I enjoy thinking outside the box. A client called this afternoon with a question about some last-minute plans for his wedding this weekend. He wanted to arrange a limo to transfer his bride from her hotel to the wedding venue. Unfortunately, their hotel did not offer a house car.
The hotel's concierge suggested that he hire a limousine. The bad news: limo companies typically require a two-hour minimum ... and that makes no sense for a drive of just several blocks.
My idea: reserve an airport limo and ask to be dropped off at the church! A quick google search showed fares of $45 and up for a trip from downtown Chicago to the airport. Resourceful readers may recognize this as a variation of "hidden city ticketing" sometimes used for lower one-way airline fares. While the airlines do not allow this, what limo driver would turn down $45 plus a tip for 5 minutes work? All in a day's work for a travel consultant!
travel consultant (search here on Google)
hidden city ticketing — Warning: this is not permitted by the airlines, although travelers often try it and get away with it. It will only work if you want a one-way flight and do not check bags. Example: You need to fly one-way from San Francisco to Chicago on July 28th. A one way ticket to ORD on United is currently $383. A one-way ticket connecting in ORD to a flight to Kansas City is $213. So you pay $213 and throw away your MCI boarding pass when you get to O'Hare. Warning: United can potentially charge you for the difference, if they figure out what you did.
copyright (c) 2010 by David Ourisman LLC. All rights reserved. If you have comments on this column, or questions about booking travel, email me or visit my website.
.
No comments:
Post a Comment