16

I have booked the following flights on KLM: 

Buenos Aires - Amsterdam    
fri 4 nov 16              

Amsterdam - Barcelona
wed 9 nov 16    

Barcelona - Paris
wed 16 nov 16   

Paris - Buenos Aires
sun 20 nov 16

I have already paid for it and a friend told me to read about the conditions of the tickets, (which I had before without paying much attention); Tickets say they have a minimum stay requirement of 7 days. Why did they let me book this way then? Shouldn't this schedule be unavailable if it's not allowed?.

What's the penalty for this? Am I gonna pay more for some of the tickets when I'm about to check in?. Are they gonna allow me to board?

EDIT: All 4 flights say this:

Minimum Stay: A minimum stay of 7 days is applied.

  • PS: None of the Destinations are "main", I built the schedule because I wanted to visit all 3 locations and the price was good.
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  • 7
    If KLM sold you the flights under the conditions you mention, they should obviously be fine. – Jan Jun 30 '16 at 14:24
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    You wouldn't be able to book the ticket if you didn't satisfy restrictions like minimum stay or Saturday night stay. You won't have to pay any more. – Berwyn Jun 30 '16 at 14:27
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    @PeterGreen In this case, it means the time between the two transatlantic sectors. Usually though, it means "the number of days counting from the day after departure, or the number of months counting from the day of departure, on the first international sector of the pricing unit to the earliest day return travel may commence from the last stopover point (including for this purpose the point of turnaround) outside the country of unit origin", but many exceptions apply depending on the countries through which the travel passes. See IATA Resolution 100. – Calchas Jun 30 '16 at 14:37
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    To be precise about your minimum stay requirement, the fare rules most likely say the following: TRAVEL FROM INBOUND TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR MUST COMMENCE NO EARLIER THAN 7 DAYS AFTER DEPARTURE OF THE OUTBOUND TRANSATLANTIC SECTOR. – Berwyn Jun 30 '16 at 15:09
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    @cat It's a direct quote from the fare rules – Berwyn Jun 30 '16 at 23:56
34

The "minimum stay" is only important before you buy the ticket, or when you change a plane ticket. You would not be able to buy a ticket without your itinerary meeting the relevant requirements.

The "minimum stay" requirement is part of the technical construction of a plane ticket. It means the minimum time at the fare destination you must spend, according to the ticketed itinerary, for the fare to be valid. (The idea is that people who want to stay for less than seven days are probably business travellers, who are willing to pay a lot more for their plane tickets than tourists. So the cheap tourist fares have a 7 day minimum stay requirement. The business traveller who insists that he goes home to see his family at the weekend pays a lot more for his ticket.)

It is not a requirement that you must physically stay in Barcelona for seven days. You can leave Barcelona if you like. You can even take another KLM flight somewhere else, as long as you don't change your existing ticket. There is no penalty if you travel somewhere else as long as you don't change your existing flight tickets.

If you need to change your flight ticket to stay in Europe for less than seven days, the repricing will require you to use a different fare which could be much more expensive.

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  • Then if I have booked, like I mentioned above, for 4 days in Amsterdam aren't they gonna know where my next flight is and then change the fare? Since I'm under the 7-day requirement – santialur Jun 30 '16 at 17:59
  • They don't care and they won't change the fare. The fare you bought is perfectly fine and they wouldn't have sold it to you if it wasn't. The only way it could be an issue is if you later change the tickets you already bought, such as if you just went to Amsterdam for 4 days and went straight home; then the new ticket could cost more. But the ticket you have is fine. Your trip in Europe is more than 7 days and that's the important part here, not how many days you spend in Amsterdam. – Zach Lipton Jun 30 '16 at 18:13
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    @santialurralde You'd need to see the construction of the fare that you have. I priced up a similar multi-city itinerary and it priced it as a return ticket to Barcelona with stopovers in Amsterdam and Paris. In any case, airlines don't reprice tickets unless you change them – Berwyn Jun 30 '16 at 18:15
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    @santialurralde Your seven day minimum stay requirement is between your transatlantic flights, not your time at one particular city. The fact that you bought the ticket means its okay. The ticket would not have been offered to you if your itinerary wasn't valid under it. – Calchas Jun 30 '16 at 20:50
4

If KLM Ticketed your itinerary, meaning they processed the payment and issued tickets for the flights, you're fine. They check all these rules beforehand and would not even let you book an invalid fare.

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