Using only 1 leg of multi-leg trips?

[Prodrive555]

Many times you'll see airfares from A - B - C are cheaper than A - B, even though the first leg is the same two airports.

What would happen if you booked a flight from airport A - B - C, but during the stopover and plane change in B, you just left the airport?

I assume when you didn't show up for your return flight C - B - A starting at airport C, you wouldn't be allowed to just show up at B and fly the B - A portion?

Any thoughts?

[Doug Taylor]

They'll most likely cancel your entire reservation.

[Prodrive555]

So basically you'd get from point A to B and on the way out, but after that, you'd be SOL? That's what I always figured.

[Cptnchia]

It's called "Hidden Destination" and it's an illegal practice. It's considered fraud and it's one of the few things airlines will actually aggressively pursue.

[MQAAord]

If you don't show up for any part of your reservation, the rest of your reservation is cancelled. What Cptnchia said is correct, this is considered fraud.

[Murdoughnut]

So just do it on one-way trips, or on the back-half. Also be sure you don't leave a bag checked through - I imagine that would raise some security alarms.

[Prodrive555]

Hey thanks Cptnchia, it was something that I've always wondered about.

[Patrick]

I actually did this once, by accident, and it created quite the hoopla. Can't say I'd recommend it.

[drunkenbeagle]

Originally Posted by Murdoughnut

So just do it on one-way trips, or on the back-half. Also be sure you don't leave a bag checked through - I imagine that would raise some security alarms.

I do it all the time - just book one-ways, or use different airlines.

It is really annoying when you need to miss a leg on a multi-city, and end up buying seats on the same flight again. Just happened to me last month.

[drunkenbeagle]

Originally Posted by MQAAord

If you don't show up for any part of your reservation, the rest of your reservation is cancelled. What Cptnchia said is correct, this is considered fraud.

The big risk you take is that if your flight gets canceled, or you get bumped, you might not be able to get the same routing.

While the airlines may not like it, it isn't "fraud" in the legal sense. You can't go to jail for it. My travel agent never had a problem doing it for me.

I get burned on Delta all the time with same day standby too. While I can do it for free, I can only list 3 hours before departure. If it doesn't work out before midnight, you lose your ticket. So it is basically a crap shoot every week when I'm trying to get home.

[patthepilot]

I haven't had the cancelling of my trip on me, but my story goes like:
My wife's sister was flying from NC to OKC a few weeks back. Turns out the original routing was NC to STL then OKC, well the flight coming to north carolina for the stl trip was delayed in JFK for 3 hours, and there was no way she could make her connecting flight to OKC. So they rerouted her to DFW. Then one a flight to OKC arriving 11:50 PM. Way too late for someone living 1.5 hours from OKC. Instead, my wife and I flew to DFW, picked her up, flew back to Ada, and were at my house at 10PM, before her OKC flight would have started boarding. At DFW my wife's sister just went to a ticket agent, said-I will not be on my next flight, and wanted to give you the heads up. The agent said-ok, I can't do anything about that, but you'll just be taken off the list 5 minutes till departure and standby will replace your seat.

Come a few days later when she's returning to NC, she checks in and no flags whatsoever are raised.

[Matt13C]

I dont understand it either, when looking for a vacation it was cheaper to go EWR-PHL-destination than it was to go PHL-destination in many cases. In the end I paid the slightly higher fare to avoid the drive up to Newark.

[drunkenbeagle]

Originally Posted by patthepilot

I haven't had the cancelling of my trip on me, but my story goes like:

In my experience, whenever there is a delay that is the airline's fault, the fare rules go out the window. At that point, they will usually let you go to whatever airport you want.

[granlistillo]

Originally Posted by Prodrive555

Many times you'll see airfares from A - B - C are cheaper than A - B, even though the first leg is the same two airports.

What would happen if you booked a flight from airport A - B - C, but during the stopover and plane change in B, you just left the airport?

I assume when you didn't show up for your return flight C - B - A starting at airport C, you wouldn't be allowed to just show up at B and fly the B - A portion?

Any thoughts?

I wouldn´t try it with checked baggage, and kiss your return trip goodbye.

[tonyw]

I did this, but not by choice, on a trip to a friend's wedding in Redding, CA. Because my flight from DC to San Fran was late, I missed the flight that was going to take me to Redding. I ended up driving up there, and when I went to the airport in Redding the next day to fly back, I was told they had to rebook me because the rest of my itinerary had been cancelled.

Fortunately they were able to do that with no problem.