Booking Airfare

mrobin023

mrobin023

Mouseketeer
Joined
Oct 31, 2010
is there any advantage to booking airfare through ABD or should I just book my own? We are planning a Backstage Magic trip next May and this is the final piece of the trip I need to get done.
 
It seems if an ABD is cancelled, it would make life a little easier if the flight was booked through ABD. Pretty low risk for a BSM trip.

Unless I'm paying for my flight with frequent flier miles, I book with ABD.
 
The other advantage would be if you are buying your trip insurance through ABD. They will sometimes cover your airfare even if you don't book it through them, but you have to be flying directly to the location where the ABD begins, and flying back from where the ABD ends. If you buy the airfare through them, it's automatically covered.

Sayhello
 
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I also found it to be significantly cheaper than the rates I could find online. Maybe I didn't look hard enough but saved a good bit from what I saw.
 


We had the same question and we asked our friend who happens to be a travel agent (and handling out Spain trip) about it. She sent us the blurb below. I believe these are probably in the ABD docs also.

  • If air is purchased through Adventures by Disney Travel Services, Inc., Disney will attempt to re-book for another departure of the same adventure during the same season, subject to availability, and Disney will bear any resulting airline re-booking charges. If unable to re-book on another departure, a full refund of all payments that had been made to Disney for the canceled adventure will be issued, including land package, airfare and Vacation Protection Plan (unless you have filed a claim), which refund shall constitute a full settlement.
  • If air is not purchased through Adventures by Disney Travel Services, Inc., and Disney cancels an adventure prior to its scheduled start date, Disney will attempt to re-book for another departure of the same adventure during the same season, subject to availability; however, the Guest will bear any resulting airline re-booking charges. If unable to re-book on another departure, Disney's sole obligation is to refund payment received for the land portion and Vacation Protection Plan (unless you have filed a claim), which refund shall constitute a full settlement. Disney assumes no responsibility for any losses incurred by you on account of non-refundable air tickets or otherwise.

It looks as though there is an advantage in the case of cancellation by Disney. I've also read that sometimes they can get a better price; sometimes not. Also, look at the details of any travel insurance you may have purchased (third party providers especially). Very often there is a stipulation that cancellation by the tour provider is NOT covered. The tour provider is expected to cover cancellations it seems.
 
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sayhello said:
The other advantage would be if you are buying your trip insurance through ABD. They will sometimes cover your airfare even if you don't book it through them, but you have to be flying directly to the location where the ABD begins, and flying back from where the ABD ends. If you buy the airfare through them, it's automatically covered.

Sayhello
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Well, maybe not exactly. :) I booked my own flights for the Ireland ABD and I flew to Edinburgh and spent 5 days there before going to Dublin to join the ABD. Quoting myself from a previous post below where ABD told me what was covered. I can only say it's what I was told, because fortunately I didn't have to file a claim and will never know whether this information is accurate or not. But this was after several conversations with ABD and the rep I spoke to seemed to know what she was talking about.

"And here's the story from ABD on which flights are covered. If you have multiple flights under the same confirmation number they are covered. She also told me that the segment leaving the US is covered regardless of whether the final destination is the origin of the ABD. So in my case I am flying on Delta from Nashville to Edinburgh and from Shannon to Nashville and those flights are covered. I booked a separate flight with Aer Lingus (different confirmation number, obviously) from Edinburgh to Dublin (where the tour starts) and that isn't covered, which is okay with me because it was really cheap."
 
Bobo912 said:
Well, maybe not exactly. :) I booked my own flights for the Ireland ABD and I flew to Edinburgh and spent 5 days there before going to Dublin to join the ABD. Quoting myself from a previous post below where ABD told me what was covered. I can only say it's what I was told, because fortunately I didn't have to file a claim and will never know whether this information is accurate or not. But this was after several conversations with ABD and the rep I spoke to seemed to know what she was talking about.

