Hidden City Tickets – Great Idea…Or Not
Last month, it came into the news that Lufthansa was taking someone to court for skipping a flight. The person booked a roundtrip ticket from Oslo to Seattle via Frankfurt and flew on the first three segments of the ticket, but then skipped the last one from Frankfurt to Oslo and booked a separate ticket from Frankfurt to Berlin. He booked it originating in Oslo because it was significantly cheaper than booking directly from Frankfurt or Berlin to Seattle. Lufthansa then sued the man for violating their terms of service by not taking the last flight when he evidently could have. So what even are hidden city tickets, are they ever beneficial, and are they even legal?
Hidden City Tickets: A Loophole To High Fares
One would think that an airline might charge flights per segment flown and not from the origin to final destination, right? Unfortunately (or fortunately), this is not the case. Airlines charge tickets based on demand from city to city, and often prices from some (not necessarily smaller) cities to your final destination are much cheaper than flights from a larger or hub city to your final destination. This is the case on many routes on most airlines where flying to another city that isn’t your final destination. This “strategy” mostly works when flying from small cities to big cities on short-haul routes, although sometimes also works when flying long-haul – sometimes even in premium cabins. I’m going to give examples of how this strategy could work to your advantage in two scenarios, especially if you are budget oriented.
Indianapolis to San Francisco
In this random scenario, a person is traveling from Indianapolis to San Francisco on July 18 (a random date). They really want a nonstop flight, and see that United Airlines has a nonstop flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco. They see that United charges $214 for that one flight, but wonder if they can get the ticket for a cheaper price. The person doesn’t want a connection, but also doesn’t want to spend that much money just for that one flight.
The person then looks into other options and then finds out about hidden city fares. He or she finds that one can fly on that same flight on United for $137 instead of $214! The only catch is that the entire reservation would be for a ticket from Indianapolis to Los Angeles, not San Francisco. However, the reservation includes the flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco which is the flight she wants to take, and she figures that to save $77, she could just skip the connecting flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles which is included in the cheaper reservation.
This is an example of a hidden city fare because the flights from Indianapolis to Los Angeles via San Francisco were much cheaper than the nonstop flights from Indianapolis to San Francisco. The person then would go and board the first flight from Indianapolis to San Francisco, then leave the airport and never board the last flight from San Francisco to Los Angeles.
Washington to Lisbon in Business Class
You are flying roundtrip from Washington to Lisbon in Business Class. You have enough miles to book one-way in business class, so you go ahead and book the flight from Lisbon to Washington using miles on TAP Portugal. You then go ahead to book a one-way flight in business class from Washington to Lisbon on TAP Portugal. You see that flights from Washington to Lisbon (again, I’m using the random date of July 18) on TAP are pretty cheap for business class, although still cost over $1,500.
That price still is expensive, so you look into cheaper options. You find out about hidden city fares, so now you look into other cities in Europe where you could connect to on TAP. Now, you find a cheaper option which involves you booking a ticket from Washington to Manchester (UK) via Lisbon. The ticket costs about $1,150, so you would be saving about $350. However, you would simply just not take the final flight from Lisbon to Manchester in this reservation but would fly on the first flight which you want to fly on from Washington to Lisbon in lie-flat business class.
This is another example of hidden city tickets because you would book a cheaper flight from Washington to Manchester via Lisbon but you would only fly on the first segment from Washington to Lisbon as it is much cheaper than just booking the nonstop flight from Washington to Lisbon. This shows that hidden city fares aren’t only good for short flights in economy class but can also work for long-haul flights in business class.
But Should You Book A Hidden City Ticket?
There are nearly infinite amounts of possibilities with hidden city tickets that can potentially save you hundreds of dollars per ticket. There even is an online ticketing search engine called Skiplagged that allows you to find hidden city tickets. They were sued by United for manipulating ticket prices, although eventually won in court. However, most times, the potential downsides do outweigh the upsides. While they sometimes are worthwhile in some scenarios, my advice to you is to either very rarely use this “strategy” or just to completely avoid it for the following reasons:
Airlines Don’t Exactly Allow It
Because airlines don’t want people to essentially lie to them about which flights they will take and also want to charge them the full amount of money that it costs, most airlines don’t allow booking hidden city tickets. In most airlines’ contract of carriage that I have seen, it clearly states that people aren’t allowed to take them. Of course, airlines don’t always catch or sue you if you do take one and they can’t always prove that you intentionally did so, but still, airlines don’t allow it. However, I can’t say that they are being very transparent about it as it takes a lot of digging to find the rules. A contract of carriage is an agreement that passengers essentially agree to by flying on an airline and is found deep within an airline’s website, although in
“Fares apply for travel only between the points for which they are published. Tickets may not be purchased and used at fare(s) from an initial departure point on the Ticket which is before the Passenger’s actual point of origin of travel, or to a more distant point(s) than the Passenger’s actual destination being traveled even when the purchase and use of such Tickets would produce a lower fare. This practice is known as “Hidden Cities Ticketing” or “Point Beyond Ticketing” and is prohibited by UA.”
