I decided to extend a special offer to all new members of Maxvalue4Airfare.com, our free airfare evaluation tool:

If you sign up today to use the free airfare evaluation tool, you will receive a special onetime offer to access our Video Guide
for a onetime payment of only $ 9.90.

This is a celebration because I just finished to move all my websites to our new hosting provider,
After 7 days, the prices for the video guide will go up, again.

Single Open Jaw
A simple example for a single open jaw would be a combination of flight from Frankfurt to Los Angeles with a return flight from San Diego to Frankfurt. It makes good sense to combine these air flights in one ticket. Otherwise you would have to travel on the road or railroad from San Diego to Los Angeles to get your return flight to Frankfurt, or you would have to buy two separate one way tickets.
Another variant of an open jaw flight would be an arrangement where you travel from Frankfurt to Los Angeles, and return from Los Angeles to Munich.

Double Open Jaw
This would be a combination of a flight from Hamburg to Los Angeles and a return flight from San Diego to Munich. You could buy two one way tickets, but you can save a bundle if you manage to combine these two flights into one ticket as an double open jaw flight.

How to Book an Open Jaw Flight?
Many flight booking engines have a link you can use to search for an open jaw flight, or a multi stop flight. If you click on such a button, you get a new input form, where you can ask for a flight from A to B plus from C to D, maybe even afterwards from E to F. You enter your travel plans, and with good luck, you get a reasonable offer. Reasonable is the half price of a return ticket from A to B, plus the half price of a return flight from C to D. If you find an airline is flying both routes, and B is in the same country as C, while A is in the same country as D, you should be able to get a ticket for this flight. But if you do not get a reasonable for this flight on a booking engine, you still have the chance to call your travel agent and ask him to look. The rules about open jaw flights are included in the rules text of the airfare.

Ask Your Travel Agent
Booking engines often sometimes unable to understand all fare rules, and if the engine does not understand the rule, it does not offer the fare. But a human travel agent should understand the rules text and thus be able to price an open jaw flight, even if each air segment of the journey is flown with another airline. This is often possible, if all airlines concerned belong to a single airline alliance.
Sometimes you get a reasonable offer in the fare listing of the booking engine, but when you press the purchase button, you get an error message with a new expensive price. In this case ask again your travel agent for a price quote. Chances are a travel agent can sell you the ticket for the lower price. If the booking engine cannot find it, the open jaw flight may still be available.

Not to Ask Means Not to Get It
An open Jaw flight may even be possible, if the airports concerned are located in different countries. One example would be a flight from Germany to Kilimanjaro, with a return flight from Mombasa to Germany. Kilimanjaro is in Tanzania, Mombasa in Kenya. But in this example you can still combine these flights in a single ticket. There are offers from KLM, Ethiopian Airways and Condor of Germany.

This begs a question:
Did I promote a product, which I did not like? Or ist that new product just a cheap “Me Too” ? And, why in the first place is a travel agent trying to promote products teaching how everybody can book flights by himself?

Let me answer the last question first:
We are an online travel agency, serving customers who need and want an extra service not avalable, or at least not available for free in the internet, and offline. If you have a travel schedule with 2 or three destination points, we build a tailormade travelplan for you, consisting of open jaw flights, stopover-flights and one way flights. We show you the available options and leave the choice to you.
If you need to have a reservation, but you cannot buy a ticket immediately, e.g. you need the reservation to apply for a visum, but you do not want to buy a ticket before you know that you will actually be able to travel, we can do that also.

But it is just clear, that everybody can book a simple flight let’s say from London to New York. So we reasoned, that it would be better to offer some support for people who book their flights by themselves, instead of just turning the away.

This way I came to look around for products available, and I came up with Tony Morris’ ebook. This book opens a huge amount of reseources to you. Starting with links to the big booking engines, but also providing links to seat plans for the planes of different airlines, and tips, how to search for discounts. The book is thery good in that. But the drawback is, that you need a lot of time to check all theses resources out, figure out how to use them and then go and shop around for the best deal.

Here comes “Maximum Value for Your Airfare into play: We developed a clear and simple framework, keeping you focused and saving your time when looking for the right offers, and evaluating them in the light of your own needs. It comes as a series of videos, showing you how to find the right airports for your travel, the right time to make a reservaton, where to find the offers etc. It is combined with a script calculating the complete cost of a flight, and with a glossary explaining that “airline speak”, e.g. the difference between a “direct flight” and a “non-stop flight”

So all three products, our

• Tailormade Travelplan
• Maximum Value for Your Airfare and
• my Airfare Secrets by Tony Morris

are part of the same effort: To serve the customers according to their needs, not according to our need.

