fil_87

Does anyone has any experience with hidden-city ticketing (skiplagged flights)? Is it safe? Would you recommend it?

Thank you

PeanutYYZ

Curious if anyone has any recent experience with this -- I've been reading various things online that range from "don't worry about it, just don't do it frequently" to "Lufthansa will reprice your ticket based on the part you actually flew, and send you a bill for the difference". It's hard to get any actual concrete examples one way or the other, though! There's also that one pending court case where LH sued someone for doing this; as I understand it, they lost, but on a technicality, and have filed an appeal.

SPlDER

https://www.godsavethepoints.com/201...pping-flights/

PeanutYYZ

Right, that's the lawsuit I mentioned. That's only one data point, though.

lipsum

I honestly don't know if the rules are different for group tickets. (I know when an OTA systematically books hidden-city tickets for its customers, the airlines can and will punish/charge it. I also know that for individual tickets bought and ticketed in the EU, it is most likely not allowed to reprice retroactivally.)

In any case, I once bought a group ticket for me and friends where I added a 3X. Didn't have any problems. It was all short-haul so we were on HBO. As a common courtesy, after arriving at our desired destination, I did call in that we wouldn't be able to use the final leg (making up an excuse).

Btw, calling up the airline and explaining that I can't use a last leg is what I always do. At least, that way, they can give the seat to someone else and don't wait for you at the gate.

chris63

fil_87

And were you charged any fee for that? Such as a no-show fee

fil_87

​​​​​​And were you charged any fee for that? Such as a no-show fee

LondonElite

The airline probably knew before you did that you wouldn't be on the flight.

PeanutYYZ

Just curious, what are you basing this on?

lipsum

I don't understand the irony.

To my knowledge, a 3X is something like LHR-HEL // HEL-LHR-MAN where I skip the last leg LHR-MAN. How would the airline know in advance I would skip LHR-MAN provided I few all previous segments??

LondonElite

I have no idea what a 3X is but there is no need or benefit in calling an airline to let them know you won't show up. Revenue management algorithms are pretty good at establishing no-show / standby numbers.

lipsum

I'm just gonna have to pass on answering this in detail as it's somewhat complex. But there are huge threads on the topic both here on FT as well as on the German VFT where some lawyers chimed in.

One aspect which is legally problematic is that the customer doesn't know in advance how much he might ultimately have to pay.

lipsum

On average they are good, yes. But there's obviously going to be a non-trivial forecasting error at the level of an individual flight. I do think it is a common courtesy to call them up.

That is, the algorithm might assign a probability of, say, 3% to you not showing up. If you call them and tell them you won't show, that probability jumps from 3 to 100%. Knowing this might help them, especially if the flight is fully booked or overbooked.

EDIT: Another comment on this. The prediction of no-shows/standbys is obviously far from perfect which is why airlines err a lot on the side of caution. Roughly speaking, if their prediction was essentially perfect at the level of the individual flights, we should see very close to 100% load on every flight. But we don't, average load is considerably less than 100%, in no small part to airlines wanting to protect themselves from the high cost of an overbooking situation.

There is also a lot of variance in the load. That is direct empirical evidence that either their predictive model or their revenue management system is far from perfect.

chris63