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I really, really don't understand the airlines' problem with this. The seat was paid for, if nobody is in it, they save a fraction of a penny on fuel. What do they lose if the seat is empty vs the person still sitting in it? They get the exact same revenue. I'm so confused.
Skiplagging is a very old practice. What's new here is just the website. Before 9/11 there was nothing the airlines could do to stop it because you didn't have to show ID to match your ticket. So they couldn't ban you even if they figured out you were skiplagging. Now they can and they do. Which is why the airlines love that the government "forces" them to check your ID.
> Now they can and they do. Which is why the airlines love that the government "forces" them to check your ID. Where is this happening? On over 100 domestic flights post-9/11, I've never had an airline review my ID - only on international flights has this occurred. The TSA or their private equivalent will match your ID to a boarding pass, but even now that's going away at major airports in favor of ID scans. Regardle…
In your scenario, when you fail to board Airplane B that event gets flagged. Not a huge deal but you might have a problem getting a refund. When you try to board Airplane A the fun begins. You will be stopped because the ID for that boarding pass never went through a TSA checkpoint.
What if you go back through TSA again, this time with the other boarding pass? They only check IDs now, so you'd need a second ID that also had your picture on it. Drivers licences were easy to forge 20 years ago. Not so much now, especially with the RealID mandate.
Even then it wouldn't work because TSA has face recognition now. If you try to go through a second time with a different ID but a similar face on the same day, you will almost certainly be detained and probably arrested.
Good luck.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Now they can and they do. Which is why the airlines love that the government "forces" them to check your ID. Where is this happening? On over 100 domestic flights post-9/11, I've never had an airline review my ID - only on international flights has this occurred. The TSA or their private equivalent will match your ID to a boarding pass, but even now that's going away at major airports in favor of ID scans. Regardle…
> then using whatever name you want on a flight with Airline A. Where do you live? Your boarding pass is scanned at the gate; you can’t just board any flight with your boarding pass from any other flight
I don't understand how someone can be barred from an airline because they got a better deal on it. At a certain point there must be an individual who would've been barred from every airline due to this at which point it becomes some sort of cruel punishment on an individual from a whole industry for really doing nothing illegal or wrong or causing a nuisance. Airlines shouldn't be allowed to barr people simply for sk…
>I don't understand how someone can be barred from an airline because they got a better deal on it. Because they cause a truly stupid amount of inefficiencies and hassle with their desire to save a buck at the cost of everyone else. I think American Airlines's marketing and legal teams dropped the ball as far as how they impressed the court of public opinion, as demonstrated by this very thread. "We couldn't make mor…
The part about skipplagging causing scheduling issues for deadhead is irrelevant as it doesn’t actually cause scheduling issues, the crew will deadhead on the path they were always planned to do and skiplagging does not affect that.
Airlines could make these problems go away if they charged a consistent fee for each hop, but they decide to instead hang super shitty itineraries over your head hoping you will shell out more money so you don’t have to sleep on a bench in JFK.
Maybe air travel should be treated like a utility where you pay for transit between locations and the airlines need to offer a fixed cost for those transits. The prices can of course fluxuate based upon demand and other external factors like fuel prices, wages. But the airline should not be able to charge different prices based upon where you are coming from and where you are going, or what IP address you bought the tickets from, or your nationality, etc.
I understand that this will most likely make multi hop travel more expensive and single hop travel less expensive, and I think that is a worthwhile tradeoff.
Speaking of the environment, imagine if people could take single hop flights more often because they are cheaper than shittier multi hop itineraries. Right now people will take routes which are much less fuel efficient and much worse for the environment because the tickets are cheaper.
1. I booked roundtrip A → B → C and C → B → A.
2. I skipped B → C because I needed to spend a few days at B.
3. I booked a separate one-way B → C which was cheap because it was a short hop.
What I didn’t realize was that the airline canceled my C → B → A return trip when I skipped B → C. Fortunately, I discovered this early when I spoke to customer service about an unrelated question: the airline kindly explained to me what happened, warned me not to do it again, and rebooked my flight back.
I didn’t know “skiplagging” was a thing, but I actually did it once myself and almost got in trouble for it. 1. I booked roundtrip A → B → C and C → B → A. 2. I skipped B → C because I needed to spend a few days at B. 3. I booked a separate one-way B → C which was cheap because it was a short hop. What I didn’t realize was that the airline canceled my C → B → A return trip when I skipped B → C. Fortunately, I discove…
Say you booked round trip A to B back to A and decide to drive from A to B. Tada! Your B to A segment is automatically cancelled as well.
In a way this is even more absurd than airlines banning hidden city ticketing.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
>I don't understand how someone can be barred from an airline because they got a better deal on it. Because they cause a truly stupid amount of inefficiencies and hassle with their desire to save a buck at the cost of everyone else. I think American Airlines's marketing and legal teams dropped the ball as far as how they impressed the court of public opinion, as demonstrated by this very thread. "We couldn't make mor…
“As someone familiar with the aviation industry” you should know people “skiplagging” won’t check bags, which destroys your whole argument since that’s where all the inefficiencies lie. Now you just have a no-show at the gate (P>50% ? something they’re surely used to handle efficiently) giving them some slack to fly their overbook flight without having to bump anyone. Truly a win-win
The point is that a no-show still causes hassle, and in this case hassle that didn't have to happen.
Shit happens, if you turn into a no-show due to factors outside your control nobody's gonna be angry. But if you are a deliberate no-show? All because you wanted to shave some cost? Sincerely fuck you.
>that’s where all the inefficiencies lie
No.
I didn’t know “skiplagging” was a thing, but I actually did it once myself and almost got in trouble for it. 1. I booked roundtrip A → B → C and C → B → A. 2. I skipped B → C because I needed to spend a few days at B. 3. I booked a separate one-way B → C which was cheap because it was a short hop. What I didn’t realize was that the airline canceled my C → B → A return trip when I skipped B → C. Fortunately, I discove…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yup, and since they routinely oversell flights, I have zero sympathy for them. Negative sympathy even
Do you think ticket prices should be lower, or higher? What remedy do you prefer to achieve your goal?
Practically, I would be content if prices of any single leg couldn't be negative. If leg A costs a and leg B costs b, the cost of A+B can be lower than a+b (you can offer bundles, discounts, etc.); just not less than either a or b.
If you play "tricks", the consumer has the right to use such tricks to their benefit.