Flight detour and baggage

July 11, 2024 11:40 AM

I have a round-trip air ticket that involves a transfer in Miami on my return home. I actually want to take a detour and fly from Miami to somewhere in the northeast USA (either boston or philly), then fly home from there (seattle). If I buy a one-way ticket from Miami to my destination, will the airlines make it possible to transfer my baggage to that new flight?

The new flight out of Miami will probably be on a different carrier altogether.

I would also accept, though dislike, having to exit the DMZ and pick up my bag from the carousel in MIA, then check it to my next destination. That would require a lot of extra time to get through security again, plus I'd have to go through customs in Miami as the first leg is international... which might look weird if I'm leaving my original trip early?

Is this just a matter of talking to an agent at the counter before my return flight and getting them to tag my bags differently? There are fewer and fewer of those as kiosks take over the world.

Or is this a really bad idea?

posted by StockingMarionette to Travel & Transportation (11 answers total)

Best answer: This is a bad idea. Your ticket is from A to B, not A to Miami to B. Should the route from A to B become unviable, the airline can drop Miami from your itinerary and route you through a different connecting city. If you need to be in Miami, book a ticket to Miami.
posted by shock muppet at 11:45 AM on July 11 [2 favorites]

For security (and business reasons) if you have a ticket from A>B with a change of planes in Miami, they will only tag your luggage for city B unless there is a special deal with the airlines that allows for extended layovers. So the only way to get off the plane in Miami and walk away is if you have no checked bags. The exception might be if you are arriving on an international flight and transferring to a domestic flight where you have to reclaim your luggage and go through customs and immigration before transferring to the flight to city B.
posted by metahawk at 12:03 PM on July 11

Best answer: You can't do this with checked bags. It's called skiplagging and airlines don't like it and it can get you banned from frequent flier programs (or even from the airline altogether), though you usually have to do it a lot to get that kind of response.

You might be able to pull it off, since you will most likely have to pick up your bags to get through customs in Miami, but if your bag is delayed getting off your first flight (or incorrectly routed) you could be separated from your bag indefinitely and it might end up in Miami or Seattle or who knows where.

If you only have hand luggage and (THIS IS IMPORTANT!) you don't have any more flights on this ticket, this will probably work.
posted by mskyle at 12:06 PM on July 11

Best answer: If I understand what you're describing correctly, you're planning on skiplagging, which is when you have a ticket from A->B->C but you don't do the B->C leg. Airlines really, really don't want you to do that - they require you to complete every leg of your flight, even if that makes no sense from the customer's side. So logistical issues aside, the likelihood of an agent at the counter being okay with it is slim.

But if what you have in mind instead is talking with an airline representative before your flight - ideally at least a few days before you get to the airport - and asking them to rebook your itinerary such that instead of A->Miami->home the new ticket is A->Miami->Seattle->home, then that should be fine by them (but probably very expensive).
posted by trig at 12:09 PM on July 11

There are too many details missing from this to be able to give you an answer with the accuracy you need. Typically when arriving from another country you clear US customs at your port of entry (i.e. the first airport you reach that's in the US). The exception is if your departure airport offers preclearance. If you're not coming from an airport with preclearance, you go through passport control, retrieve your checked bags, and then go through a final customs declaration checkpoint that may involve additional screening by the USDA. At that point, if your bags have been checked through on a connecting flight, you drop them off at a counter that's just outside the customs and immigration hall and proceed to your next gate. In theory this gives you the opportunity to take your bag and check in for your next flight. There are problems with this plan, though.

First, the plan only works if you're not coming from an airport with CBP preclearance. If you are coming from such an airport, your bags will be tagged for your ticketed destination and you won't ever have the opportunity to grab them.

Second, intentionally skipping a connecting flight is a practice known as skiplagging, and it can cause an airline to flag you as a problem. Worse, if your checked bag goes missing from the system it can cause a delay for the departing flight when they try to ensure that the passenger manifest and the baggage manifest are in sync. I once had a tarmac delay when a ticketed passenger didn't board due to some undisclosed situation, but their checked bag had been loaded. The airline had to partially unload baggage to retrieve the bag(s) belonging to that traveler before the plane could depart. It sucked.

