Why skiplagging might not be the best way to save money on your plane ticket

With airfares on the rise, it could be tempting to try ‘skiplagging’ when booking your next flight.

This term, highlighted by the Washington Post this summer, describes the travel trick of using the stopover as your final destination without informing either the ground staff or the flight attendants on board.

For example, you might plan to fly to Hong Kong, but you buy a ticket to Hanoi, via Hong Kong, knowing fully well you’ll never get on the connecting flight to the Vietnamese city. Instead, you’ll step out of the airport at Hong Kong.

But why would anyone go to such lengths? The answer is to save money. Direct flights are generally more expensive than flights with stopovers.

For a long-haul flight, many airlines split the journey in two by stopping off at their main hubs Amsterdam for KLM, Istanbul for Turkish Airlines, Incheon for Korean Air, etc. thus reducing the cost of the trip. It’s also a way of making this alternative route more attractive than a more sought-after direct flight.

The limits of skiplagging

That’s how it works in theory. But in practice, it’s not quite so simple. First of all, using this ruse comes with certain risks, and consequences, like bans and cancellations imposed by the airline with which you were supposed to travel. In July, a 17-year-old American traveler found this out the hard way.

American Airlines banned him from boarding its aircraft for three years for buying a ticket from Gainesville, Florida, to New York via Charlotte, North Carolina, where he planned to end his journey. In short, the young passenger clearly had no intention of visiting the Big Apple.

According to Air Journal, offenders may also have their frequent flyer program suspended. In practical terms too, if the flight is cancelled, the alternative proposed will be to the final destination, while the stopover could be elsewhere.

Similarly, travelers don’t always have to recover and re-check their luggage at the stopover, as sometimes it gets transferred straight to the final destination. Finally, there are a number of precautions to be taken, as detailed by the Skiplagged.com platform, which tracks down this type of “hidden-city” flight.

The website explains “some airlines may require proof of a return ticket during check-in. If this happens to you, just buy a refundable return ticket directly from the airline and cancel it ASAP after boarding”.

In short, there are many risks involved, and the time required to find the best value ticket is considerable. When looking for the lowest fares, it’s better to plan differently, preferring to fly on Fridays and avoiding Sundays, the most expensive day, according to Expedia’s latest report.

You can save up to 22% on the price of a plane ticket compared to the same ticket departing on a Sunday. On the other hand, the opposite is true when it comes to booking: fares found on a Sunday are 18% cheaper than on a Friday.

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