Update on Goofy Ticketing Issue

Thanks to all who provided info on my request for guidance. I will attach a bit of the original thread below for reference.

I bought two Air France tickets at $278 RT from LAX to Brussels. Leg one was Nonstop LAX to CDG and a connecting train to Brussels. I wanted to ditch the train segment altogether but was concerned about having my return ticket cancelled.

In the end, we took the train to Brussels (1st class, thanks AF!) and turned around right away and came back to Paris that afternoon. I was glad that I did, as AF had a small booth at the CDG train platform (not Paris Nord, as I originally thought) with our boarding passes pre-printed and seats assigned. There was no question that they would have known if we skipped the leg. The RT tickets on the high speed train were 135 Euro for both of us, so we were money ahead (LAX to CDG direct was over $500). We returned to Brussels the last day of our trip and had a nice afternoon there.

It worked out fine, and was only a bit of a hassle. The most sage advise provided by this group was: "Is it worth risking it?". Turns out it wasn't.

Great trip and thanks for the help!

I've been following this thread with interest, and have been reluctant
to weigh in until now. I caught the TGV from Paris to Brussels a
couple of weeks ago on a ticket that had originally been booked as a
return ticket from Brussels to Paris and back with two companions who
had bought my ticket with theirs. Circumstances dictated that I had to
meet my friends in Paris, so they travelled out from Brussels with
their tickets as well as mine, and I returned on the return portion of
the ticket with no problem, despite not having used the outbound
portion.

There is really no way I can see that the airline could say for
certain that one particular person was or was not on that train (as
seats are rarely booked by name), unless there is a requirement for
the stamp to be in the airline ticket itself or the airline requests
that you present the train ticket when checking in for your return
flight. If you need that and you don't have it, you could have a
problem, but this is highly unlikely. The question is, do you want to
take the chance?

This is a similar situation to UA tickets originating or ending in SJC.
The SJC-SFO portion of the trip is by bus and there's no way UA knows
whether you took the bus or not.

John Smith wrote:

We returned to Brussels the last day of our trip
and had a nice afternoon there.


So, you went to Brussels twice, with the first time just taking the
train there and returning to Paris right away? Why didn't you use the
train tickets to visit Brussels instead of buying more tickets to go back?

"mrtravel" wrote in message
. ..
John Smith wrote:

We returned to Brussels the last day of our trip
and had a nice afternoon there.


So, you went to Brussels twice, with the first time just taking the
train there and returning to Paris right away? Why didn't you use the
train tickets to visit Brussels instead of buying more tickets to go back?

Right. The desired destination was always Paris. LAXBrussels was 1/2 the
price of LAXCDG alone. Goofy, as I said.

The trip was:

LAXCDG
CDGBrussels Midi (End AF Ticket, part 1)
New R/T Ticket Brussels MidiParis Nord
End of Day One
One week Later:
Paris NordBrussels Midi (spent the night and had a good afternoon there)

(Begin AF Ticket, Part 2)
Brussels MidiCDG
CDGLAX

I had to return from Brussels to CDG on the AF return ticket, as they had
boarding passes and tickets printed. I would have missed the first leg of
the return if I had just arrived at CDG and not taken the Brussels MidiCDG
leg.

Not a big deal, as the train was the high speed train and about 1 hour 10
mins each way. Not as nice as not having to do it, but I had more time than
money and had to be creative.

John Smith wrote:

"mrtravel" wrote in message
. ..

John Smith wrote:

We returned to Brussels the last day of our trip

and had a nice afternoon there.


So, you went to Brussels twice, with the first time just taking the
train there and returning to Paris right away? Why didn't you use the
train tickets to visit Brussels instead of buying more tickets to go back?


Right. The desired destination was always Paris. LAXBrussels was 1/2 the
price of LAXCDG alone. Goofy, as I said.


That was my confusion. I thought you had changed your AF train ticket to
permit you to go Brussels to Paris the same day. Did you ask about that?