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Both flights are Transavia flights, and are sold on Transavia's website as connecting flights.

But connection is "guaranteed" by Dohop.

Is this legal?

Noch
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oooooo
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  • Interesting question. Where can you search for those and how is it presented? Kayak offered something similar but the airline did not seem to actively participate in it, whereas Dohop's website suggests that they are involved in this particular scheme. The airline would probably argue that it's two separate transactions (which is difficult to prevent) and I don't see any obvious rule that would forbid it but it does feel like a way to circumvent air passenger rights regulation. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 19:25
  • At Transavia's website. It was 3 transactions. 2 for flights 1 for dohop – oooooo Apr 11 '23 at 19:41
  • This is part of the email https://imgur.com/a/ekFXEyg – oooooo Apr 11 '23 at 19:42
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    Looks like Dohop is some kind of travel agency, they'll just try to rebook you on some other flight if you missed the connection. – littleadv Apr 11 '23 at 19:48
  • They'd pay for the higher cost of same day ticket if I miss the connection due to delays/strikes? – oooooo Apr 11 '23 at 19:52
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    @oooooo Yeah, that's what regular airlines have to do and what Kayak promises to do, if you believe them. If that's two or three separate transactions, I don't see what could be illegal and how the airline could reasonably be expected prevent it: They are selling you separate flights, not a connection and you're going out of your way to book them. Do you want them to match flights and block you from buying another one if they find a flight booked with the same name that's too close in time? People have been doing that (without Kayak/Dohop guarantee) for ages. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 20:50
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    Where this could get questionable is if the airline advertises it or is actively involved in Dohop's operations because then it feels as if they are really trying to sell an end-to-end ticket but without offering you the guarantees and compensation you would be entitled to in that case. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 20:52
  • @oooooo The email really doesn't tell me anything useful, I was curious to see if they link to specific terms and conditions or acknowledge any responsibilities, how it's presented on the website, etc. Your capture doesn't even show who sent the email. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 20:53
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    I see you provided more details in another question: https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/180567/is-dohop-reliable I would add a link or repeat the relevant details here as well. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 22:04
  • I couldn't understand this part: Do you want them to match flights and block you from buying another one if they find a flight booked with the same name that's too close in time? People have been doing that (without Kayak/Dohop guarantee) for ages. – oooooo Apr 11 '23 at 22:13
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    @oooooo It wasn't clear for me based on your question exactly how much Transavia was involved in the whole transaction. With Ryanair for example, it is not uncommon for people to buy two tickets to create a connection, i.e. you buy the first ticket and then you go back to the starting page and look for another trip that happen to start soon after the end of the previous one. Here by contrast, there seem to be a little bit of ambiguity that could be actionable in case of disruption. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 22:33
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    @Relaxed one thing you may have missed is that it is the airline actually selling these “separately booked” connections in a single transaction, directly from their own website. Go to the Transavia website, enter Tunis-Barcelona, and it will sell you a Tunis-Paris-Barcelona connection, with some vague text in the middle which only specialists will understand means they are separate bookings, and then they end up generating separate bookings/tickets (plus a fee for Dohop). Just found out Easyjet (and probably many of the other Dohop partners) now do the same. That looks like deception to me. – jcaron Apr 11 '23 at 22:46
  • @jcaron single transaction in terms of UI, but 3 transactions on credit card and 3 emails – oooooo Apr 11 '23 at 22:51
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    @jcaron Yes, that's exactly what my questions were about and why I used the past tense in the last comment. I only understood that after reading the other question. Thanks for the example in any case, that's exactly what I was looking for. I still think it's important to clarify that in the question as the OP also mentioned three transactions and the whole thing seems deliberately confusing. – Relaxed Apr 11 '23 at 22:51
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    Just to answer the question: Yes, it's legal. Why wouldn't it be? Both parties enter the contract with full disclosure of the terms. Sorry, but if you don't like the terms, don't enter the contract. – Hilmar Apr 12 '23 at 15:32

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The economy of pricing flights is very complex which is why there are sites that try different strategies to show a lower price than elsewhere. Effectively, your business is with the online-travel-agency (OTA), they happened to have sold you two tickets from the same airline. Given these are two tickets, the airline is not responsible for ensuring the connection, so the premise of your question is unlikely to be correct. Transavia did not sell you two connecting flights without taking responsibility, Dohop did and they are claiming to take responsibility. Since they are not the airline though, the recourse they have to take responsibility are not the same.

