mgcsinc

You mean your inaccurate recharacterization of Tchiowa's assertion designed to make Tchiowa look wrong even though Tchiowa was right?

If I say "don't drive home, you're drunk, and people have been arrested before for that," you don't get to come back with "can you point to a time when someone with a BAC of .11 was arrested at 1:30am on River Avenue?"

BangkokTraveler

It was not inaccurate. Tchiowa responded to someone who asked if UA could pull back miles for hidden ticketing, he said it has happened and the courts upheld it. So I asked when UA pulled back miles for hidden ticketing and the courts upheld it. Really, it's a fair question to ask when he said it has happened.

I can see that our discussion is not going to be productive to the topic, so let's assume that he meant "it hasn't happened yet, but it could" and move on.

Folderholder

If someone checks a bag and doesn't continue through to the final destination, isn't there is a public safety issue?

allergictocoach

1. Not really. It would've been screened prior to the 1st flight.
2. One of the keys to using a hidden city ticket is to never check a bag. Trying to get your bag back from a place you aren't going would be inconvenient to say the least.

I think the majority of hidden city offenders are probably business people that carry on, know the system and are willing to forgo miles on a particular segment to save several hundred dollars. And in reading most of the earlier posts - they seem to suggest that people do this type of thing with there FF# attached?? Not what I would do.

mahasamatman

I seriously doubt it. No legitimate business would ever condone defrauding another business.

mgcsinc

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

exwannabe

Why?

A) The post 9-11 security theater is dealing with people who would rather die than live in such a flight bombing.

B) This is about searching for cheaper fares. Do you really think that somebody who wants to plant a bomb on B-C (from an A-B-C ticket) is really concerned about the ticket price? Do you really believe that the $100 savings will cause a plane to be blown up?

C) Bags do not have to fly with pax anyway on most flights.


Back on the topic, I completely agree with the airline position that if one buys A-C with a connection in B, they have not bought A-B.

bocastephen

Again, hidden city ticketing (along with other such ticketing practices) are not acts of fraud, nor do they come anywhere near meeting a test for defrauding a business, which is a criminal crime. A hidden city ticket is nothing more than a civil matter between airline and passenger.

LaserSailor

Exactly. It's not like changing partner redemption rates or something horrible like that.

sbrower

As often happens, your legal analysis is totally incorrect. Making a purchase under a contractual arrangement, with the intention not to comply with the contractual arrangement, is one of the definitions of civil fraud. Whether or not it meets the definition for criminal fraud is another issue on which I am not commenting, at this time.

Tchiowa

A civil *fraud* matter. By definition, hidden city ticket is where the purchaser bought a ticket that he didn't intend to use in order to dishonestly gain a benefit by lying to the airline.

Definition: a deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain

Undeniably fraud.

pinniped

We have thousands of posts already on Hidden City, so the only thing I'll add here is that I'd like to thank United Airlines for advertising this new travel site that I had no idea existed before today. I have it bookmarked and will begin to include it in my regular searches from now on, even though I don't fly hidden-city itins on United. (I might've flown one on Delta once. Or twice. I forget... )

The site also shows some weird non-hidden-city routings that other sites don't seem to show...cheap fares that appear to be kosher to airline rules but have extremely long layovers or very odd routings. (You could probably get 'em through ITA, but for a casual search this site seems to find a lot of good stuff...) Want to spend a whole day exploring the Charlotte area in the middle of your one-way MCI-CVG trip? This is your site...

allergictocoach

Maybe I should've said it's people with the travel savvy to know what this is all about - most likely those that travel on business frequently - perhaps using their knowledge to save a few bucks on personal trips idk.

What I do feel confident about is that this type of "fraud" (lol) isn't being perpetrated by the fly once a year to my Florida vacation folks.

weirdlyndon

This!!! ^^

pinniped

In fact, when I first read the leader article about it (on FT's front page), I thought "What the hell does Ski Plagged mean?" What does Plagged mean? What does the site have to do with skiing?

Then I actually, y'know, went to the site... /facepalm