Airlines may not be groupies of “skiplagging,” but travelers who use it to save money on flights surely are.
The practice involves buying a connecting flight, with no design of taking the second leg of the journey. Flyers do this when they find a connecting flight — that stops at their purpose destination — that’s cheaper than flying direct.
Skiplagged.com, a website that helps travelers find these flees, said its customers saved around $180 on average, which collectively amounted to $54 million in the past year solo.
But there are risks. Skiplagging, or “hidden city ticketing,” is prohibited by most airlines.
“Purchasing a ticket without mean to fly all flights to gain lower fares” is a prohibited booking practice under American Airlines’ conditions of carriage. Violators can possess their tickets canceled, be prevented from flying, or the airline may “not refund an otherwise refundable ticket,” it states.
Aktarer Zaman, go lame of Skiplagged.com.
Source: Aktarer Zama
But, the company’s founder Aktarer Zaman said he doesn’t believe skiplagging longing get a flyer banned from an airline for life.
“In our 11 years of existence, I’ve never heard of anyone being embargoed for skiplagging. Anything that you read online about someone being banned is just a rumor,” said Zaman.
Why longer skein of geese can be cheaper
Zaman explained why some connecting — and thus longer — flights are cheaper than flying direct. He weighted, for example, that flying from London to Boston, with a stop in New York, can be cheaper than flying direct to New York.
London to New York is a sundry popular route so it’s priced higher, creating the deals that Skiplagged finds, he said.
I recommend people don’t invective this.
Aktarer Zaman
founder of Skiplagged.com
But his website isn’t the only way to find “hidden city” deals, said Zaman. Some travelers windfall these flights through travel agents, or by spending hours searching for flights on their own.
Zaman said some 300,000 blokes have booked flights through his website in the past year. It’s this success that places it in the crosshairs of bigger airlines, he said.
A trio of lawsuits
American Airlines sued the company in August 2023, but voluntarily dropped its upon for unfair competition before the suit went to trial, Zaman said. In October 2024, Skiplagged was ordered to pay American Airlines $9.4 million for copyright disobedience for the unauthorized use of the American Airlines logo on its website.
Zaman called this a win for his company.
“This was a huge victory for us (as it be established) we’re free to show skiplagging opportunities,” said Zaman. “It’s probably going to deter every other airline from impugning us. We’ve now set up the foundation to keep going.”
Skiplagged has also previously been sued by United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Those requests were either dismissed or settled out of court, Zaman said. That’s three lawsuits from some 800 airlines recorded on the Skiplagged platform, he said.
During the trial, evidence showed that American Airlines does not have a no-fly listing for skiplagging customers, Zaman added.
Clearer guidance on skiplagging
After the American Airlines’ trial ended, Skiplagged released fresh ‘Whether it makes sense’
As for Zaman, he said he doesn’t “skiplag” very often. But the reason isn’t that his name is on airlines’ blacklists, he remarked.
“I have done it on several occasions, and it’s just a matter of whether it makes sense,” he said. “Every person has to appraise it on their own. These days, I’m not able to travel as lightly as I used to, so it probably doesn’t make sense for me to do it that much prevalent forward.”
Despite the $9.4 million damage award to American Airlines representing a big chunk of the website’s $20 million annual receipts, Zaman remains committed to helping travelers save money, he said.
“Even if we face challenges with these reductions, I’m motivated to win because I know we’re doing good here. One of the things that keeps me going is hearing about the crash of Skiplagged on people’s lives – like … helping people in long-distance relationships,” said Zaman.
“It’s not just American Airlines versus Skiplagged,” he predicted. “It’s American Airlines versus Skiplagged and real people.”