There was a story earlier about how a teen was “interrogated” at Gainesville Airport after his dad reserved his flight using a technique known as hidden city ticketing. In this post I wanted to take a closer look at that — why is airline pricing so complicated, what is hidden city ticketing, and what are the risks of engaging in this?
In this post:
Airline pricing is ridiculously complicated
There’s no denying that airlines have made revenue and inventory management such a complex art that it’s virtually incomprehensible to the average consumer. Like in any other industry, airlines want to maximize revenue, especially as airplane seats are perishable goods — once a seat goes out empty, there’s no way to recover revenue from that.
At times, airlines use some complicated models for pricing, which is intended to segment the market as much as possible. This largely revolves around segmenting out business travelers from leisure travelers, since the former usually have a higher willingness to pay.
Just to give one example, airlines know they can usually charge more for a nonstop flight (especially in a market they dominate) than they can for a connecting itinerary. After all, people value the convenience of flying nonstop, as it minimizes hassle and time wasted.
The pricing of individual airline tickets has never been based on the cost of offering that exact seat, but it has always been based on how much airlines can get away with charging. So some tickets are sold at incredible margins, while other tickets are sold at a cost below what it costs the airline to operate that seat (though it’s still more profitable than keeping the seat empty).
What is hidden city ticketing?
Hidden city ticketing (also often referred to as throwaway ticketing) is a trick whereby you book a ticket to a destination other than where you intend to travel to, in order to get a cheaper fare. You’re essentially using airlines’ pricing tactics against them, knowing their logic.
This is perhaps easiest explained in the form of an example. Gainesville to Charlotte is a route that’s exclusively operated by American. Picking a random date, I see a one-way fare of $255.
Meanwhile if you booked a ticket on American from Gainesville to New York connecting in Charlotte on that exact flight, you’d pay $122, which is less than half as much.
Why would American charge you less than half as much to fly more than twice as far? Well, because American knows that if you’re going to fly from Gainesville to Charlotte, you’ll want to do so nonstop, and are probably willing to pay for it. Meanwhile if you’re connecting to New York, there’s more competition in that market, so pricing will reflect that.
So the practice of hidden city ticketing would be to book that ticket from Gainesville to Charlotte to New York, and then just not take that second flight. You get the Gainesville to Charlotte flight you wanted, but just at a significant discount.
You can often find these kinds of fares through trial and error. Otherwise Skiplagged is a website that helps people find hidden city ticketing opportunities, to secure the lowest fare. Over the years the website has faced quite a few lawsuits from airlines and online travel agencies, though as you can see, the site is still there.
What are the risks of hidden city ticketing?
As you’d expect, airlines frown down on the practice of hidden city ticketing. After all, you’re beating them at their own game. The good news is that hidden city ticketing isn’t illegal. The bad news is that you can get in trouble with airlines for hidden city ticketing, as it does violate the contract of carriage you agree to when booking a ticket. There are many things to be aware of:
- Hidden city ticketing doesn’t work if you’re checking a bag, since that has to be checked to your final destination (unless you’re on an inbound international flight to the United States, where you have to claim your bag at your first point of entry anyway)
- If you are forced to gate check your bag (which is common, especially if you have a high boarding group), your bag will be checked through to your booked final destination
- While you’re not going to be sent to jail for hidden city ticketing, airlines can try to punish you — if they discover what you’re doing they could force you to buy a new ticket, could ban you from their frequent flyer program, could ban you from flying with the airline, etc.
My thoughts on hidden city ticketing
I don’t at all fault people for using hidden city ticketing, I just encourage them to make sure that they understand what they’re getting themselves into. Paying for a flight and then skipping a segment isn’t like going to a restaurant and not finishing your meal. There can be consequences, and it’s important to be aware of those.
Personally I don’t use hidden city ticketing, because I try to play by the rules, especially given that I write about airlines and travel for a living. I think it’s fine for others to do, though, assuming you understand the risks.
