Award Booking - Married Segments?

[jboy90]

Hi all,

I'm looking at booking flights from AU to Europe next year. I've searched for AUS to Europe and can't find any results on the days I'm looking at when I do a simple one-way award search. However I've done a multi-city search and can see availability from AUS to HKG on Cathay Pacific on day 1, and on day 2 (with a stop over of about 6 hours), I can see availability from HKG to HEL on Finnair.

I'm wondering whether you think I'll run into any issues if I go ahead and book this in (eg married segment issues)? The award is pricing at 143,000 points rather than the usual 139,000 points, so it's definitely pricing as if it's two discrete awards.

If you think this is okay, then I'll book this and when flights become available to come from Europe to AUS I'll phone to book them in, along with the internal flights within Europe that I need at the same time, so I end up with a 280,000 reward.

Thanks in advance friends!

 

[lovetravellingoz]

If I have understood your question correctly then yes you can book as two awards. So yes go for it.

HOWEVER as it will be treated as two bookings make sure you allow ample time between as if there are delays on the first flight it cause you problems.


If you mean that it actually books as the one award, but at the higher points price, then even better as that means that they will look after any issues with cancelled flights, booking through luggage etc.

 

[jboy90]

If I have understood your question correctly then yes you can book as two awards. So yes go for it.

HOWEVER as it will be treated as two bookings make sure you allow ample time between as if there are delays on the first flight it cause you problems.


If you mean that it actually books as the one award, but at the higher points price, then even better as that means that they will look after any issues with cancelled flights, booking through luggage etc.

Thanks for your reply. I mean booking this as one reward booking which has two flights (priced at the higher rate in total). As such I was worried about the married segments issue which I’ve read about particularly with Cathay pacific and Cathay pacific flights. I don’t recall reading Married segments being an issue between carriers but it could be - hence my question!

 

[Aus ATC]

In my (limited) experience, if there is a "married segment" issue, the booking won't proceed through to completion. This sounds OK to me. And yes - the points costs becomes a moot point once you make the remaining bookings to max out at 280k.

 

[cjd600]

married segments only within same airline, so CX/AY should be fine

 

[madrooster]

married segments only within same airline, so CX/AY should be fine

Cross carrier married segment control does exist between KA/CX/AY/QF for awards.

 

[jboy90]

Cross carrier married segment control does exist between KA/CX/AY/QF for awards.

Thanks. If this is the case would me being able to have a booking process be sufficient confirmation that the flights are allowable?

Or should I not book and keep search for seats OR try and arrange more than 24 hours between awards and have a day in Hong Kong (providing I can find flights)?

 

[cjd600]

Cross carrier married segment control does exist between KA/CX/AY/QF for awards.

In some scenarios, but not all I assume.
Assume IB might fit in there too, as I have had issues adding seemingly available flights with them as well.
Would be great to have a black and white guide how you can make these awards actually work, aside from simple apparent availability.
Its a coughshoot.

 

[jboy90]

In some scenarios, but not all I assume.
Assume IB might fit in there too, as I have had issues adding seemingly available flights with them as well.
Would be great to have a black and white guide how you can make these awards actually work, aside from simple apparent availability.
Its a coughshoot.

If it’s bookable through Qantas online and I receive an eticket, does that confirm the booking is valid and shouldn’t be subject to any married segment rules?

Seems silly. I’ve never seen Aus to HEL available on a single one way reward search but have managed to find it when doing a multi city search.

 

[madrooster]

Thanks. If this is the case would me being able to have a booking process be sufficient confirmation that the flights are allowable?

Or should I not book and keep search for seats OR try and arrange more than 24 hours between awards and have a day in Hong Kong (providing I can find flights)?

You may be forced to have a stopover in HKG but that might also affect your availability elsewhere too. It's quite annoying to be honest.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

If it’s bookable through Qantas online and I receive an eticket, does that confirm the booking is valid and shouldn’t be subject to any married segment rules?

