Skiplagging on MU
 

Skiplagging on MU, lets see how this will go... :rolleyes:

~U$500 for HND-PKX
~U$250 for HND-PKX-HKG

You might have trouble at immigration, since they will not be expecting you.

Heureka, first time since I have arrived in Ningbo and travelled across China I am able to login to Flyertalk without cloudflare....must be because I am in Shanghai right now. ;)

Back to the topic. I just skiplagged on SC NKG-TAO-HKG the HKG flight as well.

I am not going to lie, when I saw that at Nanjing Airport that Shandong Airlines and Qingdao Airlines used the same Check-In counter I was literally sitting on needles, but in the end in NKG as well as on the next day in TAO neither the Check-in agents nor the Security Check officer gave a damn....well, if I am banned from Shandong Airlines in the future I might have to pay a few EUR extra for the codeshare on the same flight.

I think Narvik has E-Channel in China.

Lately it seems that immigration is becoming more relaxed anyway...or maybe only with visafree countries.

How did tacking on HK save you more than $5-10? NKG-TAO is usually available for $50 or less and taxes on TAO-HKG are around $10.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...86aa1f1af4.jpg

You shouldn't have any issues with throwaway ticketing, but I'm with moondog - that price seems excessive for this flight.

Unless I missed it, he didn't tell us how much he paid for the flight with the throwaway ticket. I was simply curious how cheap it could have been, given that tickets without the extra leg are only Y355.

I paid 48 EUR for the flight, which has been sold as 20 EUR off offer on lastminute.de. Trip.com charged 30-40 EUR (in Europe prices change depending on which country you chose in the Trip.com App) more for the same flight.

What kind of worried me was that Shandong Airlines sold the TAO-HKG leg, which I skipped, for 180 EUR upwards...

I was wondering about that too. But with eChannel, I just entered China without issues.

Worked out all okay. They did ask for a reservation showing leaving HKG in Tokyo which I couldn't produce, to which they stated they could only issue the BP to Beijing.

Not really comfortable doing this, but it worked out okay. Flight was 'meh'...both airports used remote gates.

Having experienced both I prefer flights operated by FM on behalf of MU any day of the week. Shanghai Airlines beats China Eastern in almost every aspect, short- as well as longhaul, hands down.

During the WNZ-PVG flight FM changed the mood lighting in the B738, closed the curtain to the Business-class (with the metal sign attached to the curtain) for five minutes, before they started to "secure the cabin" for landing....which I found hilarious and over the top, but thats adhering to procedures.

Yeah, my go-to Chinese airline is still Hainan. Might have been only my second ever MU flight. Not a fan. Will continue to avoid if I can...but they were the cheapest for this particular segment.
This MU flight was a repositioning O/W flight, so I can finally switch to R/T flights originating Beijing-Tokyo, which is far cheaper than Tokyo-Beijing return.
It's still insane to me how Beijing can still demand such a premium price.....:eek:

MU has come a loooong way since the 等方 days. Flights on competitive routes aren't especially delay prone, the food is okay enough, and some of their planes are really nice. That having been said, I think they dragged down FM quite a bit after they bought it. Given a choice between the two, I almost always go with MU.

If they plan to keep the A330 for years to come I really hope they refurbish the cabin rather sooner than later. Same with some of the old B737.

I guess I state the obvious here, but catering wise it makes such a huge difference if ones flight depart from Europe or Asia. The catering loaded in Vienna, Budapest etc. is actually pretty good...but sometimes the catering on flights departing from China is almost inedible.

I dig most of their 330s. I have no idea when/where they got the 737s. Fortunately, they don't show up on my routes too often. It's really hard to avoid 737s on FM, though.

Planning to skip a leg between PEK-PVG having flown in from UK and just wanted to clarify that the above scenario would only apply to a INT-CN-INT itinerary, is that correct? I would have to clear immigration at PEK anyway for a domestic connection if I was planning to take it, right?

I'm a skiplagging virgin - is it courteous to inform the airline you cant make the flight (for some BS reason) or do you just vanish into the ether....

You should be fine as long as you have the right to enter the country ( visa or eligible visa-free passport)
and are not violating any TWOV rules.

If you are dropping the last leg, and will never need to use the coupon, just disappear.

I do wonder whether Chinese Airlines will be stricter with Skiplagging in the future. Given the fact that e.g. the Czech Online Travel Agency kiwi.com is using skiplagging (besides screenscraping) on a regular basis to be able to offer cheaper flights than the competition.

If one flies with the Airlines regularly and skips a leg every once in a while, ok, but if someone already skips a leg on the first flight with Air China etc. I wonder at which point in time they will cancel the next reservation and/or deny boarding.

The price difference on international o/w flights is huge.