I think it’s fairly low risk if you do it on occasion, aren’t crediting flights to a frequent flyer program, etc. However, if you do this frequently, expect that it’ll catch up to you. For those who do get caught, I don’t have too much sympathy, since you should know the risks of what you’re engaging in.
I will say that I frequently see people make arguments along the lines of the following:
“Airlines deserve to have people use hidden city ticketing because they’re exploiting us with the high fares they’re charging!”
Look, I’ll be the first to hold airlines accountable, but let’s be realistic about the airline industry. Airlines are incredibly low margin and high cost businesses that deal with all kinds of cyclical challenges.
This is admittedly an oversimplification, but let me put this into perspective with some numbers. Delta’s Q1 2023 cost per available seat mile was 21.25 cents. So across Delta’s fleet, that’s the average cost per available seat mile.
A roundtrip New York to Los Angeles ticket covers a distance of 4,950 miles. So in order for Delta to break even (not even make a profit!), the airline would need to fill 100% of seats, and be charging $1,051 per person. Yes, for an economy seat.
In a way, we should be happy as consumers that airlines do this kind of price discrimination, because it’s how many of us savvy travelers are able to get good fares. These wild pricing techniques are why airlines can get some business travelers to spend $2,000 for a seat on a flight, while the person seated next to them spends a fraction of that.
I just think it’s important to be realistic here. Airlines aren’t “screwing” us when they’re not charging $69 for roundtrip transcon fares. It just means they’re not hemorrhaging money.
Bottom line
Hidden city ticketing is a popular practice that some people use to save money on airfare. With this, passengers will book a ticket to a destination they don’t intend to travel to, and they simply get off at an intermediate point.
This isn’t illegal, but it does come with some risks, as airlines can punish you. Do I like how complex airline pricing is? No. But it’s also what allows airlines to sell tickets in many markets that are significantly below the cost of providing air transportation.
What’s your take on hidden city ticketing?
So we planned a tour trip to the Holy Lands. Airline tickets are already purchased with a layover from point A to C in London, both coming and going. Due to the current war and political climate in the Holy Lands, our tour has been cancelled. The airline tickets are non-refundable, non-changable. And the trip insurance we purchased turns out DOES NOT COVER THIS CANCELATION SITUATION. So we just threw away almost $5000, as we...
So we planned a tour trip to the Holy Lands. Airline tickets are already purchased with a layover from point A to C in London, both coming and going. Due to the current war and political climate in the Holy Lands, our tour has been cancelled. The airline tickets are non-refundable, non-changable. And the trip insurance we purchased turns out DOES NOT COVER THIS CANCELATION SITUATION. So we just threw away almost $5000, as we won't be making this trip. Then I had the idea, since the major part of our flight is A to London and then London to A, why not take our vacation in London during that timeframe. But I realized that to make this work, we need to be able to retrieve our luggage in London. I'm not trying to shortchange the airline company with a Hidden City Ticket, but rather I'm trying to salvage our trip and the money we are now going to just throw away by not going on this trip. How can we do this and actually be able to get our luggage?
Relax Folks
Airlines created the hidden city loophole for their benefit, but "want their cake and eat it too"....This exists because they enable its existence by holding our for overvalued fares my flyers never pay on the shorter routes, and their own sales data proves it.
Every few years, airlines plant these PR HIT JOBS to deter a few naive flyers from trying it and scare the public into paying more for nothing.
Nobody is...
Relax Folks
Airlines created the hidden city loophole for their benefit, but "want their cake and eat it too"....This exists because they enable its existence by holding our for overvalued fares my flyers never pay on the shorter routes, and their own sales data proves it.
Every few years, airlines plant these PR HIT JOBS to deter a few naive flyers from trying it and scare the public into paying more for nothing.
Nobody is more passionate about this and for as long than me.
I've written two songs...the video for the first "Hidden City Flyer" is on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Q0hnv9_Ra7o
They don't call me the "Father of Hidden City Tickets" for nothing folks... I-reroute!
