Intentionally miss connecting flight

Thanks for the suggestions. We're flying out on Lufthansa adn returning on United. We booked the flight through airfare.com and so do you think that would have any bearing on our status?

Not sure I would advise it but our son and dil did it a couple of years ago with no problems. They had a flight to Paris that went through Amsterdam. They were planning to spend a week in Amsterdam and a week in Paris and return from Paris. They had to change planes in Amsterdam. When they got to Amsterdam they talked to the gate agent and said she was not feel well and would like to lay down for an hour to two prior to flying on the Paris. Agent said fine, cancelled the next leg, and informed them there would be a penalty for rebooking later that day. A week later they took the train to Paris, called United and reconfirmed their departing flight. And all was fine. I think the cancelled ticket just fell into a black hole somewhere.

Lufthansa and United are close partners (Star Alliance). Therefore any information they have is closely shared on such itineraries. This is a reason I do open jaws, flying RT to Europe rarely makes sense for many folks.

Standard operating practice would be that they may well cancel your ongoing flight if you do that. Unlikely, but also possible, is that it'll get flagged in your record that you mis-connected which could a problem with customs no your return since its abnormal.

I did this exact same thing on Continental a couple of years ago knowing that the airline had the absolute right to cancel my return flight to Newark, and I might have to fork over a couple thousand dollars if I wanted to get home. Here's how it went down: When I checked-in for my flight from Amsterdam to Newark, the agent's computer immediately alerted her to what I had done, and my return flight was indeed canceled. She immediately got on the phone and called a supervisor over. The supervisor punched a few buttons on the computer, there was a lengthy discussion in Dutch between the two. Finally the supervisor said she would make an exception and allow me to fly on my original ticket. She explained the the only reason the was making the exception was because the flight was not full, thus my seat was never sold to someone else. Morale of the story-do this at your own risk and your bank account:) BTW this was an open-jaw flight-with connections.

Thanks everyone for the advice. After hearing all of your input, I ended up calling the airlines to ask about my question and they echoed what you said - they'd cancel the rest of my flight plans. Thanks for saving me some seriuos stress and hastle!!!

Kurt

You were wise to call the Airline to comfirm their policies and procedures. I've had Pax ask me this same question from time to time. I always advise against it and direct them to contact their Carrier directly.