I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this already, but I want to confirm...

If someone were to book a trip from say PHL to FLL with a stop in CLT, is there any way to get on in CLT and just use the CLT-FLL portion of the ticket? The reason being that in this case it would be much less expensive to fly from PHL-FLL than from CLT-FLL (note that the destinations are just pulled out of the air).

Thanks,

Jonathan

No. That way won't work. If you don't show for Segment 1, Segment 2 will get canceled.

Maybe in the older days of paper "flight coupons" this might have worked, but with a regular domestic e-ticket, no dice.

The other way, of course, is theoretically possible. Say you're in PHL and want to get to CLT. But you notice that there's a promo one-way fare to Orlando, PHL-CLT-MCO, that's 1/4th the price of PHL-CLT. You could simply "get lost" in CLT and throwaway the CLT-MCO boarding pass.

Most airlines will immediately tell you that this is against their fare rules. They could theoretically lock your FF account or even attempt to charge your credit card some sort of higher fare if they catch you doing it.

That's what I figured. Thanks for the quick reply.

Not that this is what you're asking about, but I have gotten airlines to let me do something like this during irregular ops.

Years ago I was flying SJC-LAX-TUS on DL on the day before Thanksgiving. I got to LAX to find that my flight had been cancelled and the only alternative was delayed by several hours. I figured that I could rent a car one-way, drive to TUS, and get there before I would arrive by air even if everything went right from that point on. I went to the GA and said "I'd like to miss my flight to TUS and drive there instead, but I still want to use the return flight. Can you cancel my LAX-TUS flight in such a way that I can do that?" The LAX GA was only too happy to do that--one fewer disserviced pax to deal with. (Then I called the DL 800 number to make sure my record had been annotated correctly before I left the secured area, since I didn't want any surprises on my return!)

Honestly when I saw the title I thought of my grandmother who has had a prosthesis, a removable leg, since she was 16.

One time it was misdirected and nobody knew where it was !

Too funny, a missing leg

Similarly, if they change the flight times significantly, you can ask them to drop segments without cancelling the rest of your itin.. For instance, Mrs. Ripper3785 wanted to fly PHX-LAX to catch a LAX-HNL on a different ticket. Well it was significantly cheaper to fly TUS-PHX-LAX, so she booked that.. They changed the flight times (I think by 45 min)and she said that would not work and asked them to drop 1st segment so she didn't have to drive to TUS to catch a flight back to PHX. It worked.

I also have to admit that based on the title I was expecting to see a thread about the best seat selection for an amputee.