Thinking of skipping a flight leg?

Interesting story. I did not know it was called "skiplagging".

How could the Dad NOT be aware this was against the T&C for any airline?

Well they got caught. It happens. This family has been doing it for years and knew the risks IMO. Skip-lagging is a thing and I know of no one who does it who is unaware of the risk that the airline will cancel the ticket. I do not believe the father that they were unaware that they were violating the airline’s T&Cs. Seven years of using the site and they never noticed that it says not to do this often, not to try to get frequent flyer miles, etc.

How could the Dad NOT be aware this was against the T&C for any airline?

He did. He is just acting like he is innocent. Not!

Missing some details. He must have been called to the gate agent counter because he was already flagged for doing this previously. Normally a person can slip through without talking to anyone.

Since you are paying for the ticket no matter, why is this not allowed? Any airline experts out there? Is it because the average passenger has outwitted the airline's computer?

https://skiplagged.com/

That is the name of the website. "Hidden city ticketing", is the term I have seen for this tactic. This is 1st time I have seen the term 'skiplagging'

If other entities tried to do pricing like the airlines, there would be rioting in the streets and a mob scene at the courthouse with lawsuits being filed...... imagine if your gas station had 2 prices for gas. $2 a gallon if you drive to another state on the gas or $5 a gallon if you drive locally.

...why is this not allowed..... There are several issues involved. All related to safety and security. First, the airline wants to know who is on board at all times and there may be some federal regulations related to this need. And from a security viewpoint the airlines do not want a bag being checked from A to D. You get off a C and your bag is in still on the plane. What does that suggest? I think it is very reasonable for the airlines to what to know who is in the airplane all the time.

Noting that Southwest allows this, it's all above board. People even go to the next gate and declare their intention to skip the final leg, they get a thank you, so no problem.

Since you are paying for the ticket no matter, why is this not allowed?

Yes, it is kind of like ordering a Diet Coke and it will be $2 if you drink the whole glass, but $4 if you don't finish it.

Noting that Southwest allows this, it's all above board.

Neither Southwest, nor other airlines, allow hidden city ticketing. See Page 10 of Contract of Carriage: https://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs/corporate-commitments/contract-of-carriage.pdf

(vi) Prohibited Booking Practices
(a) Fraudulent, fictitious, and/or abusive bookings violate Southwest Airlines rules. Reservations made by Passengers or Customers or Tickets issued to Passengers must be made and issued only in respect of a Passenger’s genuine travel requirements. Reservations made to exploit or circumvent fare and Ticket rules are strictly prohibited. Examples include (but are not limited to):
• Purchasing a Ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares (hidden cities);

Basically, it's a contract violation (an airline ticket is a "contract", albeit a one-sided one - but one that someone has agreed to). A customer agrees to fly a specific itinerary for a specific price (e.g., between A and B and connecting at C), and the airline has a right to null the contract if the customer creates their own itinerary using a destination of their own choosing (even if the airline makes a stopover there).

I know why this is not allowed, but as someone who often feels like I'm held hostage by the dominant carrier at my airport, my reaction would be that perhaps the airline pricing structure is a lot of the problem. Perhaps the airlines should recognize the inequity of the pricing in this and other situations.

There are several issues involved. All related to safety and security.

That is absolutely not the case—there is one, and only one reason it is not allowed. It is the airlines protecting their revenue models.

One risk you take is something happening that causes a re-route. I didn't see the age of the teen in article, but if it was an unaccompanied minor it is no surprise they found out about it.

Just an example of someone trying to outwit the system. Why is it so hard to follow the rules?

Agnes:

Well, not true now but I am not misremembering, see post 4

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/southwest-airlines-rapid-rewards/2038290-hidden-city-travel-allowed.html

I didn’t read through the whole flyertalk link but post number 4 dated in ‘21 says used to allow hidden city not still or currently allows.

It would be interesting to understand how lenient airlines are with the trick. I had read earlier this year that AA was starting to crack down on the practice.