If you arrive international, the recheck is after customs and just prior to TSA, so you have nothing you can do with your checked bag if you are not going any further, unless you are at an airport that has an easy exit prior to TSA. You could end up with your checked bag(s) very far from baggage claim.
How do I find out what are the hidden cities?
You can check the Skiplagged website.
One of the big risks is what they could do to you as a customer such as banning you or liquidating your loyalty account, etc. It could be difficult or costly to get that taken care of. Businesses in the US compared to several other countries have the right to refuse a customer. As others mentioned there are many other risks or issues people could have by doing this for example being re-routed to the...
One of the big risks is what they could do to you as a customer such as banning you or liquidating your loyalty account, etc. It could be difficult or costly to get that taken care of. Businesses in the US compared to several other countries have the right to refuse a customer. As others mentioned there are many other risks or issues people could have by doing this for example being re-routed to the final destination or for example about bags, etc. Usually if you don't fly the first flight the entire itinerary is canceled.
Multi billion corporations that do not believe in right and wrong, just making money.
That's how every interaction with a corporation should be. There is no 'wrong' with hidden city (its not illegal), it's just business.
Don't most tickets have high no-show fees? If you don't turn up it'll cost you significantly more than cancelling af light?
Huh? And how would this work?
Until the pandemic non-refundable fares were lost if you didn’t use it with most US carriers.
@Bobby - I understand. But how does the airline go about collecting that “significantly more than cancelling a flight?” There is nothing like a “no-show fee.”
Crazy airline pricing indeed. I just checked for an award flight for next June MUC to Maui with United, one way in 'J'. Lowest is 185 K. So I checked from VIE, and it was 88 K. MUC to VIE is 6K in Eco, or 27.5 K in 'J'. This way I am saving 70 K to 90 K miles, and it's all legal.
Couldn't you just book a multi city ticket GNV-CLT-JFK on the Italian American Airlines website? I couldn't find it in the fine print one the website, but technically as long as the ticket has been issued in Italy you would even be allowed to skip the first leg under the high court ruling.
Most airlines have added specific fine print to their website (e.g.) Qatar. So you could even book QR F CAI-DOH-PER to...
Couldn't you just book a multi city ticket GNV-CLT-JFK on the Italian American Airlines website? I couldn't find it in the fine print one the website, but technically as long as the ticket has been issued in Italy you would even be allowed to skip the first leg under the high court ruling.
Most airlines have added specific fine print to their website (e.g.) Qatar. So you could even book QR F CAI-DOH-PER to get a cheaper fare and legally skip the CAI-DOH leg. (https://www.qatarairways.com/en/legal/italian-regulation-requirements.html?)
Good grief: a CASM of over $0.21?? How does DL pile up so much cost? Spirit recorded 11 cents in the same quarter; obviously, the two airlines aren't the same, but that is an enormous difference to fly pax from A to B.
You actually applied this trick yourself when you flew the Etihad Residence. You chose Cairo as your origin to reduce the fares but you did fly from Cairo and completed the full segment. Meanwhile, Etihad has delayed the return of the A380 to July 25th and the 777-300ER will operate EY11/12 for these 10 days.
Clearly US law does allow airlines to penalise those who use Hidden City ticketing, but it has always seemed very iniquitous to allow this.
If I buy a ticket for A to B to C and only fly A to B, the airline sufers no direct loss as a result of my forfeiting B to C. It makes no difference to them if the seat flies occupied or empty (indeed, if anything, there is a...
Clearly US law does allow airlines to penalise those who use Hidden City ticketing, but it has always seemed very iniquitous to allow this.
If I buy a ticket for A to B to C and only fly A to B, the airline sufers no direct loss as a result of my forfeiting B to C. It makes no difference to them if the seat flies occupied or empty (indeed, if anything, there is a small cost saving to them.)
