Skiplagging to Save: What to Know Before You Do It

Before you run out to start skiplagging all flights to save some money, you should consider the risks involved to make a proper assessment.

What is skiplagging?

‘Skiplagging’ is also known as ‘throwaway ticketing’ where you would buy a connecting flight but purposely not take all segments. The most common purpose of not flying all segments is to save money.

Say you want to fly between points A and B, but it costs more than you wish to pay. Instead, you notice a flight that travels between A and C with a stopover at B costs much less. Thus, you purchase the flight that travels from A to B to C with the intention of not flying the leg between B and C.

You can’t always find this to be true as sometimes connections can be costly. Some airports could be more consistent than others but there isn’t a hard and fast rule that applies for all carriers. To find the best deals, you’d need to search around yourself at nearby airports to get a sense of what’s possible. As an example for Los Angeles, it might require looking at Santa Barbara (SBA), Palm Springs (PSP), San Diego (SAN), or even Phoenix, Arizona (PHX), Las Vegas (LAS), or Tijuana, Mexico (TIJ).

Some loyalty programs also price out awards in such a way that you can save money tacking on an extra flight, but this is inherently a riskier proposition, as we’ll talk about more below. Flights that cost less by originating at a different airport (such as Z to A to B by expanding the example above) isn’t the same thing as skiplagging.

It’s not illegal but against the contract of carriage

First up, people tend to throw around the term ‘illegal’ a bit loosely. When something is illegal, it doesn’t follow the laws of that country, state, district, or municipality. There is no written law that covers the act of skiplagging. Thus, if you do it, it’s not considered ‘illegal’.

However, that said, it is generally against the contract of carriage for that airline to manipulate pricing in your favor. Airlines would generally argue they aren’t selling you two flights (A to B and B to C). Rather, they are selling you journey from A to C regardless of how many flights are included. When you intentionally get off the plane at B, you’ve violated the terms of your purchase on your end.

Airlines might respond by banning you from their loyalty program, blacklist you so you cannot purchase flights from them again, or even send you request for money. However, these are more extreme examples that likely wouldn’t happen after a first offense. After all, there are reasons why you would naturally miss a flight (late connection, oversleeping on an overnight connection, sickness, or a change of plans or business needs, just to name a few). The airline would need to determine there isn’t malicious intent by you to game the system, which isn’t easy.

However, this should serve as a warning that you shouldn’t go overboard with skiplagging, especially if you care about your relationship with that airline.

For what it’s worth, German courts have sided with passengers on this issue.

But is skiplagging ethical?

For those who might otherwise consider it ‘illegal’, what’s likely coming up is an ethical concern. Is it ethical to purchase airfare without the intent to use the ticket in full? Airlines tend to line up pretty clearly that they’re marketing a product between two airports and it shouldn’t be used for any other purpose.

However, we take the stance that two things can be true:

You’re free to use your ticket as much as you want. Should you choose not to fly at all, you’ve wasted money but it was your choice. If you don’t reach your final destination, it’s again your choice.
Airlines are free to determine who they want to fly on their planes and engage business with. It’s the same ‘no shirt, no shoes, no service’ sign you might see in stores and restaurants.

Airlines don’t want you to use only part of the ticket because that’s how air travel pricing works. Imagine all flights were priced based on distance and schedule. Every connecting flight would cost more than non-stop pricing, so the airline with the most non-stops would have all the business. Flights with connections need to be priced lower than non-stops because people put a value on their own time. And that idea alone is what makes skiplagging possible.

We don’t think there is a strong ethical debate, but we also agree the airline reserves the right to not do business with anyone it doesn’t want on their planes.

For what it’s worth, the New York Times agrees the practice is ethical.

Order of the flights matters

Before you run out an try out skiplagging, you need to know that order matters. Once you miss a flight segment, all later flight segments on that ticket become invalidated. You don’t do this on an outbound flight of a roundtrip ticket as doing so will void all inbound flights home. This is a technique best used for one-way journeys.

You can’t buy a ticket from Z to A to B, decide not to fly Z to A, and board just at A to get to B. In this example, your ticket from A to B would no longer work–and you would draw lots of attention on yourself as to how you showed up in A without showing up in Z. Whoops.

For skiplagging, you must fly every segment from the start until you reach your intended airport to leave. Whatever happens after that point is the throwaway portion of the ticket.

