Flights with extra stops + miles
 

Hi, everyone.

I apologise if this isn't the appropriate place to post, but I can't find anywhere else to post...mostly because I don't know the right terminology or conditions etc!

Anyway, a 2 part question:

1) Is there any sort of special term used for flights that go to more than one place in the same flight? For example:

Istanbul - Cotonou - Abidjan - Istanbul (Turkish)
Singapore - Moscow - Stockholm (Singapore)
Most LIAT flights
Dubai - Bangkok - Sydney - Auckland (Emirates)

2) Assume one books an Istanbul - Abidjan ticket one way, but wishes to get off in Cotonou (due to the cheaper price) and visas are in place for both countries and with no hold baggage, would such a thing a) result in trouble and b) still get miles redemption for the ticket?

Moderators, please feel free to move if necessary.

Thanks!

The term is hidden city ticket, where you buy a ticket AAA-BBB-CCC and it is cheaper than buying AAA-BBB only.
Airlines frown on this behavior, but it has been known to happen numerous times. Just do not make a habit of it.

The airline will immediately cancel all remaining segments of the ticket if you do not show up for CCC. If doing this, its best to do it on one ways, do not check luggage. You will not get miles credited for the un-flown portion of the flight, as your boarding pass will not be scanned, hence you did not board the flight, you will not earn your miles.

Since you mention earning miles, keep in mind not to do this often, as the airline has your frequent flyer # on record on the ticket. If abused repeatedly, and they notice a pattern with the flyer, the airline could request payment on the regular fare, perhaps kick you out of their program, no idea what they could do.

As for the visas, I can not comment, but for some reason I think this will be a sticky situation.

Hi!

I think I should clarify what I mean.

As for the flights that serve more than 1 destination, I mean ones that stop in one place then onto another with the same plane, so in this Turkish case, someone flying from Istanbul to Abidjan would go through Cotonou but not get off. I don't know what you call such flights that do this and would like to know if there is a specific term for this.

​​Other examples may include:
Frankfurt - Baku - Ashgabat
London - LA - Auckland
Taipei - Bangkok - Vienna
Etc

I'm aware of the hidden city concept and how to go about it, but if one is on a flight like the ones mentioned above and gets off early, how would the airline realistically know if the boarding pass doesn't get scanned again?

The OP may be confused, but not all of these are hidden city routes. Some airlines fly AAA-BBB-CCC using the same aircraft. For example, BA and LH do so on some of their Middle East and Asian routes from LHR and FRA respectively. Some of these had fifth freedom rights between BBB-CCC and others didn't.

That's exactly what I was talking about. I've already named some examples of such flights in my previous posts as well :)

But, again, is there any specific term for such flights? I'm aware that flights such as Istanbul - Bogota - Panama City - Istanbul would be referred to as triangles, but what about when it's not a triangle? with or without 5th freedom!

I don't know if there is a name for these flights. Usually they say something like "This is the LH service to Hong Kong and then Manila..."

Right, exactly! It'll be interesting to see if anyone has any other opinions/knowledge about this. :)

These flights are called direct flights. While there are different procedures in place during the stop the airline will most likely know that you are not on board for the extended leg (transit pass, counting eg). That leads what has been explained in post #2 .

Ah, but what about the reverse? What if your ticket is meant for the final stop, but one gets off before it?

Once again, the same thing I mentioned on my post #2 , the airline will cancel all remaining flight segments and you will not earn miles for it, only earn for the flown portion. This is same regardless of whether you do this intentionally or not.

And I said in my original post if it was made as a 1-way booking made separately without hold luggage!

From what I understand, an airline can't cancel other segments made under different bookings.

Yes, on one-ways you are fine. The simple rule to remember is that, if flights are not taken in sequence (i.e. if the sequence is interrupted) all remaining flights on that booking/reservation/ticket/PNR are auto-called (under normal circumstances.)

Your questions are quite simple but there seem to be a lot of confusing answers.

I would just call these flights "multi-stop flights".

Some of these flights are triangles (like TK561), some are just out and back (like NZ1 and NZ2).

I think it depends on the regulations of the stopover country and the systems of the airline.

Suppose that on TK561, you get a single boarding pass for IST-ABJ and passengers for ABJ stay on board in COO. I don't know if this is true or not.

If despite this, you disembark in COO, nobody may even notice that you are missing until some time later. I can't see how you would get into any trouble particularly if you have already gone through immigration. Furthermore, I think you would still get the miles for that trip, because once you have boarded in IST, the computer will see that you are on the flight and will probably give you the miles when it goes through the flight records.

On the other hand, the flight attendants may be instructed to watch out for passengers disembarking at the wrong place, because most people will actually want to go to the place they have a ticket for and would be really unhappy if they accidentally got off at the wrong city. I have no idea how the cabin crew would respond if you then said you wanted to get off. I suppose they cannot force you to stay on board (but maybe they would do a 'reverse United' and call the police to assault you if you try to leave the plane...)


On NZ1, you would get 2 boarding passes, one for LHR-LAX and one for LAX-AKL, although this is a case where it would never be cheaper to book the second segment. If you're a US citizen, and you decide to leave the airport in LAX rather than going to the special transit area that is set up for this flight, nobody can really do anything. I suspect you would get the miles for LHR-LAX, but you would not be boarded for LAX-AKL and so you would not get the miles for the second segment.

It all depends on airline's procedure. If there is disembarking ordered for all passengers at the mid-stop, you should be fine leaving the airport etc. (for example CI AMS - BKK - TPE, you can leave in BKK, because the whole plane disembarks there). But if the other option applies, i.e. continuing passengers are requested to stay on board (e.g. ET flights), you cannot leave the aircraft - somewhere you get stopped by the crew, elsewhere by the ground staff. Maybe you would succeed with some good health-related reasons, but I wouldn't bet on it.

A flight going from A to C is a "non-stop".

Going from A to B then to C without changing planes is known as "direct".

B is an "intermediate stop".

Simple.