mvoight

How would you get caught doing this?
If they are checking ID at the gate, you would be a fool to present yourself at the gate with someone else's ticket.

This is why I don't understand the people that get arrested for DUI at sobriety checkpoints

WhoME

I think it's very unlikely you would. However, the consequences of getting caught at the TSA checkpoint with a forged boarding pass could be severe. Why risk it when you can simply pass the security checkpoint with refundable tickets (or an Admirals club meeting or whatever). No money out of your pocket and no risk of getting caught by the TSA.

Either way, you run the same risk at the gate where I expect the penalties for getting caught would be financial (ticket forfeiture on the outbound, pay full Y on the return, take another airline, lose all your AAdvantage miles, etc.) rather than criminal (go to jail, do not pass Go).

While this is a cute idea in FT land, it's definitely not a good idea in real life even if the chances of getting caught are small. However the idea of using refundable tickets to access the sterile area for meeting people, waiting in the AC on short notice or whatever (thanks Spiff) is in general a good one. From BOS, for example, the cheapest same day refundable ticket can be as low as ~$250 so it's not a huge burden to wait for the refund.

Michael

Flailey

Actually the reason you can't do this is because Airlines need to prevent arbitrage. They may invoke "national security" but definitely believe that this has little to do with why this is so important to them.

If this was possible, all I could do is buy tons and tons of advance purchase tickets when the fares were bizzarely low, and then resell them to whoever I wanted, whenever I wanted. Thus depriving the airlines of their holy grail that funds the entire operation, last minute walkups. When airfares were regulated they didn't care. Now they care quite a bit, and should. Otherwise I could just buy up all the discount JFK>LAX tickets months in advance for the week before the oscars or a major trade show or something and make a complete killing reselling them the week prior at 7-day advance prices. Needless to say the airlines are not interested in this happening, and to the extent they are OK with arbitrage (bucket brokers, consolidators) they want to do it on their own terms and on purpose.

They may say national security, but follow the money -- it's about the potential for arbitrage to deprive airlines of significant revenue.

butterflykisses

unfortunately airlines don't allow for broken hearts and mental health issues with boyfriends. if they did i wouldn't be having this issue. anyone want to go with me, there's an open seat.

coeur 05

A friend of mine purchased a ticket from pvd-tpa with a stop in Atl with
the intention of staying in ATL and ditching the ATL-TPA segment, he called
me and ask if he could use the ATL-PVD return segment to which I said No, it was illegal, so I made him purchase a one-way Air-Tran ticket to BOS as this was his cheapest option. He went to the airport and to my shock, Delta let him board the flight from ATL, althought his ticket originated in TPA, they even credited money back for the not used Atl-Tpa portion, apparently he told them he was not feeling well when he arrived Saturday, so he stayed in ATL and with the blizzard and all, he didn't call and waited till his return? what luck? now my question is:

a. Was my advise incorrect? was I mistaken, I look like an idiot for giving him the wrong info and causing him to purchase a one way on Air-Tran or did I do the right thing and he was just lucky? Any advise would be appreciated as I plan on showing him the responses I get, yes it does go up my yang yang if I was wrong lol, I am suppose to be the travel expert in the crew lol.
I told him depending on what is said, I would pay for the one way if I was wrong. thank you and sorry for the long long thread .

j3823x

Check the fare rules, some have "WAIVED FOR SCHEDULE CHANGE/ILLNESS OR DEATH OF PASSENGER OR FAMILY MEMBER. NOTE - WAIVER ALSO APPLIES FOR TRAVELING COMPANION. TICKET HAS NO VALUE UNLESS TICKETED FLIGHTS ARE CANCELLED PRIOR TO TICKETED DEPARTURE TIME."

If you can show he's dead or seriously ill, you may have your out.

Flailey

If he's willing to give up a free trip to Hawaii I think you've got prima facie that he's mentally ill.

BLI-Flyer

Sure, when are we going?

brp

Yup, already said this a bunch of posts ago...you have to keep up .

Cheers.

butterflykisses

PVR is june 30-july 4 and hawaii is july 12-18, i know there's time to figure things out, but i really just want this resolved. I was thinking of asking his father (who has bailed him out dozens of times before) to bail him out again. Would that be just wrong?

bobovespa

Wow, this group is really cleaning up its act ... 40 posts and no one has asked the OP to post her picture. Seriously, the collective wisdom and creativity on this thread alone is astonishing!

butterflykisses

First of all, what does OP stand for? Second of all, if anyone wants to see what I look like I have a page on VT under butterflygraces. Check out my Boston page, there's a really good picture of me on there.

brp

OP stands both for the "Original Post" of the thread, or the "Original Poster", depending upon context.

And, since we now all want to look (hadn't even thought about it before), what is VT?

Cheers.

butterflykisses

VT stands for Virtual Tourist. www.virtualtourist.com

nrr

For many of the check-points, either for sobriety or just licence and registration checking, they are set up so that there is no way out. [Like the end of an exit ramp on a highway.]