Considerations before skiplagging on your next flight

Given this is a touchy subject with airlines, there are a few considerations to make before you try skiplagging.

Checked bags are generally a no-no

When you check a bag in, most of the times, it will go all the way to your final destination. Even if you have an overnight layover, you might not see your bag until you land at your ticketed destination. With skiplagging, you’re not going to end up at your ticketed destination. Thus, you can imagine that checking a bag would therefore be a problem.

There are some exceptions to the rule–such as landing in the United States off an international flight where there is no pre-clearance facility. All customers must pick up their checked bags and re-check them in for their connecting flight. But don’t count on sweettalking your way into getting someone to deliver your bag early.

Watch out for gate checking your cabin bag

The other thing that can cause problems related to checked bags is if the gate agents or flight crew need you to check your bag due to a lack of overhead space. When they do this, it will automatically get delivered to your final destination, which isn’t what you want to happen. Small planes also might not have overhead bins that are big enough for your bags and the crew might make everyone check them.

Our recommendation is if you’re serious about doing this, either don’t buy a basic economy ticket or bring a backpack and not much else. Basic economy customers board last, which means not much overhead space for your stuff if you’re even able to bring one.

Don’t add your frequent flyer number

The more you do this, the more you’ll raise alarms from people reviewing the system. So don’t do others a favor by making this easy. You’re better off not making it overtly obvious that it’s you each time you ‘inadvertently’ miss a flight. Some might argue you’re fine to put in a partner loyalty number, but we wouldn’t even suggest doing that. Chances are if you’re buying the cheapest ticket, you might not be getting many miles or elite status credit anyways, so it’s not much of a loss.

At the same time, don’t expect this to be a fool-proof method. Airlines can still reasonably estimate it’s you if they dig into the data deep enough. It just makes it way easier on them to see it’s you when you tell them it’s you.

In case of irregular operations (IROPS), you might need a valid reason to route back through an airport

This one is a tricky one. Weather and mechanical delays happen with some regularity. Those delays might mean you miss your scheduled connection and the airline will automatically book you on another one. Especially if you’re traveling late in the day, the delay can mean you’re not going to find a way onto your desired routing.

There are creative solutions to this (tell an agent you’re trying to have an affair with someone in the connecting airport) but you’d still need to wait in line to talk to someone. It could delay you a full day, which can ruin plans. But that’s if you’re successful in getting someone to listen to you. If you get no one, you might be heading to a place you simply had no intention of going.

Don’t make a habit out of it

No matter how often you do it, you need to be careful on frequency. There is no firm guidance on how many times it takes to trigger someone to review your flight patterns. You don’t want them to even think about it if you care about flying them again. It’s far easier to make the argument that it’s a one-off if it truly only happens once. If you do it all the time, your story becomes pretty weak.

What about doing this with award flights?

So, we get the idea of doing this with cash, but what about award flights? With how many loyalty programs now charging variable pricing, you could find some stellar award pricing if you look hard enough. And many of the same concerns apply to skiplagging as it does with cash. But the extra concern is that you’ve entered loyalty account information to redeem your flight.

More so than with cash, we would advise not doing this more often than once every blue moon. You’ll have some buffer by using partner award miles but partners can cooperate to investigate members that appear to abuse the rules.

Is the amount you’re saving worth the risk?

Ultimately, whether you consider skiplagging or not, it’s going to boil down to two things:

How much money (or miles) are you going to save by doing this?
Is the savings worth the risk involved?

It’s impossible to fully assess the risk involved as there aren’t published studies that analyze how often people do it and get penalized for doing so. Thus, you’re probably not going to go through this effort just to save $5. But how much of a threshold would you consider setting? $100? $300? Everyone will have a different price they’re comfortable with and that’s fine.

You could always apply these practices to find cheap deals for more fun

If you simply don’t want the risk, there’s an easy solution: take the cheaper rate and go have fun. In the example of flying A to B to C because it’s less expensive than just A to B on its own, why not just fly to C? Spend some extra time in C, especially if it’s somewhere you might not have been to before. Then, if airfare is expensive going to B, consider taking the train or renting a car and drive. Sometimes you can find cheap airfare between B and C, especially if a low cost carrier operates that route.

Yes, this takes up more time, but there’s no risk to your frequent flyer account by doing this. You’re taking the flight as intended and could find an interesting new place you might not have otherwise explored.

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