Airline ticket pricing is influenced by a huge number of factors. Suppose you are traveling from city A to city B. Often, the cost of the direct flight between these cities will be highest at a certain level of service because such flight is the fastest and least risky. For the convenience, some people prefer to pay the higher price. Others, are more concerned with cost and would not mind flying from A to an intermediate city C and then onward to B. The route takes longer and there is a chance of delays causing a missed connection, plus time lost in transit. There is clearly more hassle this way and so such flights typically cost less than a direct flight. Airlines regularly offer both these options. In the example you gave, it is very likely that Transavia offered such connecting flight.

To give you an even cheaper flight, Dohop figured out that Transavia priced the direct A-to-C and direct C-to-B flights lower than the connecting A-to-C-to-B route. This happens frequently due to market demands for some routes. So, instead of buying the connecting flight, Dohop acted as an agent to sell you two flights. It could have been from different companies but coincidentally both were from the same airline.

By offering these two flights together, you are able to get an even lower price than the connecting flight. At the same time, this introduces a risk to you as it could be that one of your flights gets sufficiently delayed that the connection is not possible or that it could be cancelled entirely. You could have bought these two tickets without Dohop but they are offering to handle some of the risk for your business. If no issue occurs, then you got to pay the lower price and Dohop pockets the commission. Like insurance, this is the most scenario everyone hopes for! Should an issue occur, it will be up to Dohop to pay for correction. There are different ways it could be done but essentially they will either pay for rebooking or a new flight. This will most likely introduce delays at the very least and you may lose a few days at your destination due to flight availability. How inconvenient the change will be is anyone's guess, it can vary greatly depending on circumstances.

Itai
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    No but I was trying to describe the dynamics generically so that it can be useful for more than this specific example. This is how the majority of such third-party booking sites work and give buyers incentive but due to there are quite a few variations on the theme, so it is not possible to describe all possibilities in an answer either. – Itai Apr 12 '23 at 02:19
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    @oooooo, it may seem inaccurate to you but it seems completely accurate to me. Besides it is posted by a high level user who has proven to me to be knowledgeable in this field. – Willeke Apr 12 '23 at 02:32
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    @oooooo: You didn't put any specifics in your question aside from the airline (no mention of the cities, the dates, etc.), so you should logically expect to get a vague, high-level answer that does not deal with those specifics (which you did not tell us!). Then you accuse the person trying to help you of being a bot. Please do not do that. It is not helpful. If you want a more specific answer, ask a more specific question. – Kevin Apr 12 '23 at 05:27
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    @Kevin What I said is true for all Transavia flights. – oooooo Apr 12 '23 at 05:35
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    " mind flying from A to an intermediate city C and then onward to A" Shouldnt the last A be a B?, can't propose that edit since its only a single letter :( – masterX244 Apr 12 '23 at 08:03
  • "direct A-to-C and direct B-to-C flights lower than the connecting A-to-C-to-B route" wouldn't it be better to say "direct A-to-C and direct C-to-B" in this case to show the direction more properly? – justhalf Apr 12 '23 at 09:31
  • @Itai do you really mean "Dohop figured out that Transavia priced the direct A-to-C and direct B-to-C flights lower than the connecting A-to-C-to-B route". Shouldn't "B-to-C" be "C-to-B"? – JenserCube Apr 12 '23 at 13:06
  • Thanks for letting me know. Corrected. – Itai Apr 12 '23 at 13:46
  • @Itai I think you missed the fact that the flights are sold by Transavia on the Transavia website, after having made a search there, which resulted in a flight itinerary with two Transavia flights, exactly as you would have on a traditional carrier. The only difference is a few vague words between the two flights, and that, despite having entered card details only once, 3 separate payments were made, one for each of the flights and one for Dohop. – jcaron Apr 12 '23 at 13:46
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    @jcaron I told them that but they removed my comments. Weird people... – oooooo Apr 12 '23 at 15:48