I have a problem that I would like to get a second opinion on. I got myself a ticket plane from Frankfurt to Hanoi and back Hanoi to Frankfurt with AirChina through an online agency. Sadly, I will not be able to make the Frankfurt to Hanoi plane for personal reasons so I contracted the agency with a gentle question for a possibility of a refund of the Frankfurt to Hanoi part. Unfortunately, I wasn't successful, but fair enough, I tired!   Here's the real problem, surprisingly they also said that if I will not be able to use the Frankfurt to Hanoi part of my ticket my Hanoi to Frankfurt trip will be cancelled without any possibility for a refund. The return ticket was paid in full, it's obviously combined together under a single e-ticket with the flight numbers and reservation reference.   Have you ever heard about anything like it?  Please let me know Martin
5447
I've a friend that booked a round-trip journey. He booked A-to-B and B-to-A. Somehow he needed to be earlier at location B, so he took a train and did not take the flight from A to B.  When he went to the airport to take the "back home" flight (B-to-A), he was informed that his ticket was canceled because he did not take the A-to-B flight. They canceled the ticket and sold it to someone else.  Is this normal? The company said it was their right to do so, and he could not get the flight back. The company was Iberia.
118124
I am on a gap year and have completed exactly 90 days in the Schengen area. I then flew to Morocco and have been here for 2 months. In 3 days I fly to London for another 2 months, and then will fly to the Czech Republic for a period of exactly 90 days. So, 90 days in, 4 months out, 90 days in.  The problem may be that the flight from Morocco to London has a connection in Madrid. It goes Morocco to Madrid Terminal 4s, then terminal 4 to Gatwick. I believe there is a shuttle bus between terminals 4s and 4.  I'm flying in three days time. (Don't know why I just thought of this now.) From what I've just read here and in other places I think I might be in trouble as I may not be able to enter Schengen as I will fall foul of the 90 days in 180 days rule.  From early comments it looks like my only option is to bin the (non-refundable) indirect tickets and buy direct flights (ouch!). I'm on a backpacker budget and any suggestions would be gratefully received.  Update: The flights are: IB8191 operated by Air Nostrum and  IB3718 operated by Iberia Express, both flights on a single Iberia ticket.    I tried calling Iberia but they couldn't put me through to anyone who spoke English. I called MAD airport, and was given a number to ring (not sure exactly who) and explained the issue (Countries, terminals etc). They said I would go through immigration but it would be fine. I again said that I had used all my Schengen days but they said it didn't matter.   Assuming that I rely on this information and continue with my original arrangements I'll post back here to say how it went, which gaol I landed up in etc.
45846
I'm an Indian. I'm planning to book a journey from Mumbai to Johannesburg, South Africa and back (conference visa). I looked at refundable tickets, while they are priced higher, they give you half your money back, for instance if the to and fro flight costs INR 40,000 they give you INR 20,000 . But this is if you are cancelling for some reason.   What if you have to cancel because your visa application or the transit visa application got rejected. As far as I understand the procedure is :-  a. Buy airline tickets   b. Apply for Visa   c. Wait between 1-6 weeks to get update about your visa application, for both visa and transit visa (although transit visa should be shorter I guess.)  d. If visa is granted then move on to planning other things about the trip.   Now in case, if the visa application fails (for whatever reason ) what recourse does the traveler have ?  Are there any airlines who are better understanding than others about this situation ?  In non-refundable tickets, I guess that all is lost or is there some way to save money there too.   Lastly, I read travel insurance can help in this case. How does travel insurance help in the above scenario ?  Edit :- One of the pre-conditions of getting the visa is   Proof of a Valid Return or onward ticket or purchase of ticket. This is from   and
86458
My grandparents bought a flight on United Airlines that departs on Feb 10 2019, as the one and same ticket, from Toronto, to ORD with 1 55-minute layover, then Maui. Please ping me if I ought post their return flight on Feb 24's details.   advises:     There should be no customs and immigrations formalities at ORD, as YYZ is a , and CBP matters will be handled in Toronto.    I'm assuming that  persists during their vacation to Maui.   reported some TSA agents' refusal to work.  Will  refuse to work, or any other federal workers pertinent to travelling to and from the US?
