What is the latest news re. someone who failed to stay on the last leg of the plane trip and got penalized for it?

Lufthansa sues passenger for missing the last leg of their flight

Sorry the whole article is on the other side of a “paywall”.

That particular case is still with the courts. The Guardian report on the story is available.

Seems fair to me. He broke the contract.

You can argue if the contract is just or conscionable – that’s a good argument to have. But the contract exists.

“Skiplagging” has been around since the early days of airline deregulation. I did it, myself, a long time ago. Some airline had a flight that stopped at D.C. National Airport and then continued on to another city. The full itinerary cost considerably less than the partial trip to D.C. I would book the lower fare and get off the plane, along with most of the other passengers, during the D.C. layover.

Times have changed. Back then, nobody cared if a person had checked-in for a flight but wasn’t present. Today, there are security matters. An airline can’t let a plane leave without accounting for all ticketed passengers. A skiplagger causes all sorts of costly delays and unsettling fears.

@elbanditoroso Many contracts are unconscionable, and many are not binding due to legal principles they violate. Freedom of movement seems important to me. As does privacy. I feel people should be able to move or not move about without being sued or required to explain why, though I appreciate it could cause wasted time if you don’t even inform the airline.

In the case of inconvenience due to not letting staff know you’re not going to be on a flight, I could see a law allowing for a small reasonable fee IF the passenger doesn’t let the airline know they’re not going to taking a flight. I tend to think any greater penalty would be unreasonable and I’d hope unenforceable.

@Zaku most airlines charge for the difference.

@Tropical_Willie For what difference?

Planes aren’t supposed to fly when there is checked bag and not a person to match for security reasons. Having to remove checked bags for smejne who misses a leg of a flight is time and money for the airline. That’s one situation.

However, mostly people skip a leg for the cheaper fare. I remember asking Northwest airlines if my boss could pick up a flight on the second leg, and of course they said no. We lived in the suburbs of Memphis, and if she drove to Little Rock an hour and a half away the flight to Gulfport was $250 round trip. The flight connected in Memphis. If she booked it from Memphis (the same plane literally) it was $750 round trip. The airlines at the time we’re saying fuel prices were causing their high prices. Yeah, sure.

I wonder if in the small print somewhere it says you can’t pick up a flight on the second leg, or leave a flight after the first leg? They don’t tell you that when you buy the ticket, so it’s like you’re agreeing to the rules without knowing them. I guess that’s true with a lot of things though.

I think as long as your bag isn’t checked and you tell the airline you are not reboarding that it should not be a problem to skip the latter legs of a booked flight. I hope the courts agree.

I don’t see how the airline can complain about revenue when they are gouging. That Gulfport flight was gouging ourcabd simple. Hurricane Katrina had gone through there, and many people flying down were going to help. Fares in general are obviously a function of supply and demand and free market pricing, but the monopoly Northwest has in Memphis airport is what gave them the ability to charge such high prices to many cities.

If a passenger let’s the airline know, then the airline does have an opportunity to sell the seat last minute. Or, the airline could maybe just charge a reasonable price to begin with. That would be nice.

Typo: should be the monopoly Northwest HAD in Memphis. As you know there is no Northwest airlines now.

@Zaku the difference for jumping off. The early jump is done because it cost more to stop at that city. Airline tickets at not charged by the distance or mileage.
Example A to D is $400 and A to B is $300 and A to C is $450; they would charge you $50 the difference.

Well, it would be a very tempting loophole to exploit, wouldn’t it.

From the Guardian article, why would the customer missing the last leg of the flight cost Lufthansa ”...around €2,112 (around £1,864 or $2,385), the amount the airline is now seeking to reclaim from the customer.”
I’m asking how it literally cost them that much money?

The law cannot dictate prices, the airline can charge anyway or anything they want. It maybe a First Class ticket and “C” above maybe a highly desirable location like Orlando or Las Vegas.

The law washed its hands on this 20 years ago. Airlines can make their own internal rules and there is nothing we can do to stop them. As I said in my first reply, it may be unconscionable and morally dishonest, but that’s the airline industry for you.

When you (or anyone) buys an air ticket, this is all in the contract. If you don’t like it, don’t fly. There is no legal recourse.

This isn’t about the passengers looking for legal recourse @elbanditoroso.

The contract @Dutchess_III works both ways. The passenger bought the ticket under false pretenses of where they were going.

@Tropical_Willie Thanks. (Sounds like those policies are bullshit that shouldn’t be allowed, to me.)

Unless it’s about securty related, (luggage and no person) and/or airline wasn’t told about it or something like that then I don’t see why there should be a penalty.

Because it cost the airline $2,000 dollars…..but I’m still not sure why. It didn’t LITERALLY cost them thousands of dollars. It actually saved them a bag of peanuts and a drink.
Yes, if the guy had been honest and bought a ticket to his actual destination he would have paid $2,000 more. But the airline didn’t really, literally lose a dime over anything.

Yeah. it sounds like the sort of “cost” that only makes sense from a perverse accounting perspective.