Multi Leg Flight
 

Does anyone know if you purchase a ticket for a multi leg flight, can you skip the first leg of the flight and check in at the second leg of the flight?

Generally, no. If you do not show up for any leg of an itinerary the rest of the itinerary is usually cancelled. (Of course this does not matter if you don't show up for the last leg.)

Nope, strictly not allowed. If you turn up at the airport at your connection city, the airline will allow you on if you pay a change fee and the fare difference of what you paid for and what you are flying

Cheers

I don't know of anyone that's tried it recently; maybe NW has changed its policy. Want to be our guinea pig? :D

Just kidding... :cool: I would not recommend you skip the first segment. There will be problems when you try to board the second leg, and those problems will probably result in a very large credit card charge.

Welcome to FT.

Called the "point-of-origin" rule, clearly explained on the NWA website... it's a no-no. The only time I've heard this working is if the airline originated the process. There was someone saying that the FNT-DTW leg of their FNT-DTW-??? flight was cancelled, so they drove down (with NW's blessing) and caught the DTW-??? flight... and still got credit for the FNT-DTW flight. Don't know how they dealt with ending up in FNT later, and their car being in DTW.

Steve B.

I had exactly this type of experience a while back on DL, and still had problems.

I was going to ABQ (SDF-ATL-ABQ) and DL canceled the SDF-ATL segment. They put me in a cab to CVG and I caught a direct CVG-ABQ flt.
When I went to do on-line check-in for the return, I got a message to contact an agent (and couldn't check in). They had canceled the return because I had not flown the original itin. Fortunately, they corrected the error and my return was ok.

It happened again on DL when a snow-storm canceled flts out of SDF, but I still had to get to LAX. I checked with the TA who ok'd the change, then drove myself to CVG for my connection (I do have a 4WD).
The return was monkeyed up (since I drove to CVG I didn't need to connect on to SDF on the return), but SMS straightened it out for me as the TA thankfully made a note in my PNR. Otherwise, they wanted to charge me for the change to my itin.

A somewhat similar incident also occured recently w/ NW.
I was scheduled to go SDF-DTW-MDT. SDF-DTW canceled due to mechanical and NW put me on an invol-re-route onto US SDF-PIT-MDT. On my return, NW gave me an upgrade MDT-DTW.

But how about multi leg flight on different airlines?

For example, you use WorldPerks miles and book an itinerary like this

PEK-CAN-KUL on China Southern (Or PEK-NRT-SIN on NW)
KUL(or SIN)-PEK on MH

Let's assume that you myteriously arrive at KUL (or SIN) without flying China Southern (or NW), will MH allow you to check in and be on aboard?

most likely not as MH will see that your flight started in china...i've skipped the last segment of my flights many times, but skipping the first (unless it's approved by the airline...in the case above with weather) is asking for trouble.

If you are paying with miles and/or the itinerary you are flying is less expensive than what you paid for, the airline will tend to be more sympathetic.