The only "loss" they make is the argument that, had HCT not been available, I would have bought a more expensive ticket from A to B only. But this is only a hypothetical loss, and not necessarily true. Since the A to B ticket is significantly more expensive than A to C, I might have flown a different airline, driven instead, or even not travelled at all.
I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that any "ban" on HCT is an unfair contract term.
Great point! Higher fares reduce demand so our hypothetical passenger may have been unwilling to fly directly at the higher, 'legal' price.
To say any "ban" on HCT is an unfair contract term, is to say any "subsidy" is an unfair contract.
Why do my tax money goes to build roads I never driven on or trains I've never rode.
Also consider if you do this or try to short ship you will be found out in case of a disruption. For example you buy a ticket LAX DFW CLT with the intension of leaving at DFW, LAX DFW is delayed or cancelled and AA reroutes you via ORD to CLT or outs you on a non stop. How are you going to explain yourself out if that ?
Your contract was from LAX -CLT.
Many people who do this are bloggers and try to explain to the airlines they didn’t know. BS.
One of the big risks is what they could do to you as a customer such as banning you or liquidating your loyalty account, etc. It could be difficult or costly to get that taken care of. Businesses in the US compared to several other countries have the right to refuse a customer.
"But it’s also what allows airlines to sell tickets in many markets that are significantly below the cost of providing air transportation."
It doesn't make any sense for any profit-making organization to do so on a regular basis and without fail.
First of all, an airline should fill seats from A to B. In times of high demand that does not only fill the airplane but it allows the airline also to only open...
"But it’s also what allows airlines to sell tickets in many markets that are significantly below the cost of providing air transportation."
It doesn't make any sense for any profit-making organization to do so on a regular basis and without fail.
First of all, an airline should fill seats from A to B. In times of high demand that does not only fill the airplane but it allows the airline also to only open up the highest booking class. Post Covid, Y or B were often the only possible booking options.
When an airline adds a destination C and does not think it can fill A to B just by opening up lower booking classes, it can offer A-B-C tickets for a lower price. This can be tactical to hurt competition or attract new passengers. Both should be short incentives by nature.
Airlines still sell a seat on an aircraft and inventory is fully in control of the airline. If they dangle the carrot for three seats on A-B-C there are only three people that can buy them.
Whether this the intended target audience or something throwing away the last segment is irrelevant.
Airlines still have control over pricing in markets by forcing you to fly your ticket in a particular order. So they have control over the order but not whether you fly the ticket to the very end.
Terms and conditions hence are unfair and need fixing.
The reason airlines do this on a regular basis is because the cost equation is largely a stepwise function reflecting airplane size, and each "step" in the function yields a lower average cost per seat. Consequently, the marginal cost for each passenger is nearly zero and the profit function will be maximized when the plane is full. Because larger planes are less expensive to operate per seat, airlines will design their network to operate the...
The reason airlines do this on a regular basis is because the cost equation is largely a stepwise function reflecting airplane size, and each "step" in the function yields a lower average cost per seat. Consequently, the marginal cost for each passenger is nearly zero and the profit function will be maximized when the plane is full. Because larger planes are less expensive to operate per seat, airlines will design their network to operate the largest planes possible on any given route. The smallest plane on A to B may not yield an average cost below the average revenue achievable from this route alone, thus cannot be operated in the long term.
However, by combining the passengers from A to B and A to C, a larger plane can be placed in service that will enable profitable operation of this segment. Because A to B and A to C are different markets, it may be necessary to charge A to C pax less than A to B in order to consistently fill the plane, and thus profitably operate the flight. The point is that price discrimination allows the airline to operate the A to B segment profitably. Without the ability to add A to C pax at a lower price point than A to B, the market would fail; this is not about a short-term incentive, but rather achieving sufficient passenger volume to operate.
I’m curious if it is even possible to do this coming off of an intl connection with a checked bag at some airports. For example IAD has separate baggage claims for connections vs final and essentially funnels you back through security after baggage recheck. I’m not sure if possible to escape or not.
