Hidden City ticketing
 

Hi all

Wanted to get views / opinions on this.

I have the option to depart from A - B and then return B - A - C which is a lot cheaper than a straight A-B return.

I don't intend to check in bags so can I just drop the A-C leg on my return journey.

Its a European airline.

What are A, C, and C?

What is the carrier?

Without very specific information, you will get generalized answers. None of those are anything you ought to depend on.

General consensus is that if you do not make a habit of doing this you should be ok. Just also be aware that in case of IRROPS the airline could re-route you to C and that may not be via A.

Not sure why A C and C are relevant in answering the question?

The airline in question does not fly from B to C, so it is with a partner airline. But the ticket is essentially from A - B outbound and B - A - C inbound with the carrier operating A - B and B - A and B - C is operated by another carrier. But its one ticket.

Thanks for this. As per my previous answer, the airline in question doesn't actually fly to C, so that couldn't happen really. If the flight was delayed then presumably they'd just arrange to alter the onward connecting flight which I wouldn't be taking anyway.

What is IRROPS?

Irregular operations, as in there being a mechanical or weather delay that could affect routing and potentially cause delay or misconnect to your end destination, regardless if this was the intended one or not.

Details can help with nuances in particular circumstances/airlines that may affect your decision. The airline isn't going to find you out and hunt you down based on a Flyertalk posting!

Just because a partner carrier is operating the last leg doesn't necessarily preclude a rerouting due to IRROPS. It's possible a cancelation on the "B to A' return segment could result in you rerouted via that same partner - or even a different partner airline - instead, and not touching "A" at all. It's probably not a huge chance in most cases may still be possible. Knowing what airlines and routes involved might provide a better guesstimate of the risk of that occurring.

I see. Thanks for your comments. Its not really a risk for me - if it happened it wouldn't be a huge issue as the airport is only one hour flight from where I want to actually go. So worst case scenario of flying there is not a massive issue, just inconvenience.

If the mysterious airline in question (why are you being coy?) flies from B to C, though, it won't take much of an operational hiccup for them to put you on a B-C nonstop.They'll think they're doing you a favor. You'll need a reason why you want to go via A. (Happened to me once. AA offered me an LHR-BOS non-stop instead of my existing LHR-ORD-BOS routing. I told the LHR Flagship Lounge agent that I wanted the extra miles. They don't put dummies in Flagship Lounges. She got it instantly.)

You may not see why these are relevant, but as you can see they are.

Thus, the answer to your questions are:
1. Depending on where A-B and C are, this may or may not be a problem, logistical or otherwise.
2. Depending on what you mean by "partner airline" and which airlines they are, this may or may not be a problem, logistical or otherwise.

Its really not relevant as the airline does not fly from B-C - so there is absolutely no risk that the airline would therefore reroute me from B-C as they don't fly that route. And even if they did it wouldn't really be that much of an issue.

I think the point is being missed - I have no concerns about being rerouted or about luggage - more about the principal of what I'm doing.

There's lots of threads about the ethics of hidden city ticketing so no need to start a new one.

It's not surprising. Every travel hacking intro I know will tell you to try not just 1x/4x, but also 3x (the case of the OP) and 1x. 2x seem to be suggested less frequently.

And, for the OP's question: I think in Europe, it's fairly safe to do hidden-city ticketing. Stipulations by the airlines that prohibit it may actually be legally void.

Unless it involves LH which recently sued a passenger for the fraud. While it has temporarily lost for apparently having filed in the wrong court, I would not be quite so quick as to make generalizations regarding regions such as "Europe". I am not suggesting that OP's mystery carriers will sue him, simply that broad generalizations are not useful for individual circumstances.