[geoffb78]

I've just watched a segment on a UK travel show which highlighted the joys of "fully flexible business class fares with unlimited stops." According to the segment, such a fare will let you stop an unlimited number of times on the way to your final destination, so long as the total mileage does not exceed 120% of the point to point distance.

On the show, the presenter bought a fully flexible business class fare between London and Athens and stopped in Paris, Luxembourg, Frankfurt, Zurich and Rome on the way.

Has anyone bought such a fare before? What was the reaction of reservations staff? All observations appreciated.

Geoff.

[Kiwi Flyer]

In most cases not very practical. Needs to be full business or first class fare - ie very expensive.

However, some folk make good use of these flexible mileage allowance fares from cheap origins eg CMB. Those ones have to watch for HIP (higher intermediate point) check which means en-route stopovers must be under 24 hours.

[NM]

Yes I have bought such FARES, but not used it to the extent quoted. Even though such a fare may be referred to as "fully flexible" there are still restrictions such as HIP (noted by Kiwi Flyer) and MPM (Maximum Permitted Mileage).

So the real trick is not to purchase the fare say from London to Sydney, which would be very expensive (on BA that would be 4346 GBP), but buy it from AMS to SYD, which on BA still routes through LHR and costs 2896 GBP. Just need to ensure HIP does not come into play, but from my reading of this on other forums a stopover at LHR should not be a problem. Nor stopovers at intermediate places so long as you do not exceed the MPM.

The next thing to do is ensure your fare in not an airline or alliance specific fare. The quoted routing from London to Athens could not be achieved on a single airline as no airline flies that route. So you need the full IATA fare that is valid on all IATA carriers. These can be more difficult to locate, but worth the effort. Our own Multi-* DSN can provide more details .

The money saved can be used to get you to AMS in the first place, assuming the starting point is London.

This is quite common in Europe.

[BlacKnox]

United has a useful business fare ex. CMB where no HIP applies, meaning unlimited stopovers over 24 hours are allowed, though routing restrictions apply.

Have added HIP to the Abreviations and Explanations thread.

[Dave Noble]

Originally Posted by NM

So you need the full IATA fare that is valid on all IATA carriers. These can be more difficult to locate, but worth the effort. Our own Multi-* DSN can provide more details :D .

They are easy to locate, in fact I have located one in my bag here. The airlines seem not to be keen to issue them and prefer to offer their own fares ( e.g. SIN-SYD the IATA F fara and the QF FRT fares are identical in price but istr that the QF fare has a cpl of restrictions and may not be valid on all carriers ). Just go to a decent travel agent and ask them to do an Unrestricted [First|Business|Economy] IATA fare. They are easily spotted with their fare bases tending to be F C and Y unlike the airline ones which tend to have longer bases such as FOW ( for one way ) or FRT ( for round trip )

Dave