Lufthansa sues passenger who missed his flight

MikeMcMann

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Thoughts?

I've never done the below but i have booked return flights when I only needed one way as oddly the return flight is often cheaper then just taking one leg of the same two flights (??) and then you cancel the return leg which you can use later.


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Airline comes after passenger who tried popular ‘hidden city’ flight hack


The “hidden city” hack has traditionally been one of the best kept secrets among flyers.

It involves strategically ditching the connecting leg of a flight to avoid the higher cost of non-stop flights.

It’s a sneaky but effective trick, and while it’s long been frowned upon by airlines, savvy travellers have used it to save money for years.

But now, one of the world’s biggest airlines is seeking to sue a passenger for doing it.
...

HANG ON, WHAT’S THE HIDDEN CITY HACK?

Say you want to fly from London to Hamburg, Germany.

Right now, you could get a direct flight from both cities for about $147, according to the booking website Skiplagged.

Or, you could book a flight from London to Cologne with a stopover in Hamburg for $109, and simply not board the second leg to Cologne...You’ve travelled the same distance for much less of the price. And the longer the flights, the bigger the potential savings....

websites like Skiplagged have popped up to help passengers compare their options. (United Airlines took Skiplagged to court in 2015 but couldn’t get the site shut down.)
 
Serves the airlines right for fucking millions of people for decades with artificially inflated ticket prices. If prices were set on a specific set of variables, and they stuck to it, it woldn't be cheaper to buy a ticket for a longer flight. They're pissed they were beat at their own game.
 
If the guy paid what are they so mad about?
 
Damn that's a good play

Airlines are salty that their scammy prices got out-scammed
 
they should take the RyanAir/WoW approach and operate out of smaller airports, w/ smaller aircraft, and more frequent flights

A) negates the administrative costs of flying into large airports
2) pays off the fleet of jets much much quicker
III) they get you w/ additional carryon costs and no food or whatever, but the tickets are like exponentially cheaper
 
Airline needs to chill.

Agreed. They can start bitching about this when every economy seat costs exactly the same no matter when you book it.
 
My dad did this once when I was a kid and I didn't understand why. He told me it was cheaper but I didn't get how paying for an extra flight was cheaper than just having me fly to the city he needed.
 
I could GET why they'd be pissed if he checked a bag.
 
Serves the airlines right for fucking millions of people for decades with artificially inflated ticket prices. If prices were set on a specific set of variables, and they stuck to it, it woldn't be cheaper to buy a ticket for a longer flight. They're pissed they were beat at their own game.
The airline industry operates at razor thin profit margins, hence the numerous bankruptcies and mergers in its history. They are no longer state subsidized so they are highly vulnerable. Sustained periods of high gas prices can wipe them out.

You seem to be demanding a fixed set price rate but that is unrealistic. They need to make profits during periods of high volume to sustain them through the down time. The prices are set by algorithms out of necessity and efficiency.
 
They will not normally sue you; when you try to board your flight back - at the connection hub - they will just inform you that the ticket was canceled due to not finishing one of the scheduled flights.

It's normal practice for almost all airlines to cancel the back (anything but premium ) ticket if you miss your connection or any of the first leg boardings.

It's all on the small print.

This is of course unfortunate and sounds like bs, but the thing is, airlines save money (and thus give discounts ) when they share terminals or ticketing with the other airline they are making the connection with.
 
My dad did this once when I was a kid and I didn't understand why. He told me it was cheaper but I didn't get how paying for an extra flight was cheaper than just having me fly to the city he needed.
Because it's a scam by airlines and when you were little you thought better of people.
 
So it's fine if they take off and leave me behind in the airport if I'm late or my connecting flight was late.......but I can't voluntarily be left behind by my own choice? Am I a prisoner?
 
The airline industry operates at razor thin profit margins, hence the numerous bankruptcies and mergers in its history. They are no longer state subsidized so they are highly vulnerable. Sustained periods of high gas prices can wipe them out.

You seem to be demanding a fixed set price rate but that is unrealistic. They need to make profits during periods of high volume to sustain them through the down time. The prices are set by algorithms out of necessity and efficiency.
You misunderstood me. I don’t expect fixed rates, that could never work. I expect fixed variables to determine prices. There’s absolutely rhyme or reason right now. Thats how all these travel sites exist.
 
Not gonna lie, i have done the hidden city hack before. Didn’t even know it was a thing. I just kinda figured it out when looking at flights that it was cheaper to just take a longer flight with a layover at the city I wanted to go to.
 
Airlines price-gouge their passengers at every opportunity.

I wanted to fly from Vancouver to Montreal last August. The cost of the two-way flight was $950. If I drove to Seattle and took a connecting flight to Vancouver before boarding the same Air Canada flight, it would cost me $500. That was almost half the price for the same plane.

Fuck them! They're mad because people figured out a way around their scams.
 
Sounds like a broken system, not customer.

Fix the system and you dont have to worry about suing your passengers.
 
Airlines price-gouge their passengers at every opportunity.

I wanted to fly from Vancouver to Montreal last August. The cost of the two-way flight was $950. If I drove to Seattle and took a connecting flight to Vancouver before boarding the same Air Canada flight, it would cost me $500. That was almost half the price for the same plane.

Fuck them! They're mad because people figured out a way around their scams.
I’ve done this before too lol. Fly enough you figure out stupid ways to save money.
 
Good job, Lufthansa, you've now made a public story on your scam prices and how to outsmart them. Don't know how much they're suing for, but it likely ends up with more people using smaller airlines that charge individually for each leg or bigger airlines having to make their policies the same.
 
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