<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by CDF:
Instead of forcing people to "play the game" in order to get a decent fare, airlines should look into why people are playing the system in the first place. </font>
CDF Airlines are quite aware of why people play the system. But you also have to be aware of why Airlines structure fares that way. They call it "married segments". Basically, its to keep all the discount seats from filling only from the hub city, leaving those in the outlying areas stuck with higher fares. So what happens is, they allot a certain amount of discounted seats from each of the areas servicing that hub.
That being said...not checking bags is the easiest way to avoid hassle when dropping your last segment, but if you MUST check bags, you can ask to have them "short-checked" to the connection city.