Last week I wrote about an American Airlines passenger flagged for throwaway ticketing or ‘skiplagging’ to save money on their flights.
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.
Busted. The passenger had planned to skip that last flight. They ultimately did skip it. We don’t know if American Airlines has banned them or not. However there is already another one and this story is even more striking.
Last week I booked a last minute flight that had a layover in the city I live. Since I knew I was skiplagging, I didn’t use my frequent flyer number to avoid linking it to my AA account. When I went to check in, the system asked me to check with the counter.
I initially thought it was because it was a full flight or something along those lines, but when I spoke to the agent, she told me that the system had flagged my reservation because my address (from my profile) was near the layover city. She said if I didn’t board the second leg of the flight, I’d be put on the DNF list.
In the end, I ended up boarding the second leg and buying a separate flight that departed an hour after I arrived for less than $60 to get home. …[I]t made me wonder if changing my address in the profile to a different state would let me do this again without getting flagged?
They knew what they were doing. They took precautions. They didn’t want to risk their American AAdvantage account, so they did not add it to the reservation. But American Airlines still figured out who they were, where they lived, and knew they were connecting in their home city.
American Airlines has been known to be quite aggressive clamping down on ticketing techniques that save customers money.
- There was 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.
Here we’re seeing a couple of similar incidents – tracking where a customer lives and comparing it to their connecting city – and having the airline block online or kiosk check-in so that an agent can deliver a warning.
Throwaway ticketing is not illegal but it breaks the airline’s rules. 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. That saves money, and the airline sees it as costing them money.
For instance, you:
- Want to fly New York to Denver, but it’s cheaper to book New York to Denver to Colorado Springs – so you buy that, and only use the first segment to Denver.
- 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.
If you do this, and an airline catches you, they might ban you or shut down your frequent flyer account. Historically there has been little risk to this if you do not do this frequently. However, plenty of things can go wrong along the way.
- 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 Chicago instead of Denver – 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 (yes, 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.
- 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. You might need to book that DC – Chicago – Milwaukee as a one-way ticket if you’re getting off in Chicago, and then a one-way back to DC on the return (potentially with a throwaway segment on that ticket, too).
Computers are much more effective than they used to be at noticing patterns and checking large amounts of data – like passenger reservations – for out of sample behavior. That suggests airlines are only going to get better and better at identifying cases where their rules are being broken. They’re going to have a lot more resources thrown at AI than customers will have defending against those. And government ID requirements make it harder to keep airlines from knowing everything about you when you travel.
Is it legal for a carrier to put a passenger on a do not fly list for hidden city ticketing? By definition, a common carrier cannot refuse to carry a passenger absent a good reason – not clear that hidden city ticketing on a past flight would be such a reason under federal law.
I am bemused that the antiquated IT systems at AA can identify and flag this suspicious behaviors. If AA only displayed such prowess on more important aspects of their business.
@rdinsf – it is against their contract of carriage so yes you break their rules you can be put on a DNF list. There is no constitutional right to fly (only to travel and there are many ways to do that) and certainly not on a specific airline.
Zero sympathy for these people. They know they are breaking airline rules. Not about what anyone on here believes is “fair”. BTW as a career IT professional I love the fact an analytics program flagged this guy based on home address
@ Gary — Maybe AA should find a better use of their employees’ time other than harassing passengers? Like maybe creating a pleasant airline with pleasant employees?
@Gary – I’d love to hear more about the gate checked bags automatically being sent to your final destination. Every single time I’ve gate checked a bag, always on AA, I’m given a yellow or red tag that doesn’t have my name or any reference to me. How does AA know it’s my bag and where to send it since there’s no identifying name, PNR, or destination airport code on the tag?
It’s gotten to the point where “Skiplaggers” have to act like undercover spies and show up at airport with a well-rehearsed story of where they are going and use alternate IDs that don’t show their home address.
I can’t deny AA has the right to say you’re not following the rules so they don’t have to keep selling tickets to you.
