeable ID travel interline tickets and everytime a 'fee' $50.00 is forthcoming he receives a J class boarding pass in return and this is long haul stuff eg BKK to USA by the way. He's had a 100% success rate ie never flown whY.

Never heard of this, handing over money, but nothing does surprise me. First time my wife came to the UK before we were married she had a friend who worked for TG and she flew J both ways, despite being on the cheapest Y ticket available.

PS I was flying Qantas and the only thing was my wife asking if they could help the old girl get to the aircraft the rest was a bonus. Mum still had the menu she 'nicked' and tells the story over and over, like I was some kind a magician getting us upgrades, when reality was I did nothing what so ever, except be a platinum, thanks mostly to fortnightly trips out of London to Europe on BA in 'Club'.
 
You cannot pick exit rows for free as a WP.

Really ? Is that an international thing ? (Usually we spring for Y+ internationally - haven't flown Y for years - but Y+ doesn't appear to be an option to SIN on QF)

You can be on separate bookings and still be able to preselect seats for them using your WP status for QF51. They won't be able to preselect seats on QF52 however as you will not be flying with them. You will need to ring up to do this though (preferably speak to the premium desk).

Good to know. That's probably sufficient. My parents are both short, so a non-exit-row seat won't bother them on the way home.
 
Hmm. Just had a 50% Bonus SCs offer turn up in my inbox. Might just make it worth going with QF.
 
Really ? Is that an international thing ? (Usually we spring for Y+ internationally - haven't flown Y for years - but Y+ doesn't appear to be an option to SIN on QF)

Yes, international only. It's also Y only.
 
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