Getting on a flight in the middle
 

Argh. CO is selling EWR-IAH-NRT-IAH-EWR at $653 and IAH-NRT-IAH at $839. What would happen if I bought the former and got on and off at IAH? Would they try to charge me more or just cancel my OnePass account? http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

For starters, DON'T check any baggage, as the agent must check it to your final TICKETED destination. Next, be prepared for your return flight to be automatically cancelled when you don't board the IAH-NRT leg; the computer figures that if you don't go to NRT, then you won't be coming back! It does not selectively delete only the IAH-NRT leg, but all remaining legs. If you can think up a good excuse as to HOW you got back to IAH after "going" to NRT and back to IAH again without it showing you as "checked-in", maybe they'll let you on the flight (if you get an agent with a sense of humor AND come up with a REALLY good story) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

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- Pat

[This message has been edited by Wiirachay (edited 03-29-2001).]

I believe you are reading the question wrong. He wants to go from IAH to NRT, and skip the EWR to IAH segment. That can be done, but you would need to call CO on the day of travel BEFORE your EWR flight to IAH departs and advise them you are already in Houston and would like to board there. The danger here is that CO could charge you for a new ticket, since you would be changing the routing. If so, you could be out alot of money. I personally would not risk it. Hope this helps?

Of course, you could book an open jaw, save almost $100, and simply not get on the IAH-EWR flight.

Maybe I'm old fashioned..... but......

I thought if you are supposed to begin in EWR, and you don't board in EWR, the entire reservation will be cancelled.

If you call the day before and tell them you're already in Houston, they'll happily reprice the reservation to the higher Houston fare, plus the ~$150 int'l change fee.

I'll at least fly up to EWR and begin from there. The return is more flexible since you can do a IAH stopover, or even just have the connection but claim your luggage in customs and miss the connecting flight. If you do the connection, I'd recommend forcing an overnight (less than 24 hour) connection because missing the IAH-EWR flight the next day would look a little less obvious than missing the 2 hour connection.

If you really don't want to go up to EWR at first, how about doing an open jaw IAH to NRT, NRT to EWR with the IAH overnight connection. You would average the $653 fare and the $839 fare for a $746 fare-- $93 more than starting in EWR but you save the IAH-EWR one way ticket, which would easily cost that much or more. You still save $93 on the Houston roundtrip. As an added bonus, you could fly outbound IAH-EWR-NRT, and get an extra 1450 miles vs. IAH-NRT nonstop.

not worth the risk. besides it is illegal.

Viajero Joven, is right. Old fashioned or not! http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif
The computer will automatically cancel the entire trip when you don't board the first segment. This plan just won't work.

What is "open jaw"? I understood most of the thread until then. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Open jaw means:

A to B, then B to C

or

A to B, then C to A.

The distance of the missing segment has to be less than the distance of the two flown segments. Otherwise, it becomes two one-ways.

cigarman is absolutely correct as well. I know this from PAINFUL experience (it's a little different from what you described but the same result) ... I missed my outbound flight LGA-IAH-CZM, raced over to EWR to fly from there. I did manage to make the original connection IAH-CZM since the EWR flight was just an hour later than the LGA flight. But even though, theoretically, I did take the original connection IAH-CZM (it's just that I didn't depart from LGA), I later found out that since I did not actually depart from LGA, they canceled my return completely! I did not know that this would happen and I had to rebook the day of departure (on an overbooked flight I might add.)

Continental will also cancel your return if an outbound segment is cancelled (that's what happened to me).

I was flying HOU-IAH-DFW, then DFW-IAH. HOU-IAH was cancelled, and they bought me a taxi ride. IAH-DFW went through, but thank goodness I called them (for a different reason). Otherwise, my DFW-IAH seats could have been given away!

JS, thanks for your answer. : ) Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?

JS, thanks for your answer. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?

JS, thanks for your answer. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Jen, when they cancelled your return trip, did you have to pay any added cost to have them reinstate your return trip?

knit-in ,
While doing something like this violates the airline rules and your contract of carriage, it is not illegal. E.g. it is a civil matter between you and the airline, and criminal charges would not be brought. Further, I'm not sure the courts always go with the airlines interpretation of the contract.

On a more practical note, indeed, your reservation would cancel because of the no show. If the gate agent was either very busy or sympathetic, they might let you on. You all know how crazy airports can be, and they simply don't have time to spend ten minutes sifting through the history of your pnr to figure out what happened, they just have to get that flight off the gate five minutes ago or its really going to screw up the schedule for the rest of the day.

On the other hand, you might hit a quiet gate, and a gate agent who is intent on sifting through your record for forty five minutes to figure out exactly what happened, and how exactly you are where you are with your reservation showing like it is.

It is a gamble indeed not without risk or not for the faint of heart.

I would not call CO reservations but instead try to get an airport agent to fix your record so the segments not flown are cancelled. Like maybe you would say you had a connection in IAH where you want to start out, etc. So the next time you are flying, if you see an agent you think is nice, see if they will do it for you. Only trouble is you would have had to buy the ticket. You won't just be able to go up to the counter, and say oh yah I want to buy this hidden city fare.

CozmelJean, in a situation like you had, you MUST call CO and get tham to manually keep the computer from cancilling you flights. I have this happen often.
Jetsetter, I disagree with you advice. Busy or not CO checks every ticket against the manafest on EVERY flight. This is part of the process of closing every flight. After the first segment isn't flown the computer will be notified within about 1/2 an hour. You seat will then be given up all future flights AND reassigned. Thus it's likey even if you got on the second (and subsiquent flights) somebody is likey to have the same seat assignment. This will be a huge clue to the FA. And you will get caught.

Thanks Cigarman, I will keep this in mind. It was a bad situation since I had to get a much later flight than I had planned and this flight, (though I was ASSURED by the gate agent would get into New York by 11:30, she meant, the NEXT DAY! I would have missed work!) I luckily was able to get on a later flight back to Newark though, as it would not get in until 3 am and I had left my car at LGA from my departure (cabbed to EWR), I couldn't get home, had to call friends in NJ asked them to leave a key for me, then had to wear Mexican vacation clothes to work the next day!) ANYWAY thanks and, analise unfortunately I can't recall whether I paid more or not, I was so upset!

Cigarman,
I know as well for sure the computer will cancel out the downline space. What I was referring too was when the pax checks in, and the res is cancelled, the gate agent **might** reenstate the space on the cancelled flights (e.g. rebook and then check in the pax). I have not used hidden cities myself, and even though I am always very observant of the conversations at the gate, I can not remember a single time where I heard a gate agent acusing a pax of doing a hidden city like thing though I'm sure it has happened. Well, I guess this is similar to a hidden city e.g. getting on in the middle of the itin. If anyone tries this at home, I would also strongly suggest using paper tickets. CO's e-ticket system seems to have a lot of lengthy computer entries that agents must put in to get your ticket back in sync when changes are made. Have you ever watched agents and all they have to enter in the computer even for simple changes like say a missed connection rebooked, etc?

jimbob, you would be taking a huge risk to try to get on at the second segment. Since the fare difference is $200~, just buy a RT IAH-EWR to tack on before and after the EWR-IAH-NRT-IAH-EWR flights. Then you get more miles!