Booking Flights w/1 Day Layover - Separate or Multi City

[Cinderelli]

There may be a better place to ask this question and if so, please feel free to point me in that direction. My husband and I are planning a trip to Aulani for our 30th Anniversary next May. I've been watching airfare for the past few months and think we will be purchasing within the next few weeks. We are traveling from Florida and there are no direct flights. I think we will layover on the west coast for one night and resume the trip the next day. Same coming back. Neither of us are excited about spending 11 or 12 hours in an airplane at one time anyway.

We are planning on leaving 5/11 for LA, then 5/12 to Honolulu, then returning from Honolulu to LA on 5/22 and from LA to Florida on 5/23. Is there a downside to making 2 separate bookings (Example: Round trip Florida to LA 5/11-5/22, with a separate round trip ticket LA To Honolulu 5/12-5/21) - this method requires 2 separate reservations/payments.

Or is it better to book a multi-city round trip ticket with the 1 day layover each way - one reservation/one payment.

It appears to me in my price checking that the two separate tickets would be more cost effective but I'm sure there must be a downside I'm not considering. The one thing that comes to mind is if our luggage got lost on the first ticket (Florida to LA). How would it get to us in Honolulu if Honolulu was never a part of that round trip fare?

Any suggestions? I appreciate all the help. We are not world travelers (well except for the Mouse House) so all suggestions are welcome. Never been more excited about a trip in my life.

 

[dachsie]

if its more cost effective to do the 2 round trips, do that. If you are flying direct to LAX from FL there is a rare chance your luggage would get lost. Luggage tends to get lost when its transferred.

 

[abdgeek]

The question you pose involves a couple of different scenarios, but I will try to offer some things to think about as you make your decision. I usually fly Delta to HNL, so my references will use them as an example.

1) Coming from FL, you would need to connect through an airlines major hub to get to HNL. If you connect in ATL, Delta’s nonstop flight to HNL is only about 10 hours. If you decide to go to LAX, you can do so with one layover from FL.

2) The flight from LAX to HNL is about 4-5 hours. If you book two separate round trip tickets
(FL-LAX and LAX-HNL) and your checked luggage is lost on the way there, you would have them send it to HNL. If you can get a ticket from FL-HNL that has a 10-12 hour layover in LAX, make sure you pack a carry-on that has everything you need for an overnight stay because you won’t have access to your checked bag.

3) As you said, the pricing is about the same. The difference will be about the cost of a hotel room in the airport area. When I ran the two options on Delta, I got $1000 vs 1300 for one person in the main cabin. You didn’t mention which city you would be flying from, so I used Miami.

4) My recommendation would be to spend the extra days in HNL as opposed to L.A. LAX isn’t really that near to L.A., so you won’t have much time to sightsee there with a layover. However, there are some excursions you can book that will pick up at the airport. If you want to go to Disneyland or see anything, you really need a 24 hour layover or to book a flight that gets in to LAX in the early morning on 5/11.

5) Some of the LAX hotels offer day rooms. There is a site you can search to see what’s available, but I don’t remember what it is. They are space available, so most hotels say to call the day of to check on availability.

6). The option that works best for you really depends on how long you want to take getting to HNL.

I hope this helps you make your decision. I can definitely understand not wanting a long flight. I’ve done them so many times now, they don’t bother me. My only criteria when I fly is that I only want one layover each way to and from my destination.

 

[Cinderelli]

Thank you both for the information. ABDGeek you have given me some great ideas (especially about taking a carry-on for a shorter 10-12 hour layover). And, I had no idea some hotels even offered a day room. We had considered the direct flight from Atlanta, but still don't think either of us are crazy about that long flight. Maybe on the way out, but not coming back. We would fly from either Tampa or Orlando. Thanks again for the food for thought

 

[jltdone]

