Airlines hate this sneaky travel hack that can save flyers serious money when booking flights, expert says
Founder of the Cheap Holiday Expert and podcast host, Chelsea Dickenson, recently shared on an episode of her pod, Passports Please!, that 'skiplagging' is a travel hack that allows travelers to fly for cheap to long-haul hotspots.
'Skiplagging is when a passenger books a flight with a layover but intentionally gets off at the layover city instead of continuing to the final destination,' Dicksenson explained to her co-host, James Robinson, in a clip from the episode that was posted to TikTok.
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'And that is because the layover city is usually cheaper to fly to as part of a longer route.'
For instance, booking an indirect flight from New York to California, with a layover in Texas, is cheaper than flying directly from NYC to the Lone Star State.
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So a traveler would book the longer flight to California, get off the plane in Texas, stay there and just miss the second flight to California — since they intended to stay in Texas originally.
While this is a smart hack — it's not foolproof and airlines 'absolutely hate it cause you're wasting a seat on one of their flights.'
And as a result, there are consequences.
Travelers can entirely skip a flight and just stay in the layover city — which is often cheaper than booking a direct flight somewhere far.
luengo_ua – stock.adobe.com
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'You can get blacklisted by doing it. Some people have been totally told they cannot book with airlines if they've done it repeatedly,' Dickenson said on her podcast.
Many people in the comment section seemed to support this travel tip — and brought up valid points regarding airlines' snooty attitude towards it.
'If airlines hate it, then make the prices make sense…' someone pointed out.
'You can get blacklisted by doing it. Some people have been totally told they cannot book with airlines if they've done it repeatedly,' Dickenson said on her podcast.
John N – stock.adobe.com
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'You are not wasting a seat cause you paid for it,' quipped someone else.
'Delta all the time. Know folks who live in Atlanta and always book Delta to anywhere because the layover is 95% of the time in Atlanta,' a comment read.
A few others were concerned about luggage when skiplagging.
'My first thought is. This would only work for passengers with hand luggage only,' one person wrote.
'Obviously, people who do this don't have checked-in luggage,' chimed in someone else.
And someone else offered some great advice to avoid getting in trouble from an airline for making skiplagging a habit.
'To avoid being blacklisted show up late to the gate and pretend to be upset that you missed your connecting flight,' a person wrote.
'The airline will cancel your return flight if you do this,' someone hypothesized.
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