Skiplagging can looks beneficial but is it worth the risk? Well maybe, its depending on how brave you are! But let me first explain what skiplagging is and why some travelers use is as a way to cut prices.
Skiplagging – to miss a flight with purpose
Al of us who have been searching for cheap tickets with the more traditional airlines have seen that a flight with a stop over could be more cheap then a direct flight. The reason to this is at least two. The main reason is that the price is a way to get passenger who otherwise had chosen an direct flight. If my journey cost 200 euro less but I need to change an airport and arrive 1,5 hour later… For me that would a no brainer and I would go for the cheaper and longer one.
The other reason is that many airports have different fees depending if a passenger use the airport to end their journey or just change flight there. So the airport pays less if I stays in the transit area compared to if I left the airport. So the competition with direct flights and sometimes lower fees can make a flight A-B-C cheaper then a direct flight A-C.
And this is where skiplagging comes in…. Lets say that you want to go from Copenhagen to Istanbul on a weekend in July. You can either buy a ticket to Istanbul for for 5104 SEK or a ticket to Ankara for 4758 SEK and jump of at Istanbul when you are supposed to change flight.
So whats the problem with skiplagging
So far it sounds like a good way to save money. But of course the airlines is shall we say less happy about passengers who use skiplagging. The have al make sure that their contracts explicit forbids skiplagging. Maybe not so big surprise. The usually have a text saying that a passenger who skiplagg will get charged. Either they use a fixed amount penalty or the recalculate the ticket and make you pay the difference. But the question is if the airlines do have a legal ground to ban or charge you for skiplagging. In most cased tried in court the airlines are loosing their case.
A more practical problem maybe, is that this only works on one way or the return flight. The reason is that the airline will cancel al the coming flights in the booking when you don’t show up at your connection. Making the return flight useless if you try skiplagging on the outbound. The other practicality you need to think on is to only fly with hand luggage, otherwise it can be a nightmare. Because al check in luggage will be directed to the final destination and will need to be of loaded if you make a no show or its already in the air when you tried to get it out.
So is it worth the risk?
Well to be honest I would say it depends on how brave you are and how much you will save. When we look on the latest rulings skiplagging is not illegal. But its still a breach of the contract with the airline. Who on the other hand seems to have problems with he court to ban or charge on an extra fee if you skipflagg. So nobody really knows the risks today. If you want to try it there is a special homepage just for people searching for the uppertunity to save some money thru skipflagging. But don’t say that we didn’t warn you. An other way to fly cheap, at least in Europe is to look for a low cost airline like Ryan or Wizz Air.
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Cassie Aran didn’t think skiplagging was worth the risk of getting banned on American Airlines
https://www.businessinsider.com/skiplagging-american-airlines-almost-banned-me-2023-7?utm_campaign=insider-sf&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR0RzLNVmyN623RBT2RkuC1CF9YOxVjpsdi0mCxQHLtR__i5Xa-IcBcrOqs_aem_AeyJQV_mQnNT2qtr09YmBghRa7rH2qJruFZBNF84iBY29AqhXS4IVD45HZdHgFUAJO4&r=US&IR=T