68829
My flight got canceled yesterday and I am currently waiting for the delayed next flight.   Is there any website that keeps records of airlines being delayed/canceled? I would like to know my chances. I did find some sites through google (flightaware, flightstats), but they focus on us flights only and I am currently in the azores.
53299
What happens if you book tickets through an airline or travel agent, but on the travel date miss a connecting flight (either because the first flight was delayed, or because immigration/security took too long at the connecting airport)? Will you be put on the next flight for free? Are you expected to pay for a new ticket or a change fee? I'm specifically wondering about Continental/United, but also curious about airlines in general.
25428
I have booked tickets for my parents to visit Mauritius for a week and my mom's passport (given name is xxxx) doesn't have surname, so in the e-ticket form her name has been printed as "Mr xxxx". I have spoken to the travel agency and Air Mauritius, but didn't get any information regarding the issue.  Can anyone please tell me if there might be a problem boarding the flight?  I am very anxious right now since its their first international flight.
2509
Based on the question , I got curious. Is there a guide or resource that describes how the price of a ticket is determined?  When you search you often see curious effects like cheaper tickets for a flight from A to B with a layover compared to a direct flight. This seems counter-intuitive from an outsider's perspective since you fly twice. Also one way tickets more expensive than 2 ways.  It can be a short set of rules. Something that helps someone to get started with finding good prices. I know these can be very complex and they probably change over time and over airline interests but there is probably a simplified set of rules that can be enunciated.
11916
In a Youtube video by ADVChina, the speaker is recommending using a VPN in China for various reasons, and to sign up using his referral code.  He says there are various practical uses including "You could also go and get cheaper plane tickets by hopping around different countries." and shows a screenshot of a flight website called KAYAK, with the VPN software changing his country to Italy.  Is it possible to get cheaper plane tickets by using a VPN in this way? I've never heard of KAYAK, but if I use something like Skyscanner, is it common for tickets to be priced differently depending on which country the user's IP is from?  Is it because of different taxes in different countries? So could it be illegal to get discounts like this? Or is there some pricing strategy from airlines to charge different amounts depending on the country of purchase?
87452
Disregarding the morals of hidden-city ticketing, I've got a question.  Are there any issues from flying and skipping the last leg and hopping onto a different airline's flight to get to my wanted final destination?  So, I would go from DFW, layover in ORD and skip the final leg to GSO and go from ORD to KEF.  DFW-ORD-GSO-KEF     DFW: Dallas / Fort Worth (USA) ORD: O'Hare International Airport (USA) GSO: Piedmont Triad International Airport (USA) KEF: Keflavík International Airport (Iceland)
39722
I have never personally had to reconfirm the ticket, but have read that in some case you can lose a place on a flight, even if you paid for it!  Where does the idea of ticket reconfirmation comes from? How to find out that you are required to reconfirm the ticket? Does it only applies to agencies of also to bookings made via website? Can an agent reconfirm your ticket already at the time of purchase?
55661
I booked a SpiceJet flight from Dubai to Ahmedabad on Dec 16 (SG-16) scheduled to depart at 7:25 PM. At noon I received an SMS from SpiceJet to advise me that my flight has been delayed by 4h 50m. Sure enough, when I checked flight status on SpiceJet's website, that was the case. But on other websites like flightstats.com and dubaiairports.ae, the status was that flight was "delayed by 2h 25m".    At 5 PM, I got an SMS that flight had been cancelled. I double checked on Spicejet's website and that too showed the flight to be cancelled. But both flightstats.com and dubaiairports.ae still showed the flight as delayed by 2h 25m.    I went to the airport and met SpiceJet officials. Sure enough, the flight was cancelled. But somehow, the flight cancellation status never made it to the system. I have a Tripit Pro account, and even that never sent me an alert for that. I contacted the travel agent through which I booked my flight (makemytrip) for a refund, and they said that their system doesn't show that flight was cancelled. Now, even the Spicejet website has removed the cancellation status from that flight.    Apart from the SMS, I now have no proof that my flight was cancelled.    Can someone tell me, how can I proceed with a refund claim?