This is just my 2 cents.
This is air time
Orlando to Atlanta 1 hour 20 mins
Atlanta to Honolulu is almost 10 hours.
total time 11 hours and 20 mins.
Orlando to Los Angeles 5 hours and 15 mins
Los Angeles to Honolulu is almost 6 hours
total time 11 hours and 15 mins.
Now this is me after a 5 hour flight air time ( not to mention be at airport 2 hours early go through screening), knowing I have to go back to airport in the morning (again 2 hours early go through screening ) for the 2nd leg which is another 6 hour flight would be 2 long days of travel.
Where get up go to airport ( 2 hours early go through screening once) have a lay over and then get on the plane and do the 10 hour flight and get there to aulani the same day. I get to spend one extra day in aulani. I would do that but again that is me and our family, we are ok lets suck it up and get it over and done with. Im 6 foot 6 and I know how planes feel. we are going in dec 2020 out of Detroit and we are looking at all kinds of flights the only down fall is there are no direct flight for us either. We will be making the trip in one day. Load the carry ons up with some snacks for the 10 year old and make sure the tablets are charged and extra batteries are packed. Watch a few movies ( ok more like 5 movies) and we are there.
I get it every family is different.
No matter how I look at it we would be on the plane the same amount of time. 11 hours and 15 mins with 1 stop.
We are looking at maybe flying from Detroit to phoenix and then phoenix to Honolulu or detroit to Atlanta, atlanta to Honolulu.
Get off the plane stretch the legs go for a walk and then board again and lets go to the ocean.

 

[Cinderelli]

Decisions, decisions. JLTdone, your points are good ones and we are tempted to try it. I have back issues occasionally and I worry about sitting that long in one day. It is tempting tho and we would love to spend 2 additional days on Oahu, On those long flights, do people get up and stand quite a bit or is that discouraged? If we were stuck in a seat for 10 hours with a seatbelt sign on that sounds very daunting.

 

[abdgeek]

We would fly from either Tampa or Orlando.

Not sure if you had noticed, but Delta has several nonstop flights from Orlando to LAX. Your multi-city ticket could be MCO-LAX(5/11), LAX-HNL(5/12), and HNL-LAX(5/22), LAX-MCO(5/23).

 

[Flossbolna]

I fly regularly between Europe and the US. Flights to Florida or California from Germany are in that 10-12 hours range. They are not insufferably horrible. Yes, it’s not the most comfortable experience, but it can be done. You usually are able to get up and stand for a bit, quite a few people do that. Of course not if there are turbulences. You might consider economy plus for some extra legroom as this helps with feeling less constricted. Also, getting an aisle seat helps most people to feel like it’s easier to move. Just get seats on both sides of an aisle, then you are still close, but both have aisle seats.

I can’t imagine you’d have 10 hours of seat belt sign! In my experience they rather try to get around nasty weather as they have more options for how to route the flight when it is longer. Also, people would revolt as they need the bathroom and so. The longest I’ve experienced was maybe 3 hours of seat belt sign.

 

[kyton]

We fly regularly from Sydney Australia to Honolulu yearly - and it is a 9.5hr flight over and 10.5hr flight back. It's really not too bad - we luckily have overnight flights so we leave around 9pm and arrive early morning. This is great for our body clocks as we jus hit the ground running when we arrive.

It would be a very rare occurence that you wouldn't be allowed out of your seats once in the air - in fact the hosts normally recommend getting up and stretching hourly.

 

[nkereina]

When we flew on Delta from ATL to HNL, the flight was 8.5-9 hours. We didn't think it was bad at all. We were in standard coach and there were tons of free movies, TV shows, and they even served free meals and alcohol to all fare classes. If it were me, I'd be booking some combination of whatever flight gets me there the soonest to maximize my time, but also provides some amenities to make it more comfortable.

Booking two separate roundtrip tickets poses logistical challenges if you lose luggage or if you experience a flight delay or cancellation. I'm not sure how much recourse you would have with the airline, even if its the same one. Trip insurance may assist with something like this, but its something you should look into before pulling the trigger.

That said, two separate roundtrip tickets gives you more flexibility with times and pricing since you can book different airlines. Might be worth the risk depending on how big of a price difference you're talking.

 

[kdonnel]

Is there a downside to making 2 separate bookings

One downside is that you are not protected if something happens that delays your initial flight.

If for some reason your 5/11 flight does not leave and you miss your 5/12 flight your entire 5/12 flight is cancelled as you are a no show.

You may also run afoul of the airline conditions of carriage with nested tickets on the same airline.

 

[nkereina]

You may also run afoul of the airline conditions of carriage with nested tickets on the same airline.

