An American Airlines passenger got called out for throwaway ticketing, or what some people call ‘Skiplagging’ (I hate this name tbh).
They checked in at the ticket counter and showed their ID. The agent saw that it was an ID issued in the state they were connecting in – suggesting they might be stopping their journey there. The agent said they suspected the passenger planned to skip the final flight segment and warned them they would be banned from American Airlines if they did not take the connection.
And – in fact – they were doing this! They explained they were a ‘poor college student’ trying to get home. And now they didn’t know what to do. Do they tell an agent in their connecting city they felt sick? Just leave the airport and risk the ban?
Their first flight landed late, and they could easily have missed their connection! But that flight delayed. They eventually decided just to leave the airport, figuring that a ban from American Airlines was actually ok.
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. 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.
For instance, you:
- Want to fly DC to Chicago, but it’s cheaper to book DC to Chicago to Milwaukee – so you buy that, and only use the first segment to Chicago.
- Want to fly DC to Phoenix, but it’s cheaper to fly DC to Phoenix to Tucson – so you buy that, and only use the first segment to Phoenix.
It’s not illegal. It violates airline rules. It’s not unethical according to the New York Times ‘Ethicist’. But there are risks.
- 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?
When you’re doing something against the rules, it’s a good idea to involve as few people in the transaction as possible. Why not use the airline’s mobile app? Or check in at a kiosk? Why put eyes on your reservation? They wouldn’t even have had to show their drivers license! (Incidentally, American asks you what your state of residence is when booking tickets from them online, I suppose they could run data with this but as I understand it the reason for the question has to do with the insurance products they sell during checkout.)
We don’t know whether an agent flagging that someone’s ID matches the state of their connecting city would actually mean putting eyes back on the reservation later to see if all segments were flown. Agents can report their suspicions, which should trigger a follow up. Then again, we don’t know if the agent actually even submitted this!
Though sometimes an agent’s suspicions are elevated further – like the teenager taken to a security room and interrogated over their throwaway ticket (they confessed). They’ve also been confronting passengers at the airport over suspected ‘ticketing abuse’ and billing them although there the ban only applies if the customer doesn’t pay.
It’s becoming a bigger issue now because of the larger share of leisure travelers. Business travelers typically don’t use hidden city ticketing. (I hate the term skiplag). These days there are actually pretty easy ways for airlines to flag these, I’m surprised they haven’t done that.
“Then your carry on will go to your final ticketed destination, not the city you’re flying to.”
If this is the case when doing hidden city ticketing then why does AA just hand me a yellow tag to put on my bag sometimes when they determine I need to gate check? There’s zero cross-reference between my PNR and the gate check tag. I’d actually welcome if my bag got transferred to my next flight without me waiting for it to be unloaded into the jetway after the first flight.
So many stories written about this, but then there’s that content thing to fill, isn’t there? I am in total agree t with you around my disgust for the new American language (not English, mind you) which has given us skip lagging and dozens of other totally fabricated words and phrases that have found their way into the lexicon. Lastly, perhaps American and the other airlines should focus their energy on getting their checked bags to their destination rather than worrying about this. I do approve of their use of technology to prevent gate crashers… Which I witnessed this past Friday flying from Miami to Palm Springs through Phoenix. The same couple that jostled in front of my Group 1 First Class ticket from MIA-PHX turned out to also be on the same flight to PSP, where the gate agent turned them away loudly announcing they were Group 4. The Walk of Shame.
Airlines want to bundle a connection like NY-Chicago-L.A., sell it for $200, and sell the same Chicago-L.A. by itself for $300. In their view, different markets with different competition. But nobody should ever be forced to consume 100% of a product they purchase. HP may sell a laptoo/printer for $800, and the laptop only for $900. I can buy the bundle and dump the printer. That is my choice as a consumer. It would be great to see airlines argue otherwise in court.
Just fly with your passport instead of state issued ID
Ridiculous!! Once purchased, it’s none of there business. I don’t always finish a meal, either. Lol.
I can fly MCI to CLE one way for $139 on AA or UA (via ORD) or DL (via DTW). I can fly MCI to DTW one way for $139 on AA or UA (via ORD) or for $239 on DL (nonstop). [Google flights, retrieved 3/3 for 5/28 flight.] Why? Because people are willing to pay $100 more to fly n/s to DTW. Does a MCI-DTW pax cost DL more than a MCI-DTW-CLE pax? Of course not.
I can order a $25 pasta dish at lunch that costs less (in food costs) than the $20 burger and fries. So, prices consider more than cost (demand needs consideration). We’ll see a fast food place charge less for a burger/fries/drink combo than for a burger and a drink. But, of course, they have no interest in forcing you to eat the fries when you order the cheaper combo. And, that pricing is just a marketing ploy.
DL charges more for MCI to DTW than others because they offer a superior product: a nonstop. They offer a “better deal” to CLE than DTW because of competition with others serving this route (one stop, just like them). One could argue the DL MCI-DTW fare is fair, and we are ripping off all three on MCI-???-CLE. It’s not like airlines are very profitable.
“Can someone clarify, does the take a roll call for the second leg or something?” They do, it’s called scanning your boarding pass as you board.
Imagine if the airline was a restaurant where they sold the main dish for $30 and the dish + drink + appetizer for $20, and you order the $20 combo and the waiter comes over and demands that you finish the entire combo meal because otherwise the restaurant loses money. Screw these airlines and their non-sense policies.
