Real estate investor Mike Bolen discovered throwaway ticketing to save hundreds of dollars on airline tickets, and his observation attracted over 3.5 million views on twitter.
He discovered that he could fly non-stop to St. Louis for $564, or connect in St. Louis enroute to Atlanta to $198. And he wondered, why not just buy the connection in St. Louis, get off there, and save $366 on the one-way journey?
This is wild. Trying to buy a plane ticket from the West Coast to Saint Louis, Missouri. All direct flights start at $564. But if I book a flight to Atlanta with a layover in STL the flight is $198.
Why would you not just do a carry-on and get off the plane in STL? I am! pic.twitter.com/U7iAQK5eiw— Mike Bolen (@mikebolen) December 31, 2024
Throwaway ticketing is a practice that’s gone on for many decades. Airlines often charge more money for non-stops than they do for connecting itineraries.
- People will pay a premium for non-stop
- Connections often have more competition
So people book a flight with a connection through the city they want to travel to, and just don’t take that second connecting flight. As a result, they can often save money, but there are risks you should know about.
Maybe you:
- Want to fly DC to Chicago, but it’s cheaper to book DC to Chicago to Milwaukee
- Want to fly DC to Phoenix, but it’s cheaper to fly DC to Phoenix to Tucson
Recently a name for this age-old practice of throwaway ticketing has caught on, “Skiplagging,” after Skiplagged.com which helps customers find these ‘point beyond’ tickets to save money.
Is It Wrong To Book A Ticket To One City, Fly To Another?
Fundamentally, there are two different views of what you’re buying with a connecting airline ticket. When you buy a ticket from A to B to C,
- The airline sees that as travel from A to C. They sell travel A-B for one price, A-C for a different price. And if you get off at B, and that’s cheaper, you’re cheating them.
- Consumers see themselves as buying two flights and it’s nobody else’s business whether they use both that they’ve purchased or not.
An airline’s ‘Contract of Carriage’ – the adhesion contract that nobody reads and that nobody has an opportunity to negotiate – supports their view, naturally. And airlines enforce their rules, because it supports their fare structure – the ability to charge more for a single non-stop flight than for that non-stop plus a second flight, for instance.
The New York Times “Ethicist” endorsed the practice of throwaway ticketing. The late Justice Antonin Scalia engaged in throwaway ticket even when expressly against airline rules.
Certainly it is not illegal to engage in throwaway ticketing. Ethically there are two views:
- you ‘agree’ to this contract, with terms you likely do not know about, when you buy the ticket so it’s unethical to break that agreement
- adhesion contracts carry little force, and the airline view contradicts commonsense morality (or airlines themselves do not go out of their way to treat the median customer well and so the customer’s obligation to an airline ought to mirror how the airline sees its obligation to the customer).
I tend to see little moral force in most adhesion contracts, so throwaway ticketing doesn’t concern me ethically, but there are practical / consequentialist considerations that may dissuade you from the practice or at least from engaging in it frequently.
This may sway people on the ethics of the practice, though some will find it more appropriate while others more objectionable: the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia did throwaway ticketing and the President-elect’s campaign uses it:
Risks To Throwaway Ticketing
Throwaway ticketing may not be illegal, it may save you money, and you may be comfortable doing it. But there are several practical risks and consequences to consider.
- Re-routing during irregular operations. If your flight is delayed or cancelled, your airline may want to re-route you through a different hub than the city you actually wanted to fly to (and get off in).
Maybe your connection would go through Denver instead of Chicago – and you wouldn’t be able to get off in the city you’d planned to! I’ve never had a problem asking to be kept on my original routing during irregular operations, but it may not be automatic.
- No checked bags. Airlines don’t generally allow you to ‘short-check’ bags, where they only send your luggage to your connecting city, although there are exceptions. If you book DC to Chicago to Milwaukee, and you get off in Chicago, you don’t want your luggage sent to Milwaukee (and your bags can fly without you).