On the other hand side will all the codeshare agreements one can simply book with the codeshare partner for a few EUR more.

Being stricter would seemingly require front line staff (including contractors) giving a rat's behind about it, no?

About nine years ago I sold Iberia, Air Nostrum etc. Tickets for a living.

It would be easy for the Airlines to filter out passengers who skiplagged too often in the past and either make it impossible for the Gate Agents to issue Boarding Passes or show "Do not issue Boarding Pass" warning ... knowing the Chinese people by now, they would follow the rule by the dot. Making it impossible to book with a certain passport/id card or FQ-Traveller card would be another option.

Amadeus, Sabre, Galileo and all the system might look like they are from stoneage or medieval times, but it is really simple to add that feature.

I give you one example CA VIE-PEK a couple of days before departure they sometimes sell the one-way flight for 600 EUR upwards. If one simply adds the Air-Macau leg PEK-MFM with an 11 hour layover in PEK the same flight as a part of the VIE-PEK-MFM itinerary is being sold for the same departure date for 300 EUR on the Air China website itself.

In general, be it a Chinese or an Airline from another country, adding HKG, TPE or MFM to the itinerary, or fly one leg via HKG/TPE/MFM currently lowers the price for the flights to/from China considerably.

E.g. British Airways VIE-LHR-HKG and back PEK-LHR-VIE can save 500-1000 EUR compared to VIE-LHR-PEK r/t. Mind you that PEK-LHR-VIE is only 400 EUR in Preminum Economy.

My booking from last month where I never flew the last segment is still showing under MyBookings/Upcoming on trip.com. :cool:

Before I open up another thread I squeeze it in here. If someone wants to fly from Europe to Sydney or Auckland and skip the return leg or only fly back to China etc.. MU currently offers BUD-NGB-PVG-AKL (or SYD) incl. 2x23 kg luggage etc. for EUR 677 r/t with plenty of availability. The price difference between different days is only a few EUR.

E.g.: via jetcost.dk and E-Travelis flight network (legitimate website)
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...835729a4cf.png

You'd need to convince them to check your bags only to the intermediate point

You'd almost certainly need to clear customs at PVG on the return.

Even if you book BUD-NGB-PVG with 1h55 min transit time in Ningbo - all in one ticket/PNR of course - you still have to grab your luggage from the conveyor belt and re-check it.

There is, according to MU/FM staff in Budapest without exception, no luggage transfer between flights in Ningbo. It does not exist yet.

But otoh NGB is a relatively small Airport.

It's been a while since I've taken an inbound international flight with a domestic leg, but I'm pretty sure China Customs (as well as immigration) always occurs at the port of entry, except in the (very rare) case of pure technical stops like URC on the way from JFK to FOC.

Yes, mea culpa, used a bad example. Lets take MU/FM BUD-NGB-HKG (a lot cheaper if booked separately btw.) instead.

Despite the two "international" flights on one PNR/Ticket, one still has to queue at the conveyor belt and then re-check in the luggage at the counter.

Any issues with skiplagging on MU?
 

I'm travelling to Beijing. With MU,
SIN-PXK-ICN
is significantly cheaper than
SIN-PXK

But my concern is my need to fly MU back, under the same Kiwi.com ticket, out of China,
about 5 days later.
I read online that the airline could blacklist upon skiplagging and I'm concerned of this considering my flight out of China is MU as well. Any advise, experience with MU skiplagging appreciated.

ps. im assuming there's no issue with immigration as im a passport holder that does not require visas for both China and Korea

I wouldn't sweat the blacklist thing, but you mentioned "same ticket"? Of course that would be problematic.

If you do not fly to Seoul, the rest of your ticket will be cancelled.

If you have a return ticket SIN-PKX-ICN anyway, it's easiest to just fly all segments.
I.e. just go ahead and fly the PKX-ICN-PKX portion; you've already paid for it.

(Note: It's PKX not PXK. PXK is Paxson, Alaska)

I'm guessing though that they want to stay in Beijing, not ICN. PXK is probably just a transit on that ticket. I'm guessing changing PEK to a stopover would increase the price of the ticket, obviating buying a ticket to ICN in the first place.

Yes, very true. :tu:
My 'plan' would only realistically work with the purchase of another ICN-BJS R/T ticket, adding another ~U$370 person.

I had to skip the last sectors twice with MU:

-once was on a purely domestic itinerary via SHA, it was cheaper then to end the trip at SHA and I even got a refund of airport taxes for the second sector;
-on a HKG-KMG-RGN return ticket, my plans changed at the last minute and upon arrival at KMG, I went on a domestic flight with MU the same day.

No problem.

Skipping last sectors is never a problem.
What the OP wants to do is skip a middle segment, and then fly the rest of the ticket.
That is a no-go - the balance will be cancelled if the middle segment is not flown.