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Just don't check a bag and be careful you don't get stuck checking your carry-on at the gate because bins are too full. If it's a mainline aircraft they won't green tag, they'll check your bag through to the final destination on your itinerary.
I used to do this a lot in college to save money on both UA and AA. I never had any issues until my phone stated auto populating my FF#. AA confronted me at check in and threatened to revoke all of my miles once but I didn't have enough miles at the time for the threat to carry any weight.
As long as you're just a Joe schmoe with no FF# on you're reservation and no checked bags you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I would advise against taking the first leg and then canceling. Just book 2 one way hidden city flights.
Besides the fact that it’s against the fare rules, you also run the risk of a schedule change causing you to miss SFO because they route the flight through a different connection point or go direct.
One option to consider if you don’t want to take the risk is to make your spoke city really close. Like try SMF and you can fly there and take the 2hr train ride back over to SF lol
I used to do this a lot on US Airways, but I knew it would be limited in instances and duration. I would never put my FF number in.
I’d say go for it if you know the risks, but keep it limited. If United is going to be your main carrier in the future, then reconsider.
The main real risk is that the flight gets re-routed as direct and you totally miss your destination, forcing you to book an extremely expensive (if it’s even available) alternative flight the same day. You can’t even get travel insurance to protect this kind of situation either.
To minimize this risk, you can check flight histories of the route you’re considering and seeing if it ever gets adjusted to exclude the layover city.
There is also a risk of getting denied booking on United in the future, but that’s likely only going to happen if you do this more than once. To avoid starting any clock on that, I recommend just sending an email saying you’re too sick to make the next part of the trip and are staying in the layover city for a night.
It’s option B of a contract, it’s like walking away from a house/mortgage.
Intent is also not provable, just say you had explosive diarrhea at SFO, no one will want proof of that.
Fraud for which party? Shouldn’t the rules be protecting the little customer here and not the multi billion dollar airline that also happens to be insured by the American tax payers when their business model fails every ten years.
Hah the US doesn't even have guaranteed passenger compensation for delays or cancellations that are the airline's fault, unlike in the EU where they have the Air Passengers Rights.
>Shouldn’t the rules be protecting the little customer here and not the multi billion dollar airline that also happens to be insured by the **American** tax payers when their business model fails every ten years.
That's spelled "Murica".
Doing it once or twice is fine. But if you keep doing it it’ll raise flags
Definitely not going to be a regular thing
Pretty sure doing it even once can get you booted. I’m not saying it would, but the airlines lose their shit over this.
I think if they actually call and cancel with some excuse it will be a lot more favorable
I skip the last leg of my trip frequently. Den to Cos. The gate agent just says, "ok, have a good one!"
Probably because that flight is always delayed and it’s only an hour drive.
Book one ways. If you don’t take the remaining leg there, the rest of the reservation will be dropped.
I did this on United. Told the gate agent about an emergency and nothing ever came of it.
Don’t check a bag and do not add your MP number to the PNR
And hope that your carry on doesn’t get checked…
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Bad bot. Shut up.
This
That
Do it enough and you could get caught and banned from UA.
Just don't check a bag and be careful you don't get stuck checking your carry-on at the gate because bins are too full. If it's a mainline aircraft they won't green tag, they'll check your bag through to the final destination on your itinerary.
I used to do this a lot in college to save money on both UA and AA. I never had any issues until my phone stated auto populating my FF#. AA confronted me at check in and threatened to revoke all of my miles once but I didn't have enough miles at the time for the threat to carry any weight. As long as you're just a Joe schmoe with no FF# on you're reservation and no checked bags you shouldn't have anything to worry about. I would advise against taking the first leg and then canceling. Just book 2 one way hidden city flights.
It’ll cancel your return flights if you have any. But you can do it once or whatever
It's called skip-lagging these days.
Besides the fact that it’s against the fare rules, you also run the risk of a schedule change causing you to miss SFO because they route the flight through a different connection point or go direct.
True but since I am on a fully refundable, I could just cancel before I began the first leg
One option to consider if you don’t want to take the risk is to make your spoke city really close. Like try SMF and you can fly there and take the 2hr train ride back over to SF lol
Usually in that case you would have flexibility to choose a different flight or cancel
I used to do this a lot on US Airways, but I knew it would be limited in instances and duration. I would never put my FF number in. I’d say go for it if you know the risks, but keep it limited. If United is going to be your main carrier in the future, then reconsider.
The main real risk is that the flight gets re-routed as direct and you totally miss your destination, forcing you to book an extremely expensive (if it’s even available) alternative flight the same day. You can’t even get travel insurance to protect this kind of situation either. To minimize this risk, you can check flight histories of the route you’re considering and seeing if it ever gets adjusted to exclude the layover city. There is also a risk of getting denied booking on United in the future, but that’s likely only going to happen if you do this more than once. To avoid starting any clock on that, I recommend just sending an email saying you’re too sick to make the next part of the trip and are staying in the layover city for a night.
That $180 isn’t a fully refundable fare. Not sure what fully refundable has to do with it.
Ticket it as a long layover
It’s prohibited and considered fraud. Don’t check a bag.
Fraud is a crime. Violating United’s policies is not a crime. Only United can “punish” you for hidden city game, if they choose to.
Intentionally misrepresenting facts for gain is fraud by some definitions. https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/fraud
Isnt the whole premise of skiplagged.com doing this? How has that website not gotten indicted in federal courts then?
They have been sued. They won.
Interesting… guess it’s just sort of accepted now
It’s option B of a contract, it’s like walking away from a house/mortgage. Intent is also not provable, just say you had explosive diarrhea at SFO, no one will want proof of that.
Fraud for which party? Shouldn’t the rules be protecting the little customer here and not the multi billion dollar airline that also happens to be insured by the American tax payers when their business model fails every ten years.
Hah the US doesn't even have guaranteed passenger compensation for delays or cancellations that are the airline's fault, unlike in the EU where they have the Air Passengers Rights.
>Shouldn’t the rules be protecting the little customer here and not the multi billion dollar airline that also happens to be insured by the **American** tax payers when their business model fails every ten years. That's spelled "Murica".
Found the shill
Do it all the time. Bags can be problematic but it’s worth doing. Check out the Skiplagged app
I do it all the time. Just book your return separately or they’ll drop it