What happens if I "miss" my flight?
 

Hi there.. new to FT. I'm flying to the south of France from Los Angeles next month with a layover in Zurich. On my return leg, I have an hour layover before my flight back to LA. From reading on these forums, this is plenty of time to catch my connecting flight at ZUR.

I have some friends in Zurich that would love to take me out in the evening. My questions is.. what happens if I purposely miss my flight in Zurich with the hopes that they put me on the flight the next day, so I can spend the night there? I don't know.. tell them I had explosive diarrhea or I fell asleep at the boarding gate and I missed the flight... :p

Has anyone had any experience with this? Are there any additional charges? Would I be forced to pay a fare difference?

Thanks in advance! :D

Welcome to FT, fivefortysix!

If you intend to take a later flight, give LX a call (or your travel agent, or whoever issued your ticket) and ask them if you can change your reservation to the next day ZRH-LAX flight and have a stopover in ZRH. @:-)

To just not show up and hope to get your way by telling some story is about the worst way to go about this...

Seriously.

Thanks for the welcome Goliath!

A change in date would probably result in me having to pay more due to the fare difference and maybe a ticket change surcharge. I'm wondering if I just miss the flight if they would just put me on the next one without having to pay anything extra.

No, it probably means that they charge you for a one way ticket day of flight, ZRH-LAX, which is likely a bit more expensive than a change fee and refare. You might get lucky if they take mercy on you when you lie to them, but by the rule, they do not have to do anything more than this, and I think it's a really bad idea to try this "trick" 5,000 miles away from home just to save a few hundred dollars, especially when you do not have a legitimate excuse. If you like gambling, I suggest Vegas, not trying this. Either the company of your friends is worth the expense of a few hundred dollars or it is not.

thanks for the advice!

And remember that SWISS might be reading this :-)

No-Showing on a flight results in automatic cancellation of your flight (and any onward flights, if applicable), and forfeiture of your ticket fare, unless you have a flexible ticket or one that can be changed after the departure of the original flight according to the fare rules.

Plus, you might find that our flights to LAX are rather solidly booked, so your chances of getting a cheap one way fare on such short notice are next to none...

Thank you for flying SWISS, and have a good trip!

Kind regards,
Gianrico

Is that plan A out of the window then.:D

lol let this be a lesson to all flytalkers. big brother airline is watching :D

Once I showed up one day late to my booking because I was "sure" I was travelling on that day I went there. I felt really grateful to Lufthansa which took us home on that day just charging a rebooking fee.

Technically we were a no-show and had no valid ticket anymore. I can tell you it wasn't a very pleasant feeling and I would never think of taking a risk here.