Is Hidden City still explicitly allowed?

It is a common statement here on FT that Southwest "explicitly allows" Hidden City bookings. In fact, the Wiki even claims:
The problem is, the CSC does not, in fact, say that. In fact, the word "hidden" does not appear in either the CSC: http://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs...commitment.pdf
nor the Contract of Carriage:
http://www.southwest.com/assets/pdfs...f-carriage.pdf

Can anyone find a reference in either of these two documents to the practice of Hidden City booking that doesn't actually refer to it as Hidden City booking? If not, I think it's time to stop claiming that it's explicitly allowed, and prepare for the moment when they decide to start making it disallowed.

It absolutely was in the Customer Service Commitment, but you seem to be correct, it no longer is. It would seem that once again WN has quietly made a policy change without telling anyone.

While the Contract of Carriage is archived on the 'wayback machine', the customer service commitment does not seem to be, so I can't find when they made this change.

A Google search for the phrase "hidden city" on southwest.com turns up nothing.

Interesting. It just keeps getting worse, doesn't it?

By the way, Google search on a specific site is one of the most useful search techniques I know, and simple. In the present case, enter this into Google:

"hidden city" site:southwest.com

Smells to me like another few degrees bump in the frog pot.

paging ftnoob, or anyone who might have an old copy of the customer service committment or contract of carriage PDF....

Knew this was happening sometime ago. It's getting harder and harder to even book hidden city tix. They've gotten better at closing the schedule to prohibit this trick. This is no accident.

I do have a couple hidden city tix booked and will report back after I've flown them as to how they post. Still a few months out.

Web site reorganizations make it trickier to find stuff in the WayBackMachine, but it does have some copies of the old CSCs explicitly allowing hidden city bookings. I didn't do an exhaustive search, but here is one example from 14-Dec-2005 (pdf).

And here is the 10-10-10 version, which also includes the language explicitly allowing hidden city and back-to-back ticketing.

Appreciate everyone contributing! I will use my hidden city ticket purchased with points and ask the WN rep at the initial boarding gate to delete my second leg. The next day I fly WN out of the hidden city. Regarding the legacy carriers you are frequently advised to book with a different carrier when flying back out of your hidden city destination from the previous flight in. Based on everything that has been shared here, WN's COC does not expressly prohibit hidden city bookings (the only major airline that hasn't) though WN no longer explicated condones them. So my flying out of the hidden city on WN the next day shouldn't be an issue for them.

Hidden city is only allowed for proletariats. Make sure you qualify and are carrying your proletariat card.

As a card-carrying proletariat I am all good to go.

I found this thread just now because I want to fly from WAS to PWM tomorrow. It turns out if you book ISP/BWI/PWM on WN its about $150, but nonstops from WAS area to PWM are closer to $250.

I called WN and asked if they could delete a segment out of the PNR, and they said no.

They said that it used to be allowed not to board your 2nd connecting flight but if you did this on an RT the return would be cancelled.

If I don't board at ISP I imagine the system would cancel the downline space from BWI to PWM. Then I would have a 50 50 chance that the BWI station would just reinstate the ticket.

I am pretty risk tollerant with travel and I have really good luck with these sorts of things, but it might not be worth saving $100. Also another issue is with the change in WN no show policy technically by missing the flight in ISP my ticket would be voided out by WN's no show policy.

I still have an idea of a way to try this, but I figured I would report the data point.

I don't know back in the good old days when WN allowed hidden city if in this scenario they would have deleted the ISP to BWI segment upon request? I ask because usually in a hidden city scenario you are actually flying the first flight and not the 2nd like in this example.

If I read this right (what is WAS), it ain't gonna work and you will lose all funds. Hidden city is when you board the first leg then get off at a stop. Sorry.

WAS is all Washington, DC airports. Thinks similarly for: NYC, CHI, etc.

The poster to which you replied is trying to skip the first leg of a ticket (which is not HCT) instead of the last leg(s) (which is HCT) and it will not work. The poster could try HCT on the way back from PWM, though, if the price is right.

I cannot recall WN's HCT policy ever working in this manner. As with other companies, it works with flying the first leg of a trip and skipping the rest of segments to obtain a cheaper fare.

In the past you could recover value from the ticket by not boarding at ISP. This plan does not fit the profile of HCT, so it would surely leave you at BWI with a worthless boarding pass. The "no-show" policy is the trigger that foils this plan.