"And here's the story from ABD on which flights are covered. If you have multiple flights under the same confirmation number they are covered. She also told me that the segment leaving the US is covered regardless of whether the final destination is the origin of the ABD. So in my case I am flying on Delta from Nashville to Edinburgh and from Shannon to Nashville and those flights are covered. I booked a separate flight with Aer Lingus (different confirmation number, obviously) from Edinburgh to Dublin (where the tour starts) and that isn't covered, which is okay with me because it was really cheap."
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Thanks for the clarification. I haven't gotten ABD's insurance in a while, and when I did, it was for a trip that flew directly to the start of the trip, and left from the end of the trip. So good to know the distinction.

Sayhello
 


We try to book flights early, to find the best deals, and get travel insurance just in case!
 
Since first signing up to take our upcoming trip to Australia, (11 weeks and three days until departure and counting :)) the airlines have made multiple changes to the already purchased flights, including a total cancellation of the final leg home.

An advantage to booking with ABD or using a travel agent is that they do a good job of rebooking and rearranging. I cannot imagine wrestling with this if I had booked on my own with points. American Airlines wanted to leave us in Dallas Texas with a 14 hour layover after we will will have been flying from Brisbane with a tight connection to Sydney and then on to Dallas Texas. No reason given by AA for cancelling our final leg home. ABD found several alternatives, and while none of them were great, they get me home within 3 hours of the original plan.

As an aside, the airlines charge pretty hefty fees for a customer to make a flight change, but suffer absolutely no consequences for their unilateral action to make such a change. I may be showing my age but long ago these were called "contracts for carriage" and could not be so easily changed. Not a fan of domestic airlines, and I won't fly Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive (DELTA) as it doesn't nor will I fly through Atlanta, even if it were free.
 
Just to throw a different perspective in here. I booked my own flights to South East Asia instead of having my tour operator do it for me. I was booked Toronto to Saigon, Siem Reap to Toronto both via Seoul, South Korea on Korean. Korean changed our return flight home a few weeks out from our trip. They were no longer flying out of Siem Reap as of the start of our trip so they moved our flight to be out of Phnom Phen instead. I simply called up Korean Airlines and explained the situation. That there was absolutely no way we could fly out of Phnom Phen. We HAD to fly out Siem Reap as we were on a tour and our tour ended in Siem Reap and we were still touring in Siem Reap the day we were due to fly out. Korean Airlines was more than happy to work with us and they rebooked our return flights homes, even creating an itinerary that does not exist and cannot be booked at all on their website. They even made sure that we still made our final connection home from Seoul to Toronto, all without any additional fees or charges.

We are contemplating using a travel agent to book flights for our next trip but that's only if they can book us straight through to our final destination as it's a bit off the beaten track. If not, I'm not going to waste the money on agent's fees and I'll just book the 2 separate airlines myself.
 
United changed the time of one of our flights on the way home from Australia (we are on the 7/2 trip) which would have caused us to miss our connection. Called them and they changed the flight to what was a more expensive flight (obviously, no additional charge). Anyways, I asked why they changed the flight. Their answer was interesting. They said in most cases it is not the airline that changes the flight time, it is the airport. They said they basically lease space and take-off/landing slots from the airport. If another airline strikes an agreement they can lose that time slot and be re-assigned another. I'm sure this is an oversimplification and there is more negotiation that happens, but it was an assumption that I had made that it was always the airline when they may not have a choice in the matter.
 
Grifdog22 said:
Since first signing up to take our upcoming trip to Australia, (11 weeks and three days until departure and counting :)) the airlines have made multiple changes to the already purchased flights, including a total cancellation of the final leg home.

An advantage to booking with ABD or using a travel agent is that they do a good job of rebooking and rearranging. I cannot imagine wrestling with this if I had booked on my own with points. American Airlines wanted to leave us in Dallas Texas with a 14 hour layover after we will will have been flying from Brisbane with a tight connection to Sydney and then on to Dallas Texas. No reason given by AA for cancelling our final leg home. ABD found several alternatives, and while none of them were great, they get me home within 3 hours of the original plan.

