"skipping" segment question
 

Next week I have a flight SAN-EWR-AVP and AVP-EWR-SAN 2 days later. A friend of mine happens to be driving from the Newark area to Scranton and has offered to give me a lift.

Now I know the rule states that if I skip my EWR-AVP segment my return flight "may" be cancelled, but is this really the case or is it a rule they don't usually enforce? And if they did, couldn't I just claim that I did take the flight but that their stellar partner CommutAir must have screwed up?

If you skip the EWR-AVP segment, CO will cancel the remainder of your itinerary. You can try to argue that CommutAir screwed up, but all that hassle may not reinstate your itinerary (or in best case scenario delay you long enough that you miss your flight).

Not only will they cancel the rest of your itinerary, they'll not reinstate it and allow you to continue even on standby unless you can convince them that you really did fly the segment in question. And, if you're supposedly connecting at EWR, you'd have to convince them not only that CommutAir didn't properly lift the missing segment, but that you also have a good reason to not have your boarding pass for the segment that you "just got off" as well as why you're outside security at EWR and not already at your connecting gate.

Most times that I've gone EWR-AVP, it's severely delayed. You could get to EWR & hope for a delay/cancelation. If that happens, tell them you'll just drive to EWR and catch your flights home & it'll be no problem. However, just skipping it (without permission) WILL result in a canceled return itinerary.

Actually I just want to skip the EWR-AVP segment and then take the AVP-EWR-SAN flight as normal. But it sounds like it would be a bad idea from what has been said here. Maybe I'll just wait till I get to EWR and tell an agent the truth and ask if they'll let me do it. If they say no I'll just take the flight.

I wouldn't hope for anything but they most likely will cancel the remainder of your itin. Try calling and speaking to an agent but in my experience it hasn't worked until I got to a supervisor who just waive the 'change fees'. In airline mentality skipping portion of your itin and leaving the rest unchanged is still viewed as a change even though they can sell your seat that you already paid for to another customer and double up. It's just dumb.

I did this on DL once before - they canceled the rest of the trip.

What about OW?
 

What can CO do if I decide to skip the last segment of an OW? Since there is no return for CO to cancel, I wouldn't need to worry about that. Obviously, I must be willing not the check any bag for this to work.

LAX

What explaining would need to be done? The OP decided to throw out his BP after "flying," and how would he be caught outside security? He'd be explaining this after the "flight" anyways.

I skipped a segment on DL also. However, I called the customer service line and explained the situation to them prior to the flight. The agent deleted that leg from my itinerary and everything went fine.

I was a Plat Medallion at the time -- don't know if that made a difference.

SR

Two potential problems:

1. If you have a non-refundable fare, if you simply skip your OW vs. informing CO you are not traveling, you will forfeit the entire value of the ticket (although I am not sure if there are any non-refundable OW tickets). Does anyone know if this also applies to refundable tickets (I would doubt it)?

2. If you do this often enough, the CoC does have a clause in which CO threatens to cancel your OP account, although I am not sure if this has ever actually happened.

For #1: I am only going to skip the last segment, so there will not be any residual value regardless because I consider it a "throw-away" segment anyway. Since it's OW, there is no return for CO to cancel.

For #2: That's actually what I am more curious about. I have never done it before and I don't plan on making a habit of it. I am only considering it because that would make the fare more palatable (not cheap by any means!) as opposed to ridiculous.

LAX

One way is likely refundable and changeable, so it might be worth checking on that....

Even if I have already flown a segment? That's probably worth looking into.

LAX

Whoops, I thought you had a true one-way ticket, vs return leg of a rt. Different rules.