Looking for more information about Skiplagged and hidden city ticketing? Here’s my honest and unaffiliated review.
You guys know I’m the first one to take advantage of an opportunity to find a good airline deal. Nothing makes me happier than flying across the world for an insanely low price.
So naturally, when Skiplagged came along, I was intrigued.
Save money by exploiting a ticketing loophole that gets you to your destination for a fraction of the price? Count me in.
Then I learned more about the website and the dangers of utilizing hidden city ticketing.
Skiplagged has made the news more than once after airlines sue customers for breach of contract after they intentionally missing a connecting flight.
This post will help you understand how Skiplagged works, the risks you take when you book with them and alternative options available to help you save money on flights without having to be shady about it.
Read on for my Skiplagged review.
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What is Skiplagged?
Skiplagged is a flight alert program that utilizes “hidden city ticketing” in finding deals.
The premise behind this method is that airlines connect through cities that would be more expensive to reach outright.
For instance, a flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil might cost you $1500 to reach normally, but there’s a deal to Buenos Aires, Argentina that connects through Rio and only costs $350 (don’t laugh, I’ve found a flight to Argentina at this price before!).
The goal would be to book the deal flight and abandon the plane when you get to Rio, leaving the airport in Brazil instead of boarding the connecting flight to Buenos Aires.
This is a controversial ticketing method. It has the potential to hurt you in the long run, and can be bad for airline consumers overall. For those reasons, I recommend against using it.
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What are the risks associated with Skiplagged?
Airlines penalize customers who use hidden city ticketing so you’re advised not to use your account, airline credit card or frequent flyer number when making your reservation.
Possible consequences include invalidation of airline miles and revocation of elite status.
Guests who elect to use this method are unable to check a bag as it would reach their final destination without them, so they’re restricted to traveling with a carry-on only.
Even then, travelers could run into trouble if their carry-on luggage gets checked at the gate.
Note: Airline agents look for roll-aboard suitcases to gate check. If you suspect this might be an issue on your upcoming flight, take a malleable bag like a backpack or duffel bag to minimize your chances of being selected.
Guests who utilize this method could delay a subsequent plane that’s waiting for them to make the connection.
They can also drive up fares for other flyers by creating a false demand.
Finally, hidden city ticketing only works for one-way tickets, since airlines will automatically cancel any remaining flights on an existing itinerary once a connecting flight is missed.
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Is Skiplagged legal?
Hidden city ticketing is looked down upon in the travel industry but is not technically illegal — yet.
You are free to use this method and there’s no denying that Skiplagged features some amazing deals.
If you decide to utilize hidden city ticketing, however, you do so at your own risk.
Just know that there are cheap flight alternatives that will provide you with similar results and none of the hassle.
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What lawsuits have been filed against Skiplagged or its customers?
United filed suit against the founder of Skiplagged but it was thrown out for lack of jurisdiction.
Lufthansa also filed suit against a customer alleging breach of contract. It was dismissed and is currently on appeal.
Importantly, no court has decided this case on its merits yet — that is, whether booking a flight you have no intention of taking constitutes any malfeasance or tortious interference with the business of the airlines.
What other websites use hidden city ticketing?
Skiplagged is currently the only website that makes hidden city ticketing its distinguishing factor, but it’s not the only website where you can search for these deals.
You can go on the ITA Matrix and search for hidden city tickets by entering the city where you plan to miss your flight as a connection in the option to use advanced routing language.
Then enter several airports as the destination — it doesn’t matter where it is so long as long as it’s cheaper to reach than a flight to the hidden city outright. You can list multiple airports separated by commas.
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What are some cheap flight alternatives?
Frankly, Skiplagged is a lot of work, inconvenience and risk just to save a buck on a flight. I love cheap airline tickets, but there are better ways. First, I recommend that you sign up for flight alerts.
I’m a long-time subscriber of Scott’s Cheap Flights and can’t recommend them enough. They tell you when there are error fares or price drops so the deals come to you, not the other way around.
If you need choices, I put together a list of 17 flight alert programs that will send deals to your inbox so that the flights come to you and not the other way around.
Another option is to fly with budget airlines. Particularly for those looking to fly to Europe, this is a cheap, albeit not the most comfortable, alternative to traditional carriers.
TAP Portugal and Norse Atlantic Airways have transatlantic flights starting at $99 and flying to the east and west coast of the United States.
Budget airlines are also great for travel within North America and the Caribbean. Southwest has new routes to Hawaii and JetBlue regularly flies to Puerto Rico, Aruba and Grand Cayman for less than $100 each way.
