Multi - City Flights

[Mitsu3000gt]

I have a question about booking multi-city flights online and I was wondering if anyone knows why I am experiencing the following issue.

Of the flights that show up, as soon as I add another city, some of the original departure options disappear.

For example I am trying to go from YYC - KOA, KOA - LIH, LIH - YYC. If I Just search YYC-KOA, an Air Canada flight shows up for $286 which is perfect. As soon as I add the second KOA-LIH leg, the Air Canada flight is not discoverable by any means. No amount of filtering or searching can find it, even though it's the cheapest flight and should be right at the top. I am probably missing something here but does anyone know why this happens? Why do the best flights disappear when I add a stop?

If you want to try it yourself, pick April 13 and go YYC - KOA. Then add a flight and watch the Air Canada option disappear (all the good ones).

I tried on Google Flights, Kayak, and Flight Hub and they all behave identically (probably all fed by the same source).

This is annoying because I'd like to book all at once instead of one flight at a time and potentially lose one.

[taemo]

nvm saw that you have it listed haha
let me check

[taemo]

my guess is Air Canada does not have partnership or agreement with the last 2 legs of your flight.
i would just book each flight individually or at least YYC-KOA separately and see if you can get a better price by booking KOA-LIH and LIH-YYC

if you're complaining having to book separate flights, wait until you book in Asia or Europe lol.

[hurrdurr]

I have a question about booking multi-city flights online and I was wondering if anyone knows why I am experiencing the following issue.

Of the flights that show up, as soon as I add another city, some of the original departure options disappear.

For example I am trying to go from YYC - KOA, KOA - LIH, LIH - YYC. If I Just search YYC-KOA, an Air Canada flight shows up for $286 which is perfect. As soon as I add the second KOA-LIH leg, the Air Canada flight is not discoverable by any means. No amount of filtering or searching can find it, even though it's the cheapest flight and should be right at the top. I am probably missing something here but does anyone know why this happens? Why do the best flights disappear when I add a stop?

If you want to try it yourself, pick April 13 and go YYC - KOA. Then add a flight and watch the Air Canada option disappear (all the good ones).

I tried on Google Flights, Kayak, and Flight Hub and they all behave identically (probably all fed by the same source).

This is annoying because I'd like to book all at once instead of one flight at a time and potentially lose one.

Book The Air Canada flights as a round trip and the inter Hawaii flights together as a round trip. Likely the flight options between Kona and Lihue do not have a ticketing agreement with your preferred departure and it is automatically throwing an error.

[Mitsu3000gt]

my guess is Air Canada does not have partnership or agreement with the last 2 legs of your flight.
i would just book each flight individually or at least YYC-KOA separately and see if you can get a better price by booking KOA-LIH and LIH-YYC

if you're complaining having to book separate flights, wait until you book in Asia or Europe lol.

Aren't I booking the 3 flights individually though? I get that I am booking them all at once, but they are 3 separate flights a week apart on 3 different airlines.


Book The Air Canada flights as a round trip and the inter Hawaii flights together as a round trip. Likely the flight options between Kona and Lihue do not have a ticketing agreement with your preferred departure and it is automatically throwing an error.

I am coming in one island and out another on all different airlines so I don't think I can do round trip - can I? AC doesn't have a flight home that works for us unfortunately.

Interestingly, if I change the date to April 7 (YYC-KOA), April 13 (KOA-LIH), and April 21 (LIH-YYC), I can get all 3 flights exactly how I want them in a single booking. Is it possible they are partnered some weeks and not others?

Also two days ago, I could also get all the flights to show up in a single booking for April 13-28, and I can't today even though all the flights exist individually. :nut:

[hurrdurr]

Aren't I booking the 3 flights individually though? I get that I am booking them all at once, but they are 3 separate flights a week apart on 3 different airlines.



I am coming in one island and out another on all different airlines so I don't think I can do round trip - can I? AC doesn't have a flight home that works for us unfortunately.

Interestingly, if I change the date to April 7 (YYC-KOA), April 13 (KOA-LIH), and April 21 (LIH-YYC), I can get all 3 flights exactly how I want them in a single booking. Is it possible they are partnered some weeks and not others?

Also two days ago, I could also get all the flights to show up in a single booking for April 13-28, and I can't today even though all the flights exist individually. :nut:

Very strange - I have nothing to add. Sorry

[Mitsu3000gt]

Very strange - I have nothing to add. Sorry

No worries, thanks for taking the time.

I asked another travel agent and she thought it was just how the "ticketing" worked, as in even though they were all different flights, on the back end, they would be on the same ticket bundle. Seemed reasonable and might partially explain it, but I don't know how that all works.

