emcampbe

if OP books the flight to Canada, then asks to cancel the US-Canada leg, it will be re-fared based on the flown itin. If OP 'misses' the flight, then likely nothing will come of it, unless a)vit is a return ticket, which would cancel the return legs, or b) if OP frequently does this.

This is pretty much skiplaguing, and while many will try it, including a website that helps book these kinds of itineraries, the airlines are on to this practice, and are more vigilant about flaging this type of travel. It is possible the bar is lower now, and they will come after pax who do this faster, including the possibility of being invoiced for a fare difference, and potentially having your FF account canceled (along with any status and accrued miles). As I understand it, legally, the jury is out so-to-speak.

jsloan

UA would be within its rights to ask you to prove admissibility to Canada at any time. In practice, they probably wouldn't do so until you boarded the flight to Canada, but they could.

Personally, I wouldn't look at this as "Can I perform this maneuver which is against the Contract of Carriage and get away with it?" Rather, I would say, "holy cow, UA is willing to pay me $8000 to spend a weekend in Canada!" And then I'd book a Y return flight from YYZ/YUL/YVR/wherever and enjoy my trip.

cfischer

Just don't cancel anything then. Unless you do that often, nothing will likely happen. You can also book a looooong layover in the US and it will be near certain there will be significant schedule changes - my UA-Canada are horrible w/ schedule changes. Or figure out how you can use that one-way to pick up another cheap ticket ex-Canada. Canada to anywhere is usually a lot cheaper than US to anywhere.

Repooc17

My data point from earlier this week would back up to the bolded. Was on a connecting flight to an UA hub before the final flight to Canada - no passport was checked by gate agent at origin.

emcampbe

OP mentioned stopover...not sure if admissibility to Canada would need to be proven at initial departure. If this was a connection, OP would not be able to check in or board India-US flight without proof. For a stopover, not to mention one where the segment to Canada isn't for 5 months, and assuming OP is not US/Canada citizen, would they really require a valid ETA to board India-US flight (asking as I honestly have no idea).

Also, not sure if this is still the case, but I believe there used to be a rule on ex-India tickets where you could cancel and get a refund if you are not given the appropriate visa to travel to destination, though that would be murky here at best if OP had documents to travel to US but not to Canada.

cfischer

5 month stopover? Nobody will ask about admission to Canada. There would be plenty of time to get the necessary paperwork. I have flown such tickets (for the purpose of getting another cheap flight ex Canada later) and never had to show anything for Canada when checking in overseas

jsloan

I don't think it's likely that UA would ask. In fact, I think the only reason they would ask would be if they suspected HCT. But they'd be within their rights to do so.

Assuming OP is eligible for admission to Canada, I stand by my original statement -- take the flight as described and then fly home afterwards. I can't think of a Canadian city that UA serves that wouldn't have enough interesting things to do to fill a weekend.

mahasamatman

Except Canada-Canada. Air Canada's virtual monopoly ensures ridiculously high fares.

findark

Definitely this if you can - think of it as a free positioning flight for your next Premium Fare Deal .

If it's an unrestricted Z fare (not clear, but possible) then it should be easy to reschedule the final segment too.