Questions and Answers

Hi guys so Ben’s recent post about the unfortunate event of the couple traveling on TK reminded me of an important question to ask you guys.

I’m planning another visit to my home country India in December, departing out of LAX. Cheapest stuff was on Air China, and I don’t mind that. I’m flying with family and that airline is the cheapest roundtrip at around $780/person. We will all be traveling together on the way to be on the same flights of course. One the way back, however, my family members will return to LA, but I need to go to London. Now the easy solution is book round trip for them and one way for me. Here’s the catch, Round trip is $780 as I said, and one way is $900ish. Out of Mumbai I’d rather not do a multi-city and fly back to PEK just to fly to LHR. I’ll fly 9W, BA, or AI out of BOM to LHR. So what would happen if I booked the round trip on Air China, but just didn’t show up for the return segment, and continued on with my separately-booked flight to London? Thanks in advance.

That’s probably fine, as long as you don’t make a habit of it. Basically once you miss a segment the entire ticket is cancelled, but that doesn’t sound like it would be a problem for you in this case.

[QUOTE=”Tiffany, post: 33668, member: 7″]That’s probably fine, as long as you don’t make a habit of it. Basically once you miss a segment the entire ticket is cancelled, but that doesn’t sound like it would be a problem for you in this case.[/QUOTE]
Hi Tiffany, will there be any kind of “no show fee” or “cancellation fee” for not being present for the return leg? Thanks.

No, there are no fees with that. Like Tiffany said, just don’t make a habit of it and you’ll be fine.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 33671, member: 184″]No, there are no fees with that. Like Tiffany said, just don’t make a habit of it and you’ll be fine.[/QUOTE]
Hi Mid South thanks for your help and the reply. What was the issue with this again? Is it simply bad practice/ bad ethic? Or could this result in a lot of trouble on certain airlines? Thanks again.

As you’ve noted, often times a 1-way flight is often more than half of a round-trip flight. But, of course, airlines want you to pay for the actual trip you’re taking. So if they catch you throwing away segments they can kick you out of their frequent flyer program or at least refuse to credit the miles for the legs you actually flew. Doing this every now and then won’t hurt anything but if they notice a pattern of this behavior, that’s when they take action.

[QUOTE=”MidSouth Skier, post: 33678, member: 184″]As you’ve noted, often times a 1-way flight is often more than half of a round-trip flight. But, of course, airlines want you to pay for the actual trip you’re taking. So if they catch you throwing away segments they can kick you out of their frequent flyer program or at least refuse to credit the miles for the legs you actually flew. Doing this every now and then won’t hurt anything but if they notice a pattern of this behavior, that’s when they take action.[/QUOTE]
Alright, that makes sense. Thank god I’ll be crediting these miles to United and not Air China’s Phoenix Miles. Thanks again for your help Tiffany and Mid South