"I didn't see the age of the teen in article, but if it was an unaccompanied minor it is no surprise they found out about it."
I did not see the age either but it is mentioned that the gate agent became suspicious based on the teen having a NC license. If the teen is old enough to have a driver's license I doubt very much that he was traveling as an unaccompanied minor. This family has been skip-lagging for years and so were on the airline's radar. One thing the skip-lagging site this family uses stresses is to not skiplag so often that you draw the airline's attention to you, which of course begs the question of how can you not know that the airline has an an issue with skiplagging when you are being advised to hide it from them.

Just an example of someone trying to outwit the system. Why is it so hard to follow the rules?

The answer is because most people are logical thinkers. Let's say I can get an airfare from Miami to Charlotte for $450.00, but I can buy a ticket from Miami to New York with a stop in Charlotte for $310.00. Why wouldn't I pay $310.00 and get off in Charlotte?

Just because the airlines made a rule that says, "We know you know, we are ripping you off on a single trip to Charlotte and you could just buy a ticket to New York and save $140.00, but since we can't figure out how to manage that revenue better, our buddies (the Fed Gov't) have allowed us to make it a regulation so you can't financially protect yourself from us." Gotcha!

Why do we pay for food on the airplane now? Why do we pay for different seats? Why do we pay for bags? Sing it with me now.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!

Let’s look at it from a different perspective. First, if you are in business, you are (should) be out to make money. Of course within reasonable ethical and moral bounds. The airline algorithms and flight history will show certain routes are always busy, resulting in potentially higher fares if the competition allows. Said airline also knows, in this example, that there are flyers wanting to fly from NC to NYC as well, so there needs to be a flight(s) from there. The data undoubtedly also says they don’t have enough seats from the original city either, so they route an additional aircraft thru NC and on to NYC, covering two flight segment needs. And they offer you a discount for the inconvenience of the added time/second airport.

Seems logical from their perspective.

I see two reasons for their legal opposition to skip-lagging. The first is the security reason noted previous. The second is knowing in detail how full the flights are to maximize your routing capacity. One or two skip-lagged seats likely isn’t an issue. Multiple seats empty due to travelers bagging out on their connection leaves other travelers unavailable to fly that seat ….. and likely higher prices to account for it.

our buddies (the Fed Gov't) have allowed us to make it a regulation so you can't financially protect yourself from us."

There’s no government angle currently, no regulation at play. A plane ticket is a private contract between parties, with clauses written by the airline. Government regulation could however prevent the practice of canceling hidden city tickets.

Interesting research. Skiplagging is not illegal. Airlines have not been successful in court suing to stop the practice or suing a customer successfully. Airlines can put you on a list of never letting you fly with them again, but this also has not been challenged in court either.

How much would you have to save to take the risk?

Lisaandhunter, how much were you saving on this process?

Well it took me some effort to find the boy’s mother’s name (Lisa) so accepting the lisaandhunter post above at face value.

So if true what she posted and this is their first instance of Skiplagging it means:

American is profiling buyers who use the vendor skiplagged.com and looking for one way tickets going through hubs, then picking on young people who can be manipulated into admitting guilt, don’t know that can stay quiet and can’t legally be detained, just doing it for the publicity to help reduce the practice.

Lisa, welcome to the RS forum.

I hope your son was able to contact someone from the UF SMI for assist as well as communicating with you. I also hope the experience didn't spoil his impression of UF if he plans to attend there. It's an awesome school.

I knew of the hidden city practice, but I’d never heard of the term ”skiplagged” or the company. Their FAQs provide a lot of warning signs without explicitly saying that buying their tickets is a breach of the airline’s contract of carriage
https://support.skiplagged.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003286687-What-is-Skiplagging-or-hidden-city-flying-

The FAQ says things like, ” Do not overuse hidden-city itineraries. Do not fly hidden-city on the same route with the same airline dozens of times within a short time frame. ” and ” Don't associate a frequent flyer account — If you do, the airline might invalidate any miles you've accrued with them.” and ”You might upset the airline, so don't do this often.”

”You might upset the airline” … That is an understatement.

Airline pricing can be maddening, but the info on this website seems quite deceptive.

