Purposely missing a connection???
 

I am planning a trip to the Islands for a two week stay, one week on Oahu and one week on Maui, and wondering if I book a RT from LAX to OGG that has a connection in HNL both ways if I could just miss the connection going to OGG.

The plan is to stay in Oahu the 1st week book a seperate OW flight from HNL to OGG for the 2nd week then return on the OGG-HNL-LAX flight.

Seems to be much cheaper to go this route rather than book LAX-HNL round trip then a seperate HNL-OGG RT.

Thoughts??? What are the consequences for missing the connection? The main issue that comes to mind is that the luggage when we check in at LAX will be destined to go straight through to OGG. Wonder if there is a way to collect the luggage at HNL?

Why don't you get one award ticket to HNL and the return from OGG?
You can book one-way award tickets.

I have done that before in the past and sometimes the one way fares match the Round Trip fares and other times the One way fares are more. However in this case I forgot to mention that I have that one time 25% Round Trip Discount that I want to use for 2. Since I will be traveling with a total party of 4 I will use award points for 2 and use the 25% discount and pay for the other two tickets.

Since the fare for the LAX-HNL and LAX-HNL-OGG (connection in HNL) flights are the essential the same price for cash and award, it would make sense to book the LAX-HNL-OGG and miss the HNL-OGG connection for the 1st weeks stay in Oahu then only have to book a OW fare from HNL-OGG. The 2nd week in Maui would not be an issue for the return home.

Does anyone know if we could get our Luggage in HNL for the LAX-HNL-OGG flight? What would be the consequence of missing the HNL-OGG connnection?

Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I believe you are going to cause a delay on the connection flight. They are going to delay departure as they wait to remove your bags from the plane as they realize you are not on it. I think that would be a drag on others' vacas. :td:

Have some empathy...

That would not be my intent to delay the connecting flight. I know when I do curb side check in at LAX the same Skycab helps us each time and knows us well enough since we are generous with him and I could probably have him tag our bags to get off loaded from the LAX-HNL leg instead of getting transfered to the HNL-OGG leg.

Just wondering if anyone has done this and if it is possible. I would think it would not create a delay if we told the check in desk for the HNL-OGG leg that we would not be able to make it then they would know not to wait for last minute stragglers.

They could probably even take on some stand-bys that was as well. Just want to know if there is some official policy on this.

My understanding has always been that if you don't complete the outbound portion of a ticketed itinerary all the way through to final destination, the airline will almost always cancel the return portion of your itinerary.

Do you have 1st hand experience with this? That is the type of answer I was looking for. I will call the Hawaiian Air Customer service line tonight and try to get an official answer from their call center. Will post their response.

Try a search for "hidden city".. You'll get more info on this matter than you can shake a stick at! :eek:

Very interesting about the "Hidden City". Never knew there was a term for it. The things I learn on here...

I did speak with the HA Call Center and they stated that I could get off in HNL for the LAX-HNL-OGG segment and miss the final leg and get my luggage in HNL and the Return flight from OGG-HNL-LAX will not be affected.

I asked the same question several different ways to make sure this was the case and the CS Rep insisted there would be no issue. Will try to speak with another rep to see if that is HA's official stance.

If you miss any flight in an itinerary, all subsequent flights will be cancelled.

I would not believe what the rep told you in the post above without a signed acknowledgment.

The HA call center is worthless. They have a bad habit of saying whatever they think will pacify the customer even if its incorrect information. If you miss the connecting flight, your return will be cancelled. Thats a standard practice at just about all airlines.

It certainly seems that way because each time I have called them about various issues I always get different answers. Since I will be traveling with my family it will not be worth the risk to save a few hundered dollars.

In terms of this applying to ALL Airlines, searching under "Hidden City" seems to indicate that Southwest does not out right prohibit it.

1. If you miss any segment, the remainder of the itinerary will be cancelled. If you read the COC, you will see that the CSR with whom you spoke does not have the authority to amend the COC. As others note, if you want to be protected, get it in writing.

2. You can't short-check luggage. (And the skycap who "always" checks you in) doesn't have the authority or capacity to force the short-check. You will be directed to a counter agent, where you will be told that it can't be done and your PNR flagged as an attempt at hidden city.

Clark Howard (the travel guru who also owned a travel agency) always mentioned this, skipping a portion of an outbound flight could very well get the remainder cancelled. I don't know if it was a guarantee, but certainly a flag.

Also, skipping the last leg can also get you in trouble.

No, it really won't, unless you do it many, many times.