Third, you won't be able to recheck your bag without going to the departures entrance and passing through security again. You might be able to pull off some gate check shenanigans, where they'd ask you how you managed to get past security with an oversized bag, but I wouldn't count on it.

it's more expensive but airlines will be happy to sell you (or rebook you on) an open jaw ticket. That's where you depart from one airport and then arrive at another. Typically on international flights the domestic connection is more or less "free" (aside from fees imposed by the specific airports), so you may be able to change your original round trip ticket to SEA->[wherever]-PHL/BOS and just pay a nominal fee to do that. Then you'd have to buy just a single one-way ticket from PHL/BOS->SEA. You might have to call the airline's ticketing phone number to make this happen, but it won't get you in trouble with any airlines and you shouldn't have issues with your baggage.
posted by fedward at 12:15 PM on July 11 [1 favorite]

Maybe I’m misunderstanding something, but aren’t you going through customs/passport control in MIA? If so, you would need to pick up check bags anyways.
posted by oceano at 12:17 PM on July 11

Best answer: There is no DMZ for international arrivals at American airports. Every passenger must collect their baggage, go out through immigration/customs, drop off their bags at the bag dropoff immediately beyond customs (in some airports, it is not "immediately beyond", looking at you, Austin...), and then go back in through security. Unless, as fedward noted, you are coming from an airport with preclearance.

Second, change fees can be reasonable. You may be able to go online and change your current flight from Wherever-MIA-SEA to Wherever-MIA-BOS and then BOS-SEA, with a long layover (this is called a multi-city ticket) in Boston, especially if you haven't flown the first leg yet.

This might not cost you very much at all. Picking a random foreign origin, I see the following for cheap flights next month:

• Cancun-Miami-Seattle on August 23: $292
• Cancun-Miami-Boston on August 23, and Boston-Seattle on August 27: $313

For this particular itinerary, it might cost as little as $21 to add a side trip to Boston to your journey.

On the other hand, if you purchased a super-cheap basic economy ticket, it's possible that no changes are allowed.

Feel free to DM if you'd like more personalized assistance.
posted by Hatashran at 12:38 PM on July 11

Best answer: >Is this just a matter of talking to an agent at the counter before my return flight and getting them to tag my bags differently?

An airline will never agree to tag your bags differently than the final destination listed on your official itinerary.

> plus I'd have to go through customs in Miami as the first leg is international

You'll have to go through customs in Miami regardless. When entering the US by air, you always go through customs and immigration at the first point of entry. You 'll also be required to retrieve your checked luggage so you can bring it through customs with you.

Technically, that probably does make it possible for you to then exit with your checked luggage and board an entirely different flight. However, it's probably not a great idea for a number of reasons mentioned above:

• If there's any flight delays or logistics issues leading up to your flight, the airline might re-route you to your final destination via a different city than Miami
• If your flight to Miami is delayed enough that you miss your flight to Boston/Philly, you are SOL — the airline will not reimburse or rebook you since it's a separate itinerary
• Airlines really hate it when people "skiplag" by skipping the second leg of a journey, and it could cause delays for others, and/or get you blacklisted by the airline
• If you tell the immigration official a different final destination than what's listed on your itinerary, you might get extra questioning (less likely if you're a US citizen)

In short, if you like adventure and you're OK with the risk of things going horribly wrong, sure, why not, give it a try. It might work. But it's really not recommended for the reasons mentioned.
posted by mekily at 9:48 PM on July 11

An airline will never agree to tag your bags differently than the final destination listed on your official itinerary.

Not necessarily. I’ve had BA check my bags from Las Vegas to Amsterdam as opposed to Zurich via Gatwick. My original flight was personal. Work plans changed after I had booked my vacation and suddenly I was supposed to be in Amsterdam on the day I got back.

I wasn’t going to change my personal flight at my own cost. When I was trying to figure out how to get to Amsterdam that day it transpired BA had a flight from Gatwick that would get me to Amsterdam for lunch. So I bought that ticket through my employer’s travel site with a return leg to Zurich.

When checking in in Las Vegas, I explained my problem and asked nicely. I had everything I’d need for two days in Ams in my hand luggage just in case. But the guy was quite happy to help me out after seeing my 2nd ticket. Pretty sure it wouldn’t have happened if it had been different carriers.
posted by koahiatamadl at 10:28 AM on July 12

Response by poster: Thank you all. I knew I had heard that dropping a leg of a flight was a bad idea, glad to finally understand why. I called the travel agent and it turned out changing to my desired destination only cost $30. So now I'm above board, going where I want, no shenanigans, no worries.
Also thanks for the info about customs. I haven't flown international in 20 years so I had no idea how that worked.
posted by StockingMarionette at 12:15 PM on July 21 [1 favorite]

it turned out changing to my desired destination only cost $30

Wow, that's great!
posted by trig at 1:49 PM on July 21