Airline booking ploys

Flying cheaply by evading airline rules

Airline booking ploys are used by travelers in commercial aviation to lower the price of flying by circumventing airlines' rules about how tickets may be used. They are generally a breach of the contract of carriage between the passenger and the airline, which airlines may try to enforce in various ways.

Throwaway ticketing is purchasing a ticket with the intent to use only a portion of the included travel. This situation may arise when a passenger wants to travel only one way, but where the discounted round trip excursion fare is cheaper than a one way ticket. This can happen on mainline carriers where all one way tickets are full price. For instance, a passenger intending to fly only from Los Angeles to New York may find the one way ticket costs $800, but that the round trip fare is $500. The passenger, therefore, purchases the round trip from Los Angeles to New York and back to Los Angeles and boards the flight to New York but stays in New York and "throws away" the second half of the ticket by not showing up for the return flight. It is possible to "throw away" only the final segments of a ticket because throwing away a segment by not showing up for the outbound trip often leads to the airline's canceling the entire reservation.

Hidden city ticketing or skiplagging is a variant of throwaway ticketing. The passenger books a ticket to a flight with a connection at the intended destination, sets forth at the connection node, and discards the remaining segment. Flight fares are subject to market forces and so do not necessarily correlate to the distance flown. As a result, a flight between point A and point C, with a connection node at point B, might be cheaper than a flight between point A and point B. It is then possible to purchase an airline ticket from point A to point C, disembark at the connection node (B), and discard the remaining segment (B to C). Using the hidden city tactic is usually practical only for one way trips, as airlines cancel the subsequent parts of the trip once a traveler has disembarked. Thus, round trip itineraries need to be created by piecing two one way flights together. This tactic also requires that the traveler have carry on luggage only, as typically, any checked baggage items will be unloaded only at the flight's ticketed final destination. Exceptions to this requirement only occur when re entering a country where luggage must be processed by customs agents, when changing airports, or when train travel is involved in the flight ticket. This allows a traveler to reclaim their luggage before checking in for their final destination, and simply leave the airport. Hidden city ticketing carries the risk of the initial flight being overbooked or cancelled, and the airline transferring the passenger to a different route that bypasses the connection node. Hidden city ticketing violates most airlines' contract of carriage. Someone doing it infrequently is unlikely, however, to be pursued by the airline, but some frequent fliers have reported either losing their frequent flier accounts or being threatened with such a loss. Experienced fliers recommend that if doing it more than very occasionally, passengers should not associate their frequent flier numbers with reservations using the hidden city trick or should instead credit the miles to a partner airline. In 2014, United Airlines and Orbitz filed a lawsuit against Skiplagged, a flight search website focused on finding hidden city tickets, alleging damages from lost revenues. The lawsuit was dismissed. Hidden city ticketing was used by New Zealand citizens during the COVID 19 pandemic. All travellers entering New Zealand were required to have a voucher for Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ). MIQ rooms were allocated initially on a "first come, first served" basis and later by lottery, meaning there were not enough rooms available for all travellers. However, some New Zealand citizens discovered a loophole – they would book a flight that transited through New Zealand and then disembark at the airport in New Zealand (typically Auckland International Airport), discarding the final leg of their journey. Being New Zealand citizens, they could not legally be refused entry to New Zealand, and so they were admitted to MIQ despite not having vouchers. The New Zealand Government considered imprisoning or fining individuals who used this loophole. This technique may also be used on other forms of transport where the fare charged for a longer distance is not always greater than for a shorter distance. For example, in the National Rail network in Great Britain, it is possible to buy a cheaper ticket to a further destination where a traveler has no intention to travel to, and as long as the ticket permits a break of journey, or to end the journey short legally.

Airlines are strongly opposed to booking ploys because they subvert their revenue management techniques and thus reduce profits. Airlines sometimes also mention unspecified "public safety" concerns. Many airlines have established means of identifying and penalizing travelers who take advantage of such tactics, most notably through their frequent flier programs. Booking ploys are generally a breach of the contract of carriage between the passenger and the airline. Violating the contract is generally a civil matter. The court dismissed the case and the passenger's lawyer claimed that it showed that Lufthansa's "conditions of carriage [are] incompatible with German law". The Italian Competition Authority mandates that passengers on flights booked in Italy can skip segments at no additional cost if they notify the airline; this possibility is now incorporated in some airlines' conditions of carriage, although other airlines have not accepted the ruling. In Spain, the Supreme Court ruled that skiplagging is legal.