I'm looking into flight plans for the holidays and I saw that if I booked an extra leg of a flight, the cost is $90 less. (where's the logic in that?) Can I just skip/cancel the extra leg both ways? No need for checked bags.

11/10/2008 2:24:41 PM

you can't skip the beginning leg typically - however if you get off and your travel plans change and you have no checked bags then it's not a problem

11/10/2008 2:25:49 PM

yeah if it's at the end you can just skip it no problem. someone was actually telling me about this a few months ago because his brother in law is a travel agent and knew the cheapest ways to do that to different places.

11/10/2008 2:30:31 PM

As said, you cant skip the beginning leg, but ending leg, feel free to.

11/10/2008 2:35:09 PM

would you get the mileage for the missed leg?

11/10/2008 2:36:05 PM

What about for returning, since the return flight would originate in a different airport? Would you just be able to use the etickets for what woudl be the 2nd leg of the return flight? Or would they charge you a change fee?

[Edited on November 10, 2008 at 3:27 PM. Reason : ]

11/10/2008 3:25:54 PM

in the past i've heard you can get into some shit for this, if the airlines find out they try to charge you the full fee, or even try to ban you from flying with them. There was a case about this in the 80's with people buying tickets from I think Chicago to Houston with a stop in Dallas. People would just get off in Dallas because it was cheaper to buy the houston ticket than it was just the dallas ticket.

The airlines found out because the flight attendants do seat counts after each flight. When the numbers didn't add up they started watching more closely and found out who was exactly trying to pull it off and I guess they tried to charge them extra or not let them off the plane.

In the end the problem was solved with the airlines changing their prices so people couldn't get away with it, but there's mistakes made every now and then. I suggest exploit their mistakes as best as you can

11/10/2008 3:49:27 PM

The checked bag is crucial. If you try and lead the checked bag they will tell you you cant but if it lags behind you there is no problem.

What happened with me is I had enough time to catch the route 4 hours before mine, they said i couldnt catch that because i wouldnt be traveling with my bag. Come to find out my bag went on that flight anyway

11/10/2008 4:00:37 PM

This is something I've been wondering myself. It seems like with international flights this sort of thing happens a lot with the pricing.

11/10/2008 8:02:41 PM

this shit happened after a flight from dublin to atlanta and i couldnt get the connection to asheville

11/10/2008 8:04:44 PM

Happened to a friend of mine when we were traveling in Europe. His departure flight was suppose to leave out of Budapest, hit Amsterdam, then go to DC. We were all the way in Barcelona, and it just made more sense for him to catch the flight in Amsterdam. No sirree. They would not let him do it. He actually managed to lie his way onto the Amsterdam flight by making up some bullshit lie about losing his passport and getting stuck in Spain. Either way...it is frowned upon to miss the first leg. The last leg only seems difficult if you can't get your bags.

11/10/2008 8:11:12 PM

google "hidden city tickets"

11/10/2008 8:13:14 PM

Careful if it is a rountrip ticket....

My friend did this and missed the end of one of her legs and they canceled her return tickets.

11/10/2008 8:59:56 PM

if you try to skip the beginning leg, a lot of places will cancel your ticket as a 'no-show' and you'd have to pay a change fee to just catch the second leg. i almost tried this and would have gotten screwwed, but luckily i called first.

but like other people are saying, if it was just one way and you were missing the last leg, as long as you didn't have checked baggage you'd be fine

11/10/2008 10:53:38 PM

I know you can't skip the first leg, but I've heard that if you miss any of them, they cancel your reservation...I don't know this for certain though...

11/11/2008 8:42:42 PM

Definitely not international flights, some of them are just asinine, I was coming back from Germany and flew from Stuttgart -> Munich -> Frankfurt -> US and had to check in in Stuttgart or else my reservation would have been cancelled. I think that same flight customs in Dulles were also really backed up and I missed my flight to Raleigh, so I was going to have to fly up to Pittsburgh, then back down to Raleigh but luckily got a flight through Charlotte. I'm sure that's a normal occurrence but it's still amusing to have to fly so far out of your way to come back where you started, then go on to your destination.

11/11/2008 8:48:19 PM

Thanks the input. I guess I won't be doing this.

I still don't see how it costs them more to have to fly me further though.

11/12/2008 8:22:02 AM

It is a differential pricing issue. If competition is fierce for flights between points A and C but not between points A and B, then the airline may price a flight from A to B to C for less than a flight just from A to B. Well, if people were allowed to miss the flight to C from B, then everyone would just book from A to C and jump off at B to get the cheaper fare. As a response, the airline will have no choice but to either cut the fare from A to B and lose revenue or increase the fare from A to C and lose market share.

It is unclear whether a rule against "hidden city tickets" would be helpful or harmful to either customers or the airline. If the airline loses market share from A to C therefore operates less efficiently it may mean higher ticket prices for everyone AND lower profits for the airline, a dead-weight loss, and therefore society would benefit from a rule against. But it could go the other-way too, as the knowledge that you can is limited to those that care most about price and therefore the airline gets to price differentiate customers and therefore boost ridership, efficiency, and profits, a net gain for society as a whole.

11/12/2008 10:14:35 AM

Quote :

"When the numbers didn't add up they started watching more closely and found out who was exactly trying to pull it off and I guess they tried to charge them extra or not let them off the plane."

HAHAHA

BULLSHIT

There's no fucking way an airline can hold you hostage on board an aircraft and force you to travel to the next destination. If you were to do this though, I'd suggest coming up with a legitimate (And preferably documented) excuse beforehand so they can't say it was pre-meditated.

11/12/2008 10:18:39 AM

it was back in the 80s, airline policy was different then. But I don't think they could successfully do it either, if someone REALLY wanted off the plane. He's probably be arrested over it too.

11/12/2008 10:54:30 AM

ok so they are going to arrest you for trying to leave when they are the ones committing the crime by holding you

ok...that makes sense

as long as the plane is at the gate you can get off of it

11/12/2008 11:17:51 AM

if you cause a problem and do not cooperate with a flight attendant, you can be escorted off the plane and then arrested. Once the door closes if you want off, u are going to have to start some shit.


but i'm not the airline industry, i'm just repeating what I read in a newspaper like 10 years ago. I was 5 in the 80's like i knew what went on then


this clearly sounds very important to you, so u must know better than me.

11/12/2008 12:37:28 PM

Smaller airlines won't care; but they usually don't do stupid things like that.

Larger airlines, just say you missed your connection, but found alternate means of getting there.

11/12/2008 6:51:00 PM

i have tried, they will only let you check in at the original one, but if its one way, and you want the first leg, then how are they gonna stop you?

11/12/2008 8:07:18 PM

They cannot stop you. Anyone that said they could was mistaken. Their only recourse is to cancel your return flight if you have one and throw your checked luggage in the lost&found. If the airline wishes they can even bar you from buying any future tickets on their airline. Afterall, very rarely is your connecting flight going to be on the same plane, so they would not only need to keep you on the plane but make you get on it in the first place.

11/13/2008 8:50:08 AM

Southwest Airlines has it in their "mission statement" or the like somewhere on their website that they do not penalize or prohibit making "hidden city" reservations like you are describing. I've done this on two occasions, although I didn't really save a boat load. You, of course, can't check bags and have this work. I have read that other airlines will cancel your return leg, even try and get you or your travel agent to pay the difference ... assholes.

11/13/2008 11:16:14 AM