Can airlines ban you for hidden city?

Airlines penalize customers who use hidden city ticketing so you're advised not to use your account, airline credit card or frequent flyer number when making your reservation. What is this? Possible consequences include invalidation of airline miles and revocation of elite status.



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It's highly unlikely you'd face any repercussions if you do it once, but if you make it a habit or the airline sees an egregious pattern of hidden city ticketing, there could penalties from the airline, like losing your frequent flyer points.

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Technically it does violate the airline's contract of carriage, which is why an airline can penalize you by cancelling your frequent flyer miles, but so far anytime an airline has brought a legal suit involving hidden city ticketing, the case has been dismissed.

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As Airfarewatchdog founder George Hobica told USA Today, hidden city ticketing deprives other travelers of seats they actually need, and can force them to pay higher prices. Over time, airlines may need to further increase prices.

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It's not illegal but it does come with two problems: Most airlines will cancel your return ticket if you miss a portion of your itinerary. So if you intentionally skip your connection, you may find yourself without a flight home. Airlines can, and do, blacklist customers from booking tickets with them.

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Skiplagging is not illegal. But most major airlines, including American, Delta Southwest and United, don't allow it. For one thing, airlines lose money on the practice, says Tim Huh, a professor at the University of British Columbia's Sauder School of Business, who co-authored a study on skiplagging last year.

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But skiplagging is controversial, and many airlines frown upon it – so much that it can be punishable by miles or status cancellations and even a lifetime ban from the airline.

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A ghost flight is when an airline operates a plane on a regularly scheduled route with little to no passengers - under 10% of capacity - onboard. This is most often done to make certain airlines can fulfill their contractual obligations so as not to lose one of their most precious assets - airport slots.

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Here's an airline you'll likely never fly on - no matter how much money you have. Janet Airlines Boeing 737 planes travel to one of the most mysterious and talked-about places on Earth - Area 51, deep in the Nevada desert. There, the United States government develops its most secretive military technology.

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It makes sense, because the practice saps revenue from them on two fronts: Not only do passengers underpay — potentially by hundreds of dollars per ticket — but the seat on the tossed leg also could have been sold to someone else. Most contracts of carriage from major airlines expressly forbid skiplagging as a result.

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Skiplagged is the most well-known service for finding hidden-city or throwaway tickets. That's the practice of booking a less-expensive flight option without planning to fly the entire itinerary. Instead, you bail at a connecting airport rather than continuing to your final destination.

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“The airlines can take your loyalty account, ban you from the airline and even sue you. It's definitely not worth the risk to try this just to save a few dollars. Don't do it!”

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While you're not going to be sent to jail for hidden city ticketing, airlines can try to punish you — if they discover what you're doing they could force you to buy a new ticket, could ban you from their frequent flyer program, could ban you from flying with the airline, etc.

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PROHIBITED TICKETING CARRIER - RE-ENTER TICKETING CARRIER The message means that you don't have ticketing authority for the airline you are trying to issue. You can check the list of 'prohibited' airlines with the entry PV/C and check the airlines present in the LAT field.

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A dummy air ticket is nothing more than a round-trip flight reservation from and back to the original departure country. A dummy ticket is not a paid return ticket. Basically, it is only a document that included travel itinerary details, but it's not a confirmed ticket.

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Hidden city ticketing is when you buy a ticket with the intention of leaving the plane at a stopover, rather than the final destination. These types of journeys have the potential to save you a lot of money in comparison to a non-stop flight.

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Skiplagging, also referred to as “hidden-city” or “throwaway” ticketing, is the practice of booking a less-expensive flight option with a layover city without planning to fly the entire route. Instead, the stopover is the traveller's intended destination.

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If an airline finds out what you are doing, it could simply cancel your ticket or even ban you from flying with it. That's what reportedly happened recently to a North Carolina teen who booked an American Airlines flight from Florida to New York but disembarked at his Charlotte connection.

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Most commercial carriers maintain a small but, by some accounts, growing list of passengers they refuse to transport. The reasons for being blacklisted can include disorderly conduct, refusal to comply with a crew member's instructions or abusive behavior toward an airline employee.

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“Say I want to fly to Miami from New York,” he says. “Prices are high if I book direct, but if I fly New York to Miami to Orlando, I can save $130. I could book that, pocket the savings, and then get off the plane in Miami instead of continuing on to Orlando.”

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