McSam18

Hey all,

I feel that, aside from the knowledge, the beauty of FlyerTalk is our difference, and sometimes, similarities of opinions. Because of this, I thought this was a great opportunity to present this topic for discussion.

I stumbled upon an article that was publicized on both twitter and tumblr promoting hidden city ticketing to avoid higher fares on US Airways. The article was a comprehensive step by step guide teaching newbie flyers how to book hidden city tickets. The article used an example of PHL-CLT.

For myself, I pay whatever fare it takes when I travel, either for leisure or work. An article like this annoys the hell out of me, as ultimately the cost
of hidden city ticketing will come back to bite all of us in the long run.

I know hidden city is discussed here often, but how do you guys feel about the intent of this article?

UrbaneGent

Honestly, I feel like it belongs with all the other crap on the internet like how to grow marihuana in your garage or an atom bomb in your basement. The typical kettle isn't that savvy and one misstep along the way and that person is going to have issues.

Am I naive to think it happens less often than one would think? The reason why you pay whatever fare to go AAA-BBB is because it's the right thing to do AND getting caught would not be fun.

bkafrick

Yawn.

Just another day in the blogosphere.

PWMTrav

I don't really have a problem with people doing it. It's against the fare rules, sure, but it's also not a big enough problem to cause issues and probably never will be.

It sounds appealing, but it requires time and effort to price, committing to no luggage, and probably not accruing FF miles either since using your FF# is the one way your pattern will get you caught. The return trip also complicates things. It's maybe a decent idea for a college student with no money, but for everyone else - especially families - it's near impossible.

It's like fuel dumping. I read that thread and am fascinated, but there's absolutely no way I'm booking my family on a rock bottom fare to FCO with a 1X in east bumble... and risk having it all canceled.

dcpatti

As the number of "travel hacker" blogs has grown, the quality of the blog contents has declined. Everyone and their dog is now a self-appointed travel sherpa and there's only so many tricks to go around. Blog any specific trick or technique--- or even a really good, and perfectly legitimate, deal--- and it gets exploited then shut down. The bloggers are running out of stuff to attract readers so it's no surprise that they're resorting to explaining hidden city ticketing, fuel dumps and the like.

We each have our own comfort zone--- what I consider to be too risky and questionable, another might consider to be perfectly fine and a third might consider to be downright unethical.

BoeingBoy

The non-FF has little to lose - probably the worst that would happen is having to pay the fare they should have paid to start with. Unfortunately, the FF has the most to lose - confiscation of miles, closing of DM account, loss of status are all possibilities. The problem is that if US or any carrier sees a significant uptick in those using things like hidden cities, a way to make it harder to do or stop it will make life harder on everyone, including FFs who may just be dropping the last segment or whatever because of a change in plans.

Jim

tommyleo

^ ^ ^

LowlyDLsilver

What Jim said.

With every bozo who reads stuff like that, and tries to game the system, the risk of revenue protection enhancing their scrutiny of the practice increases.

The unintended consequence being that at some point in time, someone who skips a segment because of a must-make last minute meeting will face the consequences.

The other side - the inevitable "I did it and got caught, US is punishing me unfairly" one-post wonder rant threads.

Often1

It's also true that FT is a terrible metric. People post self-evident b.s. here about what they did do and say they got away with. But, they don't come to FT to brag that they got caught by better RM software, had their FF account zeroed out and are being dunned for a fare difference.

And, the carriers don't brag about doing it either.

aztimm

Since this isn't a topic specific to US Airways, I'm moving this thread over to the TravelBuzz forum.

Thanks.


aztimm

McSam18

My apologies. I left out of my OP that this article was specific to US, as the author tries to circumvent CLT-PHL fares.

Regardless, I'm glad I posted the topic as there was a lot of good discussion and insight.