[holden]

Probably because the individual flight segments you have found are not bookable together as a single itinerary from any single source. As you start adding cities to a multi city booking, these websites will only show you flights that can actually be booked together as a single ticket. Since you do not actually book flights from Google Flights or Kayak, they just search airlines (or some booking websites) for routes that are bookable.

[Mitsu3000gt]

Probably because the individual flight segments you have found are not bookable together as a single itinerary from any single source. As you start adding cities to a multi city booking, these websites will only show you flights that can actually be booked together as a single ticket. Since you do not actually book flights from Google Flights or Kayak, they just search airlines (or some booking websites) for routes that are bookable.

Makes sense - sounds more and more like it's a ticketing issue behind the scenes.

Might use a travel agent to make sure we can get all the flights together assuming the price is identical.

[hurrdurr]

I asked another travel agent and she thought it was just how the "ticketing" worked, as in even though they were all different flights, on the back end, they would be on the same ticket bundle.


Probably because the individual flight segments you have found are not bookable together as a single itinerary from any single source. As you start adding cities to a multi city booking, these websites will only show you flights that can actually be booked together as a single ticket.


Likely the flight options between Kona and Lihue do not have a ticketing agreement with your preferred departure and it is automatically throwing an error.

:nut:

[rage2]

Are you trying to cut total costs by combining it into a single bundle but with longer layovers? Because I used to do this as well for my India trips, I would book:

YYC -> FRA -> BLR, then BLR -> HKG (2 day layover) -> YVR (1 day layover) -> YYC which works out the exact same as a YYC -> FRA -> BLR -> FRA -> YYC roundtrip giving myself a free vacation in HKG and YVR, as booking BLR -> HKG, then HKG -> YVR, then YVR -> YYC would be 2-3x the cost. Anyways, I tried doing this again last year through my travel agent, turns out the airlines changed it so that you can't buy popular ticket bundles with layovers like that anymore solely to squeeze more revenue and kill off free vacations like I was doing. Shit would either not show up on the system like in your case, or prices would be wildly inflated compared to a no layover route on that exact route and stops.

The best I could pull off at the same price was 10 hour layovers, which is pretty much useless.

[Mitsu3000gt]

:nut:

Agreed it's weird - but why are there ticketing arrangements on one week and not the next? Exact same flight numbers & airlines, just one week different departure. One of them I can bundle, the other I can't.


Are you trying to cut total costs by combining it into a single bundle but with longer layovers? Because I used to do this as well for my India trips, I would book:

YYC -> FRA -> BLR, then BLR -> HKG (2 day layover) -> YVR (1 day layover) -> YYC which works out the exact same as a YYC -> FRA -> BLR -> FRA -> YYC roundtrip giving myself a free vacation in HKG and YVR, as booking BLR -> HKG, then HKG -> YVR, then YVR -> YYC would be 2-3x the cost. Anyways, I tried doing this again last year through my travel agent, turns out the airlines changed it so that you can't buy popular ticket bundles with layovers like that anymore solely to squeeze more revenue and kill off free vacations like I was doing. Shit would either not show up on the system like in your case, or prices would be wildly inflated compared to a no layover route on that exact route and stops.

The best I could pull off at the same price was 10 hour layovers, which is pretty much useless.

No, I am not trying to play with the layovers or anything. I just want the shortest total flight/layover duration, cheapest, flights from YYC - KOA, KOA - LIH, LIH - YYC. Two things are happening, regardless of booking website:

1) Using an April 7 - 13 - 21 itinerary, I can book all those flight legs together (Air Canada, Hawaiian, and United respectively). April 13 - 20 - 27/28 with the identical flight numbers & airlines I cannot. As soon as I add a flight leg, the YYC-KOA Air Canada flight disappears and is not discoverable by any means.

2) If I book for one adult, I get a certain price. If I change nothing except make the booking for 4 adults, the price goes up about $60/person. Either there is less than 4 tickets available at the lower price (that is my guess), or there are some convenience taxes added for multiple person bookings that I never noticed before - not sure.

So I was thinking maybe a travel agent has better booking tools than the general public and can just get this sorted for us.

[Feruk]

Book separately.
Flight 1:
https://www.google.ca/flights/#search;f=YYC;t=KOA;d=2018-04-13;r=2018-04-17;tt=o
Flight 2:
https://www.google.ca/flights/#search;f=KOA;t=LIH;d=2018-04-20;r=2018-04-24;tt=o
Flight 3:
https://www.google.ca/flights/#search;f=LIH;t=YYC;d=2018-04-26;r=2018-05-01;tt=o

If you book the Air Canada flight on leg 1, total cost is $699 CAD which is reasonable IMO. Looks like you can optimize it a bit with minimal cost add to avoid flights with 2 stops. I see no difference between 1 adult and 4.