Taking a connecting flight and not going through the 1st flight, possible?
 

I want to go from Houston to Orlando, but the dates I have, it'd be about $100 cheaper to fly from Austin to Orlando. Thing is, the Austin flight has a connecting flight in Houston then to Orlando.

I was wondering if it would be possible for me to check in online for the Austin flight but not go on it, then board the Houston to Orlando flight in Houston.

Thanks for the help.

Nope.

It is by the way one of the most popular questions on FlyerTalk, so you are not alone.

If you miss one part of a flight, in general, the airline will cancel the rest of the segments. It may work if you skip the last segment, but if you skip the first, you probably will get the rest of it canceled.

Agreed on all points (and not worth the risk, imho).

If you do it on the last leg, in this case IAH to AUS, will you lose your miles for all of that day's flights?

It's crazy that often, on CO, I can get a flight out of AUS that goes through IAH to my chosen destination, cheaper than getting on just the IAH leg alone.

I makes a little bit since for me to go through AUS because I live almost halfway between them - about 20 minutes closer to IAH. Going through AUS saves money and I get more miles but it adds driving time.

But I always wondered, assuming that I didn't have to worry about ground transportation, if I got off in IAH on my return would I not get any of my miles for traveling that day even though I paid for the entire trip. Or would I just lose the IAH to AUS miles.

They can take your miles, they can close your account, they can charge you the difference in fare, they can do lots of things. It's called hidden city ticketing, if you search for it on these boards you will find hundreds of threads.

Chances once, they will just assume you missed your flight. Do it every week like one poster was, and they will not be happy.

One other risk with doing this sort of thing is that if the overheads are full and you are forced to "gate check" your bag, there's always a chance it will wind up checked to the final destination on your ticket.

Given the cities involved, I'd say there's a good chance we're talking about Southwest (that or Continental). If it's Southwest, then you still can't get on in HOU if you skip AUS-HOU, but you can get off your MCO-HOU-AUS connection at HOU on the return, within the airline rules.

And since Southwest generally prices all their flights as one-ways anyway, this may be a way for OP to save some money on the return leg. Note, they still won't short-check bags, and some reports are that your RR2 points won't post until you complete travel.

See http://flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php...ack_tickets.3F

Seems nearly worthy of a sticky note somewhere in FT, right?

Sticky? No, too small. When you register it should cover your screen in big red letters for about thirty seconds before you’re allowed to proceed.