Skiplagging: What is it and why some travelers are doing it?

WASHINGTON — What would you do to shave off 200 bucks or more from a flight?

One hack that’s gaining popularity on social media is called “skiplagging.”

This is how it works: Instead of buying a pricey direct ticket, you opt for a less expensive flight with two or more connections. Then you would hop off at the connecting city which was your desired final destination all along.

“It’s not illegal, but it’s unapproved,” said Kathleen Bangs, spokesperson for FlightAware.

Kathleen Bangs is a former airline pilot and a spokesperson for FlightAware. She said when you buy a flight, you agree to the what’s known as the contract of carriage.

“Under contract of carriage, you’re saying you’re going to fly on those legs, you’re not going to get off in an intermediary stop,” said Bangs. “Because if they knew that in advance, then of course, they could sell those tickets.”

You can also face some serious consequences from airlines for skiplagging.

“They can ban you from flying on their carrier. They can, let’s say for example, you have a frequent flyer account with them, they could purge all of those miles,” said Bangs. “They can also then charge you for what it would have cost for you to get a regular ticket.”

We reached out to the major airlines – American, Delta and United.

Delta and United Airlines responded and directed us to their contracts of carriage. In a statement, American Airlines said in part “it can lead to operational issues with checked bags and prevent other customers from booking a seat when they may have an urgent need to travel.”

We talked with travels who had mixed reviews about skiplagging.

“I just want to get my plane ticket and get straight to where I have to go,” said traveler Donna Flaherty.

“There’s always going to be loopholes and they’re going to try to find them,” said Emma Skowron, traveler.

Here’s what airlines had to say about Contract of Carriage:

UNITED AIRLINES

“We’ll refer you to our Contract of Carriage – namely sections J & K which address this.”

DELTA AIRLINES

“Delta refers to this as point-beyond ticketing. Customers who engage in it potentially face a number of negative consequences. Here’s the details from our Ticket Rules & Restrictions/Prohibited Practices section”:

https://www.delta.com/us/en/booking-information/fare-classes-and-tickets/ticket-rules-restrictions

AMERICAN AIRLINES:

“The practice of hidden city ticketing is prohibited by American’s Conditions of Carriage and agency agreements. In some cases, there are entities acting as accredited agents of American, but fraudulently obtaining American’s content and misrepresenting its products and services to the detriment of the traveling public. If a customer knowingly or unknowingly purchases a ticket and doesn’t fly all of the segments in their itinerary, it can lead to operational issues with checked bags and prevent other customers from booking a seat when they may have an urgent need to travel. Intentionally creating an empty seat that could have been used by another customer or team member is an all-around bad outcome.”

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