Originally Posted by rustyr
I did this on UA over the wkend the time zone went from Daylight to standard time zones; to be exact it changed back while enroute back to ord on MLI-LAS rndtrip. The plane was going to get in early the pilot at Las told us- so that I would have to wait 4+ hrs for my rtr to mli. I got on phone prior to lving LAS and reseved a 1-way rental to MLI got home hr1/2 earlier as Had to work that day. M+ statement showed credit for MLI-ORD-LAS-ORD and that was it. No retributution for not flying last leg. As others have stated, once or twice a yr isn't enough to trip alarm for skirting fare rules to get cheaper fares.
I too bailed on a ORD-MLI segment of a longish itin years ago.
This is slightly off topic (not exactly the scenario asked about), but if you rent a car for the last leg because of iregular operations (i.e., a severe delay or cancellation), the airline will sometimes refund you that "portion" of the fare even on a nonrefundable ticket. My parents are also based in MLI (go Mallards!), and have many times over the years had the final leg of a trip (ORD-MLI) cxl on UA or AA. They've often just rented a car and driven the 170 miles instead of waiting for the next flight, and UA or AA usually refunds about 15-20% of the total fare originally paid for a MLI-ORD-XXX-ORD-MLI ticket--even on cheap fares.
I had a NW MSP-MLI fight cancel last week, and some of the pax wanted to rent cars rather than staying in MSP overnight. The GA in MSP said they would be able to get refunds for the MSP-MLI portion of their tickets. Note that the airline does NOT pay for the rental car, however.