Unless you’re a travel industry insider, you’ve probably never heard of a “hidden city” or “back-to-back” itinerary. But these two ticket booking tricks can save you big money on your next vacation-sometimes more than 50 percent off the published fare.
Which may be one reason you’ve never heard of them. Airlines claim that both hidden cities and back-to-back (or b2b) tickets are illegal because they’re a violation of their tariff rules. They say travelers who take advantage of these loopholes are breaking their contract, and they’ve gone to great lengths to keep people like you from finding out about them.
Case in point: a few weeks ago, when I appeared as a guest on the National Public Radio show “To The Point,” I mentioned that travelers could save lots of money with hidden cities and b2bs. To which one of the other guests, who had formerly run a major airline, tersely suggested that carriers would hunt ticketing offenders to the ends of the earth and that they were waging a “losing battle” to save money.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t given an opportunity to tell listeners how to circumvent the airline’s Byzantine ticketing rules. Or to assure them that in most cases, an airline can’t chase down passengers traveling on a questionable itinerary, particularly if they don’t collect frequent flier miles.
So what’s got the carrier’s feathers ruffled? And should you worry about going to jail if you engage in this booking practice?
When you book a hidden city ticket, you simply add an extra leg to your itinerary. Because airlines use sophisticated but logic-defying computers to price their tickets, it often costs less to travel longer. Hidden cities passengers get off the plane early, at a stopover, and then “miss” their connecting flight on purpose.
On a b2b, you’re getting around an airline’s Saturday-night stayover requirement by buying two separate round-trip tickets but only using half of each. Because carriers typically more than triple their fares if you don’t stay over a Saturday night, buying four tickets is less expensive than buying two.
Confused yet? Don’t worry. Just remember that hidden cities work best when you plan to get off the plane in a hub city like Atlanta, Chicago or Toronto. And a b2b can save you big bucks when you need to get away for a few days that don’t allow for a Saturday night stay. Ask your travel agent for advice, but whatever you do, don’t impose on him or her to book the ticket. Airlines frown on agents that book these tickets and they can easily get into trouble.
But can you? Until now, the answer seemed to be a clear-cut “yes.” In one high-profile example, Northwest Airlines pursued frequent traveler Bob Cowen for using a hidden-city itinerary on flights between Boston and Detroit. The airline threatened to terminate his frequent flier account and bill him the difference between the cheaper ticket and the more expensive one that he should have been traveling on.
It’s this commonly-held belief that’s kept journalists like us from telling you about this relatively simple way to save lots of money. But Thomas Dickerson, a Westchester County, N.Y., judge and author of the book “Travel Law,” believes the conventional wisdom is flawed. There are no laws that dictate how an airline ticket may be used, he says. Although the courts have typically enforced an airline’s rules in court, Dickerson says the carriers are incorrect when they term b2bs and hidden cities “illegal.” They may bend the rules of a contract, but they don’t break the law.
Given the option of buying a “legal” but more expensive fare and cheaper one that the airlines don’t like, travelers like Tim King say the choice is easy. “Airlines routinely lie to me about maintenance, schedules, and reasons for delays-everything short of the true color of the sky,” he says. “Why should I suddenly play fair with them?”
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
If the airlines would stop playing ridiculous games with fares and set up a sensible, understandable system, passengers wouldn’t have a reason to try to circumvent the rules.
I have always questioned how the airlines came about these fares. I use to have to send my child from Dallas to Seattle to see his dad and the fares were sky high… I could have traveled to Europe cheaper than to get him to Seattle! Go figure.
The airlines have brought such practices on themselves by creating excessivley complex fare codes, class of service, routing, and fequent flyer restrictions. In doing so they have created a system that the sophisticated travelor can game. Additionally the create problems for themselves when their own employees give wrong advise to travelers because of such complex rutes.
I used to do the Sat nite stay thing back in the 90s when I had regular trips to the same city, week after week. I “started” my trip in my work city coming to my actual home over the weekend and then “returned” to the work city the first of the next week. Worked very well and saved my boss a ton of money! There was enough variation that when that city was done, we were able to “change” my ticket to a different city with a small fee usually. Then, sometimes I would wrap my tickets. Buy one ticket from A to B for Monday of this week and returning on Friday of next week. Then buy a ticket from B to A leaving this Friday and returning on Monday. Much cheaper than the no Sat nite stay bit.
It’s time to reestablish the Civil Aeronautics Board and regulate the airlines. The lower airfares promised as a result of 1978 deregulation are a memory. Sometimes, you need a little government intervention.
I am in the travel industry and use to book b2b tickets all the time. This saved the company I worked for over the course of years, MILLIONS of dollars. However when the airlines started enforcing that b2b’s were illegal, one of my clients was billed $20000 by American for the true economy fare of the flights he booked. We fought American, but in the long run ended up splitting the difference with them. I do not understand how the airlines could have charged this amount, as my client used all tickets for both trips. I do not understand what is illigal about that. It goes back to the old story about buying a can of paint in the paint store and not using the entire can. Will the paint store come back and charge you?
You said, “Ask your travel agent for advice, but whatever you do, don’t impose on him or her to book the ticket. Airlines frown on agents that book these tickets and they can easily get into trouble.”
Are you going to pay your travel agent for that advice, or do you expect them to do that work for you for free?
The government should re-institute regulation over the monopolies they have created (that includes telecommunications). Their failure to enforce control over these inane airline policies is an abuse of their power. As passengers, we should be allowed to do whatever is necessary to keep OUR cost low. This includes b2bs and ability to resell our seat to someone else … if I buy a theater ticket and resell my seat to another that is fine … there are even services to enable that. These nickel and dime moves are short-sighted and will ultimately cause the airlines to collapse. A pity for everyone. Wake up airlines before it is too late.
I have done the hidden city trick when booking a one way trip from Rochester to JFK when I have actually wanted to go to Boston. The airlines have trouble catching this if you book the trip as one-way.
Now I’m looking for a routing from southern Florida to Boston that keeps going to somewhere else. Can anyone help me out with this?