Can someone explain this to me?

[riverwed070707]

I live in the midwest. My local airport only flies to 11 cities. I can fly to NYC with a stop in Detroit for relatively cheap ($250-300 round trip). So then why, if I want to just fly to detriot, does the only nonstop flight cost $617?!

Another major hub for us is Chicago. Nearly every airline that flies out of here connects in Chicago and yet I can choose to fly to Chicago (a 3 hour drive) either via a stop in Minneapolis (like 9 hours away) for $600 OR I can get a nonstop for $1200! This makes no sense to me. There have to be 50 flights a day that fly to Chicago...I should be able to go for a fraction of what it costs to fly elsewhere.

Part two of the question. Is there some reason I can't buy a ticket to NYC, fly to Detroit and then just get off the plane? Is there anything illegal about not going all the way to your final destination?

[bjl584]

I live in the midwest. My local airport only flies to 11 cities. I can fly to NYC with a stop in Detroit for relatively cheap ($250-300 round trip). So then why, if I want to just fly to detriot, does the only nonstop flight cost $617?!

Another major hub for us is Chicago. Nearly every airline that flies out of here connects in Chicago and yet I can choose to fly to Chicago (a 3 hour drive) either via a stop in Minneapolis (like 9 hours away) for $600 OR I can get a nonstop for $1200! This makes no sense to me. There have to be 50 flights a day that fly to Chicago...I should be able to go for a fraction of what it costs to fly elsewhere.

Part two of the question. Is there some reason I can't buy a ticket to NYC, fly to Detroit and then just get off the plane? Is there anything illegal about not going all the way to your final destination?

Probably not. You would just "miss" your connecting flight. I would guess that this is just one of those scenarios that was overlooked by the airline.

[disneysteve]

Actually, this is very common. And people do exactly what you say - buy a ticket and only use part of it. I seem to recall the airlines cracking down on that but I honestly don't recall any details. I would google and see if you can find anything. Obviously it makes no sense at all, but nobody ever said the airlines were logical organizations.

[frugalgirl]

Part two of the question. Is there some reason I can't buy a ticket to NYC, fly to Detroit and then just get off the plane? Is there anything illegal about not going all the way to your final destination?

If you just want to go to Detroit one-way, you may be able to do this.

If you book a round trip you will have a problem. If you get off in Detroit and don't go all the way to NYC, then you will not board the return flight from NYC making you a no-show and cancelling your return flight completely. I can't remember if they cancel your return once you do not board the outward flight from Detroit to NYC or when you don't show at the NYC airport for your return flight.

A second issue is with checked luggage. This is a security issue for the airlines. Obviously, you won't be checking any luggage but the airline will have to make sure as they have to remove any checked luggage of passengers who do not board their connecting flights. This is a real hassle, and since 9/11, may actually have fines and penalties associated with doing so. I don't know if it matters if you do not check your luggage. I'd check the TSA website to see if you can find anything.

[riverwed070707]

If you just want to go to Detroit one-way, you may be able to do this.

If you book a round trip you will have a problem. If you get off in Detroit and don't go all the way to NYC, then you will not board the return flight from NYC making you a no-show and cancelling your return flight completely. I can't remember if they cancel your return once you do not board the outward flight from Detroit to NYC or when you don't show at the NYC airport for your return flight.

A second issue is with checked luggage. This is a security issue for the airlines. Obviously, you won't be checking any luggage but the airline will have to make sure as they have to remove any checked luggage of passengers who do not board their connecting flights. This is a real hassle, and since 9/11, may actually have fines and penalties associated with doing so. I don't know if it matters if you do not check your luggage. I'd check the TSA website to see if you can find anything.

Oh good call. I didn't get as far as thinking about the return. I definitely wouldn't be checking luggage... I went to England for 8 days in January and didn't even check luggage. I'm terrified of losing my bags

[shanecurran]

Here is a link to a NY times article on this exact issue: How to Beat High Airfares - NYTimes.com

They say it can happen when an airport is dominated by one or two carriers. It is not illegal, but the airline will not like it.

[riverwed070707]

Here is a link to a NY times article on this exact issue: How to Beat High Airfares - NYTimes.com

They say it can happen when an airport is dominated by one or two carriers. It is not illegal, but the airline will not like it.

Interesting. I'd have to choose carefully since getting banned from a couple airlines would = not flying since our airport only has a few carriers Seems like a serious flaw in the system though and like it could be deterring a lot of business. I imagine a lot of people would choose to fly over car/train/bus if it was affordable.

[GrimJack]

There are a lot of 'interesting' pricing policies that people try to take advantage of:
it is about 3 times more costly to fly round-trip from Seattle to Bozeman, MT than from Bozeman to Seattle; round trips that include a weekend are cheaper than round trips that don't.

[DebbieL]

Be thankful you're in the US. You don't even want to know how expensive flying in Canada is. I cross the border to originate flights in the US whenever I can reasonably do so. It is seriously ridiculous here. I can fly for far cheaper out of Bellingham or Seattle all the way to Maui for way less money than I could fly a few hundred kilometers within Canada, grr. A flight on the same airline (eg: Alaska) originating in either Vancouver, BC or Victoria, BC going to somewhere like LAX will cost hundreds less if you just leave out of Seattle or Bellingham (which are both extremely close geographically to Victoria and Vancouver).

[shanecurran]

Interesting. I'd have to choose carefully since getting banned from a couple airlines would = not flying since our airport only has a few carriers Seems like a serious flaw in the system though and like it could be deterring a lot of business. I imagine a lot of people would choose to fly over car/train/bus if it was affordable.

It is no flaw, the airlines are extracting as much profit as they can. If a carrier has a monopoly at a certain airport the prices will be higher.

[BuckyBadger]

As others have said, you would be okay getting to your location, but you wouldn't be able to get back home. Once you miss the second flight, your itinerary is canceled and you won't be able to get back on the plane to go home -- either from the original end destination, or wherever it was that you ended up getting off the plane.

I learned then when we tried the same thing. There was a deal to Hawaii through Chicago from somewhere else. Super cheap, like $500 or something, and we can drive to O'Hare from where we live. We called the airline to ask about it and we were told that we couldn't use just the Chicago/Hawaii leg. It was reaffirmed the other day when I was trying to fly out of Milwaukee with a connection in O'Hare. The plane wasn't going to take off so the airline bussed us to O'Hare. I spoke to the lady for quite a while about this since I was worried that this would mess up my itinerary. It was only acceptable because the airline rewrote the itinerary without the first leg, essentially not charging me for that one flight. But it has to get processed through the airline for a valid reason.

So anyway the moral of my story is that you can't do what you want to do!