I'm currently planning a 3 week US holiday in Oct/Nov. The airfares from Aus to US were around $1600 return couple of weeks ago but I missed booking then. Currently, when I was looking to fly out from other destinations nearby I found Auckland to Houston and Chicago were only $1200+ return on Air Canada. The catch is the flight routing is AKL-BNE/SYD-YVR-ORD/IAH and return also in the same transit points. I'm from Brisbane but if I set my origin as BNE the fares are around $2400+ for the same dates and same flights.
If I have my booking from AKL and miss the first leg, will I be ok to board from BNE/SYD? Worst, I have to fly to NZ for another $350 and start the journey from Auckland which is just a waste of time.
Also, on the return leg will I be able to request the check in guys to let me check through my bags only upto Brisbane/Sydney? Any thoughts on how I can workaround this super cheap deal?
Sample Itinerary
AKL-BNE-YVR-ORD - 26 Hours 20 Minutes Journey including stopovers in Brisbane, Vancouver.
ORD-YVR-BNE-AKL - 28 Hours Journey on the return leg.
Air NZ/Air Canada - cheapest fare is $1215 in AUD.
If you miss the first leg then the rest of your flights will be automatically cancelled.
You can ask the check in agent to only tag your bags to Brisbane but they have every right to refuse. If they refuse then what will you do? I suppose you could not board the plane to NZ and they will have to offload your bags. I'm not sure what the consequences to you are if you do this since it will delay the plane departure. You may have better luck in getting your bags tagged only up to Brisbane if the connecting flight to NZ is not departing until the next day.