- "Nested ticketing" or "nesting itineraries," sometimes also called "back-to-back flights," could help you save a ton on flights, but may be a little risky.
- It works best if you need to book two trips to and from the same destinations (say, going home to visit your family for Thanksgiving and then again for Christmas).
- Nested trips have one round-trip flight straddle the other. The first flight makes it look like you're staying at your destination for an extended time. The other flight "nests" within that timeframe and takes you home and then back to your destination.
- Nested trips are a great way to save money when you're going to the same destination more than once (this doesn't work for places you only plan on visiting one time).
- Airlines don't like this because it circumvents their minimum stay requirements, but it's also hard to track.
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Most people have heard of "hidden city ticketing" — the frowned-upon method of booking a cheaper multi-city trip with a layover at your destination, rather than an expensive direct flight, and then forgoing the second connection.
But "nested ticketing" could save you as much cash, and potentially without as many risks.
Sometimes confusingly referred to as "back-to-back flights" (they're not), nested trips are a great way to save money when you're going to the same destination more than once. It's worth noting that this doesn't work for places you only plan on visiting one time.
There are a few ways you could take a 'nested' trip, but in its simplest form, it's a round trip within a round trip. One is nested within the other.
Here's how it breaks down.
While a usual round-trip itinerary includes flights from point A to B, then B to A, with nested ticketing, you would mix and match two round-trip itineraries, like this:
- To start, you'd take the first leg of round-trip itinerary one, from A to B.
- Then, you'd take the first leg of round-trip itinerary two, from B to A.
Next time you go to that same destination, you'd take the remaining flights in each itinerary:
- First, you'd take the second leg of round-trip itinerary two, from A to B.
- Then, you'd take the second leg of round-trip itinerary one, from B to A.
As you can see above, round-trip itinerary one (in bold and italics) straddles round-trip itinerary two (in bold only).
Say you live in New York City, but need to go to Denver for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. What you would do is book one round-trip itinerary from New York to Denver on, say, November 27 to December 30, and another one from Denver to New York on December 1 and December 23.
But, instead of taking the round trips as they are booked, you would alternate the two. This way, you are in Denver from November 27 to December 1 for Thanksgiving, and again from December 23 to December 30 for Christmas.
Nested trips can save money because they circumvent a minimum stay requirement many airlines have, in which they offer travelers a cheaper fare if they stay at their destination for at least seven days, including a Saturday overnight
These requirements exist so that airlines can separate business travelers — whom they know are willing to pay more for a ticket because they're not paying for it themselves — from leisure travelers. This works because business travelers generally travel during the week, aiming to be home on Saturdays. So, believe it or not, weekend flights are actually the airlines' version of a better deal.
That said, Scott Keyes, cofounder and Chief Flight Expert at Scott's Cheap Flights, says that these minimum stay requirements are "a little bit out of fashion" these days, especially on domestic US flights as airlines like Spirit, Frontier, and Southwest don't really cater to business travelers. Airlines like United and Delta were forced to follow suit after losing much of their leisure traveler business.
However, he emphasizes that "they're not completely extinct," just much less prevalent for domestic flights than they used to be, and that this isn't true for international flights.
"Minimum stay requirements are still very prevalent on long-haul international flights, and why this type of nesting ticket is much more likely to be successful on a couple of international flights than it would be on domestic ones," Keyes told Insider. "It certainly could work if you're trying to fly home domestically over Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I think the odds of success are lower today than they would have been three or four years ago."
Attempting to get around minimum stay requirements can still be found in many contracts of carriage, but whether you can actually get caught is another matter
United, for example, states: "The use of Flight Coupons from two or more different tickets issued at round trip fares for the purpose of circumventing applicable tariff rules (such as advance purchase/minimum stay requirements) commonly referred to as 'Back-to-Back Ticketing' is prohibited by UA."
Delta explicitly lists back-to-back ticketing under "prohibited practices."
However, since you are taking all flight legs as planned, the chances of getting caught are slim. And even if you do, according to Keyes, recourse could be anything from "a stern talking to" to docking your frequent flyer miles, getting rid of your frequent flyer account, or even getting banned from the airline.
However, according to Keyes, you're unlikely to be punished for nested ticketing if you're doing it sparingly.
"I think the likelihood of a penalty that extreme is very low, especially as somebody who's just doing it infrequently. It's not illegal, and I would argue that it's not unethical," he said.
Gilbert Ott, of the points-saving blog God Save the Points, agrees.
"I think it's the ultimate bulls--- that they can crack down because any excuse is a valid excuse. The only thing they can crack down on is if you said 'I have no intention of taking this flight,' then you're toast," he told Insider. "Literally any excuse except 'I just wanted to save money' is fine, they can't prove you had intent to deceive."
Ott, who frequently travels between the US and Europe, nests his itineraries often, but takes it one step further by using the trick to take advantage of cheap deals and flight upgrades for each round-trip itinerary he books.
"I fly back and forth between the US and Europe all the time. For me, I'll get a $1,000 business ticket out of Europe versus a $3,000 business ticket out of the US. So I'll book a premium economy ticket to Europe, and then book the return for months later for a third of the price I would pay if I was just doing a regular round trip," he said. "I then weave the two together, and it's not that bad."
"There's so much to gain, and nobody loses anything," says Ott, who "absolutely" recommends trying it.
"As long as you're going to the places you actually intended to go to, there's really not much risk here at all," he said. "Nobody loses. Sure, they could be making more money off of you if you booked exactly the way they want you to, but my argument is always that they created this system, we just play in it."
Ultimately, it's probably best to take nested ticketing with a grain of salt.
Is it a risk? Sure, but it seems like it would be hard for airlines to catch you. However, if you want to be extra safe, try booking your round trips on different airlines.
Representatives for United and Delta did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
