Skipping legs of trans-atlantic flights

You can't skip any of the legs. If you do, your reservation from London to Dulles will be canceled.

Thanks for the warning. I will see how much BA wants to change the flight. When I booked my son's flight (he has been studying in Scotland) they said I could change his outgoing date or airport for a price but at the time I had not planned to join him. I will try to find a cheap flight back to Edinburgh or do the change though I hate to spend the time traveling.

The MSBNC article is referring to travelers who buy a round trip ticket and throw away the return portion to avoid paying more for expensive one-way tickets. This not relevant to what the original poster was asking. The original post wants to skip a leg in the middle of the itinerary, but still be able to use the rest of the legs at a later date.

It seemed wasteful terms of time and more so fuel, to have to take a short trip from the continent back to London And then have to fly back to Edinburgh, just to turn around and fly back to London the next day to catch the original return back to Dulles. All because I have a round trip Dulles-Edinburgh w/ transfer in London. Since the ticket is already paid for and I'm not adding anything to that ticket (from Europe to London is complete separate) they'd be saving money by my just staying in London and flying home.

I've done it with no problem. That was in 2005 and it was a different airline.

I originally booked an open jaw flight into A'dam on Northwest/KLM with a connection on Lufthansa into Germany. The second half of the open jaw was a return with Northwest/KLM out of Rome.

After booking the flight, I decided it was better to book my car lease out of Amsterdam, so I skipped the connection. It didn't cause any problem. Maybe because it was a different airline and the return was with the airline I hadn't skipped.

Airlines seem to look for this stuff and consider it cheating so I'm not sure I would recommend it.

I posted this on the other thread, so I thought I would post it here also.

I happen to read this today on MSNBC.com by Christopher Elliott and it fits this question and another. So I thought I would post it here. You can read the full thing here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29464720/

But the answer to this question can be found on page 2, under topic #4.

1. Miss your connection, pay a fine This loophole is one of the oddest in the travel industry. Make that any industry. If you happen to miss a connection or fail to use the return portion of your roundtrip ticket, then the airline might fine your travel agency, and your agent could turn around and try to fine you. Why? Well, many airlines have silly rules that say you must use your entire ticket. Of course they can’t force passengers to live by them. But they can stick it to travel agents by threatening to strip them of their ability to issue tickets. When a so-called “illegal” ticket is discovered by the airline, it sends a debit memo, which is a bill for a full fare ticket — the most expensive kind in the system. Failure to pay can result in the agency losing its ability to book tickets for the airline. I know of several cases where an agent has asked the client to pay a debit memo. How weird is that?

What it means to you: If you’re planning to throw away a portion of your ticket, don’t use a travel agent. And don’t give the airline your frequent flier number — it can be use to track “illegal” behavior and they’ll come after your miles.

"The MSBNC article is referring to travelers who buy a round trip ticket and throw away the return portion to avoid paying more for expensive one-way tickets. This not relevant to what the original poster was asking. The original post wants to skip a leg in the middle of the itinerary, but still be able to use the rest of the legs at a later date."

And the same thing will happen if the OP skips a leg. The rest of the flights can and will be cancelled.

It may be "wasteful" in they mind of the OP, but to the airline it's one of they ways they make money and the costs we pay for "cheaper" tickets.

"And the same thing will happen if the OP skips a leg. The rest of the flights can and will be cancelled."

I said that in my original reply. The MSNBC article only deals with travelers and travel agents, that intentionally buy round trip tickets, in order to get out of paying higher one-way fares. The original question was about someone who wanted to make a stopover using a discount/restricted ticket on a multi-leg flight.

Has anyone ever (personally) be charge for a one-way ticket when they skipped the return leg all together. The round trip ticket is significantly cheaper, so I am looking to buy a round trip ticket and only use the first let this fall to return to the states.