- Gate checking bags. If you aren’t among the first to board your flight, overhead bins may be full (or employees might fear that the bins are filling up) and you might be required to gate check your carry-on bag instead of bringing it onto the aircraft.
Then your carry on will go to your final ticketed destination, not the city you’re flying to. Now, you might talk your way out of it (try having a story ready – like that you are connecting on a separate ticket to another airline, especially one that the carrier doesn’t interline with) or if they’re collecting bags on the jet bridge instead of at the gate you might get away with bringing your bag on anyway but this is a real risk.
- Can only book one-way. If you book a roundtrip, and throw away a segment on your outbound, the rest of your itinerary will get cancelled by the airline. And sometimes roundtrips are still cheaper, so there are tradeoffs. You might need to book that DC – Chicago – Milwaukee and then a one-way back to DC on the return (potentially with a throwaway segment beyond DC as well).
- Does the airline catch you? As a one-off there’s historically little risk to this. Doing it a lot could catch an airline’s attention. There have even been stories of airlines meeting passengers at the airport over their ticketing practices. United Airlines threatened to trash the credit of customers who skip flights by sending them to collections. Lufthansa sued a passenger over it.
An airline could shut down your frequent flyer account or even ban you from flying them in the future. It’s something to consider occasionally, not something to do every week. If you’re going to do throwaway ticketing, consider at least crediting miles to a partner airline frequent flyer account, though that may not protect you, but why make it easy for them to track you?
This Can Work With Mileage Tickets, Too
There are times where the same throwaway ticket principles that have long been used with paid tickets – risks and all – apply to mileage tickets, too. For instance,
- With loyalty programs that add fuel surcharges to awards, those are usually charged based on the destination you’re flying to, so throwaway ticketing can reduce surcharges in some cases.
- Some of the best award rates come from ANA’s Mileage Club, but they only allow roundtrip awards. You may want to fly one-way, and you can book a throwaway return that’s cheaper and in a lower cabin in order to make that price in a way that’s feasible.
- And of course Delta hasn’t ramped up pricing in all of their regions, so people have been saving miles on awards by connecting back though the United States to somewhere else.
- Finally, with U.S. airlines pricing their awards differently based on origin and destination (Sydney – Los Angeles might be more than, say, Sydney – Los Angeles – Albuquerque) that’s created a new arbitrage opportunity as well.
Naturally the same risks involved in the practice that apply to paid travel apply with award travel as well.
To me it is unethical and stealing from the airlines (and no I have never worked for an airline). Frankly I hope everyone that does it gets caught and has their FF account closed with miles forfeited (they are owned by the airline per terms of the program and can be reclaimed at any point in time)
That Delta Akl-lax-mex pice in J was sweet. Used it last Feb (booked Akl-lax-mex). Now it’s 395k one way with constant Amex card discount.
The issue with airline surcharges is interesting.
Part of the difference is carrier imposed fees, but part is taxes, which I’m sure is a tougher opponent.
For frequent flyers, this is not worth it. They will close your accounts.
Also, didn’t American just win $9.4 million against Skipplagged. Of course, it was a jury in Texas that found in favor of the airline. Corporations are people. Money is speech. Bow down to our overlords and take it.
Gary’s comments about the airlines contract of carriage as a contract of adhesion, where no one reads the fine print and there is no chance to negotiate, is absolutely true. It’s take it, or leave it, and we, the passengers, are not the beneficiaries. Yet another reason why the US needs an EU261 equivalent so that baseline protections for consumers can be enforced. Yet voters constantly pick pro-corporate candidates because we’re dumb. Yay.
Lol, there are no ethics when it comes to corporations.
A corporation will never act ethically towards you.
……its like the guy who robs the bank and buys a flash car the next day. Easy pickings for the cops
Somewhat related, I’ve overheard people talk about buying a really cheap Frontier or Spirit ticket for lounge purposes (free food and drinks) with no intention of actually taking the flight.
