A flight from DC to Milwaukee via Chicago might be cheaper than flying non-stop to Chicago. So you add the connection from Chicago to Milwaukee, even though you don’t plan to take it. That’s throwaway ticketing.
That saves you money, but it violates airline rules. You may think you’re buying a seat on both the DC to Chicago and Chicago to Milwaukee flights, and you should be able to do whatever you wish with your seat (take the flight or not take the flight). The airline, though, thinks they’re selling you a ticket from DC to Milwaukee and argues that’s a different product than a flight from DC to Chicago.
The New York Times’ Ethicist said it’s ok to do. The late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did it. But there are risks,
- If you are forced to check a bag it will go to your final destination (airlines don’t like to short check) which isn’t where you’re going.
- If your flight is cancelled or severely delayed, the airline may want to re-route you to your final destination via a different city. (I’ve never had a problem insisting on my preferred routing.)
- If the airline catches you they might close your frequent flyer account (best to credit the miles to a partner program).
Since airlines hate the practice, which saves you money, they try various ways to crack down on it. Back in the fall United Airlines threatened to trash the credit of customers who skip flights they’ve purchased by sending them to collections.
United has now issued new guidance to airport agents attempting to suss out customers using hidden city ticketing encouraging them to ask questions and turn passengers over to corporate security they suspect of violating United’s ticketing rules.
In this updated guidance, United is asking its employees to understand a customer’s predicament before making accusations of hidden-city ticketing. “Ask questions and understand the customer’s situation,” the memo said.
Perhaps, United said, the customer needed to get off early because of a medical situation. Or maybe the passenger decided to change plans because irregular operations like a canceled or delayed flight made it impossible for the customer to continue.
But if that’s not the case, United said, agents should alert the airline’s corporate security department.
American Airlines issued similar guidance to its agents earlier this year. When a customer wants to ‘short check’ a bag (collecting bags at a connecting point rather than their final destination), the agent has to document the reason for the request in the reservation:
BAG-CUSTOMER REQUESTED SHORT CHECK BAG ON AA FLT# DUE TO XXXXXXX
This is where agents are told a customer might reveal that they aren’t planning to take all of their flights, and agents are instructed to report the violation, and:
Since you need to offer a reason for short checking a bag, allow me to suggest:
- You’re having an affair in your layover city, and will need the bag’s contents for no more than 45 minutes.
- You plan to take advantage of unlimited free drinks in Main Cabin Extra and might need a change of clothes.
- Since American doesn’t guarantee checked baggage delivery times like Delta and Alaska do, you’re testing the airline’s checked baggage efficiency for a blog article and need as many data points as possible.
The only reason that doesn’t need a reason, according to American, is pets as baggage — pets “can always be short checked as long as the customer meets the ticketed 4 hour connection time at their mid-point city.”
If you’re going to use hidden city ticketing, here are the key things to remember:
- Don’t check bags, they’ll go to the final destination on your ticket not where you’re getting off
- Don’t put your preferred frequent flyer number in the reservation, an airline can shut down your frequent flyer account
- Be prepared to explain the need for your original routing in the event of flight delays and cancellations
- Don’t be the last to board – you don’t want to have to gate check your bag
- Only drop the last segment of your itinerary, otherwise the rest of your flights you do want to take will be cancelled
- Don’t do this super regularly where you’ll attract unwanted attention from the airline
Finally, you may be able to do this completely legitimately if you have your tickets issued in Italy.
if you gate check your bag, won’t the ground crew just bring it up to the jetbridge once the flight lands?
I always short check bags connecting from T3 to T5 in LHR. I do this because I have no confidence in the Brits’ ability to transfer a bag, so I’d rather do it myself. I’ve never had an issue with AA. Usually I say something to the effect of “would you trust the same people who are taken by surprise every autumn that leaves fall on the Underground tracks to move a bag between terminals?” I get a laugh and a “I get it” look.
Policing hidden cities is what the airlines are doing instead of customer service. Sad.
You always mention the NYT ethicist in relation to the topic, but he only considered (and rather naively at that, as you pointed out yourself) the relationship to the airline, not fellow passengers. It is unethical because you are taking the seat (or removing a seat from a desirable fare bucket) of someone who really wants to go to Milwaukee and throwing it away..It is not like other products. If you buy a two loaves of bread intentionally planning to throw away one. it is seldom the case that there is someone else out there who wanted to buy that other loaf of bread,; can’t get it because there is only a fixed number of loaves available; and won’t be able to eat because you bought both with no intent to eat them.
