KristenP

Going to be taking a week and a half trip to Europe paid for by US Airways miles in May. Have a flight SNA-PHX-PHL-BRU and the same for the return. We live in PHX but we have a dog that my parents are going to watch who live by SNA. So that is why we are flying out of SNA (point value was the same). Here is where it gets fun, we ideally would like to get off the return flight in PHX and then buy a one way flight to SNA on the weekend to pick up the dog and drive back home. The PHX-SNA layover is 2.5 hours long and we wouldn’t land in till 930pm and then we would have to drive 6 hrs to get back to PHX. We also land on a Wednesday and I really want to go to work the next day to avoid taking anymore PTO.

Now there is a lot of discussion about hidden cities and the consequences if you get caught. There isn’t a lot of info on hidden cities when traveling on a rewards flight. I was hoping to get some advice from my fellow fliers and see if anyone has done something like this? Also do they ever confiscate the bag if say the bag did make it to SNA, my hope is that my parents could pick it up?

Additional facts
- I only have 382 miles left in my account because I used them all for this trip
- But I will have silver status for the year that I do wish to keep.
- Flight is booked with US Airways miles and flying all US Airways metal
- We are checking one bag but don’t care if it made it to SNA without us.
- If we were paying for the flights we would do two separate one-ways but since you can’t do that with rewards flight it wasn’t possible
- I am not trying to save money or screw the company out of their money.

Thanks for any advice

pogonation

Absolutely fine to do this. Don't worry. But since you are wanting to go back to SNA at the weekend, why not call US and make use of the free stopover and change the final leg of the award to the weekend (depending on availability of course)?

justhere

Did you already book the tickets? If so, then you probably won't be able to add the stopover in Phoenix. According to usairways.com you can't add the stopover once ticketed, it has to be in the original reservation. Certainly doesn't hurt to call and try though. If it doesn't work out then there's no reason why your parents can't pick up the bags. I would make sure they were there when the bags come off the plane. If they have to pick up from the baggage office they might have to show ID.

If you aren't ticketed yet, then as pogonation says, as long as there is availability you can have a stopover in PHX and then have the PHX-SNA flight on the weekend.

AlwaysAisle

I am not familiar with US, but if OP has checked baggage then will check in agent at BRU tag bags to PHX, not to the final destination of SNA? If not then when dropping off baggage for recheck at PHL after the customs will US agents able to tag to PHX and not to SNA?

justhere

I doubt they would on a cash ticket but they might on a miles ticket but the OP already mentioned that parents could pick up luggage at SNA so that's not really an issue.

KristenP

Thanks for the info pogonation and justhere. I never really knew much about stopovers and thought they were for only 24hrs, I should have done more research (and asked this question) before I booked. I was so happy to find low redemption reward seats for two people 2 months out that I booked quickly.

With the baggage part, if we told them to check the bags to phoenix wouldn’t they ask why and at that point know they we would be not taking the last leg of the flight. Or is that ok to do because it is a rewards flight?

AlwaysAisle

The checked baggage is the part I am not sure about. This is not specific to US, remember right after 9/11 there were all those thing about baggage on board. One thing was about baggage have to travel with passenger. Even on domestic flights I remember removing checked baggage from belly of an aircraft when there was a no show passenger with checked baggage.

I have not done skipping a leg with checked baggage, and I have not read about at FlyerTalk recently. How are airlines, specifically at US, handling no show passenger with check baggage these days? I am wondering about that.

BoeingBoy

If you haven't gotten your award ticket yet, the easiest thing to do is book it with the return ending in PHX. Skipping the last segment of a flight is something you don't want to make a habit of, even with award tickets, and only when you don't have checked bags. You are allowed to make changes to award tickets before travel commences so if you've already gotten your ticket you can just pay whatever the fee is to change it and problem also solved.

What you want to do is still technically hidden city ticketing, even on an award ticket, since a saver award could be available from SNA but not from PHX for example. So booking R/T from SNA could take less currency (miles) than booking from PHX and there's your standard hidden city savings trick that the airlines forbid.

You could lie and tell the agent that you need to access your checked bag in PHX to deliver a gift to a friend or whatever, and will then recheck it to SNA but if the agent won't do it start figuring out how to get your bag from SNA.

Jim

justhere

I'm pretty sure there is no positive bag matching anymore for domestic flights.

It will be cheaper at this point to buy the PHX-SNA one way. Depending on when you are flying, you can get a ticket for $99 which is cheaper than the change fee.

BoeingBoy

Or the SNA-PHX since SNA is the destination of the award ticket.

Although positive bag match hasn't been required inside the U.S. for about 10 years, the airlines are still reluctant to check a bag if they know you won't be on the flight.

Jim

justhere

The OP said they need a ticket PHX-SNA.

I should have said that there isn't domestic bag matching but you can't voluntarily separate from your bag. So theoretically, if the OP can't check the bags to PHX, when they get off in PHX, if they tell the airline they are not getting on the SNA flight, US should pull the bags. Otherwise the OP would be voluntarily separating from their bags. Whether that would actually happen, I have no idea. Fortunately OP sounds like they have a plan if the bags do end up in SNA.

BoeingBoy

Thanks, I missed that part.

Jim