FlyingForEternity

+1 - How come people are surprised by a company correcting blatant fraud?
I've heard of a man in CVG, who would use DAY to avoid higher fares and skip the last legs of his itins.

Delta caught it, sued him for fare differences, suspended his SM account and blacklisted him from the airline.

And more power to them.

fti

How many restaurants penalize you for not eating everything you ordered as severely as the airlines penalize you for not taking all the flights you purchased?

Some things are just not as black & white as some people would like to believe.

FlyingForEternity

Kind of a simplistic point of view. Fares from A to B are more expensive than fares from A to C via B - for a reason.

If you deliberately skip a portion of the cheaper ticket you had purchased, you do not only break your contract with the carrier and defraud them, you also cause them to pass the cost of this on everyone else.

As far as your restaurant analogy goes, it is not really an analogy at all.

djk7

Getting back on topic, yes, if you miss a segment, the rest of your itinerary will be canceled. Hidden city only works on the end of a trip.

One other thing to be aware of is that the airline has no legal responsibility to get you to the connecting city. If there are flight cancellations, weather delays, etc., the airline could put you on a non-stop, or via another connecting city. Realistically, this happens pretty rarely, but it is possible.

As far as getting charged fare differences or penalties, the airlines would be within the contract of carriage to do that, I don't think it is common for them to do that. If it were, there would be plenty of threads here on FT about people getting charged, which there aren't.

gpez

Its the perfect analogy. Restaurants, stores, many places have "deals" where buying 2 is cheaper than buying 1, for whatever reason. The only difference here is that when I go to Arbys and get their 5 for $5 deal I don't have to sign a friggin contract.

The ONLY reason this sort of activity is considered "fraud" is because the airline WANTS you to think its fraud. Its a highly abusive policy and they know it. Good job falling for the propaganda machine.

How can this behavior be considered fraud when their competitor (Southwest) essentially encourages it?

TravelBug3811 sorry for the sideline but I get immensely upset when people with a holier-than-thou attitude knee-jerk their way to insulting my "integrity, character, and honesty".

I had this exact same issue not a month ago. Can you get in to FNT? MSP-DTW-FNT can be just as cheap as MSP-DTW-CHI.

JSFox

DL's (and AA's, and NW's, and UA's, and KL's, and ... ) policy on this is, IMO, extremely stupid, often infuriating, and should be changed. Does that though negate the fact that it is their policy and is, as even the OP stated, in their contract of carriage? Is integrity completely arbitrary? We only obey laws (and the CoC is a legally enforceable document that you agree to when you purchase a ticket) when we don't think the law is stupid? Otherwise it's OK to do whatever we want?

fti

+1. A man of reason and logic.

Yes, actually a very good analogy. I buy a meal special that includes an entree (A), an appetizer (B) and a dessert (C) but I fail to eat the dessert. No penalty. I buy an airplane ticket from (A) to (B) to (C) and fail to "eat" the part from (B) to (C) and I get penalized. I deliberately chose to order the special that includes the dessert, knowing it was cheaper than just the appetizer and the entree. Seems more and more like a perfect analogy.

And note that it might go against some airlines' policies but it is rare that they prosecute someone for failing to adhere to their conditions of carriage. Heck, the airlines don't always honor their own Customer First policy or whatever each airline calls it. If they did, no airline would keep passengers holed up in airplanes for hours at a time without food, water or usable toilets.

fti

With all due respect, I would not insult Southwest by calling Delta their competitor . Southwest actually has made a profit in this decade. Southwest actually has customer-friendly policies, one of which you mentioned, another being able to change your ticket for no charge based on availability (no change fee, just any fare difference), and such.

FlyingForEternity

This thing has gotten way off topic. However, you are promoting fraud. Pure and simple.
An airline offers a flight for example from DTW to BUF. Non-stop, simple, convenient.
Fare is $500 because there is no competition on the direct route. You buy it, you agree to it and you enter into a contract. Once could start their journey in FNT, pay a lesser price because there is more competition on non-direct routes. Again, you enter a contract. You can justify it or compare it to other situations any way you want. Using this practice is both unethical and unfair to everyone else. Since you guys like analogies so much, it's like coupon fraud. The company is certainly not eating the cost of it. It's passed to the rest of us. You say that WN is specifically allowing this? Sure, they operate on a different business model. Fly on Southwest then. You won't pay for your bags, either.

tentseller

I known of instances where the complete return was cancelled due to first set of flights not being completed or customer being charged later for the higher fare which credit card company has to put through as part of the ticketing contract.

When NW started flying PEK and PVG there were promotion where WBC ticket from MSP, DTW there was 50% cheaper than a WBC ticket to NRT. Many use this "loophole" to fly to NRT where there was a stopover/plane change and either had the return segment cancelled or differential in fares charged.

fti

That is different than most of us are talking about and is obvious. The only way for it to "work" is if you don't use the last flight(s). The OP has already figured that out from this thread.

And to add a thought from one of the posters on this thread, it is not fraud if a company sells something for less than cost and I take advantage of that. So if I go to the supermarket every week and only buy their specials, yes they are losing money on me. So be it.

And, with any of my purchases, if in fact I am breaking any contracts with supermarkets, restaurants or airlines, they have the right to come after me legally, if it is that important to them.

And, OP, it is obvious that there are differing view on this issue

inyourvillages

A moral issue? That's a stretch to me. It seems like it's a practical issue; for me, the potential consequences and likelihood outweigh the potential benefits. For someone else, the conclusion may be different.

FWIW, this is the same kind of analysis that DL would use, not a 'moral' one.

This is business.

justhere

That doesn't make sense. What cost would they be passing on? While there is a cost associated with flying someone from A to B, it never is really related to distance as much as it is convenience and competition. Regardless of what the airline charges, it cannot possibly cost more to fly someone from A to B than it costs to fly them from A to C via B.

mnredfox

This is huge, I didn't know WN did this. Another great reason to consider it...

Ouch, I would have stayed put until someone would send me home for something cheaper.

http://www.tysknews.com/LiteStuff/buying_paint.htm

I think it was originally posted in some business journal...

AndyTLe

Yep. WN is great if it fits your needs.

WN's Customer Service Commitment in .pdf http://www.southwest.com/about_swa/c...itment/csc.pdf