‘Buying one-off tickets’ is a risky flying tactic that can save you money, but comes with consequences
A passenger on a flight recently revealed in a post on X that he saved hundreds of dollars by using a rather “risky” hack.
California-based real estate investor Mike Bolen has garnered more than 6.2 million views on his social media page after sharing this “wild” way to buy a plane ticket.
Bolen revealed that instead of booking a direct flight to St. Louis for $564, can buy plane ticket to Atlanta with a transfer in St. Louis for just $198.
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“Why not just bring a carry-on and get off the plane at STL? I did!” he wrote on X alongside a photo of the airline’s website.
Bolen tried this hack and “it worked fine, no problem,” he told Fox News Digital.
While this hack may have been new to Bolen, who noted that he had never seen anyone test it before, it turns out that the hack has been around for a while.
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It is often called “throw away” or issue of “point after” tickets, according to Gary Leff, a Texas tourism industry expert and author of the blog “View From the Wing,” he told Fox News Digital via email.
Instead of booking an expensive one-way ticket, travelers take a risk and try this “wild” flying tactic, which is cheaper but can have questionable ethics. (iStock)
On Leff’s blog, he noted that people will book a connecting flight that goes through their intended destination, but instead of hopping on another flight, they get off at the stopover.
Direct flight tickets usually cost more than connecting flights, so the intention of a “throwaway ticket” is to save money on the total cost of the flight.
“The ethics of single-use tickets have been debated for decades. It boils down to the airlines’ belief that a flight from A to B to C is a fundamentally different product than a flight from A to B, you buy one and spend another,” Leff wrote.
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“And that goes against the common sense that if you buy seats on two flights, it’s up to you what you do with them. It’s all a result of complicated pricing that average customers initially find confusing and unfair,” he added. .
One of the risks of using a stopover as a final destination is that your carry-on may be checked at the gate and diverted to the final destination of the ticket. (iStock)
Leff noted that while the cost of a flight may be less than a direct flight, there can be practical risks when attempting this travel hack.
For example, you may need to check your carry-on bag when boarding. Also, airlines may automatically reroute you based on what the airline thinks is the destination printed on the original ticket.
Leff added that airlines can actually cancel your mileage bill or even ban a passenger from traveling.
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“The airline may close your frequent flyer account or even ban you from flying [with] them in the future. It’s something to think about occasionally, not something to do every week,” Leff wrote on his blog.
This hack has been used by airline passengers for decades and is often referred to as the “one-off ticket” or “ticketing conditions”. (iStock)
“If you’re going to issue one-off tickets, consider at least crediting miles to the partner airline’s frequent flyer account, although that may not protect you, but why make it easy for them to follow you?” Leff noted.
This hack has gained attention in recent years, with some airlines going after Skiplagged.com, an “airline ticket search engine for cheap flights, features ticketed trips to hidden cities,” according to the website.
The airline ticket site even wrote on its website, “Our flights are so cheap, United sued us…but we won.”
Fox News Digital has reached out to Skiplagged.com and United Airlines for comment.
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“It’s unclear how much more the practice has taken off, because it’s not something the airlines disclose,” Leff told Fox News Digital.
Gary Leff warns that people should be careful if they use this hack too often because the airline could flag the passenger or even ban them. (iStock)
“However, since it is rarely necessary to purchase a return ticket to get the best fares, it has become easier than ever (since they work best when booking one-way tickets).”
If you look beyond the possible risks associated with flight hack, Leff noted that some might consider this hack to be of two minds when it comes to the ethics of the procedure.
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While you can save money by trying this travel hack, it’s important to know what the risks might be. (iStock)
Either you “agree” to the airline’s “Contract of Carriage” and break the contract when you buy a ticket, or the “Contract of Carriage” has little force and, therefore, “the airline’s view is contrary to common sense,” Leff wrote on his website.
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“There are practical/consequentialist considerations that might dissuade you from the practice, or at least from doing it often,” he said.
