Posted on 12/30/2014 10:25:05 AM PST by george76
A young computer whiz from New York City has launched a site to help people buy cheap plane tickets. But an airline company and its travel partner want to shut him down.
United Airlines and Orbitz filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year.
The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called hidden city ticketing.
The idea is that you buy an airline ticket that has a layover at your actual destination. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco you actually book a flight from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.
This travel strategy only works if you book a one-way flight with no checked bags (they would have landed in Lake Tahoe).
(Excerpt) Read more at kdvr.com ...
Also, sometimes a R/T is cheaper than a one way.
I do this when I travel all the time. Especially Europe. If I want to go to London I will buy a ticket to say, Algiers, that has a layover. Get off in London and don’t bother going on to the other destination. Another good method is to look for super cheap vacation packages. Often you can find a 3 day getaway cheaper than airfare. If United or Orbitz has a problem with this tango sierra. There’s nothing illegal about it.
The only caveat is you can’t take checked baggage. But with the ridiculous fees for baggage now it is about the same price to just buy clothes and other sundries at the destination.
Something else I don’t understand. And United is horrible at this. try buying a 1 way ticket to anywhere in Europe. A one way to Warsaw will cost $3000. A round trip $1000.
“If the airline is getting their full fare up front, what do they care if somebody jumps off early?”
Yeah. I don’t get this. When I pay for a plane ticket I have to pay for the whole trip up front. So getting off the interim trip would be of little use to me.?
I don’t understand how a ticket to lake tahoe with a stopover in SF is cheaper than a ticket to SF.
I still use the company I worked for many years ago. I still have company cards so when I check in (no matter how I look) it doesn’t matter. Have only been asked once.
The only time I ever intentionally flew to Buffalo, NY was to attend a wedding in Toronto. The rental car was also cheaper on the US side.
... and if you have no intention of returning. A round-trip ticket is cheaper than two one-way tickets.
My son just did this going to Rio de Janeiro on Sunday!flights to rio are ridiculously exp before new years... so he bought a ticket with stopover lol
I’ve done it. So what?
If it were anyway illegal as part of a contract violation to not go to the final destination then anyone who misses the entire flight would be subject to this law. I don’t think that this can possibly be illegal. And if they are to make an airline ticket a full contract then the airlines are going to open themselves up to a heck of a lot of lawsuits for contract violation. And who in their right mind would sign a contract that says you MUST be on a flight once you pay the fare. What if your car breaks down? What if you have to cancel a meeting?
I think Orbitz and United are going to have their asses handed to them.
If a competitor offers a direct flight, they’ll reduce the fare to compensate for the layover. Happens all the time.
The airlines have created what I see as what should be a legitimate passenger ticket quest by their incomprehensible fare schedules that do stupid things like making the price cheaper flying to Tahoe via a stop in San Francisco than to fly only to San Francisco. Instead of suing the smart kid, they ought to eliminate their “problem” by changing their fare schedules.
I used to do it on round trip tickets until the airlines figured it out. I also used to book tickets with just my first initial and last name and my wife or brothers would use the ticket. I could build FF miles. Then 9/11 happened....
One trick that I learned from my boss was to book the trip for a Sunday return, then show up Saturday morning and get put on the standby list. NOBODY flies from Minneapolis to Toronto on a Saturday.
Stock holders should vote to have management caned, Singapore style. What kind of fool sues when teh issue is one that can not be solved?
So long as the airline sets teh fares and destinations, the buyer is free to buy and use what they so see fit.
This should be thrown out of court as litigation can’t fix the issue.
Back then tickets were cheaper if you stayed at your destination over the weekend, so I always bought 2 round-trip tickets at a time... Philly to Chicago and back for 2 weeks, and Chicago to Philly and back for the weekend in the middle. Saved me tons of money.
Eventually the airlines got wise to that and wouldn't let me do it that way.
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Canadian beer is cheaper in the USA than it is here in Canada, so it’s a win-win.
Funny you say that. My wife and I did just this on our last trip to Hawaii. We flew out there with just a carry-on and then stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way to the resort to get some clothes and other essentials.
It was nice to just walk off the plane and not worry about checked luggage.
All I took back with me was some Hawaiian shirts I bought and those fit into my carry-on.
Another thing you can do is take a box of clothes and ship them UPS to your destination. I know people who have done that too.
I’ve done this when flying from NY to Dublin Ireland. Found flights that changed in Dublin that were cheaper than a flight to Dublin.
It worked fine even on round trips as long as the return flight had a different departure airport.
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