Flying cheaper with extra legs
 

I'm trying to fly SFO-SNA and I found the flights to be cheaper when I clicked "show surround airports" and I get flights that are MRY-SFO-SNA (which is a ridiculous itinerary to begin with). Two questions: If I have an itin which is SFO-SNA and SNA-SFO-MRY on return, is there any reason not to do it if it is cheaper, and just throw away the SFO-MRY boarding pass? Secondly, if I buy a ticket with an MRY-SFO-SNA itin, can I board at SFO without having taken the MRY-SFO leg? I've heard of itineraries being cancelled if you don't make one of your flights but given that this would be within an hour of the MRY flight having departed..

If you miss the starting leg the rest of our itinerary will be canceled. There are exceptions in the case of irrops, but in general you need to be at every flight on your itinerary.

you could probably get away with not using the final leg of an itinerary, but above poster is correct in that if you miss the first leg the entire itinerary will be cancelled.

You would forfeit the entire ticket if you missed anything but the last leg. Often I found it cheaper to fly ORD->LAX->ONT RT, even with a flight to SFO then MOD then back to ORD then cheaper then ORD->LAX NS. Will miss the LAX->ONT fligth and LAX->SNA.

Flying Cheaper with Extra Legs
 

I'm surprised you don't have to pay the excess baggage on your extra legs, unless they are very light. Or do you take them on as carry on baggage?

I've never tried putting extra legs in the overhead bins, and would be concerned that they wouldn't fit too well.

:D

Good point. Four-armed is forewarned...

If you do skip the last segment, just don't make a habit of it. It's technically not allowed, but if you do it only occasionally, they won't say anything.