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There is more than one way to land a good airline deal. With so many options and so little upside to utilizing hidden city ticketing, I suggest you use them as a last resort.
I hope this Skiplagged review helps you. Till next time, safe travels!
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Interesting. I didn’t know it had a name, I had just been looking at deals and saw so many going through London, cheaper than the flights I bought, so the scheme entered my mind. I had thought of the carry on constraint but not the flight cancellation on the return!! So, not going to consider it anymore 🙂
Glad it’s helpful to you Caroline! I’m all for saving a buck whenever possible but this method just has so many headaches associated with it.
Jen – I just booked non-stop flights to LA and back to Chicago as separate one ways for vacation in November. Will I be ok? Or is the money lost? Thanks.
That’s totally fine! Buying separate one-way flights is not a problem. The problem would be if LA or Chicago were stopovers instead of your final ticketed destination. But even then if you booked one-way you wouldn’t have to worry about the remainder of your trip being cancelled, you just wouldn’t be able to check luggage since it would go to the final destination and not the stopover city. In short, enjoy your trip!
I’m pissed, someone booked a flight for me from las Vegas back to charlotte,when I arrived at the airport to check in. I had to pay extra 259 plus 30 to check my bag, I paid 100 already I learned about this skip lagging the hard way innocently not knowing. They said my bags would go to NJ if I didn’t pay. Never let someone else book your flight. I want to sue them so bad. What u think.
This is a game changer! If only it were legal.
It is legal.
I find the variety of opinions on hidden city/skip lagging to be very interesting. I feel like airlines are simply posturing to maintain this part of their business model; I don’t see this as a right versus wrong moral question.
As it relates to this topic, the status quo fare system is either a poorly designed (but profitable) pricing system or the airlines are not communicating the real factors to ticket costs. I found the pro-‘hidden city’ arguments made in another blog (https://www.godsavethepoints.com/2018/10/23/skiplagged-travel-trick-story/) to be stronger that what I’ve read against it. Airlines would be much better served making these skip lagged deals less sweet by helping the direct, shorter route prices versus suing and abandoning customers.
Hi Rob, thanks for the feedback! I agree that transparency would be best and feel no qualms over taking advantage of lower ticket prices. My concern here is more for the consumer, because it’s such a pain and the risk is disproportionate to the reward being that there are other ways to get the same savings. As an aside, I love Gilbert!
Just used the site for a last minute deal. Was a good deal but at the end I could have paid the same with saying spirit. Feel a little guilty. I do want airlines to do well so they keep competing on prices.
Will use skiplagged again but only when last resort. Again we want healthy profitable airlines so can keep traveling more.
I am an airline employee who got 2 different scenarios today from skip lag bookings, someone with a cancelled flight JAX LAX LAS we had the same exact times through another city, he wanted to go to LAX though and does not want to take our alternate flights to Las Vegas where you booked to and now that I know you had no intention of going to Las Vegas your ticket is flagged and cannot be used, or refunded. 2nd passengers bag was gate checked to final destination guess who has to pay to have there bag fed ex to them it is a disservice unless you are flying with a change of cloths in your purse and watching out for weather.
There are no “DANGERS” associated with hidden city ticketing. It is completely legal.
Airlines routinely overbook flights, which is fraud on a grand scale. There is nothing fraudulent about hidden city ticketing. You bought the ticket. End of story.
Hello,
You are correct, it is completely legal. I state that in the subsection labeled “Is hidden-city ticketing legal?”
Whether you choose to utilize this method is up to you, but it’s disingenuous to imply that it’s as simple as booking the ticket and going. There are consequences with baggage check-in and cancellation of remaining scheduled routes at a minimum, of which consumers should be aware.
I booked my first skip lag ticket this week to Germany. The one way price direct on the airline I’m taking was over $2,000 and the hidden city price was $165!!!! That is no chump change. It’s odd because the fare I found did NOT show as an option on Skiplagged; I found it by searching fares to other popular European cities (Paris, Barcelona, Amsterdam, London etc). When I attempted to look up the skiplagged rate directly to The Germany city itself, it didn’t appear and comparable tickets were several hundreds more and with layovers … so it appears I got lucky and found a loophole rate on Skiplagged.
@Jen on a Jet Plane, Nobody checks baggage if you’re skiplagging. That’s the main problem most people are going to have. They need to bring big suitcases for their big clothes for their big bodies! Also almost everyone books return tickets. Skiplagging is only for a tiny sliver of the flying population. Those that wear all their clothes on to the plane because they sure won’t fit in that tiny carry on!
