getagb

I think this only works if your first segment is delayed. Otherwise the rebooking options don’t appear IIRC. Might work with an agent, but probably unwise to involve an agent in hidden city itineraries.

sfflyer415

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but this Itinerary involves United.

I was considering going to South America end of this year, and flying back from SA to California. I randomly found a flight from Lima, Peru to SFO with a stop in LAX for only $1,300 in Business! The first leg is on LATAM, and the second on United.

if I had just searched nonstop from Lima to LAX on LATAM the ticket would be $6,000!!!

I couldn’t believe the price difference. I found this Itinerary on Google Flights if that makes a difference.

So my question is: what happens if I just stay in LA and not take the second United flight to SFO?

Would I get in trouble with United, or LATAM, or neither? Or does it even matter?

I’ve read people getting into trouble if the two leg Itinerary involves just one airline, but I don’t know what happens if this involves 2 different airlines.

WineCountryUA

Is this a one-way flight and you are just skipping the last leg? On one ticket? (Would this be a UA ticket?)

If so and you don't do this multiple times, you should be fine.

sfflyer415

This would be a one way ticket, and yes I’m skipping the second leg on United from LAX to SFO.

I guess this is a 3rd party ticket through Google Flights? It’s definitely not through the airlines since United and LATAM have no partnership or code shares.

I guess my next question would be why the big difference in fare? Someone’s gotta be paying for this big difference, I guess the 3rd party travel agent I’m buying the flight from?

WineCountryUA

Google flights does not issue the ticket or use third parties. The ticket will be by one of the two carriers. This is important as it is the ticket issuer that enforces the pricing.

Ticket pricing is not something that mere mortals will ever understand.
You will not be buying from a 3rd party and if you were they would charge what they are charged -- they would not be eating the difference.

Airline pricing has little to do with cost or distance or the addition of each segments price and is based on origin and destination (O/D) demand/pricing. Hidden city pricing works because the demand is different for the OD pair.
It is akin to Value-Based Pricing.

Realize in irrops or schedule changes you can be routed not using LAX.

xliioper

As noted above, this is not a "third party" fare. It's a plain, old published fare on LA which you can find on ExpertFlyer -- ZLEEVZ0W to be exact. Just because LA and UA do not have a partnership or code-sharing agreement does not mean they can't include segments on each other's flights as part of a single fare. All that is required is an interline agreement. The only one-way business fares LA has on the LIM-LAX route is a full fare JEEEJZ0F fare. They have discounted Z fares from around $1333 each way (ZEEEV5GF), but they require a roundtrip purchase. The big 3 US legacies have business fares on LIM-LAX (with a connection) from around $506 one-way. Overall, this indicates it's a fairly competitive market. Just not on the non-stop where LA has a monopoly for now.

There are instances where the legacy airlines can often extract a high premium on their non-stop monopoly routes as well. For example, the cheapest DL one-way business fare on DTW-LHR (monopoly route) is a $4600 D fare. But you can find discounted roundtrip business Z fares on DL DTW-LHR non-stop from around $1300 each way. The one-way fares are typically purchased by people who are flying for a business which tend to be less price sensitive than leisure flyers who are paying with their own cash.

travelinmanS

You’re fine. Collect your bags at LAX and forget about the other flight.

Repooc17

Even at 1,300 is on the high side. You can often get that kind of fare pricing for a round-trip, or less.

stevenhkapt

Hi All,

I managed to get an award ticket to price on Aeroplan that was otherwise not showing on other Star Alliance sites but the last leg won't be used. It's OPO>LIS>ORD on TAP and then ORD>IAH on UA which departs at 6:00am. I have no intention of going on the ORD>IAH ticket (though I would like to use the lounge access conferred by this international itinerary). I overnight in ORD and then would rather take a paid ticket on UA ORD>DFW which departs at 7:15am because the time and price work for me. I purchased it with UA TravelBank. The international itinerary is linked to my AC account the ORD>DFW is linked to my UA MP account.

Am I playing with fire here? Am I crazy to go into the UA lounge with the throaway ticket for the IAH 6am flight then board the DFW 7:15am flight? Should I just give up on PQF for the ORD>DFW and fly another carrier? I cannot remove my UA MP from the ORD>DFW either as it was booked with TravelBank money.

Thanks.

Kacee

After arriving at ORD I'd just go online and cancel the ORD-IAH segment.

btw, it appears this has nothing to do with Skiplagged, that's an online search engine that finds hidden city itineraries.

stevenhkapt

Apologies, went ahead and renamed it.

So I could do that but could I do the cancelation from inside the lounge? The idea would be to get lounge benefits because the ORD>IAH ticket is attached to an international itinerary. Also, can you cancel free on UA? I'd probably have to go through AC where I booked the ticket?

Kacee

That raises several issues, but the threshold question is what would be the basis for lounge access? Arrival in business class on a UA partner doesn't qualify unless you are *G.

You should be able to pull up the segment and cancel it on the UA website/app. If not, then yes, AC.

econ

And even then, doesn’t that require the international flight to be same day, even if part of the same itinerary?

OP appears to want lounge access the following morning prior to the domestic flight.

Kacee

Yeah that would be the next point. Sometimes the "same day" rule has been interpreted loosely to allow access the following morning, but I would never count on it.

The final point would be that UA might well consider it fraudulent to base lounge access on a flight you don't intend to take. That's something I have specifically avoided doing over the years. There have been occasional reports of carriers taking pretty drastic action when they catch you doing that.

fumje

I don't disagree with any of the above, but I would be very much not surprised if your overlapping reservations for ORD-IAH and ORD-DFW get flagged as dupes, no matter whether your MP account is on both/either/none. If you want to make a separate ORD-DFW reservation, it's best if it departs after ORD-IAH arrives.