I am planning a trip next January to Taipei, Taiwan and Shanghai, China. I will be leaving from America by myself. In order to maximize the use of my credit card bonus points I will have to get a little creative with my flight plans. I was wondering if I would have any problems at any airports if I were to do this.
-Buy a round trip ticket from Atlanta to Taipei from Jan 18 to Feb 12
-Buy a round trip ticket from Taipei to Shanghai from Feb 1 to Feb 12 (from a separate website)
As long as I get back to Taipei in time I should be able to catch my plane back to Atlanta on Feb 12. The only problem I might have is that final leg of my flight. Since I am stepping off the plane from Shanghai and going straight to the Atlanta flight, I wouldn’t be passing through security and customs (maybe). I wonder if airport officials would find this suspicious and cause a delay for me, especially if I don’t have a printed ticket.
I had some trouble once going through customs in Heathrow so now I always carefully plan my trips. This would be the first time I buy 2 round trip tickets like this. I don’t know if there might be any unforeseen problems I should be aware of.
I’ve flown similar routes in asia. You should be fine as long as you print out copies of your Itinerary with the confirmation number and have them with you. The only thing they are likely to care about is to check you have a ticket back out of the country home, which you do.
If you miss the “connection” in Taipei, the airline might very well consider you SOL. You also might not be able to check your luggage through to Atlanta on your return. (Might.)
Hopefully you will be carrying on luggage. You will not be able to check your bag from Shanghai all the way to Atlanta on your return. Also make sure you leave enough time between your flights in Taipei for your return, as you will likely have to clear customs and immigration on your international arrival there before checking in and catching your flight to Atlanta. It’s not like arriving at a domestic gate where you can go from gate to gate for your connection. If you are checking a bag, you’ll also need to claim it in Taipei and then recheck it for your flight to Atlanta.
No problem at all. I did the same thing last year. Just make sure that if the airports are different you have transportation arranged, and account for that travel time in flight times. I was going to catch a taxi from the rental car place to the airport, but it would have taken too long.
I don’t think it will be a problem. If anyone in security asks you, then you could simply say that you wanted to maximize your airline points. The airline points can be great, but they have put so many restrictions on them nowadays, as I’ve still had to pay a small fee if I booked a “free” ticket with short notice. Truthfully, I would travel more if the airlines didn’t have so many restrictions using airline points.
Thanks for the advice everyone. It really does help put me at easy a little bit.
I knew I was forgetting something. If I had a checked bag I would have to exit the secured area to get it then go through security again. I’m sure I can get by with only 1 carry-on luggage if I’m careful. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
Hard to believe that the two round-trip tickets are cheaper than one ticket from Atlanta to Taipei to Shanghai to Atlanta. Is it really worth the extra bonus points?
My biggest worry would be checked bags and making sure I had enough time to collect and recheck - other than that - I think you’d be good to go.
One thing to be careful about - making sure you leave enough time for getting from terminal to terminal.
The one I’m most familiar with, Changi Airport, you’d have to clear immigration - collect your bags, then go to a (more than likely) different terminal to check in again. They’re super efficient there, but you’d still have to budget at least 30 minutes to complete the procedure (time from exiting plane to reaching the check-in queue).
And I’d also be hyper aware, if you have different airlines (and don’t have checked bags) - the second plane isn’t going to wait at all if you are running late.
At least, if you are “checked through” the second plane might be held for you (we have had a domestic transfer held for us as we were checked through, although we did have to carry our checked baggage onboard)
Try it. Imagine a trip from X to Z. Then check prices on websites with Y as a stopover. The fluctuations are so large that usually its cheaper to buy one ticket for X to Y and another on a different airline for Y to Z.