American Airlines canceled a North Carolina teenager’s ticket and detained him after he was caught using a travel hack known as “skiplagging.”
Logan Parsons had planned to fly to Charlotte from Florida. However, an indirect ticket terminating at JFK airport in New York—but with a layover in Charlotte—was less expensive than a direct flight to North Carolina, so he booked it with the intent of skiplagging, or stopping at the layover city as the final destination.
After being questioned by airline staff at the Florida airport, his ticket was canceled and he was not allowed to board the flight, according to Queen City News. His family booked him a new direct flight to Charlotte.
His father, Hunter Parsons, said that he booked the ticket through Skiplagged.com, a website that displays flights with layovers cheaper than the direct routes.
“We’ve used Skiplagged almost exclusively for the last five to eight years,” Mr. Parsons said.
According to Mr. Parsons, the gate agent seemed skeptical about his son’s final destination after seeing his North Carolina driver’s license, apparently suspecting that the teenager wouldn’t continue his flight to New York City.
“They kind of got out of him that he was planning to disboard in Charlotte and not make the connecting flight,” Mr. Parsons said, adding that his son was escorted to a security room to be questioned.
The family said they were unaware that skiplagging was prohibited by American Airlines, along with many other airlines. Skiplagging—also known in the industry as “hidden city ticketing”—is a practice that allows passengers to save money on plane tickets. However, airlines maintain that it frequently results in a loss of revenue for them.
Airlines frequently charge more for direct flights, as passengers are often willing to pay considerably more to fly direct than for flights with one or more layovers.
“Purchasing a ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares [hidden city ticketing] is a violation of American Airlines terms and conditions and is outlined in our Conditions of Carriage online,” the airline told Queen City News in a statement.
Mr. Parsons said that his son shouldn’t have been detained because he was a minor, and that gate authorities should have given him “a stern warning, ‘hey this is frowned upon, if you do it again, there would be consequences, financial penalties.'”
American Airlines announced in a memo in 2021 that it would begin cracking down on skiplagging and, in recent years, it hasn’t shied away from punishing passengers caught skipping their final destinations.
Skiplagged CEO Aktarer Zaman was sued in 2014 by United Airlines and the travel website Orbitz. According to the lawsuit, Zaman engaged in “unfair competition” and “deceptive behavior” that cost the two companies $75,000 in lost revenue.
The case was brought in Illinois, but was dismissed because the court lacked jurisdiction, since Zaman lived and worked in New York City and not Chicago. According to the website Skiplagged.com, the method is “perfectly legal.”
The practice is risky for passengers because airlines clearly oppose it, and several carriers have recently included written protections against skiplagging in their contracts of carriage.
