V-Flyer

Haven't done ex-EU for a while but found one for the summer. Only problem is that in the past I've always done it so the final leg is the next day or from a different airport so that the bags don't get checked through. For the flight I've currently found the final flight is same-day, same-airport, 4 hours later. Will they insist on checking the bags through?

With only 4hrs between flights you'll more than likely have a hard time convincing the check-in staff to short-check your bags to just your arrival in the UK.

What are your dates and destination?

We just successfully booked two trips with the DUB leg being 1 day and 2 days after our atlantic return. Happy to look for you.

@Kraken - yes, that was my concern. Hmmm.

@mikethe3rd - thanks so much! LHR-HKG for 7 July to 22 July.

What price were you getting? I was seeing around the €2,000 mark without the airport change / date?

For £1790 you can do the below:

£1770 is what I was getting for the flights on Expedia, which was the 05:30 arrival but then an 08:30 same-day departure (also from LHR) and no way for me to change that.

How can I find those flights?

Go to itamatrix.com and copy this like for like (apart from pax numbers)



Select the outbound and the inbound. Make sure your inbound - the LHR bit is in red.



The first one is €2025



Now you need to copy the entire screen. So do CMD + A on a Mac or CTRL + A on a PC, then hit CTRL + C / CMD + C.

Then just paste all of that into https://bookwithmatrix.com/

I've not used FlightNetwork, so hit the dropdown arrow and choose Priceline. I only mention this as I'm about to board the flight (they just called it in the CH) and I've had no issues.

I'll have Wifi on board if you need more help.

Mike

Mike, thanks so much for taking the time to explain all that! I was doing everything you said but still getting higher prices. Then I realised I was looking for 2 tickets rather than 1 and when I changed to 1 I got your same pricing. Guessing there is only 1 ticket left at the cheaper prices :(

So in the end VS was just coming up to expensive, so it's Ex-EU (from Budapest of all places) and then LHR - HKG with Cathay Pacific business class for £1300 each. Not too bad for mid-July. Never flown Cathay and the 777 business class pictures I've seen online make the cabin look rather dated, but hopefully it will be okay.

’ve done exEU twice, the last time 6 weeks ago and the first time 3 years ago.
I have two observations:
- Missing the final leg and all the hassle with baggage is stressful.
- Booking a trip where the final leg is from a different airport or a few days later is possible but often more expensive.

My advice would be to take the final leg, earn some miles and Tier points and take the stress out of the process.
The fact the you are considering exEU at all suggests that you are flexible. (My wife would never agree to travel on an exEU route! )

Either:
1) book your final leg from a different London airport e.g. HKG-LHR / LGW-AMS.
or
2) book your final leg the next day but less than 23 hours after your inbound long haul lands.

clarkeysntfc wrote:Either:
1) book your final leg from a different London airport e.g. HKG-LHR / LGW-AMS.
or
2) book your final leg the next day but less than 23 hours after your inbound long haul lands.

Well we're skating on risky territory then, as our final leg is same airport and same day but circ. 15 hours after our inbound lands (we land about 5am and final leg leaves about 8pm). Praying they'll short-check to LHR for us

oceanscape wrote:

clarkeysntfc wrote:Either:
1) book your final leg from a different London airport e.g. HKG-LHR / LGW-AMS.
or
2) book your final leg the next day but less than 23 hours after your inbound long haul lands.

Well we're skating on risky territory then, as our final leg is same airport and same day but circ. 15 hours after our inbound lands (we land about 5am and final leg leaves about 8pm). Praying they'll short-check to LHR for us

I would have thought short-checking of bags with a 15hr stop is likely to be no problem. Just think of a convincing story as to why you need your bags back - three that come to mind are;
1. You're meeting friends during the stop in London & your checked bags contain gifts for them so you need the bags back.
2. Or, look if you can get a cancellable reservation for a day-room at a LHR hotel so you need your bags back. Check in with the hotel reservation printout as proof if they question you, then cancel the reservation once you've got the bags short-checked.
3. [Depending on the timings of your flights - but I bet they'd fit] One or more of the pax on the booking has a business meeting in London during the stopover - the suit / clothes they need for this are in the checked luggage.

On a short same-airport stopover, short checking should be hard, as it's obvious what you are planning to do. But with a 15hr stopover it's not unreasonable to want your bags back, not least so you can shower & change somewhere - as you have to turn up to that meeting in London looking the part...!

Does Cathay Pacific have an arrivals lounge at LHR? If so, you could say you need the cases so you can shower and change between flights.

The whole thing with airlines not wanting to short check luggage is it to solely stop people dropping the last leg? In this day and age of automation of baggage, it would seem that it is not going to add a huge amount of overhead/cost to the process, and would be easy to direct the bags to the baggage hall. Of course it will have to be checked back in <cough> but even so that process is not going to take long either.