"Hidden city ticketing" can offer steep discounts on airfare. Basically, you book a flight past your destination, with your target destination as a stop on the route, and save more than if on the direct route. Skiplagged is one site that shows you these hidden deals.
For example, a direct flight from Milwaukee to Detroit on December 11 costs $407, but Skiplagged shows there are flights from Milwaukee to St. Louis stopping in Detroit for $104—$303 less. You'd book the MKE to STL flight and just not get on the connecting flight after it lands in DTW.
Original article here.
United Airlines and Orbitz are actually suing a website, Skiplagged.com, that helps passengers search for and book hidden city plane tickets. According to their federal lawsuit, United and Orbitz claim the site’s owner, Aktarer Zaman, “has used his website to intentionally and maliciously interfere with Plaintiffs’ contracts and business relations in the airline industry.”
Hidden city ticketing isn’t illegal. But as the lawsuit says, it’s “strictly prohibited by most commercial airlines because of logistical and public safety concerns.”
Original article here.
I think that someone using a hidden-city ticketing scheme is not breaking the law or doing really anything wrong.
What say you, NSG?