Hey everyone, how's it going? Hope you all are doing well. It's Ernest from Trip
Astute. In this video, we're going to be exploring the topic of skiplagging
flights, which is booking a connecting flight with the intention of skipping
the final leg. We'll discuss the risks and share some tips to keep in mind.
(light chiming music)
A couple weeks ago I asked on my community tab whether any of you have ever skiplagged
a flight. Less than 10% of you responded that you've done it, but over
half of you responded that you've never even heard of it. So today, I want to talk
about an air travel technique known as skiplagging. It's recently received a
lot of press due to some airlines cracking down on passengers, so I thought
it was relevant. Plus, we recently booked some flights that may require us to skiplag
them unintentionally, so I wanted to share my personal experience. Before we
get started, if you're new here, welcome to our channel. Trip Astute is a travel
channel that is focused on sharing ways to make travel easier, affordable, and
more enjoyable. Traveling can be stressful and expensive, so we're looking
for ways to help you maximize your experience through travel tips, points
and miles, and innovative gear. If that sounds interesting to you, please
consider subscribing. Skiplagging is essentially booking a connecting flight
with the intention of missing the final leg of the flight plan. You might be
asking why would anyone want to do this. Well, it's usually due to cost. Sometimes
you'll find flights that connect through your destination that are cheaper than
simply booking a flight to that destination. It's a bit annoying since it
really doesn't make any sense that a longer flight will be cheaper, but that's
why some savvy travelers will use skiplagging in order to get a cheaper flight,
even though they essentially are abandoning and not using the final leg
of their flight plan. For example, suppose you were to fly business class from Los
Angeles in New York. If I were to look up direct flights this week on Delta, you
would see that the cheapest flight that I could find is around $1,600. Pretty
pricey! However, if I were to create a flight that stops in New York but then
continues to San Juan, Puerto Rico, you would only pay $610 for the same
flight. You can see why someone might purchase this flight with the intention
of skipping the final flight to San Juan in order to get the lower price. The
airlines hate it when people skiplag, and rightfully so. Airlines will often
try to keep the gate open as long as possible if they think passengers are
trying to connect. This means a waste of time
and effort by the airlines. I imagine that it might cause confusion in their
systems to have passengers who miss a flight as they probably assume that
those passengers will still need to get to their final destination. There's also
the ethical implications. I know that it bothers me that I might be causing a
plane to leave late because they're keeping the gate open for my arrival. I
have this image of them calling my name over and over in the airport, and it's
not a good feeling to know that I'm wasting other people's time. I hate it
when people waste my time, so I can only imagine how gate agents would feel, as
well as passengers who are sitting in the plane waiting for their departure. On
the flipside, it's frustrating that the pricing for nonstop flights can be so
expensive, and the fact that a lot of flights are overbooked makes a lot of
people feel unsympathetic toward the airlines. Regardless of how you feel
about the airlines, there have been a lot of stories lately of the airlines
cracking down on passengers that skiplag. Specifically, United and Lufthansa have
been in the news for suing passengers that were caught skiplagging. However, I
did some digging into the stories and I found that the passengers who were sued
were regular skiplaggers, which means that the airline had a record of them
doing it many times in the past. To be honest, I was a bit nervous when I read
the article since we booked a Delta flight from Burbank, California to
Glacier Park International Airport in Montana that stopped in Salt Lake City.
We decided later on to change the starting location of our trip to Salt
Lake City, so skiplagging was one of the options
since we didn't want to pay the cancellation fee. Ironically, we called
Delta last weekend to discuss the situation. We told them that we needed to
go to Salt Lake City instead of Glacier Park, and that we would like to cancel
the last leg of our flight. Delta said that they would need to charge us $150
per ticket to make the change. We asked if they could waive the fee,
especially since we were essentially giving them the ability to earn more
revenue by booking the seats to other passengers on the final leg of our trip.
After going back and forth on the fee, the representative told us and it might
be better for us to skip the last flight. Yeah, the Delta rep advised us to skiplag.
So it's a tough call. I don't recommend anyone doing it if you can avoid it
since it's generally against the terms and conditions of the airlines. However, I
also don't know how an airline can enforce the rule unless you're someone
who has a pattern of doing it. For example, there might be legitimate
reasons why someone might skip a flight. Maybe you feel sick. Maybe there's an
emergency that requires you to fly back home.
Or a work situation that causes you to miss a connection or redirect or travel
to another location. I don't think it's a good long-term strategy for travelers.
