Skipping last leg of multi city ticket - possible?

Old Sep 11, 2015, 2:45 pm
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Skipping last leg of multi city ticket - possible?

I have a multi city ticket for AMS - CVG (flight was in August), CVG - CDG on December 17th and CDG - AMS on December 21st. Will I be charged anything if I decide to skip the CDG - AMS flight and take the thalys back to Amsterdam instead?
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 2:57 pm
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Originally Posted by dbndb
I have a multi city ticket for AMS - CVG (flight was in August), CVG - CDG on December 17th and CDG - AMS on December 21st. Will I be charged anything if I decide to skip the CDG - AMS flight and take the thalys back to Amsterdam instead?
As long as it's your last leg you should have no problems skipping it, just don't make it a habit, some airlines have been known to keep track of pax that regularly skip legs. Please note that what you are planning to do is technically against the T&C of your ticket and in theory the airline could re-price your ticket but as far as I know KL never done that (or at least it didn't make it's way to the media or FT).
If you still have some legs after your skipped leg it will automatically be cancelled.
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 3:13 pm
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Originally Posted by TLVtraveler
As long as it's your last leg you should have no problems skipping it, just don't make it a habit, some airlines have been known to keep track of pax that regularly skip legs. Please note that what you are planning to do is technically against the T&C of your ticket and in theory the airline could re-price your ticket but as far as I know KL never done that (or at least it didn't make it's way to the media or FT).
If you still have some legs after your skipped leg it will automatically be cancelled.
Definitely the last leg, so the canceling isn't an issue. It's more about whether they'll charge me or not - but I guess I won't know for sure until I ask KL or just don't show up
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 5:38 pm
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Originally Posted by dbndb
Definitely the last leg, so the canceling isn't an issue. It's more about whether they'll charge me or not - but I guess I won't know for sure until I ask KL or just don't show up
Whatever you do, don't call the airline, skipping a leg is clearly a against T&C, if you ask them they will tell you that you are not allowed to skip a leg without rebooking and repricing and it might draw unwanted attention to you.
The only airline that I have second thoughts about skipping legs is BA, in recent months they seem to go on a bad path when it comes to customer service (not honoring mistake fares, limiting food and beverages onboard - even rationing alcohol to J pax in order to cut cost!, sending letters to pax who skips legs etc..). I can't recall when I ever skipped legs with AF-KL but from what I know as long as it's a one time thing it should be a non-issue.
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 5:51 pm
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Going slightly off-topic, coming from a legal background, I have never read any court cases of an airline trying to re-price a ticket for a skipped last leg and I think that if such a case ever reaches a courtroom it would be very hard for an airline to prove that any damages were done, actually in recent years EU legislators have discussed the issue of round trips and complex itineraries, there have been talks of regulating airline pricing strategies (for example forcing airlines to sell roundtrips at the same price of two one-way tickets).
The only valid claim an airline could make in court as far as I know is that by skipping a leg the customer may have caused a flight delay due to luggage having to be removed from the skipped leg.

There are some sanctions that airlines can employ without having to go to court:
1. Closing down frequent flyer accounts.
2. Potentially banning pax (won't be possible in the EU due to anti discrimination laws).
3. Obviously cancelling future legs of the itinerary.
4. Warning regular skippers that their actions are against T&C.
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 6:15 pm
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Originally Posted by TLVtraveler
Going slightly off-topic, coming from a legal background, I have never read any court cases of an airline trying to re-price a ticket for a skipped last leg and I think that if such a case ever reaches a courtroom it would be very hard for an airline to prove that any damages were done, actually in recent years EU legislators have discussed the issue of round trips and complex itineraries, there have been talks of regulating airline pricing strategies (for example forcing airlines to sell roundtrips at the same price of two one-way tickets).
The only valid claim an airline could make in court as far as I know is that by skipping a leg the customer may have caused a flight delay due to luggage having to be removed from the skipped leg.

There are some sanctions that airlines can employ without having to go to court:
1. Closing down frequent flyer accounts.
2. Potentially banning pax (won't be possible in the EU due to anti discrimination laws).
3. Obviously cancelling future legs of the itinerary.
4. Warning regular skippers that their actions are against T&C.
While you are certainly correct that the easiest way to deal with hidden city fraud is simply to shut down the FF account, zero it out and cancel any status, the question is not about damages, it is about contract.

