Originally Posted by
LondonElite
Correct, there is no ethical issue here, but from the point of view of the airline, there is a contractual one.
The price from A to B is 200. The price from A to C, via B, is 100. The fact that you can get off in B is a happy coincidence (for you). This works in a hub/spoke system. I don't want to defend these pricing policies, but there is a very real (but not immediate, or immediately obvious) loss of revenue in hidden city ticketing.
As I mentioned a while ago, I believe the price from A to C, via B, only exists because the airline can't sell A->B and B->C at their regular published fares*.
If they could sell those individual sectors and fill their planes at the higher prices, there'd be no availability of seats for the cheaper connecting traffic.
So the airline is trying to off load unsold seats and at least make some money.
*there may be an argument against this for fares which are goverment subsidised for routes which form essential services.