Important Changes for Booking Multi-City Flights

This week, American, United and Delta Airlines announced major changesimpacting rules when combining multi-city airfare that are now resulting in airfares that are hundreds if not thousands of dollars higher.  These changes impact itineraries with more than one destination, when combined on one ticket.

To avoid paying for airfare that is considerably higher, when air arrangements involve more than one destination, travelers will need to book travel to each destination city separately (examples below). Agencies, airlines, consumer websites as well as Corporations, Universities and travelers are subject to the pricing change. 

Pricing Examples

Priced together $1235.81/ separately $431.06 total for three tickets (Point A to B, Point C to D, Point D to A)

American Airlines (AA) 2487 M 26APR Columbus, OH (CMH) - Dallas, TX (DFW) 1120A 110P TU
American Airlines (AA) 2277 M 26APR Dallas, TX (DFW) - Ontario, CA (ONT) 500P 614P TU
American Airlines (AA) 2411 K 28APR Las Vegas, NV (LAS) - Chicago, IL (ORD) 510A 1051A TH
American Airlines (AA) 3328 W 29APR Chicago, IL (ORD) - Columbus, OH (CMH) 905A 1121A FR
OPERATED BY ENVOY AIR AS AMERICAN EAGLE

Priced together $1506.11 /separately $620.11 total for three tickets (Point A to B, Point B to C, Point C to A)

Delta Air Lines (DL) 2197 T 11APR Columbus, OH (CMH) - Atlanta, GA (ATL) 555A 733A MO
Delta Air Lines (DL) 5162 T 11APR Atlanta, GA (ATL) - Fayetteville, NC (FAY) 817A 935A MO OPERATED BY EXPRESSJET DBA DELTA CONNECTION
Delta Air Lines (DL) 1449 M 12APR Fayetteville, NC (FAY) - Atlanta, GA (ATL) 600A 727A TU       
Delta Air Lines (DL) 1276 U 14APR Atlanta, GA (ATL) - Columbus, OH (CMH) 1002A 1137A TH

We have proactively taken the following steps to minimize the financial impact to our clients:

• Increased airfare may require our counselors to issue multiple tickets to ensure the lowest possible price for the entire trip
• Online Booking Tools (OBTs) will no longer have "Multi City" search functionality enabled.  Travelers utilizing an OBT, traveling to multiple destinations, can book reservations using "One Way" trip functionality.
• Messaging to OBT to advise there is a temporary site restriction not allowing multi-city trips to be booked. Travelers can contact a travel counselor directly for  assistance in booking and securing multiple destination reservations.

When multiple tickets are issued the appropriate online or agent transaction fee will apply per ticket issued. 

We are diligently working with our industry partners to identify alternate solutions which may alter the options we have currently identified.  Shorts Travel Management is monitoring the change and will update this process when we are confident lowest fares are available using this functionality.