Yours for more fun while travelling

Johannes Stockburger

Change of Flight Schedule before a Ticket is Issued

As far as I know, no airline imposes a penalty for a change of a flight schedule or a cancellation of a reservation before a ticket is issued. Only in case of a so called “no show”, which means the reservation was not canceled before the flights departure, some airlines charge a penalty to the travel agent, who kept that reservation. We at BestPrice.Travel certainly never charge a penalty before a ticket is issued)

Change of Flight Schedule after a Ticket is Issued

More complicated is the change of a flight reservation if a ticket is already issued. It is rarely possible to change the names passenger in a flight ticket, or even in a reservation before a ticket is issued. In the era of paper tickets this was a security measure to make a flight ticket less attractive to thiefs. And it is a safeguard that prevents a travel agency to block seats on cheap fares in order to sell them later. A name change is a “no, no”. This makes it all important to check the spelling of the names in the reservation before you order your ticket or press the “buy now” button in the booking engine. After the ticket is issued, you may have a chance to cancel it the same day for a small fee. But the next day, full penalties apply without discussion.

The rules used to change an air ticket differentiate between a change before the start of the journey, and a change after you used the first part of your ticket.

Change of the Retur Flight after Reaching Your Flight Destination

A change of the return flight after you reached your destination is straightforward: You change the flight schedule, calculate the fare as if you had this new schedule. You divide the newly calculated fare and the original ticket price by half. Add both together, and you have the new price. Deduct the already paid amount from that new price, and add the change penalty. The result is the bill you get if you a change an air ticket for the return ticket only.

Rerouting

If you want to change not only the time of the return flight, but also the destination of the return flight (e.e. because you started from Frankfurt, but now on the new date for return travel a seat is only available to Munich) you have to consider two provisions in the fare rules: Is an open jaw flight allowed, and is rerouting allowed? if both is allowed, the procedure is the same as in the case of a mere time change. If one of the two, rerouting or open jaw is not allowed in the original fare rules, you may just be not able to change your ticket in that way.
The change of the return flight according to this system is only possible. if you keep the minimum stay provision included in many fare rules.

Change before the Start of the Journey

If you want to change a flight ticket before the start of the journey, the rule of the thump is: The new price is determined at current rates, taking account all rules including advance purchase provisions. The change fee is added to the new price, and the price already paid is applied to the new ticket. You are billed the remaining amount after applying the old fare.

Example:

You booked a flight from Frankfurt to Singapore, and the ticket had to be issued at least 60 days before departure. Now, one week before the originally booked flight, you want to change your air ticket. In this case, you cannot use the old fare any more, even if you want to change the return flight, only. To change an air ticket in such a case, you have to buy a new ticket, and you use the old ticket minus the change penalty to pay for the new ticket. If you want to change the return flight only, you may consider in this case to wait with the change until you reached Singapore. This may be cheaper, but you may run the risk, that after reaching Singapore your desired return flight may be no longer available, because somebody else may have taken the seat.

Changes between the time the ticket is issued and the start of the journey will be considered as a change of an air ticket only if it is not allowed to cancel the ticket, or if the penalty to change an air ticket is lower than the cancellation penalty. In special fares distributed by wholesalers a change before the start of the journey is only in very rare cases allowed. This makes the penalty for cancelling a flight ticket even more important, because you be very well forced to pay that penalty not only in case you stay at home, but also if you need to postpone your flight, or you need to fly a few days earlier.

No Show

This article does not relate to cases, in which somebody does not show up for his flight on time, comes without a needed visa, or forgets his passport. These no show case are governed by a different set of rules outside of the scope of this article

All price examples include already taxes and travel agents fees.
They show your total cost of the ticket

Frankfurt-Boston,February 25 to March 5. 410 Euro

Munich-Hong Kong March 15 to March 27 515 Euro

Please check for more prices and availabilities:

http://engine.bestprice.travel

You will find similiar offers from Germany to

• New York
• Boston
• Philadelphia
• Washington
• Miami
• Denver
• Houston
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Seattle
   
• Bejing
• Shanghai
• Hongkong
• Tokyo
   
• Capetown
• Johannesburg
   
• Bangalore
• Chennai
• Delhi
• Hyderabad
• Mumbai

You may book these flights at

http://engine.bestprice.travel

The specials are valid for flights from Hamburg, Berlin, Duesseldorf, Frankfurt, Stuttgart and Munich return flights in World Traveller (economy-class). Last date to issue a ticket is February 16. Last possible travel dated is June 30. Open jaw flights in China, South Africa, India or the US are possible.
]]> http://www.bestprice.travel/blog/13/remarkable-flight-specials/feed/ 1 http://www.bestprice.travel/blog/10/webfares-for-condor-flights-service-included/ http://www.bestprice.travel/blog/10/webfares-for-condor-flights-service-included/#comments Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:13:18 +0000 Johannes Stockburger http://www.bestprice.travel/home/2008/04/11/webfares-for-condor-flights-service-included/ We have already been in the process to drop condor flights from our offers. There have been several reasons for this:

