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I'm trying to price a round trip in ita matrix between destinations A - C. Everything is ok. it came up with 2 fare components as it should be but the way the fare components expressed do not look like a round trip 2 fare components are used to price this trip. fare 1 covers A - B - C - B as round trip and fare 2 covers B - A as one way.

What type of trip is this? round trip( has 2 fare components but not of same length of travel ) or circle trip( do not have 3 components or 4 components) or is it a special 2 component circle trip( I dont know much about this) ?. Thanks

A --> C = A --> B --> C
Fare 1 = A --> B -- C --> B (RT)
Fare 2 = B -- A ( OW )
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  • Can you post either the fare construction (Shown at the bottom of the Matrix output), or at least the cities involved? It would be rare for a single fare to cover A-B-C-B. It may well be a round-trip fare, but such fares still generally only cover one direction and would be combined to form the round trip.
    – Doc
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 3:33
  • my bad. apologies. I didn't look properly. it indeed has 3 fares fare 1 A-B-C(RT), fare 2 B-C(RT), fare 3 B-A(OW). Still the question remains is RT or CT?. here is the fare construction string ``` EWR AC X/YVR AC HKG 526.50TLXV81TG AC X/YVR 976.80ULWI81TG AC EWR 471.40UNA0A1TG NUC 1974.70 END ROE 1.00 XT 6.52YC 7.00XY 3.83XA 39.40US 5.60AY 20.60G3 15.40HK 7.10I5 289.00YQ 4.50XF EWR4.50 ``` Thanks
    – tintin
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 4:23
  • That makes much more sense and is what I would have expected.
    – Doc
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 5:40

1 Answer 1

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Firstly, if you haven't already, you might like to read this answer which covers some of the basics around how airline fares/rules work.

What you're seeing here is technically a round trip - presuming that you are not actually taking a stopover (ie, a stop longer than the airline considers to be a connection - often 4 hours but it can be longer) at point B on the way back.

It is the breaks in the trip that define the type of trip, not the "point of combination" of the fares. For example, if you were to fly X-Y, Y-Z and Z-X as three separate legs with a day between flights, that would be a circle-trip, and the fares used to construct that trip would need to allow for a circle trip (or at least, not have anything disallowing it).

However if you were to fly X-Y, Y-Z-X where the stop in Z was only a connection, that would be a round-trip - even if the same fares were used to construct the trip as in the first example. The difference between these two trips is not the route you took or the fares that were used - what makes one a round-trip and the other a circle trip is the locations where you actually stopped travelling and stayed in the location (Y and Z in the first example, only Y in the second)

In your example the first two fares (covering A-B-C and C-B) are actually forming an "Open Jaw" trip, as you are ending the fare component somewhere other than where you started. The third fare component (B-A) may well be a one-way fare, but the fare rules on that fare must also allow for it being used as a part of a round trip, as that's what you're doing here. (It's uncommon for one-way fares not to allow being used in a round trip ticket, but it does happen as was reported here)

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  • yes that answer is one of the best explanation i have seen. Thanks
    – tintin
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 6:02
  • My impression is that the usual breakpoint from layover to stopover is 24 hours rather than 4. A 4-hour stop seems extremely short for a stopover, doesn't it?
    – jcaron
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 11:04
  • @jcaron Varies depending on the airline, but it's normally 4 hours for domestic, 12-24 hours for international, but may be extended if there are no suitable flight options available within that timeframe.
    – Doc
    Commented Dec 20, 2022 at 14:14

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