Seems silly. I’ve never seen Aus to HEL available on a single one way reward search but have managed to find it when doing a multi city search.

If you can book, you have booked a 'legal' itinerary and the airline won't cancel it down the track.

This doesn't guarantee however that what you've booked hasn't been sold as a married segment. This happened the other day where someone had booked an EK-EK ticket but later found they couldn't change the second sector because it was, in fact, married.

The bottom line is that the system won't sell you something it shouldn't. But if you need to make a change it might not be possible without having to cancel and book everything again.

 

[Rangalad]

If you can book, you have booked a 'legal' itinerary and the airline won't cancel it down the track.

This doesn't guarantee however that what you've booked hasn't been sold as a married segment. This happened the other day where someone had booked an EK-EK ticket but later found they couldn't change the second sector because it was, in fact, married.

The bottom line is that the system won't sell you something it shouldn't. But if you need to make a change it might not be possible without having to cancel and book everything again.

FWIW Qantas warns ‘segments may become married at any time, even after end transaction’.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

FWIW Qantas warns ‘segments may become married at any time, even after end transaction’.

Interesting! Where've they added that in? I would have thought it may not be contractually binding, but depends where/how they have presented it to the customer.

 

[cjd600]

It's a lottery

 

[jboy90]

If you can book, you have booked a 'legal' itinerary and the airline won't cancel it down the track.

This doesn't guarantee however that what you've booked hasn't been sold as a married segment. This happened the other day where someone had booked an EK-EK ticket but later found they couldn't change the second sector because it was, in fact, married.

The bottom line is that the system won't sell you something it shouldn't. But if you need to make a change it might not be possible without having to cancel and book everything again.

My plan wouldn’t be to make any changes (I’ve never had to in the past in my decades of travel and if I did it would likely be an insurance claim anyway). Based on this I should look at going ahead with my booking and if it tickets I should take comfort that my booking is good to go.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

My plan wouldn’t be to make any changes (I’ve never had to in the past in my decades of travel and if I did it would likely be an insurance claim anyway). Based on this I should look at going ahead with my booking and if it tickets I should take comfort that my booking is good to go.

100% (unless you have a ticket booked on Qatar, LATAM or Cina Eastern where QF seems to be having some troubles lately with cancelled tickets and downgrades ).

But otherwise yeah, they system won't let you book anything you're not supposed to. (In fact quite the opposite, it's often the system won't let you book something you are allowed to!)

 

[madrooster]

If you can book, you have booked a 'legal' itinerary and the airline won't cancel it down the track.

The bottom line is that the system won't sell you something it shouldn't. But if you need to make a change it might not be possible without having to cancel and book everything again.

This is not entirely correct/true. Airlines can and do cancel segments and can do so, for 24 hours after the ticket is issued.

This can occur when segments have been sold that shouldn't have been sold - reasons can include married segment circumvention, point of commencement based availability circumvention and a number of other reasons.

QR and CX are particularly good at doing this...

 

[MEL_Traveller]

This is not entirely correct/true. Airlines can and do cancel segments and can do so, for 24 hours after the ticket is issued.

This can occur when segments have been sold that shouldn't have been sold - reasons can include married segment circumvention, point of commencement based availability circumvention and a number of other reasons.

QR and CX are particularly good at doing this...

I accept that for a professional TA with inside knowledge this may in fact be the case. But my post was based on experience from an end user (ordinary passenger). Thankfully I have never had a situation you describe affecting one of my award bookings. I know airlines can fail to ticket within deadlines (SQ in the past was very strict, QR now, etc), but never had a cancellation on an award after ticketing due to married segments.

Maybe this will become an issue if Qantas and Emirates and others are starting to base more awards on married segments

 

[jboy90]

If I’m only likely to see a cancellation come through in the first 24 hours or week (say), then that’s fine by me as I won’t be booking any accommodation until a month or two away anyway!

Thanks for all your comments and advice!