117446
I just realized that I am in a tricky situation right now.   I'm traveling with an Indonesian passport. I'm flying from New York to Christchurch, New Zealand in a couple of days, with a connection in Sydney, Australia. Upon scrutinizing my ticket recently, I realized that said connection is 11 hours long, with two different flights (Delta and Virgin) although it was bought on the same ticket, and that I am likely to have to collect my luggages in Sydney and recheck my luggages to Christchurch (which means that I have to pass Australian immigration).  There is no way I can get the Australian transit visa in time. Can anyone provide any helpful suggestions to solve this problem when I get to Sydney? Or share any similar past experience with the Australian border agents?  Thank you so very much.
53067
Earlier this year I was in Japan and Korea. Now I'm back in my home country. However, when I was in Korea the "scan" machine before going to luggage inspection, right before accessing the boarding gates made a weird "alert" sound. It has happened at least twice already, but both times the officer just handed me back my passport and didn't ask me anything. They just made sure I looked the same as in the photo.  When I was checking out of Japan, before going to the boarding gates, when the officers scanned my passport, they all looked at each other confused but never looked at me or asked any question.  I'm wondering if there's something wrong with my passport and what it could it? I'm a little concerned even though I've never been asked anything whenever this happens.
48064
When I buy my plane tickets there's often certain things I want such as:   Ticket valid for 12 months No fee for return date changes Stopovers in both directions   Now it seems that these days your E-ticket is basically a number. So you get an itinerary that your travel agent prints out with your E-ticket number, some other reference numbers, and some, but not all conditions of your ticket.  From what I know of air tickets there are all manner of codes for all kinds of conditions, including things like in my list above, but they are vastly complicated and don't necessarily map directly to the simple English phrases I used.  My question is How can I check that the ticket I bought actually does have all the things I asked for? What if the agent made a mistake or a wrong assumption or printed the wrong thing on my printout. It's not a printout the airline made after all.  I made sure when booking my ticket to ask multiple times on each point. But I didn't get the agent to put it in writing and sign it.  What just happened:   My printout says my ticket was valid for 12 months but when I called the local airline office to change the date they didn't think my ticket was valid for a year after all! (It turned out it was a year ticket after all this time.) My printout says date changes will cost $75. But the local airline office told me changes are free! (This time luck is on my side.) My travel agent only booked my stopover on the way to my destination and not the one on my return flight. They assured me I can change it while I'm travelling with no problem. But the local airline office tells me it's not so simple after all and if it's even possible it will require some fees! (This time luck may be against me.)   How can you make sure all of this stuff is what was promised / what is printed before it bites you?
1541
I'm planning a trip to South-Korea in April. I was looking at flight ticket prices and found that I can go from Brussels to Seoul (and back) for about 600€. It lands in London however. I then tried to find the same flight but from London (I was expecting I could get the price even more down if I'm not doing BRU-LHR), but no search engine found it and the cheapest was at about 700€.  Here you can see what I'm talking about in action:    It's the same date and everything, and it's much cheaper from Brussels although it lands in London.  Question: This seem really strange.  Why does this happen, and is it possible to buy the ticket from Brussels but only get on the plane from London?
67040
I want to go from Panamá to Turkey. There're direct flights of Turkish Airlines that are expensive. And there're flights Panamá -&gt; Istambul -&gt; Baku there're cheaper 2 times of the same airline. The transfer in Istambul takes 6 hours.    Will it be a violation if I buy a ticket Panamá -&gt; Istambul -&gt; Baku and leave in Istambul?