gpicur

Oh wise sage UA Flyers,

I want to fly to ORD from WAS (IAD-BWI-DCA) during an upcoming weekend. The fares to MKE are half the cost as ORD yet the inbound and outbound flights both connect thru ORD. Should I be so daring as to purchase a R/T ticket to MKE and get off at ORD on say a Friday, what is the chance that I could board the ORD-WAS portion on Sunday without getting jammed up, fined or kicked out of MP ??

Your kind input is appreciated.

fzwinter

If you don't fly to MKE on your outbound, your return flight will be cancelled and you'll be stuck paying top dollar to get back. How about booking (and flying) WAS-ORD-MKE on the outbound and ORD-WAS on the return? Transportation to Chicago from MKE isn't too expensive.

zrs70

Well, you can certainly board. You won't be fined or kicked out. You'll just have to buy a new one way ticket.

hobo13

What you are proposing isn't going to work very well. Dropping segments in the middle of your itin is the problem. You can drop them at the end with a fraction of the risk because your itin is complete (i.e. you are where you want to be). In the best of scenarios, you are going to need a really good story, a very kind agent, and / or a helluva lot of luck to make this work.

GoingAway

You need some really nasty weather and delays at ORD so you can convince an agent that its just not worth it for you to take that last leg given the weather and delays, you'll get yourself to MKE on your own, can they just adjust your ticket to acknowledge you won't be taking the flight, etc. so it is still valid on your return. Of course you're SOL if the weather is nice and there are no delays!! I agree that your return should be ord-was ... btw, as much as I dislike them did you try WN to get to MDW?

Starman

I'm not advocating violating the CoC in the following remarks. But if one buys two separate tickets, IAD-ORD-MKE and ORD-IAD, and fails to fly the ORD-MKE leg on the first ticket, the odds of any negative result are very, very small. (Of course, there can be no checked bags).

Suppose on the first ticket you got sick at ORD during the connection to MKE and couldn't board the flight -- are they going to fine you for being ill? Or for going to the wrong connecting gate at ORD and missing the flight? Let's be real.

ua_to_ord

The ORD-MKE and v/v flights can actually be very pleasant, with a short flight time and potentially scenic views of the northern 'burbs. I'd consider taking the flights and renting a car at Mitchell or taking Amtrak's Hiawatha service (which stops at the airport) to Glenview or Union Station, about a one-hour, $20 journey.

poohhead80

How about..

Outbound
Buying one way ticket BWI-ORD-MKE and do not take ORD-MKE.

Return
One-way ticket MDW-ATL-BWI on Delta ($113.20 3PM departure 9PM arrival)

DL 2059 - DL 1892

unavaca

You'll need to do this as 2x one-way tickets.

N1120A

If it is half price, why not just use MKE, considering you can take Amtrak to and from the airport and still come out ahead, along with 1000 extra base miles.

cubfan99

+1. You can board Amtrack right at the Milwaukee airport. I live in the northern burbs and use it often. If you're going to downtown Chicago it can sometimes actually be quicker than sitting in traffic on the Kennedy (less the time for the ORD-MKE leg, of course!)

fastair

How about you find the cheapest itin that you plan on using as you purchased. I mean UA plans to fulfill their end of the agreement, why don't you? The train suggestion works. Honesty and honor should be wroth something to you, or if you are not concerned with what is ethical, then the open jaw seems to be popular, but I don't advocate dishonesty....that is, unless you feel that you should also be defrauded whenever possible, at which point, what goes around comes around in the world of karma.

Starman

I know this has been argued countless times here before, but I just can't resist. A foundation of capitalism is that the seller can choose how to price the product, hoping to maximize return, and the buyer can choose which product to buy, hoping to minimize cost. If UA is crazy enough to price the product so that two legs are cheaper than one, they have to expect the customer to exploit that at least occasionally by flying only one leg. If I leave a football game at halftime, or throw away a half-eaten box of cereal, does the seller have the right to argue there's an ethical violation because he priced the product presuming full consumption?

And by the way, UA doesn't _always_ plan to fulfill it's part of the bargain. They overbook, and occasionally have to pay a penalty to the pax. They call this capitalism and shrewd load management, not poor ethics.

UAX_Brasilia

Did you honestly use the word "ethical"?

emcampbe

And when a pax is VDB'd, UA does pay a penalty, as you mentioned. When a pax violates the COC by leaving in a the middle of a journey, then why should they not pay a penalty?

If it's in the way that the pax initially suggests - then they do, by having to buy a new one way ticket home. In the case of leaving just before the last segment, UA chooses to look the other way the other way in most cases.

I agree with Fastair on this one. If the pax only wants to go to ORD - then pay for a flight to ORD. Or pay for a ticket to MKE, and then find a way to get to ORD and back via other transportation. If you, or the OP, doesn't see the logic in how UA builds fares, that's ok. Most of us don't. I may think that the federal government charges me too high a tax rate for my earnings. But guess what, I have to pay it anyway. If the pax needs to get to ORD and feels that UA charges too much, then they should vote by taking their buisness elsewhere.