I hope this is the right forum for this question. If not, I apologize up front.

I know most airlines have some sort of policy about buying a roundtrip ticket with a stopover and then not continuing with the flight. For example, if you buy a ticket from DTW-DEN-SEA-DEN-DTW to get a lower fare and then decided you want to stay in Denver, I've heard you can't use the DEN-DTW portion of the ticket without paying some sort of fee since you didn't continue to your final destination. I have a question as to whether or not there are any repercussions from the airlines if I don't use the *last* segment of a trip that I'm planning. The following is the situation I'm running across:

I'm planning a trip 7/19-7/21 from Detroit to Miami. I have priced out a ticket from DTW(Detroit) and from FNT(Flint) since I'm about the same driving distance from both airports.

1) FNT-DTW-MIA-DTW-FNT = $204.50
2) DTW-MIA-DTW = $336.50
3) FNT-DTW-MIA-DTW = $269.00

For all the above itineraries, the DTW-MIA-DTW flights are the SAME flight numbers. The only difference is how I get to DTW. Given that there is a $132.00 difference between the lowest and highest fare, option #1 seems to be the best choice. The only drawback is on the DTW-FNT segment. There is a 2 hour layover at DTW which I don't really want to do since I only live about 45 minutes from either airport. In my opinion, I should be able to purchase the first itinerary and then just "trash" the final DTW-FNT segment and catch a ride home from DTW. In effect, I would be flying the itinerary of option #3 but paying the cost of option #1. To me, this is like buying a roundtrip ticket for the lower fare and not using the return portion and shouldn't cause any problems.

Has any one else done this before? Am I correct in my thinking or am I off base? In this economy, I'm all for "creative flying" if it's going to save me over $100.00. Any feedback is appreciated.

CDF

you shouldn't have any problems if you don't check luggage. They will check your luggage all the way to FNT since it is your final destination. If you are sure you can carry it all on then I don't see any problem with doing it.

You would be violating your fare rule by doing that, so don't mention it to your airline, and don't check any bags since they would go to the final destination. If you only did it once, the airline wouldn't catch you. Believe it or not, airlines do watch for things like that.

I'm curious as to how that would violate the fare rule if the all of the itineraries were priced out for the same fare class. As far as I'm aware, there's nothing that states that a person "has" to complete a trip. If I were moving to a new city and the roundtrip airfare was significantly less than the one-way fare, I'm going to purchase the roundtrip fare and only use the first leg. Why should the airlines care if I decide not to return on the second part of the ticket? I know they factor in the loads for each flight based on the tickets purchased, but they also factor in for the number of "no-shows".

As far as repercussions, what would the airlines do, assuming they do monitor who does not complete a full itinerary? Are they going to say, "Sorry Mr./Ms FFlyer, you never finished your last trip so your not going to be able to fly with us again until you do. It doesn't matter that you've purchased another full ticket."? If this was the response, I know I would start flying with another carrier (100,000+ miles/yr).

Instead of forcing people to "play the game" in order to get a decent fare, airlines should look into why people are playing the system in the first place. In the example I used, the DTW-FLL-DTW flights were EXACTLY the same whether I started at DTW or in FNT. The only difference was my starting point and, for me, that was only a minor change since the distance between the two airports is the same. If anything, I would have expected it to be cheaper if the first leg (FNT-DTW) was eliminated.

CDF Airlines are quite aware of why people play the system. But you also have to be aware of why Airlines structure fares that way. They call it "married segments". Basically, its to keep all the discount seats from filling only from the hub city, leaving those in the outlying areas stuck with higher fares. So what happens is, they allot a certain amount of discounted seats from each of the areas servicing that hub.

That being said...not checking bags is the easiest way to avoid hassle when dropping your last segment, but if you MUST check bags, you can ask to have them "short-checked" to the connection city.

Most airlines do not have a restriction on not using the outbound on a r/t ticket. Most do not allow you to stop your travel for an onward connection. They can charge your credit card or bill your travel agent for the difference in the fare. But, if you would take them to small claims court you would probably win because these types of fare rules are almost impossible to enforce in a court of law - including back to back ticketing.