The problem now in Canada is that connecting passengers don’t pickup their bags at the 4 major point of entry but only at their final destination if you came from an inbounds flight from USA or Europe. So if you have checked in luggage you can have a bad surprise if you use those hidden city tickets for Canada maybe you will find out your luggage at the city you were supposed to be
@Daniel, The first rule, the one every writer keeps on reiterating but few readers seem to grasp is YOU DON’T CHECK ANY LUGGAGE. So that’s going to be a total dead stop for almost everyone. Plus its just 1 way tickets. Also it only works if you’re going to a smaller place between 2 larger places generally. But if you’re flying from LA to NYC, good luck. That’s a huge problem. Everyone tends to fly between hubs now. Its simply more efficient. Very, very few people will be comfortable with Skiplagging.
If you are wanting to go to the final destination and just do the layovers, it is ok? Right? Like I want to go Nashville to Boston and layover and then go to London and layover over with final stop at Finland. So that’s a ok flight. Correct
Depends on where you’re getting off at. The moment you leave the airport and abandon your itinerary the rest of your trip is cancelled so if you have a round-trip ticket with a return flight you don’t want to pull this on the first leg.
Maybe I am missing something but do not understand how this is hurting the airlines. Say I bought a ticket from KC to LA but get off in Vegas. True if I would have bought a ticket to Vegas it would have been more expensive and the airlines would have made more money off of me. But they were making that stop in Vegas already, it is not like they had to make an extra stop, and I had already paid for that seat all the way to LA so why should they be able to resale it to someone else just because I decided to get off in Vegas? It’s not like I somehow defrauded them of the price of the ticket they were offering. I have no sympathy for airlines, they rip people off every opportunity they get. They charge ridiculous prices when you have an emergency and need to reschedule, even if it is weeks in advance of the flight and they have plenty of time to resale that flight. They rarely are willing to help when people have a family emergency or a death and need to book last minute, they don’t give anyone a break for that even if they have unsold seats. I have had to eat 2 round trip tickets this year just because it was going to cost more to reschedule them even thought they were several months out than what it was going to cost to buy new tickets. Airlines have plenty of gimmicks to take advantage of people and even though they might not be illegal that does not make them unethical, and this seems to be a lot more ethical than what they are doing every day. If a flight is going to LA and has to stop in Vegas they should be charging the same price whether you are going to Vegas or LA in my opinion, if not cheaper to Vegas and more to LA!
I totally feel you Steve, I wouldn’t shed a tear for the airlines. My concern is the difficulty for consumers. I just did this last week because I had a change in route and it was cheaper to just buy a new ticket from the connecting city than to switch the flight. It was very stressful. I had to make sure everything fit in my carry-on and then hope that they weren’t checking bags at the gate to the final destination. I would also be nervous about penalties, although I cancelled the rest of my trip with an agent and didn’t experience any.
Completely understand, and I know my luck, I would be a nervous wreck the entire time. Thanks.
Great comments from several people with different points of view. My point of view is I have used Skip lagged for several years and usually on a last-minute basis. I travel for work and occasionally fly my wife out to me. If you’re going to use skiplagging you need to understand what it is and how it works, think before you leap: 1. I only use when the first connecting flight is my final destination-multiple connecting flights adds risk. 2. Only bring a carryon that will not be checked-be a mindful traveler (what’s the purpose of your traveling). 3. I only buy one way to avoid canceling the remaining portion of the itinerary. Do I always and only use skip lag airline tickets, NO, but I do use when the case is right for it. Once I flew my wife from Houston to Philly, direct cost $550- ended up skip lagging and bought to Montreal connecting in Philly for $125 all she brought was a small carry-on. There are situations where this can work but you have to think it through, I don’t see it as a hassle but you like anything else you need to plan it through. Airlines can also improve pricing on major city flights, if the spread wasn’t so big I would just buy direct, as I have in many situations and I only buy tickets through the airline direct. I just use skiplagged to find the hidden city pricing.
I am completely new to this and am only trying to save money; I do NOT intend to skip a flight. I will be in Rome and I want to book a flight to Tel Aviv for 1 senior + 2 adults. We are joining a tour group, and then will return to FCO. Is there any risk in purchasing a round trip ticket from skippedlag?
Hi Gina,
None aside from the normal risks of purchasing a flight. This post is mainly to warn about the problems associated with skipping a flight through hidden city ticketing. Have a great trip!
I understand asking people to actually read is a huge undertaking, but seriously people, come on. Several of these comments make no sense. 1–Skip lagging is a very specific way of buying tickets /flying. If you aren’t following the steps/rules exactly – – – you aren’t skip lagging and therefore you are in no danger of doing something that is legal yet frowned upon.
