A practice known as skiplagging and hidden-city ticketing occurs when passengers reserve a flight with at least one stop, but they get off the aircraft during the layover. In other words, a passenger would purchase a multi-leg flight with a connection in their target city instead of a nonstop flight to that city. Flyers save money as they are not paying “the direct flight cost.”
In the lawsuit, American Airlines (AAL) claimed in the lawsuit that Skiplagged had duped customers into thinking they could access “some kind of secret ‘loophole’.” American warned passengers not to alert the airline about the arrangement, claiming that the website sells tickets under the guise of a regular consumer.
According to American, Skiplagged has never been permitted to market airline tickets. American Airlines states in the complaint, Skiplagged’s conduct is deceptive and abusive.” “Skiplagged deceives the public into believing that, even though it has no authority to form and issue a contract on American’s behalf, somehow it can still issue a completely valid ticket. It cannot. Every ‘ticket’ issued by Skiplagged is at risk of being invalidated.”
However, purchasing a Skiplagged hidden-city ticket has a number of dangers. These range from minor inconveniences, like having to carry a bag, to serious problems, like maybe losing all of your airline miles. Your checked luggage possibly traveling to the end destination is another danger. Even if you only have a carry-on, it is possible that the airline will have certain customers check in their baggage if overhead space is at capacity, sending your luggage on an unanticipated trip without you.
Skiplagging is not illegal, although airlines contend that it is against their rules.
Skiplagged got into trouble right away when United Airlines and Orbitz filed lawsuits against it because they disapproved of the practice. However, the complaints were dismissed, and the service was permitted to continue.
The airlines can still penalize those who engage in (or are perceived to be engaging in skiplagging, and they will, despite the fact that they lost their legal battle. In fact, American Airlines detained a customer last summer after a gate employee noticed that the person’s driver’s license was from the state of the onboarding flight’s layover. The traveler’s trip was rescheduled, forcing him to purchase a last-minute ticket to his actual destination, nullifying any potential savings.
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