Any penalties for skipping a connecting flight

Any penalties for skipping a connecting flight?

I am looking for last minute deals on air fares this weekend to Chicago and the best price I can find is a connecting flight thru Chicago: NY to Chicago to Cleveland. Will I be penalized in any way if I book this flight and then just walk out of the Chicago airport? I have an important flight in two weeks (with another airline) and I don't want to cause any holdups on that flight. What if I just tell them in Chicago that I have decided to arrange alternate transportation plans from the airport? This is a one-way trip. My return plans are not yet set. I will probably take the greyhound or a different air carrier back from a different destination.

Air Travel - 6 Answers

Random Answers, Critics, Comments, Opinions :

1 :

If you have checked bags they will keep going on through to the final destination. You may be flagged for suspicious activity. According to my friend he did this using Delta and the airline charged him a penalty (but from what I understand it depends on the airline).

2 :

the airline could assume you are lost and either hold the flight or alert police to look for you you could causse a secuirty alert and *could * put you on the no fly list* but you cant not check baggage doing this since the bags wuill go onto clevelnd.

3 :

I once missed 2 flights on two separate occasions and the penalty was $100 each time.

4 :

i am flight attendant, and my airline charges for missing a connection, you could be put on the no fly list for the TSA and also if you are going to check baggage thye will continue on to cleveland

5 :

Ditto what others have said, and one addition: If this is a round trip ticket, and you leave the plane in Chicago on the outbound leg, the return portion of the ticket will automatically be canceled - with no refund and no credit to you. You will NOT be able to get on the return leg in Chicago because the ticket will no longer be valid. I think you are better off in all ways to just buy a ticket that goes NY to Chicago. Edit: The airline does not particularly care about why you did not board the Chicago to Cleveland leg (I suppose they might forgive you if you died while waiting for the connecting flight - but I wouldn't count on even that!) - they will cancel the ticket anyway.

6 :

In theory, you can be charged by the airline for the difference between what you paid and what you actually flew -- the airline's contract of carriage typically prohibits this type of activity and provides for penalties if the rules are broken. These types of activities, however, are usually difficult for the airline to catch unless one does it on a repeated basis, so it's not likely that you will be charged the difference. In practice, however, there are several things that will happen if you attempt this: 1) As soon as you fail to board the flight to Cleveland, all remaining segments on the itinerary will be cancelled. What you are proposing will only be of benefit to you if you don't plan to return to New York, because you won't get home on the same ticket if you don't fly the portion to Cleveland. 2) You won't be able to check baggage. To be able to claim baggage in Cleveland, you'd have to ask the airline to short-check the luggage to Chicago, which essentially gives the airline all the clues they need to charge you the fare difference. 3) The airline's responsibility is to get you to Cleveland by any means possible, even if it means connecting you through a different airport or (in rare instances) putting you on another airline. They are within their rights to fly you to CLE through another city in case of irregular operations, meaning your actual trip may end up avoiding Chicago altogether. Again, declaring your need to travel through Chicago to the airline at this point may give them all they need to charge you the fare difference between the ticket to Chicago and the ticket to Cleveland. "What if I just tell them in Chicago that I have decided to arrange alternate transportation plans from the airport?" Either they will cancel your ticket outright, or they will have every right to charge you the difference in fare and reissue your ticket, because presumably, you wouldn't be returning from Cleveland. You just wouldn't be able to simply show back up in Chicago and expect to fly home on the last segment of the ticket -- two segments skipped is one more than is needed to get the ticket cancelled. SECOND EDIT: Knowing this information (regarding the one-way trip) would have been helpful at the outset, rather than after the fact. That being said, though, the issues that remain are the inability to check luggage and the risk that irregular operations may cause you to be rerouted to Cleveland through a different city.