Flight travel question (is this legal?)

[mnrose]

I’d assume you’d have to tell someone you weren’t taking the second leg. Otherwise, the airline is going to expect you to be on that flight and will hold up the departure trying to find you.

Nope. They will NOT hold the flight for you. Nor will they be looking for you. They don't care if you "miss" your flight. However, that being said, if you don't take ALL legs of an outbound flight, they may suspect you of taking advantage of "hidden city" routing, and cancel your return ticket. The computer does that BTW, not a human being. The human being manning the gate will see that you checked in for the flight, but are not on board. They *might* page you, but they will not hold the flight.

 

[NotUrsula]

Does the price hold on the reverse itinerary? If it does, then book that instead. Don't do this with an airline you count on for amassing points, though -- they'll cancel your account and forfeit your points if they catch you. Never book a RT itinerary when planning to do this; you always want the flight leg that you skip to be the final one, so that the airlines have no leverage against you if you don't take it. You can also consider a trick called nested itineraries; which works by buying two round trips with overlapping dates on two different airlines, and then taking only the first leg of each one. This one is no longer as effective as it once was, since airlines have largely abandoned the practice of charging more for one-way itineraries than for RT's on the same route.

Be aware that when using any of these strategies you cannot check any baggage, because you won't be able to claim it at the connecting airport, and it will continue on to final destination. These tricks limit you to carry-on baggage only.

Also be aware that hidden-city ticketing is in no way illegal. Doing it is not committing a crime of any kind. It does void your contract with the airline, however, so there is no legal recourse if you don't like their reaction to finding out that you did it.

 

[mousefan73]

Suppose I am trying to get from Sydney (Australia) to Los Angeles, and the cheapest 1-way ticket I can find from Sydney is $800. But then I discover there's a $400 fare from Christchurch (New Zealand) to Los Angeles that changes planes in Sydney. Is it allowable for me to book that flight from Christchurch and just skip the first leg of it? (only using the segment from Sydney).

I work for an airline and the answer is no that is not “legal.” In fact it could be that when you try to check in and you’ll find that your reservation has been canceled as you were a no-show for the other portion. They also know if you do check in for the itinerary and you don’t fly that first portion. Most systems will now clean themselves up and kick you out. As a no-show.If you look at the fare rules it should say at this is valid for the itinerary for flown. You are not flying that itinerary.