The point is, it is disallowed in the Terms and Conditions fine print, apparently. The trick is, how do they prove it? Especially now that you are essentially purchasing a pair of one-ways - hopefully on different codes - so they cannot cancel your return in retaliation. And, can they cancel your first trip arbitrarily just on suspicion? (My guess is the Terms are sufficiently vague that they can do anything, just that nobody has challenged that yet - I’m sure it’s coming.)
Possibly too, they have flagged passengers who have pulled this stunt in the past - thanks again, bin Laden.
Usually “change planes” is a feeder-and-hub situation. Charotte on the way from Florida to NYC just sounds like a convenient stop to make some more money with minimal flight disruption and not tying up a separate aircraft. Probably not a big market either way, wouldn’t fill an aircraft/
I took a flight from Adddis Ababa to Kilimanjaro, and the flight continued on to Zanzibar for some passengers. The same flight returning from Zanzibar -which we took - did the same. The next flight, from Addis to Frankfurt, stopped in Ryadh, but nobody was allowed to get off - although the police did come on board looking for someone. (I don’t think they found them, but the plane also landed in an isolated area in Frankfurt and the customs and police were standing at the bottom of the steps when we got off, scanning everyone’s passport… ??)
On an overseas flight once, we stopped at Honolulu to refuel. Although nobody was getting off or on, we did have to disembark and then go through customs since apparently passengers could not be on the aircraft during refueling. Not much to do in Honolulu airport at 2AM, although the security scan included taking shoes off, so I did get to say I’d run my toes through the sands of Hawaii since it was all over the floor.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but the airline can’t know that you’re skipping the leg until you actually do so, at which point you’re at your target destination anyway, so the cancellation becomes irrelevant - unless you mean they also cancel your return flights.
I’ve totally heard of return flights being canceled. I did a skip leg thing once, like 20 years ago and checked in to my return flight and got stern “we don’t even have to fly you home, sucker” lecture, but the agent was all bark and checked me in, but made it very clear I was living a charmed life. She could have just said screw you and I’d be stuck.
ETA removed additional story I had about 3-leg flights; I think I was messing up the details
An air ticket is not a cash-and-carry purchase like a 6-pack at the Kwik-E-Mart. Just like the click-through licenses on websites and software, by buying you are agreeing that you read, understand, and will comply with 10 pages of legalese that constitute their “Contract of Carriage” which is at least partly a creature of regulation, not just corporate whim.
I once needed to fly from Edinbrough to the Isle of Man for a funeral. Unfortunately a truck crashing on the motorway results in my journey to the airport taking 3 hours instead on 1 so I arrived as the flight was leaving. I asked if there was any possible way to get to the Isle of Man that evening and was informed another airline coukld get me there via Manchester. Going ot their desk I could only get a one-way ticket. I used to work for an airline and was aware the original airline would cancel my return leg so I went back to them and explained the situation and I was clearly not hidden city ticketing. The agent tried ot asure me they wouldn’t cancel it but I persuaded her to check and sure enough I had been cancelled but she was able to reinstate me. Not sure what would have happened if I just turned up for the return leg .
Of course, if you’ve done the same trick before, as I mentioned, bin Laden has ensured they have your personal details. The question is whether the airline systems are actively searching and flagging offending customers for deeper scrutiny? (At very least, “hey, he’s flying the same itinerary he skipped on before!”)
Before 9-11 it was not uncommon that people sold their ticket, since nobody checked ID’s to match tickets.
One of the reasons this works is that e.g. a weekday 9.15am ticket from Manchester to London is a peak journey (and therefore more expensive), but by the time it gets to Crewe it would be off-peak so this leg would usually be cheaper.
Also not all trains between Manchester and London go via Crewe, IME more go via Stoke-on-Trent (sorry, but this is GQ ).
Here is a similar situation, even odder. When I was in Spain in 1994 (things may not work like this anymore) we wanted to fly to another European city. I don’t remember the details. The travel agent told us it was cheaper to book a round trip on a regional airline than to buy a one-way ticket. She said, buy the round trip and just tear up the other part of the ticket. (This was before Internet booking and e-tickets.) It sounded so weird I thought they were wrong, or it was a scam, but it worked.
It seems like 20+ years ago, airlines made a much bigger distinction between “business travelers” who would want things like one-way tickets and round trips that don’t span a weekend, and “vacation travelers” who would always want a round trip, and that round trip would always cover at least one weekend. The former could be charged a lot more because they weren’t paying for their own ticket, so there was advice like what you got – buy tickets in such a way that you don’t seem like a business traveler so you get vacation traveler rates.
It doesn’t seem to be nearly as big a deal these days.
It’s really not clear when they saw his license. Some articles say an “airline employee” saw the license , others say it was a “gate agent” and some say the employee saw the license when he was checking in for the flight. I found an article with this
Our records indicate the customer was questioned only at the ticket counter about their travel while attempting to check in for their flight," an American Airlines spokesperson told The U.S. Sun.
I’ve never checked-in in person - but I know I usually need to show ID when I check my bag, so maybe you have to show it if you check in at the airport.
There are signs in the airport that say that you’re subject to additional screening even once you’re past the TSA security checkpoint. So perhaps in this case, the airline’s computers noted that the passenger’s hometown was the same as the intermediate stop and flagged his name for further screening?
).