For example, American Airlines states that “reservations made to exploit or circumvent fare and ticket rules are strictly prohibited.” This includes purchasing a ticket “without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares (hidden city).” Delta, United and American now explicitly ban exploiting fare rules in their contracts of carriage. Its founder, Aktarer Zaman, was sued for deception by United Airlines and the online travel agency Orbitz in 2015, but that lawsuit was dismissed based on jurisdiction, and the website is still going strong.Ĭlearly, airlines don’t like skiplagging, which prevents them from selling the empty seat. The practice is known as skiplagging.įinding these fares required a lot of scattershot searching and knowledge of airline competition until the website automated it in 2013. For example, a flier from New York City to San Francisco may find it cheaper to book a one-stop flight to Seattle connecting through San Francisco, disembark there and not take the last leg to Seattle. Hidden city fares are one-way tickets through a connecting city where passengers intentionally stay in the layover city. Other booking ploys, surveyed below, may or may not get you into trouble with the airlines.
The app HitList allows users to track a route with unspecified dates or lengths of travel. Many search engines, including Kayak and Hopper, allow users to register for price-alert tracking that recommends whether to buy now or wait for future price drops. Having flexibility in travel is one sure way to get the best fare.
Long layovers will also save you money: A layover of more than 12 hours means an average of a 6-percent savings on your airfare. Of course, those non-direct fares will mean spending more time stuck in airports. Hopper found that fliers can save 5 percent on airfares by changing from direct to one-stop fares, and 2 percent above that for moving from a one- to a two-stop ticket. Factors most impacting airfares, he said, are “the day you travel, how long you stay and the airport you’re flying.” How far in advance you book can also determine the price you pay.Īirfares reflect the adage that time is money for bargain-hunters the less money you spend, the more time you’re likely to spend in the airport. “People would like a simple rule, but in practice there isn’t a single day or time to buy,” said Patrick Surry, the chief data scientist for Hopper, an airfare prediction app. Sometimes, the game carries real-world risks, including the recent news that Lufthansa is suing a passenger who the airline contends intentionally skipped a flight leg using a largely prohibited budget-booking practice known as hidden city.īargain hunting has led to a rise in cheap travel websites and rules of thumb for booking, such as flying at off-peak times and on slower days. Between bargain-shopping travelers and airlines flashing ephemeral prices, searching for the lowest airfares can feel like a game of cat and mouse.
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