Ok, here’s the question:
Fiance needs to go to Minnesota. Plane ticket to Minneapolis is $263. Plane ticket to Vegas, connecting through Minneapolis, is $92. What she’s wondering is, if she got that ticket, stopped in Minneapolis without going on to Vegas, is she going to have a problem reboarding when it connects back in Minneapolis on the return leg? Is there a rule against this or anything? Basically, she wants the cheaper ticket, but I would assume the airline will give you grief for this.
That’s a big no-no, especially in light of recent shenanigans. As soon as your fiancee misses the Minneapolis-to-Vegas leg of her outbound trip, the airline will cancel her ticket. She won’t be able to board a plane home without buying a new ticket. And they may refuse to sell her one.
Thats a fairly common trick and perfectly permissible- you just need to follow a few rules:
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You can NOT check bags. Unfortunately, because of current events, that probably means you’re going to be taking almost nothing with you- maybe one or two changes of clothes at the most.
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You usually need to buy One way tickets, not round trip.
If you follow those two rules, it can be done, but its a big hassle, especially considering the extremely limited amount of luggage you can bring.
Actually, what Kamandi said is accurate. If she doesn’t show up for that Minneapolis-Vegas leg, they are going to cancel her entire itinerary. It happened to my best friend when he was trying to get home from North Carolina to Chicago a couple years back. Not worth it, in my opinion.
diku, that is known as a “hidden city fare” and the airline can revoke your ticket when you do that, forcing you to pay a full price walk-up fare or to find alternative transportation. Some airlines will even pay bounties to employees who find people using this tactic. With the heightened security, it’s probably not worth the risk.
When I worked in the airline industry we had a perfectly reasonable explanation for why you couldn’t use a hidden city fare. Something to do with your ticket actually being a contract for carriage between two points and other legal mumbo-jumbo. I have been out of the industry for some time now and my brain has declouded. Heck, I can’t even say “There is a minor delay, we expect to begin boarding in 15 minutes” with a straight face anymore.
Diku, there is a similar deal called the South Bay Flyer on United Airlines in which all flights going to San Jose on UA arrive at SFO. You then board a shuttle bus to the San Jose Airport, the catch being that flights to San Jose are typically $50-100 cheaper. People often buy tickets to San Jose then skip the bus ride, all FF miles are still recieved.
I’m a business traveller who’s been on…400? flights, and I can assure you that you can take at least 5 days of clothes and gear in an FAA-size-approved roller bag, and you can likely fit another 3 in the second carry-on. If I pack really tight, I could probably fit 7 days in my roller bag, and still have it fit in the “Size Wise” box. I never check bags, unless it is an overseas trip and I am out for more than 7 days.
Seven days? Hell, I fit ten days worth of clothes and toiletries in my roller bag for my recent trip to Ireland. Granted, it was mostly t-shirts, but I wan’t palnning on going any place fancy, either. That and a briefcase-sized canvas shoulder bag, and I was perfectly comfortable.
My GF checked her bigass suitcase. We ended up waiting for more than 45 minutes for it to show up in Dublin.
Yeah, but we are talking about his FEMALE fiance here- Its one thing to have 7 days worth of clothes for you and me, and quite another to fit 7 days worth of clothing, makeup, etc for your average woman in the same carry-ons 
Female checking in. I can easily fit 7 days worth of clothing in a carryon, and frequently do.
A buzzard boards a plane carrying two squirrels…
Whether or not you can get away with it is a separate question, but what the OP proposes is against the rules of at least some airlines.
US Airways [prohibits “hidden city/point beyond ticketing”](http://www.usairways.com/customers/terms_transportation.htm#Altered, Mutilated and Invalid Tickets) in their Terms of Transportation, along with a couple of other similar tricks. Among the rights they reserve for themselves is to come after you for the fare difference.
While US Airways is the one whose policy I have handy, I suspect that most other airlines have similar positions.
If the flight is cancelled, isn’t it possible that she would be put on a flight that goes to LA via a different city?
sorry, I meant Vegas not LA.