nyc6035

Hint: 2 computers are your friend...

Cledaybuck

Ignoring the morality of it, it is a bad idea if using miles. This is something people leave their FF's off their reservation to do.

PLeblond

Well, if you skip the first segment, the rest of the ticket is cancelled. If you skip the last segment of an outbound segment on a return ticket the return portion is cancelled. Skiplagging the last segment is as prohibited as the other segments, but its difficult for the airline to enforce anything so people do it. That doesn’t mean it OK to do so.

One buys passage from City AAA to City BBB. So Hidden city flying is wanting AAA-BBB but wanting to pay less that what the market is offering for that trip.

I put it on the same level as someone who upon getting the bill for a meal, sees that the server forgot to charge something and choses to not tell them…except skiplagging is premeditated versus completely opportunist so its worst.

Character is what you do when no one is looking.

I wish you all a great day and safe travels.

ijgordon

It's against airline policy for sure. But whether that makes it morally wrong is an entirely different question. Is it morally right for airlines to charge more for fewer flights "because they can"?
No need to debate here, I'm asking rhetorically!

view-with-a-room

The 57.5K is more often than not associated with a British Airways flight and the associated $800 surcharge. 57.5K plus $800 isn't ideal.


But endless examples of nonsensical pricing. PVG-DFW is 233K but PVG-DFW-TUL is 100K and PVG-DFW-LAX is 60K -- all with $10 fees. And AA expect you to be on the flight to TUL or LAX and not end the journey at DFW. The situation varies incredibly from destination to destination. No coorelation between cash pricing and award pricing.

zip10001

another example: in Y, JFK-FCO-MAD is 30k (AA then IB flight), but JFK-FCO on AA is 56k.

Dave Noble

From what the OP was indicating, the BA flight was an intra Europe flight - the surcharge on that is very small - something like $10 to $20

HaleiwaFlyer

I don't have a dog in this fight, but I think a better example should be given:

A tour operator sees their mountain tours are lagging and need to increase demand, while their ocean tours are doing well. So a pure ocean tour costs 500 dollars, and the tour operator says, if you purchase a combo mountain tour after the ocean tour, the total cost will be 300 dollars instead. But prices will fluctuate up and down everyday based on demand.

Let's dissect this example:
A) What the tour operator doesn't tell you is, the tour operator is maybe moving supplies/cargo to the mountain tour area and making money independent of the tour itself. The tour operator has already committed to go to the mountain area for the foreseeable future, regardless of tourist demand and needs to drive there no matter what, even if they lose money.
B) Consumers have no idea how that pricing makes any sense, as buying more services actually becomes cheaper. Because you already have paid in full for the planned services, skipping part of the services that you don't want is logical. Meaning, I just want to see the ocean tour, and I won't hop back on for the mountain tour....so what, since the entire tour has been paid in full.
C) The tour company sees this as people buying the combo tour in bad faith, because the discount applies only for going to both the ocean and mountain tours, since they are trying to build the business at the mountain area.

The end story is that, airlines did this to themselves because of their business and pricing model. When there are inefficiencies in a system, those inefficiencies will be abused in bad faith.

Maybe it's time to price airline tickets purely based on distance flown.....

guv1976

Actually, there's no carrier surcharge at all on the intra-European BA segment! Here's the breakdown for JFK-LHR-BRU in Business Class:

PLeblond

I'm an economist (or so my diploma says). It's basic, bottom line supply and demand.

Mr. BoH

Yes, let’s go back to regulating airfares. Because that will be great for consumers

HaleiwaFlyer

The example you cited: "I put it on the same level as someone who upon getting the bill for a meal, sees that the server forgot to charge something and choses to not tell them…except skiplagging is premeditated versus completely opportunist so its worst. Character is what you do when no one is looking."

So an an economist, would you want to revise your prior statement? Skip lagging is much different than the server who forgot to charge for the services, rather they charged for a cheaper rate for ordering a combo meal, rather than individual burger. Maybe they have extra supply of fries that are about to expire, and is selling the combo cheaper for that reason. But does the consumer needs to eat all of the combo meal? Sure, there is food waste, but the consumer purchased everything up front of what the restaurant priced and charged themselves for everything. The restaurant did not forget to charge anything.

Consumers can take advantage of the pricing system and the vendors can also no longer offer services to consumers that they feel are abusing their own pricing system. At the end, airlines are doing this to themselves, and people will take advantage.

HaleiwaFlyer

I don't know what the answer is and quite frankly never realized the airline industry was deregulated in the first place. Maybe we can open an OMNI thread and discuss this. Was regulation or deregulation better for airlines and the consolidation of airlines of what we know now?

Maybe folks with historical background can chime in.

AndyAA

You are morally obligated to scarf down those super sized fries you bought along with that combo meal, so you best get to it!

The airline's pricing structure built on inefficiencies to maximize revenue is their own doing. If consumers chose to exploit those inefficiencies for their own gain, more power to them no matter how much hand waving the airlines do to try to convince people that AAA-BBB-CCC is an entirely different product than AAA-BBB.

PLeblond

My example was more on a level of moral deficiency than a straight example. It’s not on the level of theft by gunpoint, but more scheming to one’s benefit while knowing its wrong. Agree or not… that is out of my control.



Your example of the combo meal is flawed as in the airline example, the order at which you “eat” is extremely relevant. The example does not hold water. For it to be relevant, you would need for them to serve you in a specific order, and you could only skip the dessert. So; if you skip the burger, you don’t get the fries and the sundae.

When you buy a flight, you are not buying induvial flights in a package, you are buying a trip from point AAA to point XXX regardless of the intermediate segments.

Here is the best counter example example I can think of: Say you buy JFK-LHR-BRU with the intention of dropping the last segment. A week later, the airline cancels the JFK-LHR segment and offers JFK-MAD-BRU. Can you then force them to route you the transition through LHR? Their obligation is to fly you from JFK-BRU not to route you through LHR.

And yes, I know most people on FT think airlines deserve to get screwed because “they try and screw passengers.” I don’t adhere to that philosophy.