Tag Archives for throwaway ticketing.
Lufthansa tried to crack down on a HON Circle member for “throwaway ticketing” after a flight attendant ratted him out, demanding €414 for a skipped segment. Instead, the case wound up in court, the airline lost, and Lufthansa has now rewritten its rules to allow skiplagging when plans change.
CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin casually admitted on Squawk Box that he just skiplagged a ticket and saved about $1,500, blaming the trick on a travel agent and openly wondering whether he was supposed to cancel the extra legs. Throwaway ticketing is a commercial dispute over pricing, not a moral failing by consumers, even if it is something most people probably should not do often.
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.
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.
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.
American Airlines won a $9.4 million verdict against Skiplagged for copyright infringement. That’s being reported as a huge win for American, and vindication of their fight against throwaway ticketing. It is not.
Last month American Airlines took a teenager into a security room and interrogated him, eventually banning him from flying the airline for using Skiplagged.
His parents bought him a ticket from Gainesville, Florida to New York via Charlotte, when he only planned to travel to Charlotte. He didn’t plan to use his connecting flight, but the New York trip was cheaper. Now American Airlines is suing Skiplagged.
While most of the media around former President Trump’s Save America PAC centers on their paying $20 million dollars in legal fees, there’s a nugget buried in their travel expenses that shows the political committee also violates airline rules when purchasing tickets.
Save America’s disclosure form shows them covering a fee to Skiplagged, the website that assists in booking throwaway or hidden city tickets.
A teen traveling solo for the first time from Gainesville, Florida to Charlotte was taken to a security room by American Airlines. There he was interrogated – and forced to buy a new ticket – according to the boy’s father.
Throwaway ticketing is a practice that’s gone on for 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, but there are risks you should know about.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
