"United Airlines wants to clip the wings of a 22-year-old Manhattan computer whiz who found a loophole that saves travelers big bucks on airfare." - New York Post, 12-30-2014.
As a side project, 22-year-old computer wiz Aktarer Zaman built a website called Skiplagged.com, that searches out cheap airfares, particularly a type of cheap airfare called "Hidden City ticketing" that is frowned up by the airlines. Using this airline booking strategy, Skiplagged.com, a website dedicated to helping passengers book less expensive multi-stop flights, then bail before their final destination.
By Wikipedia, "Hidden city ticketing occurs when a passenger disembarks an indirect flight at the connection node. Flight fares are subject to market forces, and therefore do not necessarily correlate to the distance flown. As a result, a flight between point A to point C, with a connection node at point B, might be cheaper than a flight between point A and point B. It is then possible to purchase a flight ticket from point A to point C, disembark at the connection node (B) and discard the remaining segment (B to C)."
With this strategy, you book a longer flight that includes a layover to your real destination because it's cheaper than flying direct. You travel with carry-on only and you get off the plane during the layover.
Travelers feel that this is a perfectly fair, legit way to travel: they've paid for the flight, why does the airline care if they sit in the seat the whole time? Honestly, If you paid for the bag of chips, why should you have to eat the whole bag? But airlines frown on it. They want you to pay rates according to their complicated pricing schemes.
Anyone can search and book their own hidden city flights, but it's a time consuming mess to search through many cities, hoping to find a cheaper flight that has a layover at your true destination, and this completely legit to do this, the site just makes your life easy.
Last month, United and Orbitz filed a lawsuit trying to shut this website down, asking for $75,000 in damages. They want you to pay rates according to their complicated pricing schemes. They argue that booking a flight like this makes it difficult to track passengers and that it unfairly takes advantage of the hub-and-spoke nature of airfares, where airlines fly to hub cities and add connecting flights from there. In fact, just like all billionaires, airlines are willing to expend exceptional amounts of energy guarding their wealth.
Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit though, be sure to swindle with care: If an airline discovers that you're making frequent use of the practice, they are not above voiding your ticket without a refund or robbing you of your hard-won frequent flier miles.
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Правильно, не правильно, но все мы хотим подешевле, а если это еще и законно, а в этом случае вполне, то почему-бы нет? Судя по материалам прессы, авиатранспортные компании в прошлом году хапанули приблизительно 32 миллиарда долларов дополнительной прибыли, введя налоги на всякую херню, типа за проверку сумок, приоритетная поссадка на борт, дополнительное место для ног, в соответствии с Женевским Соглашением. Бред сумашедшего ! Но сумме это составило 1200% прироста цен, начиная с 2007 !! С $32,000,000,000 в кармане вы бы могли заказать себе в Papa John's Pizza летающую пицу размером с остров Шри-Ланка и путешествовать на ней где только вашей левой не захочется.
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Links: Wikipedia , New York Post , Skiplagged.com