Talking about printers, decades ago I would buy factory remanufactured inkjet printers for very cheap on eBay. In fact they were cheaper than buying the ink cartridges of each color. Further they were indistinguishable from new printers and came with the size of new cartridges that were sold separately. Just use a new printer until the cartridges are empty then trash it. Or put the new cartridges in the old printer and trash the new printer. Or do that and instead of trashing the new printer, abuse it with cheap aftermarket ink cartridges. The law shouldn’t allow airlines to abuse customers who do not want to go to the end destination of their one way ticket.
I question how anyone who says that it is permissible to break a contract in this context can call himself for herself an ethicist. Does anyone have a link or a summary of the justification?
@jns — Good analogy. I loathe most of those companies that sell the personal printers and accessories for that exact reason. The ink. The planned obsolescence. The bullshit software. It’s all a scam. So frustrating. You are absolutely correct–these companies are abusing customers (passengers), and there should be better standards that prevent such waste.
@Claudette Casey — That is hilarious. ‘Finish your meal, or else!’ Who are you, my Great Depression era grandmother? (I mean, I get it, she went through a lot, but it’s 2025! …unless, we’re about to repeat history, in which case, better finish that dish, pronto.)
@T — Are you asking whether it is ‘justified’ to breach a contract, generally, or in this case specifically? You should know that the answer is almost always: “It depends.”
These companies break their promises all the freaking time, by not operating a flight timely, by changing aircraft type, or by unilaterally devaluing their points and miles programs without notice or members’ meaningful input. So, based on all the ways airlines scam their passengers, yeah, skip-lagging is not ‘in compliance with their rules’ but may be ‘morally’ sound.
You do realize that laws are a human-construct (unlike the rules of nature, like ‘gravity,’ which does not care what you think about it). If you drive, you must admit that you go over the ‘speed’ limit, occasionally, so does that make you ‘an illegal’–I don’t think so (but some do).
It comes down to enforcement. Clearly, this airline was seeking to ‘deter’ others from engaging in the activity. Many of us here do not even try it–we like our miles, status, etc.–but if you must, there are better ways to do it (don’t check a bag, don’t admit it, etc.).
I think it’s funny how many people are comparing this kind of scenario with that of a restaurant. It’s absolutely stupid. Yes, as a consumer you might pay for a burger and fries and not eat the fries but you’re also not taking note of how many servings of fries you have per given day. The reason Hidden city ticketing is so frowned upon by airlines is because there are limited amount of seats per plane and limited flights per day. So say you plan to get off at your connecting city that still shows an occupied seat on the last leg. Yes you won’t be making that flight but you’re also making the airline lose out on product and avaliable seats. On top of that you would also be screwing would be passengers over by filling up a flight when you aren’t even going to take it so now your forcing other customers to consider other flights, your taking potential sales from the airline, and lastly you’re causing flight data errors. It’s cheaper yes but it’s against the rules for a reason.
Jared,
Actually, its the opposite of the analogy you made. If you don’t eat the French fries, the restaurant has to throw it away- it’s just waste. If you don’t board your connecting flight, they can give your seat to a standby passenger, and sell the seat twice. Win-win for the airlines.
Not sure I believe this whole story.
1. If he was planning ro get off at the “layover” city he would not be checking a bag. That’s about the only reason people go to the ticket counter anymore. Mist check in at a kiosk. And if he was a skiplagger….I doubt he go to the counter..unless we’ll he was young and stupid.
OK, drop the restaurant analogy: it isn’t applicable. I raised it to point out it wasn’t, and I’m sorry I did. The MCI-DTW n/s is $100 because nobody else can offer it. Simply enough. They don’t want you to get that by buying MCI-DTW-CLE and missing flight 2 because they sold that to you at the lower price competition forced. People just think costs are the only relevant input to pricing.
If I paid for the seat, who cares if it is empty or full? The airline earns the same money either way. In fact, you could argue they earn more on an empty seat as the plane has less weight to carry, so it uses less fuel. Furthermore, they don’t need to give me the snack or drink.
Years ago, I worked for a company where I often flew from the west coast to Miami (where the office was). The travel department would sometimes book me through to somewhere in S. America because the fare was a LOT cheaper. One trick was to arrange the ticket so the inbound flight arrived in the evening, but the continuation was not until the next morning. They’d let me off and return my luggage in MIA no questions asked.
The only time I’ve had a skiplagging itinerary tempt me was a flight to Corinth, MS thru MEM that was cheaper than the flight to Memphis. The “Essential” Air Services subsididy spends $200Million annually do send empty airplanes to podunk airports. Not having those handful of passengers jeopardizes the corporate welfare.
I’m platinum and I do it several times a year. Never had an issue. I always cancel my second flight from the app after I land so they have more time to give the seat to someone else.
I even asked a delta agent once if it was okay and she daid, “you already paid for the flight, we don’t care if you take it or not.”
So it is fine for airlines to overbook flights and cause customers significant inconvenience and disrupt travel plans, but it’s not ok to skiplag? Airline hypocrisy is hysterical.
What about the employees? Maybe they should take a class in customer relations. They are hateful people who hate their jobs and their lives so they take it out on the passengers
Just charge $1 for the second leg. People will see it as a deal. But no need to buy it.
Treat it like a phone plan. 1000 minutes included. Charge more for overages. But front load it lots of product for lots of price. Then dirt cheap for the rest. Buy one get one.
T. just because you bought a product does not mean you have to use it. There is no law requiring use of a product purchased. There is no ethical or moral reason either. I paid for a product and can do as I wish.