I have never done this but I don’t find it unethical. The airline has the ability to put someone in the seat that is not used for $$. If not that, they save on fuel or add freight. Because airlines use government bail out money from time to time, maybe there should be a regulation that all segments of flights have to have a minimum zero dollar value.
Years ago, I bought two round trip tickets with weeken stay, using the first of each to accomplish a same day R/T. It was sufficiently cheaper that it was worth while. And, my employer didn’t hesitate reimbursing for it. I always wondered if I broke rules of carriage.(Had no need to schedule the two return tickets for another R/T.)
No airline has taken anyone to court to enforce this provision of their contract and there’s a reason: They’ll lose.
You have a fubdamental right to freedom of movement and you can’t give that up in a contract of adhesion. “You must fly from A to B or I’m going to charge you $X” is a ransom. Totally not enforcible.
I don’t even think they’d even win if they yanked your frequent flier account over it.
Airlines should be forced to allow this or charge logically…while we’re at it Car dealerships should be required to mark the car’s sale price and make it non negotiable…like every other product In the world. Why do these two industries take advantage of the public.its got to stop.
If any other industry did this practice…
A supermarket sold a dozen eggs for cheaper than a half dozen, a restaurant sold a three course menu for cheaper than an entree and appetisers, a bar sold a bottle of wine for less than 2 glasses, a theatre sold a two movie ticket special for cheaper than a single…
They could and would never recoup the cost for the used portion, why should an airline be any different
I’ve done this countless times on short international flights out of Japan. Buying cheap RT tickets Fukuoka-Guam for example in United and then routing myself to Manila before returning to Japan. Except for No. 1 travel trying to track me down on the no show return it was seamless.
That’s hardly a new trick. It’s called “Hidden City” and it’s been around for many years. The airlines not only know about it, they are actively looking for it, and if they catch you, you will be put on the No Fly List.
@Peter, the pricing structure is logical – they charge more for nonstop flights than for connecting flights both because people are willing to pay more for nonstops, and because competition drives down the price of connecting flights. What we need is more competition. There is exactly one airline that will take me nonstop to Atlanta. There a bunch that will take me one-stop to Richmond. It’s logical that the airline that has no competition to Atlanta will have to compete to get me to book them to Richmond, and maybe sometimes the Richmond itinerary will be cheaper than the Atlanta nonstop.
@Amt, you can go to the store and buy eggs anytime you want, or sit down at a restaurant any time you want. Flights are limited to specific dates, times and routes. The product is completely different and analogies don’t work.
Only done it about 10 times over 10 years. Never been caught!
Bummed a few times because they upgraded me on the second leg 🙂
Curious as to why this was considered a new thing he “discovered”? Hidden city ticketing has been pretty mainstream for a couple of decades, at least.
How about the converse? Where I booked a connection to get to my regional airport and the airline connection is late, last flight leaving ORD at 9pm the jet is still connected to the jet bridge, but the airline did not let the 10 of us that were IRROPS board the plane and it left without us. I had to book a rental car (when I travelled on business it didn’t matter to me it wasn’t my money) to drive the 2 hours home arriving at midnight instead of hoping I could make it on the morning flight home.
Sorry, but this cuts both ways. If the airline can leave me stranded on a connection, and it has happened a lot to this lifetime AA Platinum flier then I don’t see why they get their underwear in a twist when they have backwards pricing structures and people don’t board the 2nd leg. On top of which they will have an empty seat on the 2nd leg for any IRROPS pax they can still fill. How does the airline lose anything?
This is why we can’t have good things.
many are acting like this is some new found revolutionary practice. it’s been around for ages. use at your own risk. def has it’s pros and cons but can be very valuable for hub captives.
There’s a certain level of risk doing this. If you’re in latter boarding groups it’s really risky because you may be forced to gate check a bag and it’s going to the final destination.
