I would call UA after arriving in SFO and tell them that you won't be making the onward connection. I have done this a couple times for a variety of reasons and I know that the UA appreciates knowing that you won't be taking the flight.

1 year from ticketing
 

I think the ticket is valid 1 year from ticketing date, not outgoing flight, to take the return.

Domestically, it could be a problem, but a solution there is to have the luggage "stopped" at your intended destination.

As the OP will be returning from out of the country, it's OK to have the bags tagged all the way to ORD when leaving HKG. Upon arrival at SFO, they will collect their bags, proceed through customs and then just walk to the right and out of the international terminal. I sometimes will check my carry-on through SFO, but just pass the baggage re-check and throw the tag away and carry it onto my next domestic flight. Did this a couple weeks ago, as NZ is more stringent on carry-ons (weight), on the CNZ deal to AKL.

As mentioned, I'd likely call (or see a TA at SFO) and push the dates for SFO-ORD as far out as possible and then just change them later (or not). Award tickets are valid for one year from ticketing date, so travel must be completed by then, IIRC.

Pat

No-show questions
 

I am ticketed to travel:

AAA-BBB-CCC-DDD
DDD-CCC-XXX-AAA

Cheapesque tickets with a hefty change fee on each direction.

I am considering terminating travel once I reach XXX.

If I no-show on XXX-AAA, what are the ramifications?

Also.. What happens if I purchase a seperate ticket (on UA), XXX-YYY that departs after XXX-AAA, but not before it arrives AAA.

Sorry for the letters.. I felt like being unnecssarily discrete.

And no.. reticketing it to DDD-CCC-XXX-YYY is not an option.

Assuming no checked bags, your plan is good.

The letters are all confusing me (:p), but just know the itin you are traveling on will be cancelled if you don't show up, so that's fine in this case. Any other itin should remain unaffected.

This will not be a problem. Your miles for the previous flights will post without problems.

It's called throwaway ticketing, and is technically against the rules. However, as long as you don't make a habit of it and draw attention to yourself, nothing bad will happen

Exactly ... just remember that you should only throwaway segments from the end. If you wanted to throw away, say "DDD-CCC" and then fly "CCC-XXX" your onbound reservations are cancelled immediately after you no-show.

I thought this was called hidden city ticketing, and throwaway is when you buy a round trip because it is cheaper than one way, and toss the return.

The biggest danger is in the case of irregular operations, the airline has no obligation to keep the same routing. They could reroute you via some other connection, or even nonstop to your ticketed destination (assuming that flight even exists, given the mysterious identifiers).

Actually, I believe this is called hidden-city ticketing, which UA does not allow. But, as stated, the OP should be fine getting away with it, as long as he or she does not do it frequently.

Throwaway ticketing, on the other hand, would be if the OP were to stop in DDD. From what others have posted on FT, UA does not expressly disallow throwaway ticketing.

I looked in United's contract of carriage and I couldn't find anything about hidden-city or throwaway tickets. I think that hidden-city ticketing has become much less of a problem now that just about everything is e-ticketed, which makes it much easier for the airilnes to control it.

Before e-ticketing, it was relatively easy to try to use individual flight coupons, so you could get off at the connecting point and get back on for your return flight. Now, once you get off on your outbound leg, the rest of the itinerary is canceled anyways, so it would only really be useful for one-way tickets or unusual open-jaw tickets.

I'd agree the the OP is probably ok as long is this isn't a regular habit. If UA sees a pattern that they consider an abuse of their ticketing policies, they might find some clause that I missed to take action, but a one-time occurrence probably wouldn't even raise any flags. Most likely, they'd figure it was just a mistake by the GA in not collecting the boarding pass.

Exactly. That's the classic definition of hidden city ticketing. Any time you don't use a flight coupon is throwaway ticketing. Hidden city is one form of throwaway ticketing, but doesn't involve throwing away the final segment(s). For true hidden city ticketing, you must skip segments in the middle, which, as hockeyguy points out, is nearly impossible to do with e-tickets.

So if you want to do hidden ticket, should you demand paper tickets?

Correct. Throwaway ticketing is using one half of a roundtrip (or open jaw) when cheaper than a one-way. United does not have a rule against that.

Hidden-city is stopping (or starting--which you really can't do at all any more) somewhere along a routing between ticketed origin and destination. I think it is rule 100A of the Contract of Carriage that prohibits it (ticket is valid for travel only between origin and destination), although I admit it is not completely obvious.

People call throwing away the last connecting segment throwaway ticketing, but it is still hidden-city ticketing.

Charles