Etihad: Turning a stopover into an Open Jaw
 

I have a question. I have bought a return ticket from London to Cape Town with Etihad Airways. The flight stops off in Johannesburg both ways (but no chage of plane). If I do not check any luggage in on the outbound leg, is there anything to stop me getting off at Johannesburg and then later returning on my scheduled flight from Cape Town?

The reason to do this is that an open jaw ticket is a lot more expensive than this option. When in Johannesburg you are not required to disembark from the aircraft in order to continue to Cape Town (i.e. boarding passes don't get checked again), so I do not see how they would stop you from getting off at Johannesburg as if you were a passenger bound for Johannesburg. There is no subsequent check of boarding passes at this point is there?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Please follow the discussion as the thread moves to our appropriate airline forum where Etihad is discussed. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

[With Moderator hat off: the normal experience reported by FlyerTalk members on most all airlines is that they will cancel all further segments of an itinerary if a passenger fails to board an earlier segment. So if there is a seat check or boarding pass scan at the intermediate stop, and a passenger is not accounted for, later segments can be cancelled. This is general info only and not specific to any one airline or trip.]