Right. Same at ATL. If the bag is too big to plausibly take through TSA, you'd have to get creative. Go through immigration on the final destination side, and feign confusion when your bag doesn't show up. Risk is that they "solve" the problem by escorting you to the "correct" baggage/customs zone.
One of the big issues, American Airlines has 90% of the flights at Charlotte. So they jack the prices up, knowing they have very little competition.
Shame on American for taking advantage of us that way.
Could I go in trouble if I want to fly just for fun and make a non sense connection for example: ATH - FRA - VIE - ZAG ?
If you fly all the segments, I don't think there's an issue?
I did London - Dublin - London - Miami last year (and same on way back), in BA First for London to Miami, which saved me thousands and I just flew all the flights and treated it as part of the adventure/holiday. Great fun!
Be careful when using these methods. Another possibility is cancellation because of weather or something else and then having your flight re-routed to the final destination.
Years ago I had the opposite happen to me in a sense. I was flying SNA to Indianapolis with a connection in Cincinnati. There was bad weather in Cincinnati and the plane diverted to Indy. I had not checked bags and asked to deplane in Indy. Initially they wouldn't let me but finally someone with some common sense let me deplane.
At first when I read this I thought it was made up. No company could be that stupid. Then I remember we are talking about the airlines.
I used to book LAX - RDU one way tickets all the time on US Airways, getting off at CLT (where my family lives) and not catching my connection. Since I know what to do and say I never got into any trouble.
Let's say you miss a tight connection. The next available flight is many hours away. You decide to drive to the destination city because it is less than 100 miles away from the connecting airport. How to avoid being potentially penalized? Ask the agent to release you from flying the next flight?
Also consider if you buy a round trip ticket and short ship, the return will be cancelled if you are a no show on the second leg. The airline will then recalculate or charge a fee if you want to use the return.
Remember when "back-to-back" ticketing was a thing? Airlines used to charge less for a round-trip than for the individual one-ways, and they also charged less for a round-trip that spanned a weekend then for a Monday-Friday trip, since most business flyers did the Monday-Friday thing and wanted to be home on the weekend. So the way around the weekend restriction was to book two "back-to-back" round-trips for the opposite directions, each one spanning a weekend,...
Remember when "back-to-back" ticketing was a thing? Airlines used to charge less for a round-trip than for the individual one-ways, and they also charged less for a round-trip that spanned a weekend then for a Monday-Friday trip, since most business flyers did the Monday-Friday thing and wanted to be home on the weekend. So the way around the weekend restriction was to book two "back-to-back" round-trips for the opposite directions, each one spanning a weekend, but giving you the Monday-Friday trips you wanted. And like hidden-city ticketing, if the airline suspected you of trying to save money with "back-to-backs" you got penalized or banned.
I remember it well and had several co-workers who engaged in the practice WEEKLY. They were busted when an observant agent...checking their ID asked why they were originating in MCI when they had a PA State drivers license. Frequent flyer accounts were looked into and their status (Platinum) and miles were stripped from them
I used to do this on a limited basis. But I used different airlines for each back to back pair. Was easier back then with more choices (Northwest, TWA, etc.)
This is exactly what I did - we use to call it flipping the tickets. Always used 2 different airlines so any one airline couldn't do anything about it.
I used “back-to-back” ticketing once a number of years (> 20 years) ago when I had two round trips within a short period of time for which there was a dramatic price advantage (on United).
I even booked the flights directly with the airline. In fact, there wasn't anything in the terms of carriage that actually prohibited that practice and the airlines knew it! There is absolutely nothing that prohibits one from having two concurrent...
I used “back-to-back” ticketing once a number of years (> 20 years) ago when I had two round trips within a short period of time for which there was a dramatic price advantage (on United).
I even booked the flights directly with the airline. In fact, there wasn't anything in the terms of carriage that actually prohibited that practice and the airlines knew it! There is absolutely nothing that prohibits one from having two concurrent itineraries. The airlines didn't like the practice and publicly tried to discourage it, but as far as I know, no one ever got penalized or banned by an airline (at least in the United States) for this practice. An airline would rather that I buy back-to-back itineraries on their airline than buying only one itinerary on their airline and the other from a competitor!