Same thing on American:
Reservations made to exploit or circumvent fare and ticket rules are strictly prohibited.
Examples include (but are not limited to):
– Purchase a ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares (hidden cities)
Or on Lufthansa:
5.6. A service charge may be payable by any passenger who:
5.6.1. fails to arrive for departure at the airport or any other point of departure by the time we have specified (or if no time has actually been specified, with insufficient time to permit completion of official formalities and departure procedures) and, as a consequence, does not use the seat for which a reservation has been made.
The list goes on and on. Essentially, no airlines allow hidden city tickets. Airlines don’t want people to skip flights and indulge in this strategy and you, the traveler, aren’t legally allowed to do it. If you buy a hidden city ticket, you are essentially manipulating the airline (which is subjectively moral as airlines manipulate you enough with surcharges, but that’s a story for another day), and is not legally allowed. However, again, airlines aren’t likely to come after you for doing so, but airlines have done it in the past as came into the news recently with Lufthansa.
No Checked Bags:
Another obvious downside to hidden city tickets is that you can’t check bags. If you book a reservation from Jacksonville to Boston via New York and you plan to get off New York because flying from Jacksonville to Boston via New York is much cheaper than just booking a ticket from Jacksonville to New York. If you check a bag, the airline will check your bag through from Jacksonville to Boston (the destination the airline thinks you’re trying to get to) and not from Jacksonville to your own personal final destination, New York. Therefore, it is nearly impossible to be able to check a bag while using hidden city fares.
What About Cancellations and Rebookings?
Another caveat in hidden city tickets is if your flight to the destination you wish to travel to (which happens to not be the final destination of your ticketed reservation) is canceled. Let’s say that you are flying from Austin to San Francisco on United but due to using the hidden city strategy, your official final destination is in Portland, Oregon. You are planning to skip the last flight from San Francisco to Portland and only fly on the flight from Austin to San Francisco as it is significantly cheaper than booking directly from Austin to San Francisco. Unfortunately, your flight from Austin to San Francisco is canceled because of mechanical issues. You only want to get to San Francisco, but your final destination according to United is Portland. United then automatically rebooks you on a flight to Portland connecting in Denver, Colorado.
In this situation, you would not get to your final destination which is San Francisco, because United thinks you want to get to Portland since you booked your ticket to Portland via San Francisco because it would save you a lot of money. In this case, you wouldn’t get to San Francisco at all as you would be connecting through a completely different city because your flight was canceled and you were rebooked. Therefore, hidden city tickets can be quite counterproductive and would get you to a destination you don’t even want to go to if your flight is canceled and you are rebooked via a different airport.
Roundtrip Tickets Most Often Don’t Work
This is a pretty obvious downside to hidden city tickets. Let’s say you book a roundtrip ticket from New York to San Diego via Los Angeles both ways. Due to the flights being cheaper to San Diego from New York than to Los Angeles, you book a hidden city ticket to San Diego where you would get off in Los Angeles. So you take the first flight from New York to Los Angeles, get off the plane and leave the airport. You think that you can fly on the return flight now from Los Angeles to New York which you booked in the roundtrip reservation. However, since you didn’t fly on the segment from Los Angeles to San Diego, the airline now cancels the rest of your reservation as you didn’t show up to one segment. Therefore, not only would you be stranded in Los Angeles without a return flight to New York, but you also just wasted a lot of money. As a consequence, roundtrip tickets don’t work if you book a hidden city ticket.
Roundtrip tickets and hidden city fares only could potentially work at the same time if you take the first three flights of the reservation (presuming that you are flying with one-stop both ways and not two) and only skip the final flight, which is what the person who was sued by Lufthansa this year did.
What’s The Verdict On Hidden City Tickets?
The risks greatly outweigh the benefits of hidden city fares. Honestly, it probably isn’t worth the risk as you could get into some serious legal trouble if an airline finds out that you booked a hidden city ticket or could get banned from the airline.
Overall, hidden city tickets can drastically decrease the price by booking via your destination to another city which in some cases is much cheaper than just booking a direct flight to your final destination. However, in most situations, this strategy just simply isn’t practical as it requires that you don’t check luggage, don’t book a roundtrip ticket, and can get you in legal trouble or can strand you in another city.
Have you ever taken advantage of hidden city fares? Share about your experience below in the comments section!