Air Canada Hidden-City Penalty
Nov 28, 2017, 9:47 am
#31
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: YOW
Programs: AC SEMM; AA,DL, Hyatt and Starwood. Ex-status:SQ PPS,CSA,Hilton,AA,UA
Posts: 743
I just wanna piggyback off this thread cuz I couldn't find a direct answer to my specific question.
I'm well aware of the consequences of skipping a leg... I've done it a handful of times. However, whenever I've done it, it's always been on one airline.
Is there any advantage to doing it on a multi-carrier booking? I've got YVR-NRT (<24 hour layover) on AC, then NRT-KHH-NRT on BR, then NRT-YVR on AC. More and more I'm kinda not wanting to go to KHH, any chance I can no show it and be ok? Or is this just a standard "no they'll cancel the whole ticket" situation as if it were all AC? FWIW the NRT-KHH is an EVA flight number, but the KHH-NRT is an AC codeshare flight number if that makes any difference.
I'm well aware of the consequences of skipping a leg... I've done it a handful of times. However, whenever I've done it, it's always been on one airline.
Is there any advantage to doing it on a multi-carrier booking? I've got YVR-NRT (<24 hour layover) on AC, then NRT-KHH-NRT on BR, then NRT-YVR on AC. More and more I'm kinda not wanting to go to KHH, any chance I can no show it and be ok? Or is this just a standard "no they'll cancel the whole ticket" situation as if it were all AC? FWIW the NRT-KHH is an EVA flight number, but the KHH-NRT is an AC codeshare flight number if that makes any difference.
A friend(?) of mine, who is more of a risk taker and more prepared to outright lie than I am, was able to make such a situation (different 2 airlines) work, however, as follows:
- Fly AC, A->B as desired. Check in online airline XX, B->C, print boarding pass, skip out on the flight
- Rest of itin (C->B->A) did indeed get cancelled
- Show up at Air Canada check-in desk for B->A anyway, be puzzled what's wrong checking in
- When AC staff ask "did you miss your previous flight?", deny it, present B->C boarding pass as proof, pat pockets looking for the (nonexistent) C->B boarding pass
- AC staff believed the story, assumed there was some glitch in XX's systems, and somehow reinstated ticket so could fly B->A as desired.
Of course, this depended on AC staff believing the lie, there still being space on B->A, and AC staff being able/willing to reinstate the ticket. I personally take a very dim view of this approach, due to basic ethics as well as since what remaining discretion AC staff are allowed to solve problems will quickly erode if people abuse this discretion. However, the tale also shows that the automated reaction to missing a flight is as expected, but the multi-airline complication adds enough complexity/randomness that ymmv.
Nov 28, 2017, 5:01 pm
#32
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: YVR
Programs: OZ Diamond, Jiffypark Manhattan Gold
Posts: 4,485
If it's on one ticket, it will probably get cancelled automatically anyway.
Of course, this depended on AC staff believing the lie, there still being space on B->A, and AC staff being able/willing to reinstate the ticket. I personally take a very dim view of this approach, due to basic ethics as well as since what remaining discretion AC staff are allowed to solve problems will quickly erode if people abuse this discretion. However, the tale also shows that the automated reaction to missing a flight is as expected, but the multi-airline complication adds enough complexity/randomness that ymmv.
Of course, this depended on AC staff believing the lie, there still being space on B->A, and AC staff being able/willing to reinstate the ticket. I personally take a very dim view of this approach, due to basic ethics as well as since what remaining discretion AC staff are allowed to solve problems will quickly erode if people abuse this discretion. However, the tale also shows that the automated reaction to missing a flight is as expected, but the multi-airline complication adds enough complexity/randomness that ymmv.
I kinda assumed it'd just get cancelled, but I wasn't sure if my little curveball would change things.
Funny enough I was gonna play a similar game yesterday flying BA, I really didn't want to fly LHR-YYC-YVR, and I knew the LHR-YVR flight wans't close to full at least according to EF. When my flight DUB-LHR was a bit delayed, on an already tight-ish connection, I figured, I'm certainly not sprinting through Heathrow cuz of BA's tardiness. Then I felt a bit off so I had to hit the washroom for a bit...at that point I figured I'll just show up at the gate like 5 mins before push and tell them between not feeling well and the flight being late I guess I missed, also being pretty sure they'd have no issue just putting me on that direct flight. Backfired on me! The board said "Gate Closing" for like 5-10 mins before I even got on the train to the B gates (which I didn't even know I had to take lol) and I STILL got to the damn gate on time!
Dec 1, 2017, 10:51 pm
#33
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: YVR
Programs: OZ Diamond, Jiffypark Manhattan Gold
Posts: 4,485
So, just in case anyone was curious as to the result...
1) I pretty much always book the lowest economy fares, my travel plans don't usually NEED to change, but occasionally I want to change, like this. So normally the change fees are prohibitively expensive. This was an Air Canada K fare, I called up to inquire about the cost to cancel. Oddly enough the quote was in Taiwanese dollars, despite me being Canadian and booking the flight on the AC Canada site. She thought that was pretty strange, but then she quoted me the price and we both did the conversion. Just $43 CAD. Unbelievable! No idea why it was so low, she was shocked too and basically said "unless you have new dates to travel on, don't even hold this ticket, just cancel it at that price". I was gonna do that before she mentioned it, because it's not often you get a stroke of luck like that
.
2) But an interesting nugget for everyone here. As I had asked about this originally since I was using 2 carriers, it seems we aren't correct. She said "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but YES, you could miss the EVA connecting flight, but not the originating one, without having the booking cancelled". She gave me the caveat about not having checked bags, but then I reminded her this was a 14 hour overnight connection at NRT, I would've been asking to have my bag short tagged anyway for that reason, which she understood. Of course I asked "so they wouldn't cancel my ticket after missing NRT-KHH the next day?" She said "No, in the past they would have, but things have changed and now they'd let it go, but if you miss KHH-NRT your booking would surely be cancelled".
So while none of you will be able to call, quote this post and get any confirmation, if anyone is thinking of trying this, it might be worth a shot and if you do try it, please report!
1) I pretty much always book the lowest economy fares, my travel plans don't usually NEED to change, but occasionally I want to change, like this. So normally the change fees are prohibitively expensive. This was an Air Canada K fare, I called up to inquire about the cost to cancel. Oddly enough the quote was in Taiwanese dollars, despite me being Canadian and booking the flight on the AC Canada site. She thought that was pretty strange, but then she quoted me the price and we both did the conversion. Just $43 CAD. Unbelievable! No idea why it was so low, she was shocked too and basically said "unless you have new dates to travel on, don't even hold this ticket, just cancel it at that price". I was gonna do that before she mentioned it, because it's not often you get a stroke of luck like that
.2) But an interesting nugget for everyone here. As I had asked about this originally since I was using 2 carriers, it seems we aren't correct. She said "I'm not supposed to tell you this, but YES, you could miss the EVA connecting flight, but not the originating one, without having the booking cancelled". She gave me the caveat about not having checked bags, but then I reminded her this was a 14 hour overnight connection at NRT, I would've been asking to have my bag short tagged anyway for that reason, which she understood. Of course I asked "so they wouldn't cancel my ticket after missing NRT-KHH the next day?" She said "No, in the past they would have, but things have changed and now they'd let it go, but if you miss KHH-NRT your booking would surely be cancelled".
So while none of you will be able to call, quote this post and get any confirmation, if anyone is thinking of trying this, it might be worth a shot and if you do try it, please report!