Non Region Specific Skiplagging - Would you try it?

[Tricia]

Funny, our description for this area is...
Planes, trains, or automobiles: it doesn't matter how you get to your destination, just get there.

I was reading about skiplagging, which I had not hear of before. I don't often fly and this never occurred to me. Has anyone here tried it?

For those who don't know what it is, here is an article that explains it.

What is 'skiplagging?'

There’s a growing trend of people booking so-called “hidden city” tickets to avoid flight delays and save money.

www.newsnationnow.com

In a nutshell, you're looking for a flight that goes from point A to point B for $200.00, but you find a flight for $125.00 that goes from point A to point C with a connecting flight at point B, so you boot the cheaper flight, take only carry-on luggage and deliberately miss the flight to point C.


Keeping in mind that this is not illegal, however it's annoying for the airlines.

 

[Philpug]

I am gussing that you basically have to book two tickets, because the outbound A-B-C and getting off at B limits the return flight because you cannot just get on B to return. So, you will have to book B-A as its own flight.

I will never understand why an A-B-C flight is less expensice than an A-B flight.

 

[Lauren]

I've never tried it...I don't think I've ever come across a situation where it makes sense and would save me enough money to justify the risks and downsides. It needs to be a one-way ticket, you can't have any checked luggage, and you risk your plan blowing up due to an airline changing your route to a different layover airport (airlines are always changing people's flight paths, or if you get delayed/cancelled/etc). If you get caught doing it, it seems like it could easily become more hassle than it's worth (dealing with fines, losing airline miles/status/etc., airlines banning you, etc). Even though it's not illegal, it's in the fine print when you purchase a ticket, so it's against policy...and could result in a major headache. I feel like I would only consider it on an airline I don't use regularly (so who cares if I get banned) with refundable tickets, and it would need to save me a justifyable amount of money.

I do use Skiplagged website regularly for searching for flights. They show you all combinations of flights, mixing airlines on one-ways, or mixing for round trips. It's an easy to navigate site and has all of the filters/sorting means that I like to use.

 

[scott43]

Airline pricing is very dynamic. Frankly I don't see why airlines care. Other than you're messing up their pricing algorithm and beating them at it...

 

[Lauren]

Frankly I don't see why airlines care.

Because direct flights can be sold at a premium price, so they're losing out on money they could have made.

If you book a flight to cities A-B-C, but only go from A-B. They now have an open seat on B-C. They could have sold two direct-flight tickets for way more than your 1-way ticket with a layover.

 

[crosscountry]

Oh yes, I have done that! But that was years ago.

Used that mostly for international flights. This practice comes and goes. I would have thought it's less prevalence now. But I can see reason why it's picking up again.

I am gussing that you basically have to book two tickets, because the outbound A-B-C and getting off at B limits the return flight because you cannot just get on B to return. So, you will have to book B-A as its own flight.

So yes, you would need separate tickets for the outbound and return leg. But for some travelers, they're not going from point A to B then back to A. They maybe doing a circular route of A-B-C-A. So they're buying their tickets separately in the first place. Why not? Saves money in each leg.

Or, they don't know their return date yet.

For others, they're not buying round trip ticket because there's no discount on the round trip ticket for whatever the reason. Cost wise, if there's no advantage in buying a return ticket, you're then free to buy 2 separate tickets.

Now, let's look at "Hacker's Fair" on many of the flight booking sites. For the regular flyers who are traveling A-B-A. the site comb through all the single flight segments to find the cheapest one. So you can end up with a "pair" of tickets that are from 2 different airlines!

Booking sites highlight such tickets to remind you you're not buying a round trip ticket but 2 separate tickets. (there's risk in that, if your outbound flight got cancelled, you're still stuck with the return ticket which the airline won't refund as it's not part of the cancelled flight) But if you're willing to accept that risk, why stop there? Why not play the hidden city trick and get the individual legs as cheap as possible?

Good that some enterprising programmers are putting together web sites to offer the service! I doubt the airline will get anywhere with individual travelers who abandon part of their tickets. But they might be able to get those web sites shut down.

 

[Seldomski]

Have done this before, but only once for a special case. Sometimes it's cheaper to do a round trip then add a leg on the return flight to get where you really want to go vs booking as two one ways. I think we were doing something like San Francisco to Barcelona on the way there and Barcelona to San Antonio on the return. The return flight went through Dallas, so we just added a flight from Dallas to San Antonio on a different carrier (Southwest). You collect your bags in customs and rip off the baggage tags. You just don't recheck them for the rest of the itinerary. The other airline doesn't know where you came from and they don't really care. I could see running into problems if the extra ticket was bought on the same airline. They may automatically cancel the extra leg of the route when you check in for the full route of the other ticket.

 

[scott43]

Because direct flights can be sold at a premium price, so they're losing out on money they could have made.

If you book a flight to cities A-B-C, but only go from A-B. They now have an open seat on B-C. They could have sold two direct-flight tickets for way more than your 1-way ticket with a layover.

