ekartash

I am looking for a one way business class flight from EZE to JFK. the prices comes out to over $4500. but when i put in EZE - YYZ (via JFK), the price drops to $2500. it is my understanding that all passengers have to pick up their luggage upon arrival at JFK and recheck them for connecting flights. Can i just pick up my luggage and not check in?

bdemaria

Technically, according to the rules, no you can't do this. In reality, yes, doing this once you probably won't be caught. However, if you establish a pattern of this behavior - AA may well charge you the original fare.

ESpen36

Not recommended.

It would be considered a violation of your fare rules (your "contract" for transportation with AA). If you were caught, under the terms of the Conditions of Carriage, AA could charge your credit card for the difference in fare, calculated on the day of travel, for one-way EZE-JFK, which could be much, much more expensive than the $2000 you would same by trying to scam the airline.

AA sets fares based on specific markets. Obviously, AA is trying to command a higher revenue premium from NYC O/D traffic than from YYZ O/D traffic. You would be trying to circumvent that premium.

Not worth the risk IMHO. Perhaps use miles instead? Or fly to YYZ then use miles to fly back to NYC?

ESpen36

BTW, this is what I do for my Deep South America flying. The fares are almost always MUCH cheaper ex-YYZ. So, I claim an award ticket NYC-YYZ-NYC and then buy my international fare YYZ-South America-YYZ.

With NEXUS, transiting through Canada is very easy. And often there are fewer delays (except, of course, when returning YYZ-NYC because of the horrendous ATC delays in the NYC area).

jordyn

The Conditions of Carriage don't say anything about the difference being calculated on the day of travel. Although it's a little vague, it indicates that you can be charged for the cheapest fare applicable to your actual itinerary, which I would assume would include the fare available at the time of booking. Here's the language:

Having said that, this is not one of the edge cases where hidden city ticketing might be okay. It's a clear violation of the rules and I probably wouldn't risk it. You could probably get a pretty cheap ticket back from YYZ to JFK for way cheaper than the fare difference, and get a few extra miles to booth, though.

ESpen36

I don't think that's correct. How could AA possibly know which fare basis codes happened to be available when the pax originally bought the ticket? They change so dynamically that I doubt that AA would bother to go back and try to research the fares available during the "snapshot in time" when the person originally priced the itinerary.

I agree that the wording is vague, but I don't think it would be repriced based on the fares available at the original time of booking. Instead, I suspect what happens is that if the TA, GA, or auditor discovers it, he or she then prices out the itinerary actually flown based on fares available at the current time, and charges the lowest one accordingly. Of course, if it happens to be the day of travel, or within a couple of days, the OP might well have to pay the difference for a walk-up full-fare Y/B ticket, which would be $$$$!

All in all, not worth the risk! In this day and age, AA can and does catch people who break the rules like this.

Colin

There is near zero risk. All the stories above are conjecture based upon the FlyerTalk tendancy for all to fall in line with conventional wisdom. Ignore it. Buy the one-way ticket, fly the segment you want, and then go about your life. No one will say a damn thing. Your credit card will not be charged because an merchant must have specific authorization to charge a credit card. You authroized only $2500 to be charged. If they were foolish enough to try, just dispute the charge and AA would have no basis (telephone call recording) to support the charge.

jordyn

American wrote the contract, and they didn't put any limitations on the phrase "lowest fare applicable". I don't even think they'd have much of a case trying to say that only Y or B fares are applicable to the fare on the day of travel because it doesn't say "lowest fare applicable given availability at the time" or even just "lowest fare applicable at the time". It wouldn't surprise me if they tried to charge whatever they could get away with, but I don't think the contract supports the interpretation and your credit card company or a court would probably side with the customer.

jordyn

While I agree the risk is pretty low, I'm not sure this is good advice. I've already quoted the part of the conditions of carriage (which you agree to as part of the purchase, where you provide your credit card information) where the customer agrees that American can charge you for the difference. Even if for some reason that's not explicit enough for the credit card company, American could send a collection agency after you and trash your credit (or even take you to court) to collect.

Having said all of that, I've never heard of an individual customer being charged in this scenario, although sometimes travel agencies do.

C17PSGR

Within the last 10 years, I've done this once or twice with domestic trips because of change of plans and never been called upon it. Then again, if I was, AA would have seen another ticket for me going from DFW to XXX.

I presume (based on other postings here and on common sense) that AA has computerized ways of detecting hidden city ticketing issues. It would be an interesting issue on the credit card if they did push it. Among other things, I think AA would argue you agreed to the terms and conditions when you purchased the ticket (look a little closer at the things you agreed to when you click purchase) and the credit card company would probably take their side. Then again, I believe the AAdvantage program also allows AA to grab your miles. If this is a one time deal and you don't have significant miles on AA, there would be less risk than if you did it regularly or had a lot of miles. Also, I suspect AA watches for travel agencies that might regularly issue such tickets.

Of course, if this was a round trip rather than a one way, AA would cancel your return trip when you missed the YYZ connection.

BTW ... here is AA's position on the issue

http://www.aa.com/content/agency/Boo...city_ltr.jhtml

ESpen36

Excellent link! Thanks!

In short: don't do hidden city ticketing. Even if you manage not to get caught, it's still wrong. If enough people do it, fares will increase systemwide for all of us. Plus, hopefully you have morality such that it wouldn't feel right to cheat the airline out of revenue that it desperately (desperately) needs right now.

vail

I think that you should not only book the less expensive fare to YYZ but if it is not too inconvenient and the flight to YYZ is oversold, go to the gate and maybe you can even get a voucher for a voluntary bump?

martin33

It is not immoral if the contract terms are illegal; the provision has never been litigated at the individual level in the US (if it has, no one has publicized it), and it is of dubious legality so probably never will be lest official precedent be set. There are plenty of legitimate reasons why the last segment might not get flown (you land at JFK and fall asleep in the club, missing your meetings at YYZ), none of which are allowed for in the CoC. Airlines are better off, on average, just maintaining that the practice is contrary to CoC, and saving their crack-down energy on repeated-abuse travel agencies who are vulnerable through reliance on repeated volume business.

mvoight

In what way is illegal?

If you don't agree to the fare, then either fly another carrier or buy the correct fare. As far as the moral issues go, YMMV, some people think it's ok to lie about a child's age to get cheaper movie and restaurant prices.... I don't.

SFO777

+1 ^^
Book the ticket to YYZ and spend the extra $2K on yourself.