My question is what happens when you actually execute? So you get off at the first city and the attendant does the passenger count and realizes someone is missing. At that point do they make additional efforts to figure out who is missing?
If so, even without frequent flier number attached to reservation it seems like a fairly simple step for them to feed that information up and identify you?
Just trying to wrap my mind around the big picture were I ever to try to pull this off. To some extent keeping your FF# off the reservation feels a little like wishful thinking?
@AJ, not always. Many times at the gate the bags are checked “to your final destination.” It is only sometimes they are retrieved plane side or on the jet bridge, and some gate agents are absolutely manic about gate checking even bags that can easily fit in the bin.
“some gate agents are absolutely manic about gate checking even bags that can easily fit in the bin.”
Yeah, I’d add that to the list of tips. Don’t bring a carryon that’s anywhere close to being too big.
@Jeff – most connections don’t arrive and then leave on the same aircraft. So you would never scan your boarding pass to board the second flight and they never know you are on board. Some standby passenger will get your seat at the last minute.
On the rare occasion your connecting flight leaves on the same plane, they do a passenger count once everyone gets off so you just get off then don’t get back on. You’re just a “no show” not a “disappearing passenger”.
How does it work with baggage matching. Seems like this is a security risk, i.e. terrorist buys hidden city ticket, admits he is not flying the last segment when questioned, airline says “well we’re sending the bag to your final destination” anyway. Terrorist says “OK!”
@JR there’s generally no longer positive bag matching for domestic flights since bags themselves are screened before being loaded onto planes
I have a ticket on cathay, yvr-hkg-han. I have decided I don’t want to go to Han so I am planning to just get off in HKG (carry on only) and not get on the next flight
This article makes me think I am going to still need a Vietnam visa to even board in YVR. It is cheap enough to get that visa, but a) I am glad I am at least aware of the potential need and b) what a hassle to have to go through just to not use my business class ticket from hkg to han. c). why should anyone have to pay a change fee to drop a leg
@Dave, no way to make a blanket ethical judgment with respect to other passengers. For example, maybe I need the savings to feed my family and the other PAX could easily afford first class. For that matter, what if your flight is for pleasure but buying that seat in the first place means you’ve denied it to someone who needs it for medical reasons and/or driven up the cost for everyone.
There are a million possibilities, but at the end of the day it’s your money and no one should tell you how to spend it or, in this case, how to save it.
@ mark johnson — You will ABSOLUTELY 100% need a Vietnam visa to board in YVR. You won’t be going anywhere without it. A “hassle” to use your CX mistake fee? Rolleyes. How were you going to get into Vietnam to begin your journey from HAN anyway? Single-entry visa instead of multi-entry visa?
Thanks Gene. I have completed the Han-yvr legs and had the visa and all was good. I keep trying to get CX to let me have a couple of days layover in HKG and that isn’t working out, so I was prepared to abandon Han and hit some other places for my return out of bangkok. I will get the visa.
Yes, it sucks to have hassles with that $1000 first class fare han-yvr rt. It sucks because now I am going to look at business class seat as I felt about economy. If the spouse will never even get into business again, I am screwed.
I can’t imagine why I thought that skipping that leg would still require a visa, so I am happy that I read the article
@DaveS – I have considered the seat-taking issue. Almost all flights I take have a long standby list. If I miss the flight, for whatever reason, somebody else will have my seat. So there is no waste.
The opposite happened to me a few years ago. I was flying from LAX or SFO to Seattle. Although same flight number, I realized it had a stop in PDX. Just out of curiosity, I checked the cost of the flight separately to PDX, and then PDX to SEA. Interestingly enough, buying two tickets was actually cheaper – so I did!
@ mark — Ha! 🙂
Going back in time; I used to work for a US firm that was owned by a British firm. Our two co-CEOs had to regularly attend board meetings in London. They, understandably favored the Concorde and used hidden city ticketing to Beirut (at the time the cheapest destination our rule-breaking travel agent could find). One day, returning home; they were in the LHR Concorde lounge when they were approached by a BA employee who said she was doing a customer survey. Her first question was “where did your travel originate today?” Unwittingly, one of them responded “here” and that was the end of their hidden city adventures. At the same time, I regularly took TW #8 back from LAX and the same agent booked me through to San Juan. Presumably, with today’s data collection capabilities, airlines can catch on a lttle faster now
Having a medical device is another good way to avoid the gate check. I use a CPAP and will not let my bag be gate checked…because I can’t risk the bag being lost or delayed.