I used to travel for work a lot and things may have changed since then, but its always been my understanding that someone needs to abuse this by doing it frequently to skirt rules and fares, and in addition to that, they need to be recognized and flagged by the airline for doing it. I don't think this is something the OP would need to worry about in their scenario. In fact, I think its done quite a bit here based on some other planning threads I've read.

 

[Cinderelli]

Thank you to everyone for all the input. We definitely are considering our options and appreciate all the valuable feeback. The flight through Atlanta is sounding more and more tempting. We would prefer to go out of Tampa (as it's our home base) but there doesn't seem to be any flights to go through Atlanta leaving from Tampa. Orlando seems to have better fares all around.

 

[kdonnel]

I used to travel for work a lot and things may have changed since then, but its always been my understanding that someone needs to abuse this by doing it frequently to skirt rules and fares, and in addition to that, they need to be recognized and flagged by the airline for doing it. I don't think this is something the OP would need to worry about in their scenario. In fact, I think its done quite a bit here based on some other planning threads I've read.

Just because it is done quite a bit here does not mean it does not potentially violate the conditions of carriage.

You are correct that the airlines typically do not go after people who nest trips occasionally but the poster should be made aware that what they are proposing may get their flight(s) cancelled.

You can remove the risk by nesting different airlines but with that you still run the risk of your inside nested flight being cancelled with no refund and no recourse if your outside nested flight is delayed long enough.

 

[nkereina]

Just because it is done quite a bit here does not mean it does not potentially violate the conditions of carriage.

That wasn't what I said. And besides, how would the airline know whether they have business in LA for the ight or if they are doing it just to skirt the higher fares? They wouldn't. While it may technically go against the fine print of the airline (I don't know if it does), I would still assert that airlines wouldn't go so far as to cancel the ticket if they somehow singled out the OP.

You can remove the risk by nesting different airlines but with that you still run the risk of your inside nested flight being cancelled with no refund and no recourse if your outside nested flight is delayed long enough.

I do agree that it's a risk that if the originating flight is delayed or cancelled, then they would have no recourse. I mentioned this up-thread as well. That would be the bigger concern here for me.

 

[kdonnel]

That wasn't what I said. And besides, how would the airline know whether they have business in LA for the ight or if they are doing it just to skirt the higher fares? They wouldn't. While it may technically go against the fine print of the airline (I don't know if it does), I would still assert that airlines wouldn't go so far as to cancel the ticket if they somehow singled out the OP.

Nested tickets most definitely break the airlines rules if structured in such a way as to be exploitive. For example if the tickets are structured in such a way as to get a better fare by avoiding minimum stay requirements or avoiding a Saturday stay requirement.

Whether you read the contract you agree to or not when you buy a ticket you have agreed to the terms. There is a risk that the airline will cancel any unused part of the ticket, refuse to fly you, not refund any of your money, or charge you for what the ticket would have cost had it not been structured as a nested ticket.

United Airlines has recently sent a memo to their front line employees asking them to be on the lookout for people using nested tickets and hidden city ticketing.

There is definitely a risk associated with what the OP has proposed.

 

[Cinderelli]

What the heck? There's even a name for it? Nested ticket. I learn something new every day.

I do appreciate the information. If we do the one night layover in LA, we would most likely use Hawaiian airlines from LAX. Since Hawaiian does not fly from Tampa (or Orlando) that I can tell, it would definitely be two separate airlines. Thank you to everyone who has contributed. I have learned alot already.

 

[nkereina]

Nested tickets most definitely break the airlines rules if structured in such a way as to be exploitive. For example if the tickets are structured in such a way as to get a better fare by avoiding minimum stay requirements or avoiding a Saturday stay requirement.

Whether you read the contract you agree to or not when you buy a ticket you have agreed to the terms. There is a risk that the airline will cancel any unused part of the ticket, refuse to fly you, not refund any of your money, or charge you for what the ticket would have cost had it not been structured as a nested ticket.

United Airlines has recently sent a memo to their front line employees asking them to be on the lookout for people using nested tickets and hidden city ticketing.

There is definitely a risk associated with what the OP has proposed.

I understand what you are saying, but my opinion is still that the risk is minimal. IMO, its no different than the terms we agree to when downloading iPhone software or making a Facebook profile. They reserve the right to impose penalties/restrictions, etc, but it rarely happens. In this case, the passenger would have to weigh the risk against their options and determine if its a risk they are willing to take.