This is worth the read, sums up the airlines by a brilliant travel agent in 1999, Al Hess. Explains the one-sided unchecked power they have. And gets worse after every “merger”.
https://www.travelweekly.com/Agent-Life/If-airlines-sold-paint
I fail to see your logic…. I can go to the airport right now and buy a ticket from A-B and like steak or eggs, if I one else has bought them all already, I can buy as much or as little as I want. A plane ticket just like those eggs or that steak dinner will rot in the garbage if no one buys them. The only difference is time frame..
Airline prices were deregulated and the airlines were allowed free rein to manipulate pricing to maximize revenue/profit. No other business is allowed to move their prices up and down at will, advertise false prices, create junk fees and charges, they’re even allowed to oversell their product…
If an airline is legally allowed to exploit people, based on when and where they need to fly… people are entitled to use legal loopholes to minimize that expense. This is a David and Goliath situation, an airline has vast resources to screw people over, accountants, lawyers, contracts, statistics, when a customer finds within the system to save themselves a few bucks… it is the upmost in hypocrisy to complain.
Ok, now what do you do?
You get to the airport and the airline has “Good News”,your MIA-DFW-LAX has been Cancelled.
You have now been confirmed on a MIA-LAX nonstop .
I fly Southwest so I don’t have to do this, but used to. Let’s say I go to McDonalds and want just a burger and drink. But they’re having a special meal deal where for less money, I can get burger, drink, AND fries. So I order that and don’t eat the fries. Or better yet, give them to a homeless person. Can McD’s force me to eat the fries, or pay them more because I didn’t eat them? Ridiculous. In fact, shouldn’t I have the right to give the final leg of the flight to someone of my choosing? After all, I paid for that seat.
Reminds me of this old article ….. https://www.pilotsofamerica.com/community/threads/if-airlines-sold-paint.63145/
I love the economic naiveté here. Airlines sell a X-Z flight for less than X-Y even if X-Z is X-Y-Z because of demand and competition. Restaurants will charge more for one dish over another even if the former has lower food costs. Why would you expect a very low margin industry would charge you less than they can? Here’s a different perspective. The X-Y flight is fairly priced and the lower X-Y-Z price is simply a huge bargain. You’re ripping them off.
As someone who lives in Milwaukee, I can guarantee you that these days it is never, EVER cheaper to fly into MKE than into ORD. The price is often skewed so far the other way that it’s worth the cost and hassle to hop a coach bus down instead of flying from here.
I don’t think that “Real estate investor Mike Bolen” wants to save a few hundred dollars as much as he wants to chase clout online. Which seems to work for him, although I’m not going to follow his account. I hope he gets banned from the airline for being a clout chaser. I’ve skiplagged a few times years ago, but I was always discreet about it.
This looks like it as an almost last minute ticket. If he bought enough in advance, Southwest would be competitive.
I know that a few folks have commented on the FFP implications, but I’d note that this implies an actual FFP relationship between the customer in question and the airline in question. There are games I would play with, say, Spirit (never flown them) or United (I’ve only flown a few times, and I’ve never credited to them) that I wouldn’t pull with Delta (where I have a decent shot of ultimately ending up with Million Miler).
Of course, airlines will also try to restrict “back to back ticketing” (where you might “nest” two round-trips within one another to produce two shorter round trips) as well…and I think they lose the high ground when they’re trying to complain about whether you actually spent the weekend in Vegas vs just booking flights that you intended to take and (presumably absent a major issue) did take, regardless of whether you made it back home that weekend or not. It’s no more their business whether you went back home to Peoria or popped off to LA.
Here is where this guy is wrong.. airlines do track skiplaggers.. you have a habit of this we will cancel your frequent traveler program and ban you from the airline.. this guy doesn’t know what he is talking about
Actually if you skiplag you are saving the airline money because they have less weight to carry if your seat is empty, or they can sell it to someone else.
Airline pricing is unfair and unreasonable, and passengers have little comeback.
If you do this regularly you will probably live to regret it, but if you are a student or young person, the savings may be very important to you. It could make the difference between sleeping on an airport floor and sleeping in a motel.