Skip first segment flight
 

I know this is a old classic one but i thought i might as well ask

Need to go to shanghai, found super cheap fares with KLM from London for 509$ and whilst i was searching i found fares with SAS from london connecting in CPH for 779$ which aint bad, here's the thing being based out of CPH, is there any chance in hell i can jump on board in CPH and skip the london flights and still pay for it?

Is it possible to check in for the london flight at CPH airport, and try and get boarding passes for the journey and then just skip the LON part?

(need to go wed/thur to mon/tue)

Generally, if you don’t show up on one of the legs the rest within that trip will be cancelled by the airline.

they dont take this very well. if you dont show up for the first segment
rest of the segments would be cancelled.

i know that's the standard proccedure any way of possibly getting around this?

Probably the only way to get around this is to buy a ticket that does not have the extra segment.

Probably this wont work out cost effective, but you can try to
get a multi segment trip. Start and end in your own city.

Or use an inexpensive budget flight to/from the other airport.

You could always buy a cheap one-way ticket CPH-LHR, start your trip in London, and then skip the last segment (CPH-LHR) on your return.
Of course it makes no difference if you travel CPH-LHR or not at the end, just tell the check-in staff in PVG to only check you and your luggage to CPH.

You can not skip the first segment and start your trip in CPH.
The reason why most airlines have this rule is exactly to prevent what you want to do.
The competition out of London is extremely fierce with probably 2-3 airlines flying nonstop and loads of other airlines selling tickets via their hubs in Europe and Asia.
That's why prices are so much lower ex-LHR, while in CPH there hardly is no competition and SAS can charge higher prices.

It can happen though. I know someone who managed to do this on the famous China tickets, by calling in ahead. That was full fare (well, supposed to be at least) C though..

Yes. As long as LHR-CPH is not on SK.

SAS is not the only airline with these procedures.

I would not recommend skipping the first leg.....

As has been discussed on several notorious threads on FT, you should NEVER skip the first leg. Only the last leg is OK although technicall the airline could even come back at you there (although there have been no reports of this ever happening).

Actions of certain FT'ers a while back doing exactly what you wish to do resulted in several airfares by several *A carriers being removed from a certain route.

You have been warned!

:)

I just got off the phone with SAS. You can just get on the 2nd leg if the whole trip is on SAS airline even if you booked it through a travel agency. You should call them anyways. It only took me 5 minutes to get all the info.

I think whoever told you that is wrong. The new call centers from SAS aren't exactly a shining example of competency. I've had to call several times for an issue that keeps arising and I was given a different answer/excuse every single time, so I just called back until I got a person that did what I wanted.
However, in this case it is the system that automatically cancels the rest of the trip if you no-show on the first leg. I don't think "But the call-center said it is okay" is likely to work as an excuse when being denied boarding in CPH. Definitely not a situation I'd like to find myself in. This is very dangerous advice I would personally would not trust. However, if OP is brave enough to try do please let us know how it went.

As Nick Art wrote, it's definitely wrong that you can just get on the 2nd leg. It's a known ticketing rule that if you don't use the first leg, all legs will be voided. In theory you can't even skip the last leg.

Don't do that because in case of SOL you won't get a dime from SAS and you are totally on your own.

If your itinerary is all within Europe, then the legs are generally seen as one way tickets. And yes, you can get SK to remove the first leg, I have done this with Plus fares and even gotten a refund for the first leg. However, don't be a no show, you need to manage it in advance. Once your ticket include a long haul (as here) this does not work, and you have to fly the first leg to not get the ticket cancelled.

I believe this might only apply to outward and onward journey and not the individual legs? So when you miss your outbound travel you may still use the inbound flights as they are treated as one-ways?

You might be right, removing the OSL CPH leg from a OSL-CPH-ATH is a bit more complicated, and I certainly would not want to miss it.

Removing the OSL-CPH leg from a OSL-CPH-ATH SK ticket will lead to repricing based on current fares.

To skip OSL-CPH-ATH on a OSL-ATH SK return ticket and using only the return leg(s) to CPH or OSL should in principle be possible (but no first hand experience).

Call SK and see what they can do for you, sometimes you can get a leg dropped, other times you can't but like others said, you can't just no-show. Only if they agree to it and update your itinerary, you can get away with it. If they suggest repricing then kindly decline.

I've had some other airlines help me out as well but I'm sure status and spend have gone a long way there.

why don’t just go buy some Air Canada miles and redeem points for CA flight CPH-PEK, it should be even cheaper I believe.

Quite possibly good advice... although as the question was asked in 2006 its possibly a tad late..;). (Its so easy to miss the OP date I know!!!)

missed the date😂😂 tried to delete the post but unfortunately can’t find where is the delete button

I went to the airport a few days before just to double-check at the airline counter. The agent told me there was no way to skip the first leg, and it was possible to exchange the flight for one with just the 2nd leg, but it was going to be more expensive. Also, since I booked through another agency there's no way for the airline to change the flight themselves. I just ended up booking another flight to the start of the trip and taking it from there.