Skipping connections

[pokeable]

Originally Posted by apexgds

A friend asked me a question that I'm fairly certain I know the answer to, but I want to throw it out here to other travelers to see if there's anything I'm not considering.

She is flying from the east coast to the Long Beach area of California. She's presented with two options:

• RDU direct to LAX ($$$)
• RDU to LAX to SLC to LGB ($$)

Considering that LAX and LGB are about 22 miles apart, she's considering taking the cheaper option, and just skipping the last two legs.

Her return flight is not a factor (she'll be booking that as a separate one-way trip), and she's not checking any luggage.

Can anyone think of any problems with booking the second option and skipping the last two legs?

If she does this too often with the same airline, she may get a letter stating she violated airline rules of carriage, and owes the difference in fares. Also she may not be able to book another flight with said airline until the bill is resolved. (anecdotes from flyertalk).

Once? Probably nothing. To be safe she may want to take a return flight on a different airline.

[emcee squared]

Once may be okay, but repeat offenders get caught.

[jlawrence01]

Originally Posted by apexgds

I think she's staying somewhere in the general area between LAX and LGB. So she was checking prices to both airports. I did suggest SNA, and she's going to look into it, and check with her hosts to see if it's inconvenient for them.

RDU to LGB with two stops doesn't surprise me. I just did a quick Expedia search with random dates a couple months out (I don't know her exact travel dates) and there are 2 results with one stop, and 45 results with two stops.

She doesn't have FF with any airline. She's only flown a small handful of times.

You care making the assumption that the flight itinerary will NOT change prior to the date of the flight.
What if they reroute it elsewhere. She may still end up in LGB.

[engineman]

That is called "short stopping" and it dates back decades. It really irritates the airlines because they can't gouge you.