• the standard reservation systems for charter airlines are not really suitable for internet bookings
• many offers for Condor flights are not available in Sabre, our preferred reservation system for scheduled flights
• the prices offered on Condors Website are sometimes considerably lower then the prices found in the reservation systems for travel agents.

There are several aspects which determine the fares charged on the respective booking platforms for Condor flights.
On the airline web sites reservation and ticketing can automated almost fully, including the payment with a credit card. The automation is here even higher than at a self service filling station for car fuel.
With the global distribution systems – the traditional systems for scheduled flights – the same degree of automation is possible. The global distribution systems (GDS) charge a flat fee for all Condor flights booked with the help of their tools. And especially for cheap fare this can be a substantial amount. The advantage of booking through GDS is that the travel agent is able to add some service, like advance reservation without immediate ticketing, round trips with several stops etc. But he has to charge for this service his own fee.
The third system, which makes Condor flights available, are conceived for selling leisure travel packages. In these systems, both, automation and flexibility are low. Here it can be already difficult to buy an open jaw flight. And with the reservation itself carries immediately high cancellation or change fees.

Just about the time when I dropped leisure travel system from our websites I talked to Condor. I don’t even remember for what reason. But they made me an offer I could not decline:

They told me I can offer Condor flights through their fully automated system at the prices identical with their website – in fact the booking engine is a clone of the engine at their website – and they would pay me for supporting the customers in matters like sports equipment, seat reservations, flights with babies etc.

The basic deal is: You book your Condor flight through BestPrice.Travel Lounge. You pay the same price as available on the Condor website and you get our personal support as needed to get the flight perfectly organized. You won’t pay for that extra service around your Condor flights , because the airline will pay for it.

To take advantage of this offer, go to
http://lounge.bestprice.travel/bookcondor.php

How can I use a stopover? 
If you have a schedule with two appointments, and you find an airline who serves the flight destination which is farer away from your starting point, you can combine both points into one itinery. This carries sometimes a modest extra fee, ore the core fare remains unchanged. Only the tax charged will be probably a bit higher. But this is it. So organizing your trip with a stopover can save you a lot of money.

What if there is no suitable flight connecting the places I need to visit?
Integrating different flights for a reasonable price into one ticket requires in almost any cases that  the long distance flights are coming from one airline, or at least from one airline alliance. A feeder or an add on flight can come in some cases from another airline. So the stopover point usually needs to be a hub for the airline you use.
If you want to connect two destinations, which are both small airports without a hub function, stopover will not work. An example would be a trip from Frankfurt lets say to Medan and Surabaya in Indonesia. There is not way to include the way from Medan to Surabaya into a Ticket  from Frankfurt to Surabaya.
In such a case you need to combine an open jaw flight from Frankfurt to Medan and back from Surabaya to Frankfurt with an one way flight from Medan to Surabaya. This is possible without a problem, because the fact that you want to leave the airport in Medan and spend some time in that town means anyway that you need to check out, pick up your luggage and check in again. And, obviously, after a stopover break it is anyway your business to be back on time for the ongoing flight. The only drawback is that the price of an open jaw flight combined with an one way flight is probably higher than the price  of a stopover flight would be, if it were available.
It is generally not possible to book a stopover flight through a flight booking engine. Too many considerations are important for these itineries. But if you need to organize a trip which possibly could become a stopover flight, we are happy to assist you with our TailorMade Travelplan.

Luggage pitfall:
Sometimes you do not get the same luggage allowance for the on way flight, as you get for the long haul. This is especially true if you travel from the United States to Europe, or if you travel el from  Europe to South America. In these cases for the airlines the transatlantic flights the piece concept, meaning that you can carry in economy class 2 boxes with 23 kg each. But inside Europe, and inside South America, the airlines often allow only 20 kgs luggage. You have to check this, if you combine an open jaw flight with an one way flight. But I suggest that you have also an eye on the luggage permits if you book a stopover flight.

If you need an open jaw flight and lack the time or patience to play with the booking engines the trial and error game, we are happy to create your flight shedule. Just send us a request for your free TailorMade TravelPlan