<p>We found a decent one way fare to fly from school to home, but it only “stops” in our home town, with a layover, and continues to another city. It cost almost double to book the exact same flight to our home town. Can they not simply get off in our city and forgo the last leg of the flight? Someone told me the airlines will add a significant penalty if you do that. True? Has anyone incurred such a penalty? If so, how much – and do they just add it unknowingly to your credit card?</p>
<p>Not sure that “penalty” applies to a one-way flight; </p>
<p>I have only heard of that on RT flights where they will auto cancel your return if you don’t show up for a particular leg…</p>
<p>Will be very interested to hear other opinions…</p>
<p>I would call the airline and ask them.</p>
<p>There is no penalty - but you must do this on a one-way itinerary only, as airlines will cancel the rest of your ticket without refund - including the return leg of a round-trip. Also, for obvious reasons you cannot check baggage. Carry-ons only.</p>
<p>The technical term for this is “hidden-city ticketing” and while frowned upon by the airlines and technically a breach of the contract of carriage, is not illegal or even really unethical. There are any number of legitimate reasons someone might have to break a previously-planned trip on the fly (family emergency, business needs, etc.)</p>
<p>Unless someone is making a real habit of exploiting this loophole, it’s not worth the airlines’ time and money to go after it.</p>
<p>Do NOT call the airline, because then they may flag your itinerary for special attention.</p>
<p>I’m not sure they’d even know the person was no longer on the plane if the person carried on the bags rather than checking them - especially with a through flight and open seating (like Southwest).</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call the airlines. They don’t want you to do this, but so far it appears penalties are pretty much unenforcable: <a href=“How to Beat High Airfares - The New York Times”>How to Beat High Airfares - The New York Times;
<p>Polarscribe is right. It’s when you have a round trip that you can run into trouble. Buy one way if you have that.</p>
<p>I ran into a problem with this, although it was six or seven years ago. I flew into a city, included a stop at a hub, and had a business meeting. Rather than catch the flight in the destination city, I drove a couple of hours with a co-worker from the meeting city to the hub city so we could debrief, then caught my flight home from the hub. I was charged as if I had booked from the hub–a huge amount more–for not using that one portion of the ticket. To my knowledge, the business was not able to fight the charge and had to pay the penalty.</p>
<p>Southwest does a headcount of the “throughs”.</p>
<p>I would be concerned for the rest of the passengers. In this security age when someone is not on the plane they would probably deplane everyone, and run the plane back through security. Who knows how long that would take. I have been on SW when they did the headcount, but never when the number did not match so not sure what would happen.</p>
<p>polarscribe is correct that this would be hidden city ticketing and the airline does reserve the right to charge you the full fare for the flights you took and cancel your frequent flier account, though they won’t usually do this provided you don’t make it a habit. Note that Southwest and Air Tran permit hidden city ticketing, though they cannot “short check” checked luggage to your intended destination.</p>
<p>This pricing disparity arises from airlines placing a premium on nonstop flights (sometimes as the result of married segment logic where cheap seats would be available if you were connecting), competition on the less expensive route, and/or forecasted demand for your desired route.</p>
<p>Do NOT call the airline.</p>
<p>I do this for international flights all the time (abandon a last leg). Just make sure you have carry-ons, obviously. They’ve never done a thing to me. It’s their own stupid fault for how they price tickets, whereby it costs me less to fly elsewhere and reroute through my home city, then to take a direct flight from my home city.</p>
<p>I agree it is only a problem if you have a return flight–which they can and will cancel. For a one way trip, just carry on the luggage. They cannot charge you after the fact.</p>
<p>How can the airline prove that you didn’t fall asleep in the airport, get drunk in the airport bar, run into an old friend and had dinner? They’re not going to go after you for the last leg of a trip. You paid your ticket; that’s the extent of the contract. You are no more obligated to do the last leg than you are to eat all your dessert if you ordered it.</p>
<p>It sounds like the big concern is that your return flight will be canceled…if you have a round trip.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Even just one of those could make you miss your flight.</p>
<p>If you book one-way and do carry on luggage, there still seems to be a small risk. If weather or other variables force the plane to do layover elsewhere, you may be stuck at the final destination. (I’m guessing that is a rare occurrence).</p>
<p>That is true. Also, if your original flight is canceled or significantly delayed, you may be rebooked via a different hub without recourse.</p>
<p>For the trips I’ve done this for, these were business class international with hundreds if not thousands of dollars worth of difference. Of course you can’t miss a leg in the middle else they can and will cancel the rest if the itinerary. But jump off and not use the last leg of a journey? Absolutely. I’d do it in a minute if the situation presented itself. </p>
<p>Look - if it costs me $8,000 to book a ticket from Chicago to London and back, and it costs $3,500 to book my trip starting and ending in St Louis and getting on the VERY SAME PLANE – of course I’ll spend $100 to fly one way to St L, turn around and fly back to Chicago, get on the very same flight that would have cost me $8,000 starting in Chicago, and then upon my return just ditch the Chicago-StL final leg. This kind of pricing scenario happens all the time. It’s ridiculous, but there you have it.</p>
<p>OP had gotten good advice. (a) Do NOT call the airlines, (B) do this only with a one way ticket and (C) Do NOT check any luggage. Yes the airlines do a seat count, but as long as the OP didn’t check luggage, there isnt luggage going in the belly of the plane without a passenger. Probably (hopefully) won’t delay the departure of the last leg of the plane.</p>