Cheap Multi City Airline Tickets

Trip agencies file suit for new rules on multi-state travel.

How do I best make a booking for multi-city flight tickets?

To start with, it's still the case on tickets for one way journeys that a one-way journey usually cost well over half the best roundtrip ticket. You should therefore consider whether you can make it on a round voyage. However, some tariff categories do not allow you to come back until 365 working days after the first departure date, so if you are travelling (e.g. for an academic year), it would probably be less expensive to make your journey the following June/July at the same date, even if you have to make a bill of exchange payment later because you set the date incorrect.

And there are many categories of prices that make a break possible. Normally they are not the lowest tariffs. Try the multi-segment choices mentioned by Mufaddal Dahodwala on several different airline sites to see what comes of it. When none of this works, another option is to consider a round-the-world trip that is good for 365 and allows stops everywhere and changes in date and times free of charge (and even more drastic changes for only $125 or so).

Large US carriers block cheap tariffs for connection trips, suits and entitlements.

On Monday, a state suit brought in San Francisco on Monday on government business for a number of tour operators claimed that the country's three biggest airlines had adopted new regulations to prevent their least costly rates from being used on many connection and multi-city tours, a "conspiracy" to increase rates in contravention of anti-trust law.

Defendant American Airlines Group Inc. UAL, +0.07%, and Airline Tariff Publishing Co., which gathers and disseminates air fares information globally and is partially held by the three US airlines. Prior to the new rules, reservation calculators would find the cheapest rate for every single ticket in a travel route and sum it up to a rate for the journey.

However, now the cheapest fare can no longer be mixed and travellers have to buy each individual ticket to get the cheapest price for multi-stop itineraries. Delta has introduced the switch in recent months and American and United have adapted quickly. Under the new regulations, multi-level ticket rates have been increased and, according to the complaint, carriers have informed tour operators that they may be obliged to compensate airline companies for the difference between lower simple tickets and new higher rates.