How that would be handled will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. But, in most jurisdictions, combining the contract you make when you purchase your ticket with the contract for your credit card, simply issuing a debit memorandum to the credit card for the difference between the fare flown and the fare due would be a simple matter.

It would then be for the passenger to sue the carrier to recover.

All of this is notional because while it is reported as a regular practice on FT, FT isn't the real world and not many people really do it. Or at least do it often enough for carriers to care. And then they care, punting them out of the FFP is punishment enough.
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 7:06 pm
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Originally Posted by Often1
While you are certainly correct that the easiest way to deal with hidden city fraud is simply to shut down the FF account, zero it out and cancel any status, the question is not about damages, it is about contract.

How that would be handled will differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. But, in most jurisdictions, combining the contract you make when you purchase your ticket with the contract for your credit card, simply issuing a debit memorandum to the credit card for the difference between the fare flown and the fare due would be a simple matter.

It would then be for the passenger to sue the carrier to recover.

All of this is notional because while it is reported as a regular practice on FT, FT isn't the real world and not many people really do it. Or at least do it often enough for carriers to care. And then they care, punting them out of the FFP is punishment enough.
While we agree on the topic I strongly disagree about the airline's ability to charge your CC or bank account without your consent.
If an airline thinks that your actions breach the contract between you they are entitled to pursue a resolution in the legal system, any attempt of charging your CC without your consent or a court ruling would be considered CC fraud under Israeli law (I'm less familiar of the EU and US legal systems but assume similar laws are in place).

The major problem for airlines dealing with this matter is how variable laws are between jurisdictions. for example in Israel (where I'm based) local laws trumps whatever is in the contract (actually this is the case in most legal systems, contracts need to be respected but not if they contradict local law). Moreover consumer laws will allow you to cancel the airline charge in case the airline is unable to show your consent for the reprice.
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Old Sep 11, 2015, 7:53 pm
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Originally Posted by TLVtraveler
Whatever you do, don't call the airline, skipping a leg is clearly a against T&C, if you ask them they will tell you that you are not allowed to skip a leg without rebooking and repricing and it might draw unwanted attention to you.
The only airline that I have second thoughts about skipping legs is BA, in recent months they seem to go on a bad path when it comes to customer service (not honoring mistake fares, limiting food and beverages onboard - even rationing alcohol to J pax in order to cut cost!, sending letters to pax who skips legs etc..). I can't recall when I ever skipped legs with AF-KL but from what I know as long as it's a one time thing it should be a non-issue.
I already tweeted them before I read your reply - they asked me for my booking code and told me it's no problem at all and there won't be any extra charges, they even gave me a link to cancel my flight when I'm in Paris to get a refund of a part of the taxes on my booking! Thanks for your advice though
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Old Sep 12, 2015, 3:55 am
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Originally Posted by dbndb
I already tweeted them before I read your reply - they asked me for my booking code and told me it's no problem at all and there won't be any extra charges, they even gave me a link to cancel my flight when I'm in Paris to get a refund of a part of the taxes on my booking! Thanks for your advice though
They did what?!? please share the tweet with us, it will be very useful in the future... it's clearly against protocol.
Was your ticket fully flex? what were the "no-show" conditions?
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Old Sep 12, 2015, 5:38 am
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Originally Posted by TLVtraveler
They did what?!? please share the tweet with us, it will be very useful in the future... it's clearly against protocol.
Was your ticket fully flex? what were the "no-show" conditions?
I am also very skeptical by the answer dbndb got, unless it is a full fare ticket.
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Old Mar 1, 2016, 3:10 pm
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Resurfacing -- I'm thinking of doing this to take advantage of the Canada to Asia business class fares. I'd bail on the last leg JFK-Canadian city so I could get home without overnighting.
I'd be posting the miles to a ST partner anyhow there are no miles in my FB account, so would just miss the miles, etc. for that last leg?
Any comments?
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Old Mar 2, 2016, 2:27 pm
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Given that you have to retrieve your checked luggage on arrival in the US, you should be able to do this. Just walk out of the airport instead of going to your connecting flight.
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Old Mar 2, 2016, 4:09 pm
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
Given that you have to retrieve your checked luggage on arrival in the US, you should be able to do this. Just walk out of the airport instead of going to your connecting flight.
Thanks, I ended up booking the trip non-stop AMS-YYZ. The dates I was traveling the JFK connection added CAD 500 to the price.
Take care.
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