Deferring legs in multi-stop or indirect flights

[AdamR]

My first post. I have enjoyed lurking here for a few months and have learnt a lot.

FWIW, I am a QFF Silver and Qantas Club member - which I understand should be written PS, QP - but I have half a chance getting to Gold this year as I am at nearly 300 SP after one month.

I have read a number of posts which seem to say that people book indirect or multi-stop flights, then defer the unneeded legs for later use. I assume this only works with flexible fares, but how does one go about it. What happens if you don't or can't make the deferred leg.

It seems that one of the popular options for status runs is a J multi-stop flight including Nadi, Fiji, with the international leg deferred.

Can someone explain the benefits of deferring legs, how you go about it, and any traps for newbies to look out for.

 

[JohnK]

Welcome to AFF.

Can someone explain the benefits of deferring legs, how you go about it, and any traps for newbies to look out for.

One could defer legs of trips if their plans had changed, they were pressed for time, needed some of the SCs now and the rest later. Book a BNE-MEL-SYD-NAN flight in business and have a long stopover in SYD and resume the trip later.

In most cases you should be able to make changes online or call QF reservations. The change would only really be practical if the ticket was fully flexible and/or any costs involved were negligible.

I am not certain but one of the traps would be that the trip would need to be completed within 12 months of booking.

I am sure there are many more things others can add.

 

[AdamR]

Thanks JohnK.
Is it just as easy as calling Qantas to arrange the 'stopover'?

 

[JohnK]

They may charge a service fee if calling QF reservations but I cannot see an issue (where the ticket allows) changing the dates and times of flights.

 

[Leumas]

One could defer legs of trips if their plans had changed, they were pressed for time, needed some of the SCs now and the rest later. Book a BNE-MEL-SYD-NAN flight in business and have a long stopover in SYD and resume the trip later.

In most cases you should be able to make changes online or call QF reservations. The change would only really be practical if the ticket was fully flexible and/or any costs involved were negligible.

Am just wondering, has anyone actually successfully changed one of these NAN runs to have a stopover in SYD (for example)?

When I did such run a couple of weeks ago, my routing was BNE-MEL-SYD-NAN-SYD-BNE. QF/FJ lost my bag during NAN-SYD. As I live in Sydney, I wanted to defer my SYD-BNE. (Long story, but if I've flown that sector, I wouldn't return to SYD until 9pm that evening and I mistakenly checked my house keys in the lost bag. So I thought I'd just stop at SYD and at least get a locksmith while it's still day time.)

Anyway, I tried the agent at the lounge, she checked (thinking it'd be OK because it's a business class ticket), but nope, the ticket was booked as a through ticket, so the only option I'd was to not turn up to the rest of the journey if I wanted to stop.

Should I have booked the original ticket to have a stopover? Also, if you do stop, you're likely to have extra taxes and surcharges.

 

[JohnK]

Am just wondering, has anyone actually successfully changed one of these NAN runs to have a stopover in SYD (for example)?

It has been mentioned a number of times so I just assumed that it was possible on these tickets.

Should I have booked the original ticket to have a stopover? Also, if you do stop, you're likely to have extra taxes and surcharges.

Not sure how the ticket will price out if booking a domestic stopover.

Another option could be to book as a multi-city booking with the international leg as a seperate sector in the itinerary. Would this still be considered a through ticket?

 

[Joshua]

You don't need to actually book then call them!

As JohnK alludes to, you can quite easily do a multi-stop booking online. It's no different to same-day domestic bookings, if it fits the fare rules the booking engine will calculate accordingly.

eg. Booking CBR-SYD-BNE on the same day with fares in the same fare bucket will come up with a subtotal of two flights, let's say $200. On the confirmation page however it will calculate it as a CBR-BNE fare and you'll pay $150 instead as an example.

The fare rules for BNE-NAN in D2F (that is, a discounted business fare that books into the 'D' fare bucket) allow 1 stopover each direction. The routing rules allow, among other things, BNE-MEL-SYD-NAN vv. On the QF website using the International Multi-City booking tool (note: not the one w/ a flash map) you simply put in the 3 or 6 (return) individual flights segments you want. In each direction you can have a stop-over in MEL or SYD, so at least two flights must be on the same day in each direction. This way you can also select the best times and choose to fly on a B767 and/or A320. If you're lucky to get an international configuration you'll get a bed on the domestic flights even.

Of course on the way back if you just want to keep those extra segments handy, just book for sometime far in the future and you can change them as per the fare rules. There may be some taxes but no surcharges for the stopover.