Originally Posted by
ExAAerOnDL
So is it okay to lie about your age to get a senior discount? How about using your kid's reduced-fare subway card for you to travel? You are lying to the airline in an effort to get a lower fare than the one they are willing to sell you for your true itinerary. That is fraud, it is wrong, and you can use moral relativism, and dismiss the concept of freedom of contract all you want to defend it, but those are the facts.
As for Southwest allowing hidden-city ticketing, good for them. Of course, they don't operate a hub-and-spoke network, so there aren't a hell of a lot of hidden-city fares out there for them to be worried about. In fact, Southwest's fares are horribly price uncompetitive when you get away from their bread-and-butter point-to-point nonstops. And their profitability has nothing to do with allowing ticketing fraud. Rather, it has to do with a lower cost structure (and recently, with aggressive fuel hedging).
Perhaps most ironic, however, is that you would contest charges on your credit card because "you never authorized them." So I guess you don't like people taking money from YOU, but you think it's okay to steal from DL's shareholders. Interesting philosophy.
There is no such thing as fraudulent ticketing in cases where you purchase one or more tickets offered for sale and you actually pay for them. Other than forcing you to use coupons in sequence there is no recourse. Anything else is airline baloney.
Fraud is buying tickets on a stolen card or some such thing.
Hidden cities are the same thing. If I can get a ticket beyond the point of my destination cheaper and get off where I want to there is nothing wrong or illegal about it.