Lufthansa Flight Attendant Rats Out Passenger — Airline Loses Court Fight, Now Has To Allow Skiplagging When Plans Change

Lufthansa tried to turn a loyal HON Circle member into an example. A flight attendant ratted him out for “throwaway ticketing” after he skipped his final segment to visit a sick relative, and the airline sent him a €414 bill for violating its fare rules. He hired a lawyer instead of paying — and a German court not only sided with him, it forced Lufthansa to rewrite its rules so passengers can now legally skip segments when plans change.

What Is Throwaway Ticketing, And Why Does It Save Money?

I wrote this week about throwaway ticketing, also known as ‘skiplagging’. Airlines hate it.

• They want to sell you flights from DC to Phoenix non-stop at a higher price than DC to Phoenix to Tucson. More airlines can connect you one-stop to Tucson and the price is going to be lower for that.

• But if you can buy a one-way ticket to Tucson, and just get off in Pheonix, their revenue strategies don’t work.

  So they sell you DC to Phoenix to Tucson. You think you bought both flights, and can do with them as you wish. They’re your seats! But the airline says no – you bought travel to Tucson, not travel to Phoenix.

Airlines will potentially ban customers who do this too often. If a travel agency issues the ticket, they’ll bill the agency (and potentially ban the agency). But this is a contractual dispute, and not a moral one.

What Did The German Judge Say?

One Mile at a Time reports that a Lufthansa HON Circle member flew from Athens to Riyadh via Germany. While they were in Saudi Arabia, the customer says that a family member became ill in Germany – so he took his Lufthansa flight back from Riyadh to Frankfurt, and threw away his ticket back to Athens. He bought a separate ticket to Dusseldorf to see his sick family instead.

He apparently told a flight attendant what happened on his flight out of Riyadh, and she “expressed her shock that he was circumventing Lufthansa’s fare rules… and supposedly reported it” to the carrier.

A week later, he received a letter from ‘revenue integrity’ at Lufthansa demanding €414 – which was what changing his itinerary should have cost. Instead of paying, he engaged a lawyer and sought a declaratory judgment against Lufthansa. Lufthansa said he admitted to the flight attendant that he was using throwaway ticketing to save money.

The court essentially found that:

• An airline has a legitimate interest in charging fares based on market conditions, and getting the best price possible for a ticket.

• But once the ticket is purchased, the seat is no longer the carrier’s, and there’s no longer an interest in maximizing revenue.

• So a customer who intends to throw away a segment at time of purchase is breaking a legitimate rule.

• But a customer who buys a ticket intending to fly as-ticketed, but whose plans change, does “not pose a significant threat to the continued existence of the special pricing structure.”

The German court ruled that passengers can skip flight segments without being penalized if they did not intend to do so when they first made the booking. If circumstances change, they can use throwaway ticketing.

What Does Lufthansa Allow Now?

Lufthansa has updated its contract of carriage to comply with this ruling.

If you have chosen a fare that requires observance of a fixed ticket sequence, please note that if carriage is not used on all individual legs or not used in the sequence specified on the ticket, with otherwise unchanged travel data, we will recalculate the airfare in accordance with your amended routing. This does not apply if your travel plans simply change or if you are prevented, due to force majeure, illness or for another reason for which you are not responsible, from commencing carriage on all legs, or on individual legs in the order indicated on the flight ticket. Whenever possible, kindly notify us of the reasons for such changes as soon as you become aware of them.

(Emphasis mine.)

Is All Throwaway Ticketing Now Permissible On Germany?

Lufthansa says that you can engage in throwaway ticketing – in fact that you no longer have to fly all legs or each leg in the order on the original ticket – if your plans change for reasons outside of your control after ticketing.

Of course, you’re still not supposed to intentionally circumvent Lufthansa’s fares. So the operative condition here is, you can’t do throwaway ticketing if that’s your intent in buying the ticket, but if circumstances change after you’ve made the purchase then it’s fine.

Is there any possible way for the airline to know the difference? Let’s say I booked New York JFK – Frankfurt – Warsaw. That was cheaper than just New York JFK – Frankfurt. My plans changed through no fault of my own, and I even call Lufthansa in advance to tell them to drop the Frankfurt – Warsaw leg (I am checking bags and I want to collect the bags in Frankfurt, not Warsaw). How is Lufthansa supposed to vet this?

• “I’ve started having an affair in Frankfurt, but I told my spouse I was on business in Warsaw.” It’s not my fault that she seduced me after I’d purchased my tickets!

• “I lost my wallet in Frankfurt last week and need to check the airport lost and found to see if it’s there.”

  

• “I puchased a Lotto 6aus49, and haven’t been able to find out if I won.”

• “The LOT Polish lounge in Warsaw stopped serving my favorite beer, so I need to depart from Frankfurt instead.”

  

  

• “I need to end the trip in Frankfurt to stretch my legs and avoid deep vein thrombosis.”

For someone who booked in good faith and then had a family emergency, Lufthansa can’t claim “you damaged our pricing model” as a justification for a retroactive surcharge. And I suppose they’re banking primarily on Germans being rule-followers?

Ultimately I think the court is wrong about Lufthansa’s interest here. They clearly have a forward-looking economic interest in enforcing sequential coupon use even after sale, purely as deterrence: punish one guy to keep 10,000 others in line. However, German consumer law doctrine appears to care about concrete damage in this contract and proportionality, and not about Lufthansa’s broader interest.

Some Throwaway Ticketing Is Now Permissible On United And Air Canada

Lufthansa sells codeshare flights on United and Air Canada as part of those carriers’ joint business venture across the Atlantic.

• If the segment is ticketed as an LH flight number (e.g., LH####) and “operated by United” or “operated by Air Canada” then Lufthansa’s Conditions of Carriage say they apply to flights bearing “LH” on the ticket, and explicitly say they apply to codeshare services operated by other carriers.

• But that’s only when you have a Lufthansa flight number on those other airlines. If the segment is ticketed as a United or Air Canada flight number, even if you bought it from Lufthansa (it’s on a 220 ticket) then Lufthansa’s conditions do not apply.

• The operating carrier’s “special characteristics” still do apply (like check-in deadlines, boarding procedures, baggage acceptance, etc.).

As long as it’s a Lufthansa codeshare, throwaway ticketing on United is now permissible – provided that you decide you need the throwaway (for reasons that are no fault of your own) after purchasing the ticket.