Airline puzzle

'Tis a puzzle. I can book Chicago to Venice, and the Chicago-Dublin flight lands 10 minutes after the Hartford-Dublin flight. It might take a travel agent to crack this one.

Is this simply a matter of Aer Lingus selling the Dublin to Venice leg
to third party providers?

The airlines don't sell any operations to third party providers, it's just that third parties use different algorithms than a single airline does for creating a menu of itinerary choices. Those third party algorithms use fare rules and a bunch of other variables to cobble together "different pieces", so to speak, and sometimes they are more expansive. They can take a single ticket from Airline A and combine it with Airline B when one of these (or both) don't sell each others' tickets (and example may be a legacy airline and a budget airline that use different booking platforms). They are exploiting an algorithm gap that can pull info from several airlines and "mix and match them" within some allowed rules, even rules that may have a much tighter connection time than someone would pick on their own if given a choice (or two airlines with totally different fees structures for amenities, luggage fees, etc). That's why it's sometimes not possible to recreate those same itineraries on the airline's own site. I've had this happen several times when looking for an international flight.

Agnes-

Sounds complicated. I'm thinking that I might not hear back from Aer Lingus on this question.

The Hartford-Dublin-Venice option on the third party sites is quite a bit more expensive than the Hartford-Dublin-Milan flight on the Aer Lingus site. I do know that flights to Milan are sometimes cheaper than other Italian cities due to competition with the Middle Eastern carriers.

Out of curiosity, what airline do you see operating the Hartford-Dublin-Venice option on the third-party site? I assume you're looking at Priceline or Expedia? Is it just Aer Lingus or a combo with some other airline? How is that ticket structured (as a single ticket or something else)?

I'm curious to what the differences are with the Aer Lingus site exactly.

When you type in Hartford in the "from" box, when you type in Venice in the "to" box, you get a message. "unrecognized destination", yet type in Chicago in the "from" box, you just have to type V-e in the "to" box and it immediately loads Venice as the destination.

It also shows you can book Hartford to Dublin and Dublin to Venice as separate tickets, but that is risky to go that way as you would not be protected if the inbound flight was delayed.

A few years back I did a round trip to Duesseldorf, but I wanted an overnight in Dublin on the return and the Aer Lingus site would not let me do it, but Orbitz did, so I booked it that way. Problem was that Aer Lingus would not let me select seats because I had booked through a 3rd party.

First I used Kayak for the basic search. Kayak showed the Hartford-Dublin-Venice option as available using Justfly. After posting my original message, I used Google Flights for the same search. The Hartford-Dublin-Venice option is available with Orbitz, Priceline, Cheapoair with prices listed and Expedia with only a contact number. . Google Flights also lists the phone number for Aer Lingus with no price listed. I guess I could try calling Aer Lingus. In all cases, Aer Lingus is the carrier for all legs of the flight.

Am I right to assume that Aer Lingus would not undercut the third party prices?

There is a glitch in their system. Their web people need to know.

Given the details above, I would either book by phone or call their web help desk: https://www.aerlingus.com/support/contact-us/#/tab-0-ireland.

It's funny you started this topic because I am having the same problem with flights coming home from Lisbon for February. Third party offers a direct flight at around 2:00 to NY via TAP but TAP website only offers a flight at 7:30 am with a stop over in Madrid. We were thinking to double check everything in a day or two and if still the same, go through our travel agent.

Putting the information into Kayak with April 2019 dates for Hartford to Venice and Milan (all airports) to Hartford, shows the details of the flights as the Hartford to Dublin and Dublin to Hartford flights being operated by ASL Airlines Ireland, formerly Air Contractors. Only the European portion of the flight is operated by Aer Lingus which uses Milan Linate. Which may be why the trip in it's entirety does not show on the Aer Lingus website

Airlines will often hire other companies to operate some of their flights. We see it in the U.S with regional airlines that fly under the major colors....Delta Connection, United Express, etc. But those flights show up in the carriers schedule.

I went to the British Airways website that codeshares many flights with Aer Lingus and the BDL- DUB - VCE connection shows up.

ASL/Air Contractors uses Aer Lingus planes (same livery). We have flown on them before on the Hartford-Dublin leg.

I looked for this itinerary at the British Airways site and got a system error message. Using Kayak and selecting British Airways displays a fare of $1,131, but when the link from Kayak to BA is clicked, the BA site once again shows a system error. Our actual proposed itinerary is Hartford to Venice or Milan around 4/17/19 and return home from Dublin around 5/7/19. We will travel on a separate flight from Italy to Dublin before returning home.

The third party sites show the Hartford-Venice option with a fare of $703. The Aer Lingus website fare is $575 for the Hartford-Milan option. I think we will go with the Milan arrival, since we don't mind taking the train from Milan to other parts of northern Italy.

ASL/Air Contractors uses Aer Lingus planes (same livery). We have flown on them before on the Hartford-Dublin leg.

ASL Air contractors wet leases the planes to Aer Lingus. ASL provides the plane, flight crew and maintenance and in this case paints the plane to look like one owned by Aer Lingus.

I went to Expedia and had play with it for a while. This was the only thing I could get to come up under Aer Lingus from BDL to VCE. I had to fool with the dates to get this to come up.
Trip 1
Wed, Apr 17
6:00pm - 5:05am +1 Flight spans 1 day
Aer Lingus logo
Aer Lingus
6h 5m (Nonstop)
Departure airport: BDL - Arrival airport: DUB
Aer Lingus 130 operated by Asl Airlines Irl
Result 1, Trip 2, DUB - VCE
Trip 2
Thu, Apr 18
7:20am - 11:10am
Aer Lingus logo
Aer Lingus
2h 50m (Nonstop)
Departure airport: DUB - Arrival airport: VCE
$840

I get a feeling that it is a timing issue between flights especially with passport control as Ireland is not a part of the Schengen Area. Also, it looks like Aer Lingus has only one daily flight to VCE. I second your vote for Milan if you are flying Aer Lingus.

Bob, submit an inquiry to Aer Lingus via Facebook Messenger. I find airlines, hotels, etc respond MUCH MORE QUICKLY on Facebook than from an email you send directly.

I agree with you about dealing directly with an airline. 3rd party websites are great places to start in terms of deciding an itinerary but that's it.

I went to Aer Lingus' website and saw the problem you've described. So I created an open-jaw itinerary in April between Dublin & Venice and then Milan to Dublin. Not a problem. I don't see why you can't create an open jaw beginning and ending at BDL.

So consider contacting Aer Lingus on FB Messenger. Good luck.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

• Bob

Aer Lingus responded as follows:

Thank you for contacting us regarding service between BDL and VCE. At this time, we have no flights available going to VCE from BDL with your preferred schedule. However, we have flights available if you start from DUB to VCE and book a flight separately from BDL to DUB. In your case, I highly suggest that you contact us over the phone regarding his booking.

The Hartford - Venice trip involves two separate flights. There is a 2 hour 15 minute layover in Dublin, during which we would presumably have to collect luggage from the BDL - DUB flight, check in for the DUB - VCE leg, and go through securiy.

This might work if you could guarantee that flight from the US arrives on time.

There are no other non-stops from Dublin to Venice.

We are sticking with our plan to fly to Milan.