Skipping your connecting flight breaks airline rules, but almost no one loses miles or gets banned
Airlines threaten to take miles, charge full fare, or ban travelers, but almost every skiplagger avoids losing miles or getting banned.
Half as Interesting · Why Almost Every Airline Has Sued This One WebsiteGetting off at your layover instead of taking your connecting flight violates the contract at all four major U.S. airlines, yet 99.7% of bookings through Skiplagged.com in 2024 did not lead to travelers losing miles or being barred.
The practice is called hidden city ticketing, or skiplagging. A traveler books a cheaper connecting itinerary and simply leaves at the layover city, which is the place they actually wanted to go.
The airlines say they can punish it by revoking frequent flyer status and miles, charging the traveler the full fare, or refusing to sell that person tickets in the future. Enforcement is rare. People miss onward flights for all kinds of blameless reasons, so airlines have a hard time telling a deliberate no-show from an innocent one.
The few travelers who were caught seemingly ignored warnings, such as bringing a passport when any flight on the itinerary is international.
Questions people ask
How does skiplagging actually work?
You book a flight from Denver to Boston that connects in New York, then you get off in New York and skip the last leg. It only works on one-way trips, and you cannot check a bag, because checked luggage goes to the final ticketed city.
Have airlines sued over it?
Lufthansa sued a traveler who skipped a leg, and that case was dismissed. United and Orbitz jointly sued Skiplagged over logistics, public safety, and unfair competition, and American Airlines later sought over $94 million alleging trademark and copyright infringement, winning $9.4 million, half for use of its logo and half in disgorgement.
Why is a connecting flight ever cheaper than a nonstop on the same route?
Nonstop flights are more desirable, so airlines can charge more for them even though they cost less to operate than connecting flights. Skiplagging exploits that gap by using a cheap connecting fare to get the expensive nonstop seat.