uanj

Narvik, don't do this at IAD if you are checking luggage, but I think you got that point by now.

I can really sympathize with your repricing issues flying from Asia to East Coast minor airports. Happens to me at least once a year. UA arrives late nixing your connection and changing to a city within 100 miles of original destination can result in an inexperienced agent asking for an add/collect of $1000-2000 and then you need to get a supervisor involved.

If you miss your connection out of EWR due to late inbound arrival or some CBP processing issue just call UA and tell them you will take ground transportation instead. I've done that myself rather than wait for the next flight. They will note your record and you won't get any black marks. (Perhaps a light gray one at worst.) Best not to simply abandon the last segment. If it becomes a pattern they will get back to you, happened to a colleague of mine a few years back.

brightonbeachspotter

I was just looking at truly last minute flights from NYC area to Sao Paolo for today. The options weren't too attractive, so I changed the search to Miami Area to Sao Paulo, out of curiosity.
There is a flight from FLL to GRU via IAD for $208. Since I live in NYC, it's comparatively easy for me to get to IAD.




I have no check-in luggage. Would I be allowed to do this, would the airline penalize me for this? Not asking to do anything illegal or against company rules, just want to understand feasibility.

iamflyer

No, the connecting flight will be cancelled when you don't take the first flight

prestonh

You could look at flying nyc-mia if its cheap but recognize that has risks of its own.

Repooc17

This is not hidden city ticketing.

Nevertheless, and as already pointed out, if you no show for the FLL-IAD flight, your entire ticket would be invalid.

Here is what you do if you are intending to go to Brazil today:

1) see if same day change is possible and push to a later FLL-IAD flight. Plenty of transit time. With a 1250pm original departure time, you are not going to make it down to Florida on time.

2) get an award flight down to FLL pronto
Or,

just leave from NYC.

brightonbeachspotter

Thank you everyone for the input, I really appreciate it! I was investigating the feasibility of this for the future, as opposed to actually needing to get down to GRU by tomorrow. From all of your inputs, it would just be easier to fly Delta or United from LGA today for around $450 or a non-stop for $445 from EWR tomorrow.

erik123

Check PHL and some others to see if it makes a difference. Also check some other cities in Brazil that require a GRU connection (e.g. EWR-GRU-SSA) - and see if that lowers the cost. That's hidden city.

It's not likely worth the effort and risk as EWR-GRU direct seems very cheap to me.

ryman554

Folks:

I just had a business trip drop on me, making it difficult to get back for a vacation..

XXX-SFO-PDX arriving SFO 9am --> new business trip!
PDX-SFO-XXX departing SFO 10pm -> vacation, scheduled long ago

I woudl really rather not fly back and forth to PDX and waste part of a workday.

Would folks in the Polaris lounge take pity on this 1K and drop the last/first segments with no problem? Or should I just try to remove the first segment now (and fear a reprice of a vacation trip....)

mahasamatman

I question your priorities. Your company set this up, so losing some work is their problem, not yours.

Absolutely not.

Kmxu

If your company allows you not to fly SFO-PDX and UA won't fuss about it, you can drop this segment. Before you do that, check out the cost for starting your vacation trip from SFO, instead of PDX.
Good luck.

jsloan

Probably not, although nothing is impossible. But personally I'd rather spend the time at home, taking care of laundry or whatever other chores, or even napping, rather than spending 13 hours in the Polaris lounge.

ryman554

True. Unfortunately, I'd get home about 4pm, and have to then turnaround and head back to airport. Seems a waste. I'll try to reprice the vacay and see what work says about it!

mduell

You can skip the last leg assuming no bags and you don't do it too often.

You can't skip the first leg.

cmculp

I realize this is an N of 1, but….it is in their purview to do this…

Due to mixing government and personal travel, I had a HNL-LAX-SAN (my leisure add on) joining
SAN-LAX-SAT (return of govt trip).

Obviously the needless down and back was all risk and no gain. The HNL United Club agent removed for me and even got me on an earlier flight out of LAX.

she and interact often, and clearly she didn’t have to do this, but it did happen at least that once. I wouldn’t bet on it though.

Repooc17

From my personal experience, I avoid mixing any personal and work travels...any adjustments from itinerary change repricing just make it wholly complicated from a settlement/reimbursement standpoint. Also, work has no business knowing what my personal itinerary is.

Personally, I would fly the two unnecessary flights, but that's just me. I am someone who has flown from SFO to YYZ to start the first leg of personal travel, which was YYZ to SFO. On a separate occasion, I replied to my employer N O (and nothing else in the reply) when they asked me to stop by SFO on my TPAC flight home to east coast, to close a M&A deal. I flew PEK to EWR as scheduled, and then separate EWR to SFO roundtrip when I was good and ready.

I assume we all agree skipping the last leg is usually no big deal if done seldomly, and skipping the first leg voids all downstream flights in the itinerary outside of personal favors.