As an aside, the airlines charge pretty hefty fees for a customer to make a flight change, but suffer absolutely no consequences for their unilateral action to make such a change. I may be showing my age but long ago these were called "contracts for carriage" and could not be so easily changed. Not a fan of domestic airlines, and I won't fly Don't Expect Luggage To Arrive (DELTA) as it doesn't nor will I fly through Atlanta, even if it were free.
Click to expand...
I HATE HATE HATE Delta!! I feel like I constantly have to watch my reservation because they rarely actually notify me when they change my flights, and it seems every time they do, my connections get worse and I lose my seat selections. I only fly Delta if there's absolutely no other reasonable alternative.

Cinderella's Slipper 2015 said:
We are contemplating using a travel agent to book flights for our next trip but that's only if they can book us straight through to our final destination as it's a bit off the beaten track. If not, I'm not going to waste the money on agent's fees and I'll just book the 2 separate airlines myself.
Click to expand...
I have never had a Travel Agent charge me any kind of fee. It's the travel providers that pay the fees/commissions for the TA's.

RSM said:
United changed the time of one of our flights on the way home from Australia (we are on the 7/2 trip) which would have caused us to miss our connection. Called them and they changed the flight to what was a more expensive flight (obviously, no additional charge). Anyways, I asked why they changed the flight. Their answer was interesting. They said in most cases it is not the airline that changes the flight time, it is the airport. They said they basically lease space and take-off/landing slots from the airport. If another airline strikes an agreement they can lose that time slot and be re-assigned another. I'm sure this is an oversimplification and there is more negotiation that happens, but it was an assumption that I had made that it was always the airline when they may not have a choice in the matter.
Click to expand...
That is interesting. But it doesn't explain AA actually changing the times, the flight numbers and the planes for both of my flight legs to/from Chicago for my China trip. :( Changed all that & didn't seem to notice that the seat I was assigned didn't exist on one of the new planes... Cathay Pacific hasn't changed a thing on me.

Sayhello
 
sayhello said:
That is interesting. But it doesn't explain AA actually changing the times, the flight numbers and the planes for both of my flight legs to/from Chicago for my China trip. :( Changed all that & didn't seem to notice that the seat I was assigned didn't exist on one of the new planes... Cathay Pacific hasn't changed a thing on me.

Sayhello
Click to expand...

Yep! I've had that happen, too. The airplane changes and the seat I was in didn't exist on the new plane. In fact, I've had that happen the night before a flight. Sometimes what I'll do now (admittedly not always) is check all the different airplanes that a carrier generally uses for a given route. Then I'll make sure my seat row and number exists across all airplanes. Yes... it's a bit paranoid.

I've looked back over the last 3 years and approximately 50% of my international flights have had significant day of or day before changes and cancellations. I've had airplane changes which have eliminated our seats, flight time changes which have broken up our seats so we're no longer sitting together, and complete flight cancellations for no reason given where we had to scramble to find another flight, and airport workers that went on strike causing flight cancellations. I'm sure I'm missing a reason or two. Last year we were "stuck" on Maui due to wildfires (granted not an airline issue). So, you just never know.
 
I had a Virtuoso agent who had done several high end hotel bookings for suddenly want a $50.00 "booking fee" per reservation. She explained she never charged it before but her boss was pressuring her to start. I didn't give her the booking I was inquiring about and switched to another Virtuoso agent (who has no fees). My new agent gets quite a few nice bookings from me each year. I don't call and waste his time - I know exactly what I want - I use him to make the booking so I can get the free breakfast, amenity and early check-in!
 
*WDW*Groupie* said:
I had a Virtuoso agent who had done several high end hotel bookings for suddenly want a $50.00 "booking fee" per reservation. She explained she never charged it before but her boss was pressuring her to start. I didn't give her the booking I was inquiring about and switched to another Virtuoso agent (who has no fees). My new agent gets quite a few nice bookings from me each year. I don't call and waste his time - I know exactly what I want - I use him to make the booking so I can get the free breakfast, amenity and early check-in!
Click to expand...

My experience was also with a virtuoso TA.
 
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