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I think you need to ask yourself if saving $93 is worth the effort and potential high price of a full Y fare. I'd just change it and keep an eye on the prices. You can always refare it.

It won't matter if a phone agent notes your PNR. They'll cancel your reservation when you no show.

If you want to try it by all means go for it but I think you'll be in for a nasty, expensive surprise in Vegas.

I wonder why they make this illegal. Conceptually, this is no different than hidden city ticketing. I wonder if it is an issue where the computer cannot handle the situation.

Operationally, an airline is always looking to off-load passengers who are not going to be on a plane. This may be because they have oversold the flight and are looking for no-show to make it work, or they may just want to reduce liability in case of weather or mechanical disruption.

If you buy a ticket to travel A-B-C and don't show up at A, an airline, even one as generous as Southwest in allowing hidden-city ticketing, is going to eagerly want to cancel your boarding pass at both A and B.

This is not an actual policy that I know of, so you may choose to wait until someone from Southwest comments in this thread. I am merely pointing out that it is natural for an airline to want to cancel your boarding pass (and any downstream boarding passes) at the earliest legal moment.

Thanks again for the input, everyone.

I'm obviously looking for the best deal, but I also am not looking to get away with anything/get screwed on this at the airport.

So, if someone from Southwest does read this, I would very much appreciate it if you could give me the full, complete truth and tell me how to proceed.

Thanks much!

Well, I don't know 100% for sure if this plan will work or not, but I think our CS&S Rep is confusing deplaining early and boarding in the middle of an itinerary. Let's say you have a pnr booked from DEN to SFO with a connection in LAS. The system puts all of the airfare funds for the entire trip with the DEN/LAS leg. The only funds associated with the LAS/SFO leg are PFCs and segment fees. If you try to board in LAS without boarding in DEN there won't be funds for that leg. (Yes the funds will be held in the system for you, but with the way our airport ticketing system works--or at least used to work--the LAS station can't readily access them. On the other hand, if you board in DEN and deplane in LAS without flying to SFO, we do allow that, and since the funds are held//pulled in DEN, there is no problem. Of course, you wouldn't be able to shortcheck the bags to LAS, but if you only have a carryon, that is no problem.

I will only have carry-ons, so that should at least make it a BIT easier.

I will be boarding in LAS and flying to MKE, so I will definitely be missing that first leg (DEN to LAS).

So, Brian, what's your advice? Give it a run and complain if it doesn't work? Or call back, say the last person screwed up in booking my ticket and ask that they knock that first leg off?

Anopther new term for me. And a good one at that!

Is it then true if I have two seperate PRNs with a connection in between and I want to check my bags all the way through, it is called a "longcheck" ??

I have such a situation this week. I will go to ticketing and ask to longcheck my bags and see what they say. Oh darn, I forgot I will have only carryon as I am cautious and did not want to risk the "Longcheck" would not work.

If you only have one "PNR #" (confirmation #) for the origin date of flight, then Southwest's system removes everything when you try to make any change. They cannot comment-off an initial segment off online, they cannot do so via phone, more importantly when they delete your PNR # as a no-show, they will be deleting any attached segments for the origin.

If you really want to push this issue further then call reservations and keep asking them to give you the shorter route at the cheaper price (from the longer route).

You've gotten good advice on this forum so far. The plan won't work and you'll get a long beep and not be able to board the plane. At best the gate agent will pull some strings, make some calls, and get you on the flight without any extra $$ as a courtesy. BUT more likely you will end up missing or delaying the flight. Plus you'll be the absolute last to board.

Since it's likely documented on your PNR Record that you have been given conflicting advice from the reservations phone # perhaps calling and nicely asking for a supervisor will result in some special fare tricks to offset the difference in published price??? Waiting till the day & time of flight seems like a very bad plan. There are a few irr-ops scenarios which could arise and backfire even more: your origin segment gets cancelled but the 2nd segment does fly afterall. your origin segment is late so they shift people to a different flight plan which skips or changes your connecting city... both of those would result in your tickets being modified by the origin flight time.

Well I have never heard the term "longcheck" before, but shortcheck is as old as my airline career (almost 34 years). Either way, we should check your bag through to the final destination (as long as there isn't a long layover), but because the bag checks print off the pnr, they will have to overide to get the final destination to print.

Oh, and Expert 7700, unless it has changed, we don't cancel return pnrs if the outbound leg is noshown.

Am I to interpret that this means what the agent did for me will work?

I'm so confused. And I love how nobody KNOWS FOR SURE! That even calling and verifying won't do a thing! That just seems unbelievable to me.

So, I'm going to just leave it as it is. I would call and ask about other options, but since what agents say and do apparently don't mean a thing, what's the point? What if I called back and explained my situation, and the next agent also told me it was fine? Am I supposed to say this: "NO, IT'S NOT, LET ME PAY ANOTHER $100!"

Thanks again for all the input ... I do value all of your opinions, but I'm not going to volunteer to pay an extra $100 when I already booked my flight. I'm going to trust Southwest to take care of it and stand behind what their people do.

But if a person has a one-way ticket with two segments on a single PNR will you cancel the second segment of a flight if the passenger does not board and fly the first segment on the flight?

NO, NO, NO, NO NO.

I do not believe ANYONE has told you they think this will work. Brian has told you "but I think our CS&S Rep is confusing deplaining early and boarding in the middle of an itinerary."

I think you are asking for trouble. And I think you will be standing there on the ground watching your flight fly away.

And what agents say and do do matter, but you are trying to do something way out of the ordinary, even for FlyerTalk. If the agent did not understand what you meant, and told you, yes, hidden city ticketing is ok, the agent was correct and YOU were wrong.

Agreed. I wouldn't try it myself. However I rate your chances of success at 30%
based on how nice Southwest employees usually are. If you show any attitude of entitlement, your chances will drop below 10%. Just say you must have misunderstood and let them decide to do you a favor. Ideally, you should not even ask, but that takes a very smooth touch that few of us have.

Good luck, and please post a full report of how it went, leaving out any identifying information that might harm employees who did you a favor.

From my first post:

There was no confusion as to what I wanted to do. I am sure of that.

Was the agent quite possibly wrong in her allowing me to do that? According to most everyone here, she was. But she completely understood that I was skipping the first leg of the flight.

So, back to my question from before: Is everyone here telling me that I am supposed to now call Southwest, explain my situation and tell them to charge me another $100 because one of their agents screwed up?

Thanks again for the help!

This remains the key question as far as I can tell.