That's their pricing choice. Operationaly it doesn't matter. The seat is still paid for. Like I said, people are just beating their pricing algorithm.

 

[BLiP]

Better make sure your carry on is not remotely approaching the size limit and make sure you board early so you can get overhead space. If an attendant decides to gate check your bag, your day is going to be ruined.

 

[crosscountry]

Better make sure your carry on is not remotely approaching the size limit and make sure you board early so you can get overhead space. If an attendant decides to gate check your bag, your day is going to be ruined.

"Gate check" rarely happens on major/hub routes which typically have big planes. I've only had it happen on the branch routes with puddle jumpers.

 

[cantunamunch]

Airline pricing is very dynamic. Frankly I don't see why airlines care. Other than you're messing up their pricing algorithm and beating them at it...

Because you're stuffing their pricing algorithm.

Imagine if bookies adjusted their odds callouts to incentivize betting (they do, of course) and they adjust the odds to fit the weight of purchased wagers.

But then you place a bet the venue can't respond to. Same thing as skiplagging.

 

[Jilly]

I've been looking at different prices for flights. And usually the multi-stops are more $$. At least for within Canada.

 

[raytseng]

I will never understand why an A-B-C flight is less expensice than an A-B flight.

Ultimately it's because price is not tied to the cost of goods.
Once you break out of that perspective that pricing is tied to demand, and not to costs, it's easier. You see this happen when costs and supply are somewhat fixed-they can't easily create or reduce more routes to dynamically fit demand. The contract is to get you from A to C regardless of how they do it. There is probably some effects of airline history and federally regulated fares/routes too but that's probably for an expert industry historian or economist to tease out

The higher priced lucrative routes are subsidizing the losing routes...There is also plenty accepted price discriminations in airfare where the person next to you might be paying 2x for the exact same product, or flying in first pays 10x the price, so prices don't really scale due to cost.

I can try to make an analogy to ski resort lift tickets or ski school pricing but it'd be a somewhat strained analogy.

 

[BLiP]

"Gate check" rarely happens on major/hub routes which typically have big planes. I've only had it happen on the branch routes with puddle jumpers.

Probably true. I've seen it happen recently, but they were on flights heading into smaller airports. And - rightly so - I saw the attendants focusing on people who were trying to carry on three or four bags as "personal items."

 

[scott43]

Because you're stuffing their pricing algorithm.

Imagine if bookies adjusted their odds callouts to incentivize betting (they do, of course) and they adjust the odds to fit the weight of purchased wagers.

But then you place a bet the venue can't respond to. Same thing as skiplagging.

Not MY problem though.. Improve the algorithm! It's their choice to put a premium on the direct flight. The connection flight simply has less demand. They're still flying a plane with a paid seat. I would understand if you were able to get a refund on the second leg. But it's a paid seat.

 

[mdf]

Several years ago I was flying to Dayton Ohio, connecting in Cincinnati. Half the people on the Cincinnati-to-Dayton leg were renting a car and driving back to Cincinnati.

 

[mdf]

"Gate check" rarely happens on major/hub routes which typically have big planes. I've only had it happen on the branch routes with puddle jumpers.

On most of the completely-full flights I've been on recently, the overhead bins have filled up and the later groups have had to check their carry-ons. And those were full size planes to major hubs.

 

[crosscountry]

On most of the completely-full flights I've been on recently, the overhead bins have filled up and the later groups have had to check their carry-ons. And those were full size planes to major hubs.

I haven't flown since the pandemics. So my experience may have been off.

But prior to the pandemic, I was often the last group to board (cheapest tickets, sat on the last couple of rows) on typically direct flights (NYC-Denver/SLC). As I usually "carry" my boots in my carry-on, I would have remembered have I been asked to gate check them.

On the smaller puddle jumpers that requires gate checking of carry-ons, I would typically open my carry-on and pull out my computer and my boots before handing them to be loaded into the cargo bay. Logically, I need not worry about them not making the "connection" at that point. But I was more worry about other passengers grabbing my bags by mistake before I could get to it. I simply want to remove the hassle if that happens. As long as I have my boots and computer, I can afford to wait a couple days for the bag and its contents to find its way back to me.

 

[cantunamunch]

On most of the completely-full flights I've been on recently, the overhead bins have filled up and the later groups have had to check their carry-ons. And those were full size planes to major hubs.

And, of course, things like grounding the 737 MAXes would have meant smaller-than-usual planes.

Not MY problem though.. Improve the algorithm! It's their choice to put a premium on the direct flight.

Well, I would say it's more of your problem than the analogous situation with the sports book - the public doesn't lose as valuable a resource when a bookie goes bust.

 

[Tricia]

I am gussing that you basically have to book two tickets, because the outbound A-B-C and getting off at B limits the return flight because you cannot just get on B to return. So, you will have to book B-A as its own flight.

I will never understand why an A-B-C flight is less expensice than an A-B flight.

Yes, you'd book two one way tickets.