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Lufthansa Sues Passenger Who Missed His Flight in an Apparent Bid To Clamp Down on 'Hidden City' Trick (cnn.com)
Airline Lufthansa has sued a passenger, who didn't show up for the last leg of his ticketed journey, in an apparent bid to clamp down on "hidden city" trick. From a report: The practice involves passengers leaving their journey at a layover point, instead of making a final connection. For instance, someone flying from New York to San Francisco could book a cheaper trip from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight. According to a court document, an unnamed male passenger booked a return flight from Oslo to Seattle, which had a layover in Frankfurt. The passenger used all legs of the outbound flight, but did not catch the Frankfurt to Oslo return flight. He instead flew on a separate Lufthansa reservation from Frankfurt to Berlin. The report adds that a Berlin district court dismissed the case in December last year, but the airline company is now appealing that verdict. Worth noting here that United Airlines has also tried its luck on this front -- to no dice.
The airline saved money on fuel by not hauling the passenger and his luggage on the last leg. Perhaps, they even filled that seat with a last minute full-fare standby passenger. Even if they were legally correct, what damages did they incur by the passenger breaching their contract?
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
If they don't want people getting off midway through a series of flights, maybe try not pricing an entire trip with multiple legs less than the individual flight to the city in the middle. Their own byzantine pricing system is what led to this result.
It's not always done by airlines for shits and giggles. A lot of airports have frequency requirements for landing slots, so instead of flying completely empty planes on routes to preserve slot allocation (which does happen), they may offer reduced fares to those cities. The airlines may be giving up a revenue premium to generate demand in the other city to help offset the loss that would otherwise occur. This goes for smaller airports as well that may have government subsidies to increase access for smaller markets: to drive up demand in those markets you offer connecting tickets that might be cheaper than flights originating out of a hub.
The simple matter is, if airlines are offering a cheaper ticket to a connecting destination that they would had you terminated somewhere, they are needing to drive traffic to that destination for some reason. Skipping out halfway through a connection can also cause increased costs for the airline having to track/reroute bags, etc. And then of course in today's climate there's the security/safety angle as well. Say you bail on the last leg and the plane goes down. The airline still thinks you are on board (especially if it was a through flight with no equipment change). If the government finds out you left the flight and there's an accident, you immediately become a target of suspicion.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
I'm not really convinced on your last part. They scan tickets as you're boarding a flight, so would know if you weren't on it in the case of an accident.
It's their own fault for artificially inflating prices based on the route rather than the costs incurred. Travelling from Munich to Brussels for example often costs as much as an overseas flight, while the same route with a layover in Brussels and a termination in Amsterdam costs 1/4 the price. If they wish to gouge people based on what they think someone is willing to pay, it is no surprise that people find workarounds.
They have already tried tactics like refusing to let you board your return flight if you didn't complete all the legs on the outbound, which is now also being challenged in court.
"Flying half-empty is not efficiency, quite the contrary. You're wasting more fuel per passenger because of the fixed costs, such as the weight of the plane itself."
We aren't talking about flights half full because only half the tickets are sold. We are talking about flights FULLY paid for, but the passenger isn't there. It's no different than if a passenger doesn't show up for some reason. The airline still gets their money. And they may have a chance to sell that same seat again.