Don't forget the trick of booking a round trip ticket with the outgoing flight in a premium cabin and the return in economy...and then not using the economy part of the ticket.
If you're boarding towards the end you never want to do this. IAs stated if you're forced to gate check a bag you won't be allowed to retrieve it at the connecting airport. Also, if your flight is cancelled and you are rebooked you may end up in that place you hadn't plan to go to. Generally, people that throw away the last flight (get off at a connection) won't get airline attention IF they DON'T do it regularly. In 30 years of flying I did it once.
One question I have is why some airlines operate routes that are basically seasonal, but have fares that are below what it costs the airline to operate those flights. For example, Qatar Airways charges only $850 round trip from Miami to the Indian Subcontinent during off-season for Economy with one stop I DOH. The QR flights from MIA are basically empty from late August until Christmas time. Why does QR fly to MIA daily then...
One question I have is why some airlines operate routes that are basically seasonal, but have fares that are below what it costs the airline to operate those flights. For example, Qatar Airways charges only $850 round trip from Miami to the Indian Subcontinent during off-season for Economy with one stop I DOH. The QR flights from MIA are basically empty from late August until Christmas time. Why does QR fly to MIA daily then from September to November. There are barely any travelers in Business as well.
So you work in QR yield management and know all the load factors including cargo ? Lol Please elaborate with the weekly stats
I guess I just think that the risks involved, including baggage issues -or- getting rerouted to the final destination through a different city (not listed here) should be enough to dissuade most customers from doing it and the airlines should feel no obligation to accommodate skiplaggers in these situations. But artificially imposing punitive measures for passengers that would otherwise get away with it just seems scummy to me idk
The entitlement people have.
People take for granted the low fares you have.
From overbooking to hidden city. It's already calculated.
Stop those practices and your airfare is going to triple.
That's even before you even complain about how bad this summer is.
Part of it is entitlement, and part of it is naivety. I hate to get things political, but as a registered democrat and person who considers myself quite liberal, it seems to be a lot of very liberal people who always complain about coorprorate greed and price gouging and screwing customers, not understanding at all the complexity and margins of real world businesses. It's largely purely naive, but frustrates me to no end.
Well there are too much capacity there are too many people travelling there is too much pollution. So yeah prices should go up and there should be less flights including all non profitable ones.
Airlines should not be able to shove seats into the aircraft as it’s not elastic.
Railway network should increase. It’s more comfortable and affordable and environnemental friendly.
You welcome :)
Lol a Republican that does not complain about corporate greed is either ignorant or a billionaire :)
Corporate greed is a thing. Look on how economy class passengers are cramped with ridiculous seat pitch. Look how they create the elite flying business class. Look how this author only flies business/first as if economy is non existence. Yeah greedy airlines create stupid pricing logic.
It's a republican ideal to suffer through the realities of average life on the hope that they one day may be rich and will get to reap the spoils that they helped create. "I think the rich should pay less in taxes because one day, I COULD be rich and would have less taxes to pay. Never mind that I'm poor now and have no healthcare and no childcare and no access to education and can't afford basic necessities"
I thought "throwaway ticketing" is different from "hidden city". Throwaway ticketing is to not use the return trip. This comes in useful when the round trip is cheaper than one way. In recent years, one way tickets are not so expensive.
@ derek -- Throwaway ticketing does often refer to throwing away the return portion, though generally I think it's defined as not using all of the travel you have booked. So I consider hidden city ticketing to be a type of throwaway ticketing (while you can do throwaway ticketing without doing hidden city ticketing).
What about say booking a flight to London that's cheap, but then booking another flight to Athens. So you arrive in London, retrieve luggage and leave. Come back in a few hours check in and got through security and on to Athens is this considered some form of skip lagging.