Can I just fly out of Toronto?
November 19, 2006 7:17 AM   Subscribe

Can I just skip a connecting flight?

In December, I will be flying from London, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia with a stop-over in Toronto (so London to Toronto to Vancouver). However, I recently was asked if I wanted to hang out in Toronto for a couple of days before I go. Can I just skip the London to Toronto flight and join up with my flight plan in Toronto?

According to my itinerary, there is a two hour stop over in Toronto, and then I get on a different plane to make the trip from Toronto to Vancouver.

I am flying with Air Canada (Tango). I tried calling their customer support line but was told (by a recording) that talking to a customer service representative involves a $20 charge, which is, I think pretty ridiculous.
posted by synecdoche to Travel & Transportation around Toronto, ON (12 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
You'll probably want to verify this with Air Canada somehow (wow, $20, WTF), but as far as I know, missing one leg of a flight generally invalidates the rest of the ticket.
posted by thirteenkiller at 7:32 AM on November 19, 2006


The airlines will cancel the rest of your ticket if you miss any part of it. So you can skip the last connecting leg of your itinerary, but not any others.

They do this to maintain their pricing - so that they can have nonsensical pricing schemes like it being cheaper to travel to Washington D.C. via New York than directly to New York.
posted by jellicle at 7:41 AM on November 19, 2006


Read the terms and conditions for your type of ticket. It'll explain exactly what you can and can't do much better than we can.
posted by cillit bang at 7:48 AM on November 19, 2006


Beware, if you buy a ticket to Vancouver, then that's where your luggage that you check-in is going to go, if the airline doesn't know about your plans.
posted by cmiller at 7:52 AM on November 19, 2006


AFAIK, it's only booking with a CSR that incurs the $20 charge, not asking them for information.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:58 AM on November 19, 2006


If you don't plan on using the second half of your ticket at all, I don't see why you can't. I did this. I was flying to Boston via Philly with a friend, but I live in New York. So I just stayed in Philly and took commuter rail back to New York.

But I haven't flown since then, so I can't verify that I'm not on the no-fly list as a result of this or anything.

But are you asking if they'll still honor the ticket from Toronto to Vancouver after that? If that's what you want, you'll have to sort it out with them beforehand. It might be possible but would cost you a fee or two. In that case, you're gonna have to talk to them either way.
posted by lampoil at 7:59 AM on November 19, 2006


Oh, also... are you flying Tango or Tango Plus? Plus comes with some leeway on flight changes, although they're usually only day-of, not in advance.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 7:59 AM on November 19, 2006


Oh yeah, I didn't check luggage when I did it.
posted by lampoil at 8:00 AM on November 19, 2006


No, you generally can not do this.

You can change your flight out of Toronto to be a few days later, but then you will incur whatever change fee the airline has. Many airlines will credit you with $ for unused parts of your flight that you can use on other fligths with them, but this is a policy that varies widely from company to company.
posted by jessamyn at 8:33 AM on November 19, 2006


The change fee for Tango Plus is $50 at the airport, day of flight.

Latitude fares have more...sorry...latitude.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:39 AM on November 19, 2006


Response by poster: Thanks, all. Checked with the airline and apparently it involves re-booking, and the fare I got is not longer available. Too bad.
posted by synecdoche at 11:57 AM on November 19, 2006


Can you skip out on your return flight? Example: take the flight through Toronto as planned, go to Vancouver and then on your way back, stop in Toronto. Don't take the Toronto/London, ON leg. Hang out in T.O. Do whatever it was you wanted to do. Then take the bus home to London. It's only a three hour drive.
posted by typewriter at 12:01 PM on November 20, 2006


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