News and notes from around the interweb:
- What is hidden city ticketing, and why can’t airlines kill it?
“You get a cheaper fare by booking a connecting flight to a destination you never intended to visit, with a layover in the place you wanted.”
“After all, it’s certainly my right—and the right of any free man—not to go to Boston.”
“99.7% of Skiplagged.com bookings in 2024 didn’t result in miles revocation or bans.”
“Skiplagged didn’t create the airlines’ problem. The airlines did. They priced their tickets this way. The airlines have, in fact, built an entire business model that incentivizes customers to skiplag.”
It’s not illegal and I don’t believe it’s unethical (you’re just not using everything you purchased) but airlines don’t like it and can choose not to let you travel with them, though this rarely happens. These are the risks and how to mitigate them.
- Orlando Sanford airport gets trademark rights to its name and logo Orlando International Airport can’t stop them.
- “Premium” Kirby says.
@united why am I paying for the club when the chairs look like this? I can get same for free in the terminal?! pic.twitter.com/7JmEF0lVmn
— Mike D (@mjd1267) August 5, 2026
- American’s continued strength in Latin America they’re the biggest to and from the U.S. by a lot.
- ‘We thought we would die’: Passengers thrown into ceiling during terrifying flight “Travelers describe being thrown into ceiling as aircraft briefly dropped 300 feet and expert weighs in on incident”
- Man arrested after being found asleep aboard a JetBlue plane receiving maintenance service
Wow, Gary advocating for Skiplagged was not on my Bingo card. Sure, not illegal, questionable ethics, but certainly do not do this with an airline you have points, status, a credit card with, or one you ever want to fly with again after this in case they ban you for violating their own silly rules.
I use hidden city/throwaway tickets often enough still. On some trips, it even saves miles/points and/or allows me to use the “transit” airport airline/airport lounges to go shower, eat, sleep, etc before heading into town.
A few months ago I needed to fly back buenos aires-miami
Ticket was 1000 usd for the one way
As AA only flies to miami from bue I booke bue-mia-lax for 500 usd…
I do it all the times with different airlines and never an issue even with airlines I have top status
The airlines created this issue, it is on them
@Doug After clearing immigration and customs, you go home. Bravo.
As an upstanding airline passenger, this has never crossed my mind.
When I first saw this video yesterday, I was excited to see VFTW featured. If only Sam showed the comment section too, we’d be famous.
I do a bunch of hidden city/throwaway ticketing with flights covered by EC261/2004. Sometimes the onward flight is delayed or cancelled sufficient to trigger a payout being due under EC261/2004.
@GUWonder — You sly dog…
I’m sure non-revs appreciate the ‘favour’ as well !!. lol
My company doesn’t allow it and they are ruthless about cost control. If a company that cares about expenses won’t allow it that says something about the ethics of doing it. It is also not allowed by some religions to lie, which is what this is doing. The airlines price it that way for a reason. It’s also depriving others of the opportunity to use the seat and potentially pushing up the prices for everyone.
> If a company that cares about expenses won’t allow it that says something about the ethics of doing it.
I will channel 1990 here: Companies care about financial consequences always, ethics only rarely. The financial consequences of being caught by an airline at what they consider theft are severe.
@nsx at FlyerTalk — I certainly wish we lived in an era of greater mutual trust, ethics, honor, decency, in business and in society at large, alas… *gestures broadly* …we most certainly do not, for this interregnum, as Antonio Gramsci called it, is ‘the time of monsters.’ (Great, now someone’s gonna call me a Marxist… no, friends, just want some basic accountability, guardrails, still mostly a reformer ‘free’ markets guy.)
I was on a flight that got in late at the transit airport (MSP) so I had to stay overnight. The room was paid for by the airline. They gave out food vouchers but they delayed everything so much that all places that took them were closed. Meals were paid out of pocket. The interesting thing that I found out when I got into Buffalo Airport (BUF) was that the meal vouchers were still good so I used them to their last dollar and took the food home to my parents place where we all enjoyed it.
@jns all my vochers in recent memory were psedo-debit card numbers that last 24 hours. Gary puts them on his Starbucks card, I think. I’ve headed to my local pub the next day, had them manually enter the numbers, and drank free and left a nice tip. I can drink a lot, but at inexpensive places with good happy hour prices. Heck, most days my multi-beer tab after tip isn’t enough to buy an airport beer.
Living in a non-hub city, HCT would be a big saver when flying to hub airports. DL competes with AA and UA on, say, flights to Tampa. But, with the only N/S to ATL, home-ATL-TPA is often much cheaper. However, after buying a separate ATL-home ticket, it is often very little saved using HCT vs. buying a R/T. Plus, I prefer checking a bag, making HCT infeasible. And, I’d hate the consequences of being caught, even if unlikely.