Hidden City Airfares Can Save Money, But Sometimes at Great Cost

By George Hobica

For years, savvy airfare consumers have used a trick called "hidden city" ticketing to reduce the cost of air travel.

Here's how it works. Let's say, as a recent example, that the one-way fare between New York's LaGuardia Airport and Houston is $785. But the fare from New York to Austin, TX with a connection in Houston is just $101. If Houston is your destination, then why not just buy the Austin fare and get off in Houston?

There are a couple of problems with this. For one, it doesn't work with round-trip itineraries. If you book a New York-Houston-Austin-Houston-New York round-trip in the above scenario at $202 (twice the one-way fare), get off in Houston, and don't show up for the Austin-Houston-Austin-New York legs of the trip, then the airline will cancel all your remaining flights.

And no, you cannot get around this by buying two separate one-way fares. In other words, you can't buy a return Austin-Houston-New York fare for $101 because when you don't show up at the Austin airport your Houston-New York portion will be canceled.

The other problem is that most airlines prohibit this ticketing trick.

Only Southwest, of the major carriers, has no language in its contract of carriage prohibiting hidden city ticketing. (Southwest used to specifically state in its contract that it had no problem with hidden cities, but a recent perusal of the rules merely reveals no mention of the practice).

No, the airlines will not throw you in jail. But if you do it too often they might kick you out of their frequent flyer program, confiscating your miles. And if you buy a fare through a travel agent, they might go after the agent with a "debit memo," charging her for the fare difference. So don't buy hidden city fares through travel agents and don't hand over your frequent flyer number, travel hackers advise.

More worrisome, sometimes the best laid plans of fare hackers can go seriously awry. What happens if some portion of your New York-Houston-Austin flight is canceled or delayed and Continental decides to re-route you through Cleveland and then onward to Austin? Sorry, pal, you're going to Austin after all, or, at the very least, Cleveland (that, or you can just kiss your fare goodbye). But hey, we hear Austin is a fun place to visit.

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Mikey, when your boarding pass for the Houston-Austin portion of the trip fails to get scanned at the gate, because you didn't present it (because you didn't fly it) the airline knows that you're a no-show. So they cancel any remaining portions of your itinerary. The airlines don't know in advance that you're not flying the full itinerary but they do know as soon as you don't get on board the next leg. As to why airlines prohibit this, first of all it screws up their inventory control. No shows are why the airline industry overbooks and ends up in involuntary denied boarding situations (i.e., bumping passengers). As to why the airlines selling a longer trip for less than a shorter one, the shorter one (NYC-Houston) is a nonstop and thus more desirable and easier to sell, so they charge more; the connecting flight is less desirable. But the huge price difference ($700 vs $110) makes no sense to me.

by airfarewatchdog on Saturday, October 29, 2011

Check the text of your story. You refer to not showing up for the "Austin-Houston-Austin-New York legs" of the trip. Your example doesn't have Austin-Houston-Austin, so there's something wrong there. You say most airlines prohibit this trick. How would they do so? They cannot know when you purchase the ticket that you aren't going to travel the last segment. Now, if you mean their contract disallows missing the last segment of a trip, does that mean they can bill you for the lost revenue? And if that's the contract you agree to, I'd say they have a right to do so. After all, if the airline has its reason for offering the 3-leg trip at a drastic discount, they must have some reason they want people on that Houston-Austin flight. Maybe you can tell us why the airlines would do such a thing. Do they save money by not having customers debark in Houston?

by Mikey on Friday, October 28, 2011

In the era when air fares were subject to federal regulation, airlines were not allowed to charge more for a New York - Houston flight than the cost of a flight from New York through Houston to Austin. This was known as the "point beyond rule". The "hidden point rule" worked the other way: the airline couldn't charge more for a New York - Austin flight than it charged for a flight from New York to Houston plus a flight from Houston to Austin. I'm not completely sure (my experience is over four decades old), but I think these rules applied even to flights that did not themselves include the point beyond or the hidden point. It was enough that the airline had those flights and fares. I'd be happy to have someone correct me or corroborate my recollection.

by Richly on Friday, October 28, 2011

I do this all the time and have never been "caught"

by AA on Friday, October 28, 2011

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Hidden City Airfares Can Save Money, But Sometimes at Great Cost

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