I don't think this is worse. That was done often in the days of the Saturday night stayover required for travel. The back to back would be purchased from the first city as the origin with a return in the distant future that you could indeed take or intend to take (a free round trip to wherever is a way to look at it). The second originated in your destination city (with a different airline) with a return that made the second possible. If your plans change so that you don't make the second round then you're out the money for the second trip which you might have wanted to take. I remember doing this once on US and booking it by phone, for both trips and being open about it. She even told me that it was called back-to-back ticketing and then issued the tickets. This kind of thing led to the one way fares we see on the web - but international flights still have these types of rules (one week stayovers and so on).

The back to back ticketing shouldn't be 'illegal' or forbidden by the airlines. IMHO you are not cheating but being smart and knowing how to comply with the rules... Same thoughts about the mini-roundtrip within the roundtrip - you are not cheating!

A couple of years ago I was forced to do a back-to-back because I screwed up my flight dates, not intentional. But it was totally worth it, as I ended up paying $100.50 for a roundtrip FLL-JFK-FLL. It was a DL deal through Pensacola, when they launch their CRJ flight FLL-PNS that didn't last too long... I think is back on schedule now.

Different story with the 'throw away' ticket... that, I don't agree with

If you skip any segment on CO, your itinerary will be canceled. It's as simple as that.

Be careful of that train. Amtrak doesnt own that piece of track and you could end up being 2 hours late if other traffic is coming through. Whoever took over the old D&H owns the track now, and they do whatever they can legally to screw Amtrak.
You need to check with CO. I had a San Diego-Los Angeles-to Honolulu (thats SAN-LAX-HNL for the sophisticates) and it was clear I wasnt going to make the San Diego-Los Angeles connection in time to make the Hawaii flight. CO allowed me to get my butt to LA by van to make the flight. But, on the other hand SAN_LAX_HNL was more expensive than LAX-HNL, unlike your case.

I do not understand what is wrong with booking a roundtrip inside a roundtrip. I have legitimately done it several times. What if you are going somewhere and then from there you are going somewhere else, for say a weekend?

Well you could book it from ABL, get a 'flat' and your friend can only drive you to ewr.

There's nothing wrong with end-on-end ticketing (which is probably what you did). Back-to-back ticketing is verboten because it circumvents airline fare rules. For example, a back-to-back ticket may be used to circumvent a Saturday night stay requirement, a Saturday night stay usually being the difference between a cheaper fare offered to leisure travelers and a more expensive fare targeted at business travelers.

Are you saying, for example, If I want to go to San Diego to Barbados and the fare is $750, that it would be illegal for me to book a SAN-FLL for $200 and FLL-Barbados for say $250 (should those fares be available)????

Hi,

No, that kind of ticketing should be perfectly fine.

Regards

TBS

The only way to do Back-to-Back without getting in any trouble, is very Simple, You book 1 tkt on CO and the other on UA. The only problem is you wont beable to get the credit for both trips on 1 Carrier.

A Genius of a friend that I advised thusly , went out and did say a UA and USAir and had the US miles also go onto their Mileage Plus acct, you got they were Caught. Lesson is is does NOT pay to be GREEDY. BTW I did tell them it would be Foolish to risk it , but they knew better