A teenager on the first flight alone was pull in security and his trip home was canceled after border agents discovered that he was skipping the flight or booking a flight with the actual stop as the intended destination.
Logan Parsons was on his way home to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Gainesville, Florida, on a ticket that ended in New York City. While NYC was the destination listed on the ticket, Parsons planned to leave the airport in Charlotte and go home. It’s a way to save money, since nonstop flights are usually more expensive which means airlines hate it because they are losing money in the process. Parsons is arrested by a gatekeeper, who becomes suspicious when his IDs are all Charlotte’s. From Queen City News:
The purchased flight was from Gainesville, Florida to New York City and transited in Charlotte. The plan was for the teenager to get off the plane in Charlotte where he lived. His father said that he would never have put his son in this predicament if he had known this would happen.
This is the first time Logan Parsons has flown solo.
Hunter Parsons, Logan’s father, said: “We’ve been using Skip Lagged almost exclusively for the past five to eight years. “Booked a flight from the Gainesville area to JFK via Charlotte.”
Parsons didn’t know hidden-city ticketing, also known as skipping latency, was deprecated in the airline industry. An American Airlines representative canceled the ticket and asked the family to buy a new direct flight ticket.
Parsons’ Parents said the airlines were overreacting, especially when the passenger in question was a minor. American Airlines opposes bypassing, or “hiding city bookings,” is a violation of American Airlines terms and conditions.
So why did you skip it? Because airlines will often offer lower fares if passengers have to transit. If you’re still aiming for that pause, you can save some cash by booking tickets and not ending the journey. It only really works on one-way tickets and only if you don’t have checked baggage, But skipping the last leg of your flight to get to your stopover can save you (and cost the airline a fortune), according to Simply fly:
Based on fuel and labor costs alone, lower fares on a longer journey may seem confusing. However, there are a few reasons for this price difference. Air Tourism is a competitive business. and specific routes will have more competition than others. If an airline knows it runs one of the few direct services to a city, it charges what the customer is willing to pay.
However, if an airline is route customers through a hubs, it will often lower fares to compete with other airlines that run direct services. Another reason, particularly related to our North American example, is that an airline may have to pay more airport fees for passengers disembarking in one destination than in another. Those fees may not apply to transit passengers.
And it’s not just fees the airline is missing out on. An empty seat is an unsold ticket to the money-minded people who make air travel. Skiplagging is not illegal but it certainly frowned upon. Looks like at least American Airlines has had enough.
