Miniumum Savings Needed - Hidden City
 

What is everyone's minimum savings needed in order for you to book a hidden city since there are some risks involved.

I have only completed 1 hidden city flight. I've reserved it many times but have always reverted back to a nonhidden city booking when prices were close to comparable.

Anyway I have been researching CLE-LAS for my October trip. Currently it is $258 or 17,689pts for CLE-LAS. I can get it for $211 or 13,641pts in a hidden city. Difference of $47 or 4,048pts

For the LAS-CLE, it is $198 or 13,392pts. I can get a hidden city for $176 or 11,392pts. Difference of $22 or 1,943pts.

Interesting! I wish I had experience in this arena. I have tried to look for savings with this method but never had any luck.

What are the risks, especially using points? Protection? The plane either takes off with you as a NS or it doesn't. No baggage? No points if paying cash? I'd do it every time on points.

It really depends on the markets and how WN is trying to market (exploit) it likely due to competition or the lack of. You might be better off overall in the absence of opportunities.

WN does not prohibit hidden city ticketing so there is no associated fraud risk.Other carriers, there are risks which run from don't do this to don't do this often. With WN, it truly does not matter whether you do this once, all the time, or never.

The sole question is whether the time you spend looking for the opportunity exceeds the value of the savings. You can do this for $1 savings and it's worth it if you have nothing better to do with your life.

You don't check bags, you board flight #1 and you disembark at what would have been the connection point and leave the airport rather than heading to flight #2 . You have paid for the ticket to flight #2 's destination which is less than the cost of the ticket to flight #1 and you are done with it. WN does not care and you have saved money.

Biggest risk is that flight that stops in LAS is canceled. SW will only try to find a flight for me to whatever destination I originally made the reservations for. Most likely it will NOT have a layover in LAS.

You can go into any of the airline forums on FlyerTalk and try Advanced Search on 'hidden city' or 'hidden city ticketing'.

A lot of risk will depend on the route network - do they have lots of ways to route you XXX-ZZZ as ticketed without going through your desired destination YYY? Then, do you feel lucky?

As for the question what it's worth, that makes no more sense than asking us how much we would pay for pearl/tri-coat paint on a new car. It's your money. It's your risk tolerance.

Good point although I don't think they do anything for you automatically, you need to call in and work it. Worst case you take the same flight the next day? Really hard to plan around a possible (remote) cancellation,

Explicit permission for hidden city is no longer in T&C. Not prohibited but not explicitly allowed.

Few risks on WN. IRROPS could be problematic.

My minimum savings are the marginal costs of not earning RR points.

For cash I would pay the higher price and earn RR points. (Hidden city cash tickets earn zero points.)

For points I would probably book the hidden city ticket.

OOOPPPSSSS

Missed the word IRROP in your post. Yes, in an IRROP, it could be a big problem.

I'd only do this if it's a continuing flight, that way you'd still earn the points (if that is still the case since 1 year ago). You'd scan your boarding pass only at the departure city and let FA or GA know you are not continuing on so they have an accurate head count. Agreed that this is easier with a points booking, if anything goes wrong you'd still get your points back after the flight.

For $47, I'd do it. For $20, maybe not. Also I don't do it too often.

I would say, don't forget that one of the pitfalls is if something happens and then they re-route you, you'd end up in the hidden city instead of the one you wanna be in!

Is there any way to get the baggage checked to the hidden city only? Presumably we would have to go to the full service counter, not the kiosks, and if the agents ask, tell them you need some items from your bags during your layover? Obviously that wouldn't make sense if you are on the same plane continuing onwards and not changing planes, but I'm sure both you and the agent can do a wink and a nod to figure it out. Or that you need to give the luggage to someone who will meet you at the hidden city airport