Why I hidden city ticket

[Ausbt]

Hidden city ticketing and checked luggage don't mix...

It can. Was no problem for my wife and I last Jan. Home port is SYD, we had cheap J tix ending at OOL. So after arriving in from HKG we collected bags at SYD T1 and I put my wife in a cab. I advised the staff "she wasn't feeling well enough to continue, oh but I'll be ok to fly on". And I did. Well, I had the time and look, it was a status run. SYD to OOL in J, had a cheap positioning ticket same day back in Y. Lots of SCs and I didn't even need to worry about luggage. Had bags of been checked through, well, if they were all tagged to me I could have simply collected them all at OOL anyway.

 

[CaptJCool]

From the AFF editorial

“The airlines worry that this practice results in an unfair loss of revenue. Consequences for serial offenders that are caught can include a ban from the airline and frequent flyer accounts being suspended.”

Id be interested in the ACCC view of over pricing

An unfair loss of revenue vs an unfair over- pricing

Surely This is dubious use of market power (corporate muscle) pushing the consumer to pay far more than a fair price? Price promise much?

Who’s the offender now?

 

[earlyriser]

@Mattg This sounds like a great podcast topic!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Checked luggage can be ok if it has to collected anyway (int->dom in many cases).

From the AFF editorial

“The airlines worry that this practice results in an unfair loss of revenue. Consequences for serial offenders that are caught can include a ban from the airline and frequent flyer accounts being suspended.”

Id be interested in the ACCC view of over pricing

An unfair loss of revenue vs an unfair over- pricing

Surely This is dubious use of market power (corporate muscle) pushing the consumer to pay far more than a fair price? Price promise much?

Who’s the offender now?

For some unknown reason, the 'accepted law' around airline tickets doesn't seem to have caught up with the times. Archaic provisions that allow airlines to oversell for example haven't been changed in half a century, and airlines aren't about to allow these to go to court either (they'll usually try and settle).

Some countries have legislated to try and protect the consumer (the EU and Israel for exmple), others bury their head in the sand (Australia and most of the rest of the world). Fares are just part of this whole shmozzle. Airlines state they sell based on origin and destination, and that the fare bears no resemblence to the actual distance flown.

It's clear taking advantage of hidden city ticketing is not illegal, it is a breach of contract in most cases. Airlines that have tried to invoke penalties based on this breach seem to be getting away with it. For now at least.

 

[p--and--t]

Rarely arises in Australia. Seems to be mostly a US phenomenon.

Depends on your definition of "rare". Around AFL grand final, Easter, School Holidays there are some surprising disparities in fares.

 

[CaptJCool]

Depends on your definition of "rare". Around AFL grand final, Easter, School Holidays there are some surprising disparities in fares.

It’s grand finals of any events - happened when Western Sydney Wanderers played Soccer GF in Adelaide, and don’t get me started on the recent Bledisloe Cup in Perth when One of the QF J return ex Sydney surged to over $6,500 if not $7,000.... I haven’t kept the screenshot, sorry

As example, fly today ....
Last minute price is

 

[Quickstatus]

Please explain what is the "real risk" of abandoning a flight that has been paid in full?

They might cancel your return as you did not show up on one of the segments on the outgoing

 

[Moody]

They might cancel your return as you did not show up on one of the segments on the outgoing

I believe you can safely substitute "might" with "will", as the standard practice is that any missed segment will result in the termination of the following legs.

And is taking advantage of HCT any different than taking advantage of One-way vs Return pricing? I had a need for a one-way fare between Santiago and Buenos Aires (steak may have been involved), but booked a return because it was significantly cheaper. I never heard back from the airline for being a no-show, and assume it happens all the time.

 

[Quickstatus]

There are risks but if some sparingly it can work out

I had a PEK-SFO which was actually cheaper as a PEK-SFO-SYD. Luckily the SFO-SYD made sense though not part of the original itinerary.

 

[albatross710]

They might cancel your return as you did not show up on one of the segments on the outgoing

Well that is part of the fare rules, so the airline is entitled/expected to do that. They are the same fare rules that allow for HCT without penalty so it plays both ways.

 

[Facepalm]

Not meaning to bump this up unnecessarily, but has anyone tried HCT with award tickets?

The principle is effectively the same - there's a fare premium that the airline can charge for a particular destination or non-stop service, but they aren't as competitive with connecting traffic so they lower the price.

With awards, I sometimes see airlines releasing award availability on segments only where you're searching for a journey where that segment isn't the entire journey.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Not meaning to bump this up unnecessarily, but has anyone tried HCT with award tickets?

The principle is effectively the same - there's a fare premium that the airline can charge for a particular destination or non-stop service, but they aren't as competitive with connecting traffic so they lower the price.

With awards, I sometimes see airlines releasing award availability on segments only where you're searching for a journey where that segment isn't the entire journey.

Yup. CX does it all the time now... flights to/from HKG only can be hard to find.. but add the sector to TPE and all of a sudden you might find a lot more. AA does it frequently with trans atlantic... nothing at all if you search JFK/PHL/CLT to London, but add a connecting flight and you'll find plenty of availability.

SQ also does it.

 

[QFflyermelbourne]

Yeah everybody does it with rewards. I was contemplating ways to make a current trip work. Trip ends in LAX and wanted to get home to Oz. Trip had also included Europe so I contemplated using HKG as a base, buying a cheap fair from Oz to there return and getting award bookings from there thinking LAX-HKG would be easier than LAX-OZ in last week of January.

Indeed nothing appeared LAX-OZ but on many days there were QF itineraries in J LAX-BNE/SYD-HKG. As a WP I rang the call centre and asked them to de-couple and release the seat for just the single sector and they agreed.