Lufthansa sues customer for 'hidden city ticket'

Hotblack Desiato

Spook_ie wrote: »

But if you are booked on the second flight i.e a through ticket, then would you not be causing possible delays to the last leg as they try to find you?
Also regardless of no hold baggage wouldn't the non appearance of a passenger for the 2nd leg set off a security alert?

A booking is just a booking, when a passenger checks in they're expressing an intent to fly.

zell12

BBC explains skiplagging to all
http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20190226-the-travel-trick-that-airlines-hate

3DataModem

plodder wrote: »

eg plans change and they end up at the first stop by other means, and then discovering that the rest of their ticket has been cancelled..

Exactly this happened to me. I was in London and a business trip over-ran by a day. I had a flight soon after from Dublin to the US via London, and was told I had to make it back to Dublin or the whole thing would be cancelled (despite circumstances), so I did so. Didn't complain as the flight was cheap as hell.

blackwhite

stephen.dunne wrote: »

Did this a few year ago when I flew to Vegas with my parents from DUB->LGW->LAS(I live in London)

I flew out to Dublin a few days earlier so I could give them a hand getting to the airport and getting us all through US immigration (I'd booked all three of us into the US Visa Waiver scheme), but on the way back I asked the ground staff at McCaren to only check my luggage through as far as Gatwick.

I was prepared for a bit of resistance, but nobody batted an eyelid; not at the airline or groundside at Gatwick.

Used to travel to Paris quite a bit with an old job.

Was going to Chicago pre-Xmas with the OH a few years ago, and was due in Paris the day after my return for meetings.

Did some looking online, and booking the flights as DUB-ORD-CDG with the DUB-ORD leg as Economy, and the ORD-CDG leg as Business, was working out cheaper than DUB-ORD-DUB all economy.

Booked the DUB-ORD-CDG as one trip, and used points to upgrade the outbound leg to Business also.

On the way back, I was due to land in DUB around 5.30, and had selected the 9.40 flight to CDG.

Check-in at ORD were quite happy to just check my luggage as far as DUB - I was able to collect baggage, leave the airport and nip home (was living within 20 min of airport at the time) to swap bags for my overnight case and take a 2hr nap.
Back to the airport for 9 and onto the CDG flight!


The best part was, my employer then re-imbursed me for the cost of the DUB-CDG leg, based on the online economy price around the time I was booking.

Worked out that a return business class trip to Chicago cost me approx. €400, plus whatever points GoldCircle we charging at the time

Kev11491

Has anyone heard any more on this? Due to fly back with LH: Los Angeles - Munich - Copenhagen next month but going to do Munich - Dublin with LH instead

dogmatix

According to this (https://simpleflying.com/was-lufthansa-successful-in-suing-a-passenger-for-skiplagging/), Lufthansa lost their case but not because the passenger won but because the airline could not specify how much they had lost in calculating their claim.

And they lost the appeal also - https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2019/10/07/lufthansa-loses-lawsuit/.

jive

Kev11491 wrote: »

Has anyone heard any more on this? Due to fly back with LH: Los Angeles - Munich - Copenhagen next month but going to do Munich - Dublin with LH instead

Wouldn’t worry about it in the slightest. Only issue would be if LAX-MUC-CPH was delayed and you missed MUC-DUB as it’ll be a separate ticket.

blackwhite

dogmatix wrote: »

According to this (https://simpleflying.com/was-lufthansa-successful-in-suing-a-passenger-for-skiplagging/), Lufthansa lost their case but not because the passenger won but because the airline could not specify how much they had lost in calculating their claim.

And they lost the appeal also - https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2019/10/07/lufthansa-loses-lawsuit/.

Seems to imply that whilst the calculation was the reason for the case being lost, the court appeared likely to rule against them on the liability issue even if they had been able to prove the calculation

Lufthansa technically lost the first round in court because it failed to clearly clarify how it arrived at its final demand of €2,112, which it said included the difference in fare plus interest. But it likely did not matter, as the Berlin district court expressed skepticism that Lufthansa had any legal basis to charge a consumer for a service already paid for if not fully consumed.

TomSweeney

wtf ?
What did he do wrong ?

Wjhy was flying to Berlin so much cheaper ? wtf

I mean don't you pay up front ?
Not turning up for a leg of a journey that he had already paid for - whats the problem ?

a good explanation is given here - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airline_booking_ploys

But still he has PAID for the journey, surely the airline should be happy, they will spend less fuel and maybe get a standby passenger on the last leg .... it makes no sense to me for them to litigate.