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United, US Airways, American, and Delta among others rely on award charts to determine the price of your award. This method generally makes sense, but it also opens the airlines up to the hidden city trick.
If you can route through your desired destination on the way to a region that costs fewer miles, you can save miles as long as you travel with only carry ons.
Let me give an example that reader Ryan just emailed me:
Bangkok to Fiji costs 15,000 United miles oneway in economy and can route through Auckland on the Air New Zealand flight to Fiji.
Bangkok to Auckland costs 30,000 United miles oneway in economy.
That means adding Auckland to Fiji onto an award from Bangkok to Auckland reduces the miles outlay by 15,000 miles.
So if you want to book an award from Bangkok to Auckland, book Bangkok to Fiji instead and just leave the airport in Auckland with your carry on.
There are several examples of the hidden city trick that you can use while booking your award. I’ve talked about some before.
- US Airways Free Oneways require a hidden city.
- I saved a few hundred thousand miles by using the hidden city trick on a recent US Airways booking.
- You can save 2,500 United miles by having a oneway return from Europe to the US continue to the Caribbean
There are surely other examples that will be shared in the comments. The way to find more examples is to look for a way you can route through your desired destination on the way to a region that costs fewer miles.
Things to keep in mind:
- If you miss a flight, your entire ticket is cancelled, so make sure the flight you are skipping is the last one on your ticket.
- Checked bags will go to your destination in most cases, but you must collect all bags at your first stop in the US when returning from abroad to clear customs.
- Intentionally not flying a segment might violate an airline’s rules. If you do this, there is some risk of your frequent flyer account being shut down.
- Award space is rivalrous. If you ticket space that you don’t intend to fly, you may be shutting someone else out of space he would want to fly.
Recap
Flying from Bangkok to Fiji costs 15,000 miles and can route through Auckland. Just Bangkok to Auckland is 30,000 miles, so you save 15,000 miles by appending a segment to Fiji that you won’t fly.
This is a specific example of using hidden city ticketing on awards. There are a lot more examples, and some drawbacks to ticketing this way.
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BOM to SIN/BKK (try searching BOM to CMB!)
BOM to SIN/BKK (try searching BOM to CMB!)
I thought you can’t go to Japan via Hong Kong on an American Award ticket.
Something about not being able to travel to Asia 1 via Asia 2
Maybe i’m wrong about that, but I do have some memory of that rule being a dealbreaker
You’re right! I should have looked at my own post at the subject instead of relying on my faulty memory –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/the-five-cardinal-rules-of-american-airlines-awards/
I thought you can’t go to Japan via Hong Kong on an American Award ticket.
Something about not being able to travel to Asia 1 via Asia 2
Maybe i’m wrong about that, but I do have some memory of that rule being a dealbreaker
You’re right! I should have looked at my own post at the subject instead of relying on my faulty memory –> https://milevalu.wpengine.com/the-five-cardinal-rules-of-american-airlines-awards/
I am pleased that the note was added about shutting someone else out of a seat when you book a leg you don’t intend to fly. Personally I think this is just not a nice thing to do to someone else to save a few thousand points. Next time it may be your desired seat that isn’t available because someone booked it and but doesn’t plan to fly. I think that ethically a person should at least check that the route in question tends to have abundant availability before doing this.
I am pleased that the note was added about shutting someone else out of a seat when you book a leg you don’t intend to fly. Personally I think this is just not a nice thing to do to someone else to save a few thousand points. Next time it may be your desired seat that isn’t available because someone booked it and but doesn’t plan to fly. I think that ethically a person should at least check that the route in question tends to have abundant availability before doing this.
I think this is really questionable advice. Will you be around when one of your readers has his account closed and blacklisted by the airlines for breaking the rules?
No, I won’t. Use this trick at your own risk.
I think this is really questionable advice. Will you be around when one of your readers has his account closed and blacklisted by the airlines for breaking the rules?
No, I won’t. Use this trick at your own risk.
Very bad advice…
I got my United account closed by doing this the very first time I ever did it. Half dozen calls and letters did nothing.
@DaveS, I tend to agree with you. There must be some bad karma here. You are notonly wasting a resource that someone else could have used, but you are implicitly lying to the airlines.
Just because you can do this, doesn’t mean it is the right/correct/honorable thing to do.
@DaveS, I tend to agree with you. There must be some bad karma here. You are notonly wasting a resource that someone else could have used, but you are implicitly lying to the airlines.
Just because you can do this, doesn’t mean it is the right/correct/honorable thing to do.
Karma doesn’t exist and we are not samurai living in an honor culture. The airlines are perfectly fine with screwing over their own customers, so I have zero qualms about saving a few miles and/or dollars this way.
Karma doesn’t exist and we are not samurai living in an honor culture. The airlines are perfectly fine with screwing over their own customers, so I have zero qualms about saving a few miles and/or dollars this way.
(Anyone) Ever tried contacting United (or the award booking airline at issue) and asking for the “discounted” award rate by pointing out the conflict?
If that worked, I’d be shocked. The computer rules at United.
(Anyone) Ever tried contacting United (or the award booking airline at issue) and asking for the “discounted” award rate by pointing out the conflict?
Suggest you add another potential risk, which is probably more likely than having your FF account shut down. And that is that if your connecting flight gets cancelled, the airline is going to be focused on rebooking you on flights to your “destination” (which you had no intention of a actually flying to) and may change your connection to do so. You may struggle or be unable to get them to rebook you on your original routing rather than just to your original “destination”. This to me is a very real risk, especially if flying in places/seasons that are prone to weather causing irrops.
In some cases, that would be a worry. In the example of Auckland and Fiji, that’s not a worry because there is only one way to Fiji on the Star Alliance.
Ethics aside, it’s just not worth being rerouted to your hidden city and bypassing your actual preferred final destination, especially if you’re travelling with family. Then again, ethics are never really “aside,” are they?
This is extremely irresponsible advice, especially for newbies. It should have been titled: “Say bye-bye to your miles.” Hidden city destination savings should only be attempted when you have bought your ticket on cash and with an airline you don’t have miles with and could care less about if they try to clamp down on. You cannot do this indefinitely with an airline and get away with it. They will shut you down.
Really enlightening, I was also able to make a completely legal roundtrip BKK-NAN-AKL-BKK for 30k RT in economy (going through AKL once as layover, once as stopover).
I got a minor saving flying HKG-HKT-KMG-PVG for 40k all business (north asia to south asia should be 45k). It seems when the destination is the same region and the stopover is neighboring region it works, have you tried any others?
I just ticketed HKT-BKK-CDG-VIE-TLV (Phuket to Tel Aviv via Europe) in first for 65k instead of the 80k that it would cost if the award ended in Europe.