Originally Posted by
ajnaro
Wouldn't two round-trips, throwing away the extra segment as well as the return, come out cheaper? If you don't put in your frequent flyer number you should be ok, although the moral qualms (if you have them) don't change. Throwing away the return of a round-trip (although not with a hidden city) is something that was obligatory at an agency I used to work with. It was in the day of printed tickets, and they didn't even bother giving the traveler the return coupon.
This won't work because when the passenger tries to board in the hub city for his return, he will find that his ticket has been canceled because the first segment was not flown. This could have worked in the era of paper tickets, as you are remembering.
Double roundtrips can still theoretically be booked for the purpose of evading Saturday night stay requirements. However, a human travel agent is unlikely to cooperate with such a scheme. It also might be caught by the airline because the dual trips are visible in the passenger's record of upcoming trips. This does work, however, if the roundtrips are booked on DIFFERENT airlines.