But I do find this practice absurd (selling a trip involving two flights for less than one involving the first half of those two flights.) No, this practice is not costing the airline anything (both planes would have flown either way, and if anything it’s saving that tiny amount of fuel on the second flight by not having the person on it. And claiming it’s “costing” the airline because you didn’t pay more for 1 leg… well, it’s true, but that just shows how absurd this pricing is.) The airline’s concern over having empty seats they could have booked… well, if they priced the flights sensibly then these people would have just bought the ticket for the first segment and the airline would know that seat is available on the second leg.
I feel like American has its priorities in the wrong places. How about using some of that IT for proper estimated time of departure when the ETD of an outbound is even earlier than the ETA of the inbound aircraft.
‘Not illegal but breaks a companies rules’ is about to matter more than actual laws, especially any laws designed to protect consumers (bye-bye to those!) These companies gleefully scam us, then shills on here dare to suggest ‘just doing business’ and ‘they’re not a charity’ as if that makes their corruption acceptable. It’s a sad reality as we descend into corporate dystopia. And no, the ‘free market’ won’t save us—it ain’t free any more—it’s captured. The little guy is getting screwed. Wake up. Stop electing folks who only serve oligarchs and lobbyists. Demand better for the people and the workers.
It’s outrageous in my opinion that an airline would threaten to or actually place a passenger on a DNF list for not flying a particular segment of a booked itinerary. Their rules of carriage are one sided and not necessarily legally enforceable when demanding you to physically fly someplace or be banned. They can’t prove they are harmed in any way by a passenger’s absence on a flight that has already been paid for. In fact they benefit by carrying less weight.
Additionally, I have boarded too many planes (all on major carriers such as Delta, American) only to be expected to seat myself in a filthy seat with a filthy floor; armrest, seat back pocket and tray table to boot. I mean Sticky.Trash. I’ve also been informed the caterers didn’t show up so they didn’t have anything to serve us (no beverage service) on a flight in excess of 2 1/2 hours. (Plus boarding, exiting, etc. ) long time without water. Focus on cleaning the plane, having water and cups no matter what. Then tell me about your rules.
Kudos to AA for giving the customer fair warning at the airport.
If you use a US Passport card (costs about $35) for ID, it does not show your address. (I don’t use hidden city tickets, but I recently misplaced my driver’s license.)
I’m shocked (not really) that Gary Leff and all of his readers don’t understand how revenue management works and why a connecting city ticket would be cheaper than a direct on any given flight. For all the free market capitalists here, this seems to elude you all.
This story sounds 110% fake
hwertz,
I’m not defending the practice, but one thing to consider is because he had a ticket for the 2nd leg, it does prevent them from being able to sell that seat. So I imagine it’s rare, but the practice does have a small chance of costing the airline money. Although, I’d argue being jackasses to their customers loses them more money than any lost revenue from this happening…
How did aa know his address if he didnt link to his aaccount?
Skiplagging bans by airlines should be illegal. They are an abuse of market power in hub cities that needs to get reined in by Congress. Alternatively, Congress could prohibit airlines charging more for a short haul flight to a given city than to fly long haul with that city as a connection. This would eliminate the need to skiplag in the first place.We already have legal precedent for such a rule. In the peak era of passenger and freight rail during the early 20th century a similar pricing practice got so out of hand that Congress effectively banned it through the Elkins Act of 1903 and the Hepburn Act of 1906.
@Steven — 100%. This guy gets it. Well said, sir. Fantastic historical context and analogy. Thank you. Seriously.
The systrm has been screwy for years.
Solution. You pay per miles not routes. Flying 3000 miles should cost roughly twice that of flying 1500. Like a taxi.
@biggest hater – of course a connecting flight might be cheaper, it’s obvious why an airline might prefer to price that way, it’s also entirely beside the point
If airlines are allowed to pursue “lost revenue” from hidden city ticketing, they should also be required to reimburse customers for unfairly gained revenue when customers book direct but are forced to reroute on a cheaper connecting flight due to IRROPS.
@Christian… at the gate the customer service agent pulls up your P&R and scans the baggage tag into that record. This is how your baggage tag is tied to your travel itinerary.
rdinsf said: “Is it legal for a carrier to put a passenger on a do not fly list for hidden city ticketing?”
Why would it not be legal? The carrier just essentially said, nah, we don’t want your money. Why would the carrier be legally obligated to accept their money? The customer can use another carrier.