Originally Posted by vysean
Okay, so let's say someone was booking a flight PHX-ORD. That someone discovered he could fly from LAX-ORD for less money (including getting to LAX). So someone books LAX-ORD and PHX-LAX
Check the fare rules. I may be wrong, but I believe that most fares are end-on-end combinable, such that you could do this on one ticket and there would be nothing illegal about it, plus your connections would be protected, which would not, as shell nyc points out, be the case on 2 tickets.