<p>For all you frequent flyers:
We are flying in the near future on a flight that originates in a nearby city, then stops in our own town. It is MUCH cheaper to fly from the nearby city due to competition. I know you can’t get on the second leg, after youv’e skipped the first, but what about in reverse on the return trip? Can we simply get off in our own city on the return trip, and skip the last leg of the flight? Sounds simple enough to me, but a friend said that since 911 and new security, they actually keep track of where you are sitting, and if you are not on the last leg, they can bill your credit card for the cost difference (which is substantial). Any knowledge on this?</p>
<p>We don’t need to drive to our departure city, so parking is not an issue.</p>
<p>Also try [Slow</a> Talk](<a href=“http://www.slowtalk.com%5DSlow”>www.slowtalk.com), the message board of [Slow</a> Travel](<a href=“http://www.slowtrav.com%5DSlow”>www.slowtrav.com). Everyone there is so helpful and knowledgable about travel issues.</p>
<p>In 2002 i did not do the return part of a trip to the UK because my Dad died while I was there and the they would not change the ticket date. I bought another round trip ticket on a different airline (way cheaper than a single) while I was there - UK/US US/UK - and did not use the return to the UK portion. I have not had any problems.</p>
<p>edit: ditto to what mootmom says below. Anecdotal story - do not take it as a recommendation. I take no responsibility if you get sued.</p>
<p>^ For similar reasons (a grandparent’s death and funeral), my son did not use the last leg of an airline ticket he had in 2007. We have not had any repercussions from that, that I know of. (But please consider this an anecdotal response only. )</p>
<p>If it was “legal” you would not be able to check luggage as your luggage would continue on to the final destination. I thought with the newer security rules it would not be allowed, but I don’t know exactly what would happen if you did not finish your last leg of the trip.</p>
<p>I have done this three times – once intentionally on Delta (getting off in Atlanta) and twice unintentionally on USAir (both times because the airline refused to fly the final leg). I’ve been told several times that skipping the final OUTGOING leg may lead problems with a round trip ticket. Perhaps this is true, perhaps not. In any case I don’t think “jumping ship” would be a problem on the return.</p>
<p>Yes, if you skip the final leg of the first part of a round-trip ticket, the rest of your itinerary is forfeit. And carry-on luggage only, if you’re thinking of trying it.</p>
<p>mootmom…no this is literally the last leg of the return flight. Only carry-on bags. Just simply get off when those not making a connection leave, and never get back on. Trip over.
Just curious if they even bother checking when they do a headcount, who is missing.</p>
<p>Don’t throughcheck your bag to the final destination (check it only to your stopover point-be creative with your excuses-you’re meeting a friend during the layover and you want to give him/her a bottle of wine you made specially for his/her birthday, whatever), and then just get off. Nothing’s stopping you. They’ll just apply the typical no-show rule and put a standby on board.</p>
<p>If you’re flying A-B-C-B-A, then do the outbound as normal, then on the return just check your bag to B and then pick it up and leave. If they haven’t scanned the boarding pass you’ll just be a noshow.</p>
<p>I don’t think there is a problem since this is the very end of your trip. After all, sometimes people miss flights for other reasons - caught in traffic, delayed first leg, whatever. In fact, maybe you will miss the final leg through no fault of your own! (Is there a Murphy’s law somewhere that states the only time the flight is on time is when you WANT to miss it?)</p>
<p>When we flew home from Germany in 2006, it was cheaper to buy a round trip ticket than a one way. My H, who is very honest and above board, called Delta and asked them if there were any repercussions for this, or if there were another way to get the lower price for just the one way. They said no - go ahead and buy the round trip. They did say they would appreciate a notification in advance if we were unable to use the return ticket, so they could re-sell it. </p>
<p>We nearly ended up doing the same thing, kjofkw, when my S needed to go to your city. But since he needed to do it both directions, it wasn’t going to work. I don’t understand airline pricing at all.</p>
<p>I hate airline pricing. This fall my son missed the first leg of his return trip. It was actually my fault, I read the itinerary wrong. I was out of town at the time but my husband was at home and was going to drive him to the second leg of his return trip. The airline said that this was changing the routing and they would forfeit the whole ticket if we did that.
The alternative was to pay a one hundred dollar change fee and make him wait 9 hours for the next flights on the same legs…we chose that option but it really didn’t make sense.</p>
<p>If it is a roundtrip ticket from the same airline and you are skipping a leg en route, you had better check and make sure they do not cancel your return ticket. I believe something of that sort happened to friends of ours. They were going to Boston via NYC, and we got hold of them after they made travel plans. They decided to get off and stay off in NYC, stay with us for the day and take the train on up to Boston the next day. The return part of their ticket for Boston back to Chicago was cancelled when they did this. I remember the big deal about it. But this happened some 8-9 years ago.</p>
<p>Something similar to what CPT described happened to my H last year. We bought round trip tickets between Boston and Cleveland to visit my stepson and his family. My H had a business crisis at the last minute. I flew to Cleveland from Boston, but H ended up flying to Cleveland from New York. We assumed H could use the return ticket from Cleveland to Boston. When we got to the airport, we found out that the airline had cancelled the return leg of his ticket.</p>
<p>I recently a few months ago was returning home to England from the US and because one-way flights are so much more expensive than returns. I booked a return flight even though I had no intention of getting on the flight back to the US. I haven’t heard anything from the airline about missing the return flight.</p>
<p>I’ve done this several times - either getting off the plane when it stopped in the city I wanted to be in although it wasn’t the final destination of ticket OR buying a roundtrip ticket knowing I wasn’t going to be on the return flight - and there has never been a problem.</p>
<p>A couple of caveats (already mentioned) - you can only walk off the plane if it’s on your return flight. Any further travel on that particular ticket will be voided so don’t do it on your out-bound journey. (Example - Des Moines to Chicago to New York. The only leg you can walk off on is on your return flight when you get to Chicago and skip the leg to Des Moines. You can’t skip New York to Chicago and then get on Chicago to Des Moines.)</p>
<p>Second - you can only do this with carry-on luggage. If you check your bags in New York, they’ll fly on to Des Moines whether or not you’re on the flight. (and yes, the airlines say you have to be on the plane to have your bags fly BUT I know of a number of cases when that has not happened - people missing their flight after they checked their bags and the bags arrived at the destination although the people did not.)</p>
<p>OP said this was the very last leg of the trip, so cancelling the rest of the flight is not an issue.</p>
<p>But for others reading, yes, they will cancel the rest of the flight. My H and D were flying the the US from Germany - Munich to Paris to Atlanta. They got bumped from the very first Munich flight - no fault of their own. Delta put them on another flight, and they got to the US fine (first class, even). But when they went to return to Germany, they discovered their return ticket had been cancelled – even though it was Delta who had bumped them to begin with. Fortunately the flight still had room, and Delta was able to fix it.</p>
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