Can I deliberately miss my connection?

September 1, 2014 3:36 AM

I live in the UK and want to fly to Cape Town in a few months. Due to Airline Pricing™, the cheapest option is for me to take the train to Paris, fly BA back to London and then take a BA connection direct to South Africa. On the return leg, I'd like to leave at London (to avoid flying to Paris and then taking the train straight back). Can I do this?

It's the last flight I'd miss, so there's nothing for the airline to cancel, and I wouldn't check any bags on the return flight. But am I going to inconvenience a planeful of passengers waiting to fly to France, or cause BA to hate me forever, or anything like that? Do I need to do anything special in the airport in Cape Town?

I've seen this 2006 question but nothing more recent.

posted by katrielalex to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

I would imagine it would be fine as long as you call BA and tell them you will not be making the final leg of the journey. That way they will know not to hold up a plane for you.
posted by shihchiun at 3:52 AM on September 1, 2014

Dont tell them

They wont. Hold the plaane anyway and they will blacklist youif they know you did it deliberately
posted by zia at 3:54 AM on September 1, 2014 [3 favorites]

Best answer: This is a well known phenomenon in the airline (and sometimes train, especially in the UK) industry. The keyword phrase you want to google is "hidden city fare" or "hidden city pricing" - that will lead you to a number of discussions on what could happen, what is likely to happen, and what to look out for when doing this.
posted by penguinicity at 4:02 AM on September 1, 2014 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: Aha, "hidden city" was a good lead, thank you!

It seems that there's a lot of discussion, but as long as I a) only do it on the return leg, b) don't check a bag and c) don't do it too often then I'll probably be fine.
posted by katrielalex at 5:05 AM on September 1, 2014

Also, you won't be inconveniencing anyone. Most flights are over-booked and if you don't show up by X time, there are at least 30 people salivating over your unused seat.

If you were concerned about that.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 6:09 AM on September 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Also sometimes called "throw-away ticketing." This is pretty common.
posted by raf at 9:35 AM on September 1, 2014

Response by poster: In case anyone else is searching, this was totally fine. I also left the airport between the two legs, which just meant I had to go through security again.
posted by katrielalex at 10:43 AM on January 10, 2015 [1 favorite]