Since the airline's track your flight history, it makes sense that they are
cracking down on people who they can argue are intentionally doing it and
abusing the system. Now that I've told you the risk and recommended that you
avoid skiplagging, I should mention that there is a website dedicated to
help you find flights that take advantage of this loophole.
It's called skiplagged.com, and it's basically a flight search engine that
looks for flights with connections as a final destination that might be cheaper
than non-stop flights. The company has been sued by United and Orbitz, but has
managed to survive. From what I've read, they've won based on a technicality
since the company is based in New York and the lawsuit was filed in Chicago. I'm
guessing this won't be the last legal challenge that they face, so be careful
if you intend to use the site to book a connecting flight with the intention of
skiplagging. If you decide you need or want to skiplag a flight, here are a
couple things that you should keep in mind. Number 1: Avoid multi-city
round-trip flights. If you don't complete your flight plan, than the rest of your
reservation is usually canceled. This is important if you book your return flight
on the same reservation. Just know that the default for the airlines is to
cancel your reservation if you don't complete it. So if you need to book a
flight home, you'll want to do it on a separate one-way reservation. Number 2:
Don't expect award miles. Like number 1, cancelling your flight plan can cause
you to lose miles on the entire itinerary. It's not a definite outcome
that you won't get miles for at least the portion that you traveled, but it
seems like folks online have mixed experiences when it comes to getting
their loyalty miles. Number 3: Avoid check-in baggage. This one is probably
obvious, but you definitely do not want to have to check-in a bag if you're
planning to skiplag. This is because your bag will likely get transferred
automatically and end up at the final destination of your travel itinerary.
Also, I recommend keeping your carry-on bag small, preferably small enough to fit
underneath your seat. The reason being is that sometimes the overhead bins get
full and the airlines will force you to gate check your bag.
Keeping your carry-on bag small reduces the risk of that situation since you
can fit it underneath the seat if necessary. Number 4: Don't tell the
airlines that you intend to skip the final flight. While we broke this rule, I
generally don't recommend that you disclose that you plan to
skip a flight. From my experience, the airlines will not try to accommodate
your situation, so it's probably better to do it without telling them. Number
5: Monitor any flight changes. I've had situations where my connection changed,
especially when I booked the tickets so far in advance. The flight was still
going to go to the final destination, but the connection point was different due
to a flight cancellation. If this happens on a skiplag flight, I recommend that
you request a refund for the flight, if it's possible. It doesn't happen often,
but it is a risk you take if you are skiplagging. Number 6: Scheduled
flights with a long stopover. Similar to the previous tip, having a longer
stopover reduces the risk that your entire flight plan will change. The
airline will likely try to get you to your stopover location, so it means one
less flight that they have to adjust in the event of a flight cancellation or
rebooking. Number 7: Avoid skiplagging international flights. Since
airlines are usually required to verify whether a passenger has a valid visa
before checking in or boarding an international flight, it can cause all
kinds of issues if you plan to miss your final leg. I suppose you could get a visa
for both destinations if it's necessary, but it does seem a bit risky. I
personally wouldn't do it, especially since I wouldn't want to have to answer
questions from customs and immigration officials if they somehow investigated
my original flight plan and notice that I skipped it. Some countries are sensitive
about onward travel plans as well, so you want to be especially careful about
showing your intention to leave the country. Though in my head, if an official
were to find out that you broke your arrival flight plan, I would worry that
they might suspect that I might do the same with my departure. Just something to
consider if you plan to go this route. Number 8: Don't overdo it. As I
mentioned earlier, those have gotten in trouble with the airline are folks
that have a habit of missing their flights. That data is trackable and it's
not worth being flagged by the airlines. I wouldn't be surprised if it came up
during a Global Entry interview as well as a potential issue during a background
check. At the end of the day, I think that skiplagging presents a lot of risks
for travelers. There are a lot of logistical issues that can come up.
Whether it's flight changes, visas, or baggage, I think the risk that your trip
could be completely derailed is much higher when skiplagging. There's also a
risk of losing your points because the airlines crack down on you and close
your account. For those of us in the points and miles hobby, especially
those of you with a lot of airline miles and status, this could be especially
painful and devastating. Of course, I wish the airlines would make more effort to
price their flights in a way that doesn't encourage people to have to use
this method to save money. The source of the issue is the pricing of the tickets,
so I think it's in their interest to find ways to make pricing more
reasonable and competitive to discourage people from having to search for
alternative bookings. What do you all think of skiplagging? Have you ever done
it? Please let us know in the comments section below. If you enjoyed this video
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with others who might benefit from our content. It really helps us with growing
our channel and our community. Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.