As expressed here, two sides of the issue. Illegal or not, it is against the airline rules. What anyone may fell otherwise about fairness is irrelevant.
Airlines have NEVER ever done except what they want. Never. They run their business solely for themselves. They care not a whit about what the public thinks of them except maybe in some short term way. Check bag costs, legroom, boarding process, prices, add ons, luggage weight. Anything they care about is skewed horribly in their favor.
They are doing us a favor by flying us. Once you enter their world you are at their mercy. Airlines have never had an a-ha moment or a thought about passengers excepting in economic relationship to another airline.
When the airlines bogged down (again) recently and people were stuck for days and the CEO of United took a private flight to get himself home and then afterwards said maybe that was not wise. Well, gee, he just thought of that after he flew private. In other words, the thought never even entered his head that maybe this would look bad. Nope, it did not. And these are the minds that run the airlines.
So, you, us, passengers, if the airlines does not allow skip lagging. It is so. And thus it will be to the chattel. They have ruled.
What are you going to do?

......What are you going to do?...... What we have always done. Keep looking for the cheapest ticket and complaining a lot.

@ Lisa,
It is very gracious of you to come on this website and share your story. It must have been quite nerve-wracking knowing your son was "stuck" in the airport. I am glad that he did make it home safely.

Well I am very happy that the 17-year-old got home safe and sound after all this. It is unfortunate that after years of using skiplagging.com that this family did not notice that the warnings that the practice is frowned upon by the airlines. I do have a question though: was he traveling from Gainesville to NYC or Gainesville to Charlotte? I ask because of this language in the Mom's post above: "No, we have never used the hidden city ticket ‘loophole’ to take advantage of discount travel in that way, and we still have not." I mean if he was planning to travel only to Charlotte, that is the very definition of skiplagging (the hidden city ticket loophole) and though while maybe not done on purpose, it was done. Right now Gainesville to Charlotte on July 31 is $494 round trip on American but Gainesville to NYC on American with a layover in Charlotte is $354 and that right there is why people do hidden city ticketing. It may have been done in this case with the purest of intentions by this family but it was done.

But Parsons said the gate agent in Florida was doubtful of his son's final destination after seeing his North Carolina driver's license.

Why would the gate agent be asking to see a driver license?

Except for international travel I have never seen anyone asked for ID at the boarding gate.

If you get the dreaded SSS on your board pass, then the gates does additional screening. It has happened to me a couple of times but not recently. Did it to my son once -- he hit all the markers. We had a week ski planned but he couldn't join us until two days later. I take all of his ski gear, skis, and luggage in the car. It was two leg strip. The almost strip searched him at each gate and original security. He was 17, on a one way ticket purchased less than two weeks earlier, with no luggage.

Lisa

The other half of your parent group appears to be posting on other social media sites. You might want to get your story consistent, (I see Lisa's post has disappeared... The other half of the parental party has been saying "we do this all the time" AKA as "the rules don't apply to me")

For the rest of us, this is against the conditions of the contact you sign when you buy that ticket. We can all be adults and accept that. Or we can act like this family and have a variety of excuses as to why we are “special”

From their website. Don't know what else you call it.

How are we doing this? Our unique algorithm shows the cheapest regular flights and hidden-city flights faster than any other site. Hidden-city flights refer to itineraries with multiple legs where the traveler exits prior to the final destination. As an example, a traveler who wants to go to San Francisco from New York would book a flight that is ticketed for NYC -> San Fran -> Seattle and end their travel once they arrive in San Fran and skip the leg to Seattle. This results in savings of up to 80% using Skiplagged. Be sure to check out our FAQ for full details.

Since you are paying for the ticket no matter, why is this not
allowed? Any airline experts out there? Is it because the average
passenger has outwitted the airline's computer?

I am sure you got lots of detailed answers above. I didn't read them all. My answer is simple, you have no right to fly. You are nothing. You were blessed enough to be granted a seat under certain terms and conditions in exchange for money.

You accepted the contract. You didn't have to. No one forced you to. There is a cheap bus you could have taken. The rest of the reasoning is interesting, but this is still the bottom line.

They run their business solely for themselves.

Actually they run it for a lot of RS members and probably quite a few of your coworkers and neighbors. They are all public companies. Check your 401K and your IRA. If there is an airline in the stock that is held, complaun to your financial manager because airlines are among the lowest profit and most marginal businesses.

This post is from July.

And July was am excellent vintage !