Airline pricing is incredibly complicated, and there’s no denying that this also creates some opportunities for consumers. In this post, I’d like to talk about the concept of hidden city ticketing, which many people have probably heard about in passing, if nothing else. Why is airline pricing so complicated, what is hidden city ticketing, and…
Continue reading: What Is Hidden City Ticketing For Flights, And Why Should Travelers Care?
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Does anyone know whether the Montreal Convention has any provisions that enable airlines to refuse to tag your bags to the intermediate stop? The customer service people at a major European airline told me that retrieving my stuff during an 11.5-hour daytime connection could only be done at an enormous cost. I'm almost tempted to put their claim to the test using a worn out holdall full of rubbish.
Not sure about the Montreal convention but you can always retrieve your luggage at an intermediate stop - just say upon landing you have important medication or you’re not feeling well and will not be continuing. May take a while to get your luggage though.
Just to clarify, they didn't say they'd refuse to offer the tagged bag at the hub- they'd merely charge an extortionate service fee for their trouble.
Montreal convention just outlines base liability requirements and limits for certain passenger issues and baggage handling issues. Doesn't have anything to do with general baggage policy and/or what an airline can/should/will charge for baggage services.
It would be interesting to see what the cost of flights would be without price discrimination. I’m not saying cost per seat, but actually what price would the market support between cities if every seat was the same price regardless of when you booked or how long you stayed at the destination.
I have no idea what the convention says, but multiple times upon checking the bags I've asked the agent to check the bags only up until the intermediate stop and it's never been a problem. After all if you miss your flight they'll have to remove your bag and it would delay the flight.
Just as I expected then, the customer service person on WhatsApp was talking rubbish.
I think I'm going to go to my local airport and ask the Swissport contractors about it. If they do short checking, their colleagues elsewhere likely will too.
easyJet, Wizzair, and Ryanair all operate on a point-to-point basis, so their pricing is a good place to start.
New motivation for hidden city ticketing on miles redemptions with the massive AA deval.
Regarding the AA GNV-CLT-JFK example: Hidden-city ticketing here seems particularly low-risk given CLT-JFK's notorious reliability issues. One might argue it's difficult to "defraud" an airline of on-time (or even a general) performance they weren't planning to deliver anyway.
Ben's broader guidance remains sound. For reference, I successfully executed this strategy in 2005 with a DTW-DFW-AUS booking ($200 vs. $500 for DTW-DFW direct). Traveled carry-on only, deplaned in Dallas, and never received follow-up from the airline.
Standard disclaimers apply regarding potential consequences and airline policy violations.
ANYTHING to LGA or JFK on AA has reliability issues. I haven’t successfully flown to either of these airports on AA in nearly a year because AA keeps canceling the flight, whether I’m departing CLT, DCA, or what have you.
Just to be clear, no one ever charges a fee for picking up your luggage at an intermediate stop en route.
Sometimes, it isn't just the cost. Years ago, I was trying to get one way tickets Paris to Rome. There were none direct. I would spend all day bouncing around Eastern Europe to get from point A to point B. I couldn't believe there weren't direct flights. I looked for round trip fares and bingo! The fares were cheaper and the flights were direct. So, I bought 4 round trip tickets for the half the price and got a non stop flight. Just didn't use the return tickets on Alitalia.
I realize that this isn't the same as hidden city ticketing, but it is a variation on the theme.
You'll save way more money using a simple travel tool like Sky Key that gets you money back on the travel you're already booking, than trying to go out of your way for hacks like this.
@Voian, the website of the airline in question specifically mentions the extortionate amount and says the fee applies regardless of cabin, elite status, origin, destination etc. Whether they actually charge it is a different question.
The only problem with that simple travel tool is that it doesn't work with about 97% of the world's airlines.
The ridiculous fares AA charge for direct flights to CLT is one of the main reasons I'm a One World frequent flier. I'm never going to have enough Avios for a amazing trans-Pacific first class fare on JL. But spending 9000 avios to fly Orlando to Charlotte instead of the $600 one way economy fares they wanted, yes please.
So basically what you and others are saying is, do it 2 to 3 times a year and hope for the best.
Couple other helpful points if you if you do it:
1. If you can find a route with a 12+ hour layover they’ll let you collect your checked bag
2. Most airlines/routes can often book an extra leg room seat for not too much $, get priority boarding and avoid/reduce risk of gate check
Another variant of this (that Lucky might report a related topic on) is buying a roundtrip ticket and completely throwing away the return portion.
If you have ever had to get back from Europe without having booked a return, you may discover that booking a roundtrip EU-USA-EU is cheaper by loads of $ than booking a one way EU-USA. Whenever I see someone in a travel advice column sharing stories of woe of how much they had to spend to get back home one-way, I wish this info could've been given them sooner.
Put it far in the future and you might even get the return portion rescheduled or refunded. Or just end up not using it. Or using it for a future trip.
This used to happen within Europe too. DUS-ATH €420, DUS-ATH-DUS (exact same outbound flight in the same booking class) €240. Thankfully the popularity of LCCs has made fares a bit more logical, through both AFKL and the LH Group still charge a bit of a premium for one-ways
Just book a minimum 33-35 minute connection at CLT between Eagle and mainline and you're pretty much guaranteed to "miss" your connection anyway!
I am not sure if that's helpful, but there is (sometimes) a safer variant of that. I had plenty of times when I had to fly transatlantic in business (say, London to NY and back). LHR-JFK-LHR would cost something ridiculous (12k return sometimes). Meanwhile, booking LHR-JFK-Milan/Paris/Brussels would be a quarter of the price. However, while most websites (BA, for example) would only allow you to book the return flight "as a whole" (i.e. JFK to CDG), American would treat both booking two flights LHR-JFK/JFK-CDG (through LHR) the same as booking three flights (LHR-JFK/JFK-LHR/LHR-CDG) price-wise. So I made a booking with three flights with a stopover for a couple of nights in London and once I get to London (and retrieve my luggage) just cancel the remaining LHR-CDG ticket.
Just go to a an agent or even call before the flight you don’t want and say you are sick and throwing up and need to cancel. You might even get credits back for that leg.
What most people miss is this wasn’t a hack—it was created by airlines through point-beyond pricing- to benefit airlines. If it was really a problem, they'd overhaul the fares but airlines know it would cost them much much more.
They'll never admit it publicly and won't accept any company that tries to institutionalize the process for profit, but fares are left for individual travelers to find and fill- without even making an Involuntary Reroute.