ADVICE: Purposely Missing Last Segment of Connecting Flight?
 

All,

I will be traveling from Newark to Shanghai and Taipei next week. My current flight path was:

EWR-PVG (3/24)
PVG-TPE (3/30)
TPE-NRT-EWR (4/4)

As a result of the Japan situation, I am able to change my TPE-EWR route fee free.

I realized today that I need to be in SF on 4/4 instead of EWR. However, I was told that I would need to pay a difference in fare if I change my final destination. However, the agent said I could do a transfer in SFO (TPE-SFO-EWR)

Question:
Can I purposely 'miss' my connecting SFO-EWR flight? That segment would be the final leg of the trip so I am not worried about losing that credit. I happen to have a free flight credit from SFO-EWR already to get me back home.

I wanted to make sure this was not "illegal". Also, can I check-in luggage for the TPE-SFO (Operated by Eva Airways) and get my luggage? I assume I will get to handle it rather than it being transferred to EWR directly. If not, I will bring carry-on only.

Any advice is kindly appreciated!!

Thanks for posting the dates and route. Could you add the flight numbers and either your name or onepass number It makes it much easier to turn you in to CO. What you are doing is in violation and can result in forfeit of your account. Hopefully now that you have posted this information public CO will catch you if you try it and punish you. When you cheat, the rest of us pay for it through higher fares.

Who are you to speak down to other members who have a honest question? I am not trying to game the system - that's why I'm asking for advice on whether this is allowed or not. Normally, I would pay to change the fee to be TPE-SFO directly, but in this case, circumstance have it that I have to change my flight path anyways. If I was going to be on TPE-SFO as it was anyways, I wanted to know if there was a legitimate way to notify the airline or work my situation to have a 24 - 48 hour layover in SFO.

You must feel good about your online ego belittling others with snide remarks. Good for you.

GAwhite11 is correct. What you are doing is technically called hidden-city ticketing and is a no-no.

You probably can get away with it once and be ok, I wouldn't make a habit out of it. I also would recommend that you take down the dates of your trip.

@colpuck

Thank you for the HELPFUL advice and recommendation. I was not trying to game the system - My plans changed and I'm trying to find the best solution. Thank you.

As Colpuck said, you will be ok if you do this once. Just dont make it a habit.

Recently, there was a thread (in the AA forum I think) where the airline closed the FF account, and thus got back to the person who was violating the hidden-city ticket policy.

If you want to skip the SFO-EWR leg, you can do it (technically, but not legally). In addition you could also call CO (from SFO) and tell them that you cannot make the flight due to being very sick. This will provide some cover.

I can't believe doing this rarely would cause any problems. If you make a habit of it, I would think it would be a problem.

Think of this - if your inbound to SFO is late due to "weather", you'd miss your connection out of SFO anyhow, and if it's "weather" the airline wouldn't have any responsibility to accomodate you, except to get you out whenever they could. Pray your inbound is slightly late, and you'd have a great argument anyhow.

You're allowed connections of up to 24 hours on int'l itineraries.

There are frequent enough flights SFO-EWR that you may be able to make this work for you if just under 24 hours will do it for you in SFO.

Once you get to SFO, you may be able to SDC to an even later SFO-EWR for the SDC fee which is relatively minor compared to a change fee + refare.

All of this would be above board.

channa - thanks! I'm going to try that tomorrow and see what they have to say..

Channa beat me to it. However long you wish to stay in SFO, you do eventually want to reach EWR, right? I'd be proactive and call just before the original flight, say you're having trouble making the connection. One could be stuck in SFO for so many reasons, they won't ask. Worst case they tell you your last leg is dead, and that's on them, not you. Best case, you visit SFO and still complete your trip.

Yes - I want to reach EWR eventually, but I happen to have a free SFO-EWR segment available for a relatively minimal change fee while the reroute would have been very pricey.

It seems like the solution offered (24 hr layover) may solve the trick while being completely legal.

I would arrive at SFO at 3:45PM and I could catch a SFO-EWR flight back the next day at 1:20PM. I have a morning meeting to attend.

How do I tell the agent I want a 24 hour layover when there are clearly more sensible options??

The agent won't care if there are other options. The 24-hour layover is allowed and that's all that matters.

The only TPE-SFO nonstops are Eva Airways and China Airlines, both non-*A (although Eva is pending). Are you being rerouted TPE-NRT-SFO on UA? Sort of defeats the point of the NRT-avoiding reroute...

I threw away a segment once and on a call months later regarding another PNR the rep saw it and asked and after much typing disposed of it.

Really? Why did that nosy agent go through your record of prior flights anyway? If it were me, I probably would have told him/her that the BP wasn't scanned properly!:D

LAX