4 ms·

Unfortunately that has been happening for years, long before checked bag fees were a thing. It is likely a way to make hidden city ticketing harder.

dzhiurgis 9y ago
But how is that making them any money? Wouldn't it make more sense to sell something and not do the service? Or the actual service cost is so little that it makes 0 difference? Does airline get to keep airport tax? Fuel savings are negligible compared with all the taxes.
- greenleafjacob 9y ago
  Because they can sell the same seat twice.
  - johnbellone 9y ago
    Actually, three times, since you still need to go to your destination. They have you over a barrel.
- ubernostrum 9y ago
  "Hidden city" ticketing is when you want to go from City A to City B, and notice that the airline charges less money for a ticket A -> B -> C than for a ticket A -> B. So you buy the A -> B -> C ticket and get off the plane at B and never fly onward to C. Airlines really and truly do not like it when you do this. If you have a frequent-flyer account with them, it's usually grounds to have the account terminated and all points/miles in the account confiscated, for example. The reason why the A -> B ticket is more expensive in some cases has to do with how the airline assigns differently-priced tickets to different routes. For example, if B is a business destination and C is a popular tourist destination, the airline can use the more expensive A -> B ticket (which business travelers buy regardless, since they're using company money) to subsidize cheap tourist fares A -> B -> C. When people try to work around this by buying the cheap A -> B -> C ticket and then only flying A -> B, that hits revenue multiple times: they've flown someone A -> B for less than what they wanted to charge on that route, and now they have an empty seat going B -> C. So airlines come down on this pretty hard whenever they think it's what you're doing (they're within their rights to say that if you want to fly A -> B, they have a published fare for that, and to say that they'll cancel all your frequent-flyer perks if you won't abide by that). Now, suppose you book a multi-segment ticket for a round trip: A -> B -> C, return C -> B -> A. And then you never show up for the initial A -> B flight. The airline has no way of knowing what you plan to do unless you actually contact them and tell them what's going on. They just know you bought a ticket and then didn't use it, so if you don't get in touch with them they're going to cancel the whole thing. They'll also cancel if you have two separate tickets booked for the same day and overlapping times, since they know it's physically impossible for you to be on both of them. The solution here is to actually call the airline, or go to their ticket desk at the airport, and explain what happened before you go buying a separate last-minute ticket to try to replace your original one. Usually they'll rebook your original ticket to a different flight, for a change fee that's cheaper than the cost of a brand-new ticket.
  - whamlastxmas 9y ago
    This makes me glad I don't bother with FF miles and other airline gimmicks.
    - ghaff 9y ago
      If you fly a lot FF miles and airline status aren't gimmicks. They can make you quite a bit more comfortable. Of course, if you only fly a couple times a year, the benefits are pretty much negligible.
  - notyourday 9y ago
    I don't care. Airline's goal is to extract the most money from me. My goal is to extract the most services out of airline for the least amount of money.
    - ubernostrum 9y ago
      The question asked was how do these policies make money for the airline. I've given the answer to that question. Whether you personally care about that or not isn't really relevant, since it wasn't your question.
      - notyourday 9y ago
        No, what you did is provide airline-speak justification for doing it. Airlines route optimization and pricing optimization is stuck in the early nineties. Their software is simply incapable of solving for the max profit or max revenue model. That's why hidden stop is still a thing.
- ryanlol 9y ago
  The answers focusing on hidden city ticketing are just nonsense. Airlines have much better tools for dealing with that, they can just ban you afterwards. Airlines will resell your return ticket if you neglect contacting them after missing your first flight. If you contact them, they will not sell your return ticket. There's also a good chance that they'll switch the first flight you missed for free or at least significantly less than the cost of a new ticket.

dzhiurgis 9y ago

But how is that making them any money? Wouldn't it make more sense to sell something and not do the service? Or the actual service cost is so little that it makes 0 difference? Does airline get to keep airport tax? Fuel savings are negligible compared with all the taxes.

greenleafjacob 9y ago
Because they can sell the same seat twice.
- johnbellone 9y ago
  Actually, three times, since you still need to go to your destination. They have you over a barrel.
ubernostrum 9y ago
"Hidden city" ticketing is when you want to go from City A to City B, and notice that the airline charges less money for a ticket A -> B -> C than for a ticket A -> B. So you buy the A -> B -> C ticket and get off the plane at B and never fly onward to C. Airlines really and truly do not like it when you do this. If you have a frequent-flyer account with them, it's usually grounds to have the account terminated and all points/miles in the account confiscated, for example. The reason why the A -> B ticket is more expensive in some cases has to do with how the airline assigns differently-priced tickets to different routes. For example, if B is a business destination and C is a popular tourist destination, the airline can use the more expensive A -> B ticket (which business travelers buy regardless, since they're using company money) to subsidize cheap tourist fares A -> B -> C. When people try to work around this by buying the cheap A -> B -> C ticket and then only flying A -> B, that hits revenue multiple times: they've flown someone A -> B for less than what they wanted to charge on that route, and now they have an empty seat going B -> C. So airlines come down on this pretty hard whenever they think it's what you're doing (they're within their rights to say that if you want to fly A -> B, they have a published fare for that, and to say that they'll cancel all your frequent-flyer perks if you won't abide by that). Now, suppose you book a multi-segment ticket for a round trip: A -> B -> C, return C -> B -> A. And then you never show up for the initial A -> B flight. The airline has no way of knowing what you plan to do unless you actually contact them and tell them what's going on. They just know you bought a ticket and then didn't use it, so if you don't get in touch with them they're going to cancel the whole thing. They'll also cancel if you have two separate tickets booked for the same day and overlapping times, since they know it's physically impossible for you to be on both of them. The solution here is to actually call the airline, or go to their ticket desk at the airport, and explain what happened before you go buying a separate last-minute ticket to try to replace your original one. Usually they'll rebook your original ticket to a different flight, for a change fee that's cheaper than the cost of a brand-new ticket.
- whamlastxmas 9y ago
  This makes me glad I don't bother with FF miles and other airline gimmicks.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    If you fly a lot FF miles and airline status aren't gimmicks. They can make you quite a bit more comfortable. Of course, if you only fly a couple times a year, the benefits are pretty much negligible.
- notyourday 9y ago
  I don't care. Airline's goal is to extract the most money from me. My goal is to extract the most services out of airline for the least amount of money.
  - ubernostrum 9y ago
    The question asked was how do these policies make money for the airline. I've given the answer to that question. Whether you personally care about that or not isn't really relevant, since it wasn't your question.
    - notyourday 9y ago
      No, what you did is provide airline-speak justification for doing it. Airlines route optimization and pricing optimization is stuck in the early nineties. Their software is simply incapable of solving for the max profit or max revenue model. That's why hidden stop is still a thing.
ryanlol 9y ago
The answers focusing on hidden city ticketing are just nonsense. Airlines have much better tools for dealing with that, they can just ban you afterwards. Airlines will resell your return ticket if you neglect contacting them after missing your first flight. If you contact them, they will not sell your return ticket. There's also a good chance that they'll switch the first flight you missed for free or at least significantly less than the cost of a new ticket.