I have not thought about it to date. This is legal and, it also saves money. It’s a complete game-changer.
It’s very clearly a violation of the airlines contract of carriage so while it’s not criminal it is fairly clearly a civil violation, plus there are significant risks during irrops
There are zero dangers. This is not for casual vacationers. It’s for experienced flyers who don’t need to take more than a back pack either them. I’ve saved thousands of dollars. Were talking my usual one way fare of 250 is being had for about 100. Most times it’s less than 100. None of these are risks to experience travelers. You don’t need elite status anyway. You’ll save more than you get in free tickets if you fly often enough. I fly coastal round trips every four to five days. Haven’t collected a mile since and I’m happy about it. The money I save I’ll use to fly to Europe. Would take me forever to get a a good free ticket to Europe in the spring.
I’m happy that’s been your experience Rasul! However saying there are zero dangers or considerations is misleading and disingenuous, especially given all the qualifiers you mentioned. The majority of people are not experienced travelers and are looking for a deal without the hassle. There are better ways to do that, IMO.
I’ve used Skiplagged for information on flights and then booked them through the particular airlines. I’ve never had a problem. Of course, we don’t fly but a few times a year, but we have saved over half on our tickets each time.
I am in Portugal to take care of my mother who had surgery on Dec. 18th. Due to the surgery being last minute I had to pay more for a flight had I been able to wait. My return flight is booked from Porto, Portugal in the morning to Lisbon, Portugal w/ a 7 hour layover in Lisbon with my final destination leaving Lisbon in the evening. They also have the same flight available (flight number as well) departing from Lisbon for my final destination for $300 +/- more than the other flight (no layover). I booked the flight from Porto as I didn’t want to spend the extra money. My question is, if I don’t fly the first leg of my flight from Porto to Lisbon and just go to Lisbon for the evening flight, could this be a problem for me? I just couldn’t afford to spend the extra money. This was my original plan, but now getting a bit nervous. TAI
Yes, it could be a problem for you. If you don’t check into the first leg of the flight there’s a strong likelihood the remainder of your itinerary will be cancelled. Usually, it’s the second leg of the flight people skip when doing this.
I need a one-way from Puerto Vallarta to Charlotte, which is about $400 on my day of travel. One-way from Puerto Vallarta to Toronto changing planes in Charlotte is only $125. Are there any additional risks ticketing all the way to Canada but getting off in the U.S.?
If you have a return trip planned with the same airline on the same reservation, the return trip will be cancelled if you don’t make it to Canada. You should also go carry-on only since any checked bags will go to Toronto.
yes, got it thanks 🙂 I was curious about any additional risks than a regular skiplag because there would be three countries involved?
I’ve used Skiplagged for pretty much every flight I’ve taken for the past 8 years or so.
I’ve never had any problems, I only carry on, and I book my return properly.
If you don’t use skiplag but just noticed that the flight is cheaper for round trip to Cleveland but lands in Detroit two hrs earlier, will that be a problem to just not connect to the Cleveland flight? Using carry on and can be picked up just as easy in Detroit? Still need to return out of Cleveland and that’s fine
If your return ticket is on the same reservation it will be cancelled if you don’t connect to the Cleveland flight. Can do this, but need two one-way reservations.
Thanks. First thought about ‘this’ in my own mind and after a google search, read about it on Scott’s Cheap Flights. I’ve never done this, and for me personally, I’m only looking to save some bucks on a connecting flight to Atlanta (my final destination). By the looks of things, I prefer using ITA Matrix, it’s not going to save me anything. But I am more educated today than I was yesterday. Thanks again!
Wouldn’t it be good of the traveler to tell the airline they won’t be on the next flight? Wouldn’t that help the airline? Nobody suggests this. I would think they would appreciate knowing.
Sure, but then the rest of your itinerary gets cancelled so hopefully that’s the last flight on the ticket.
What kind of problem can there be luggage-wise if you have a carry-on only? Asking because at the gate they sometimes take it away upon you entering a plane and give back as soon as you land. Then you yourself walk over to make a connecting flight with your carry-on. Or exit if you intend to skiplagg. Even if you check in with an agent, they ask if you want your carry-on checked in to your final destination. I usually say no but I don’t remember last time I used an agent. Most people check in online or at a kiosk. People make it sound like carry-ons are forcefully taken away from them and checked all the way to the final destination. Have I been lucky or is it a common practice? By the way, last few trips to Europe (lasting 3 weeks+) I’ve done with a personal item only (a backpack). Not even a carry on. It is much, MUCH cheaper to buy new clothes in Europe or do laundry than pay exorbitant prices to airlines just because you dare to want a suitcase.