Heads up, there’s a VERY UNETHICAL service out there that works around some of the VERY GOOD AND BENEFICIAL things the airlines do. You should avoid going to it because it ROBS these poor struggling airlines of VALIDLY EARNED profits.
Including a link so everyone can add it to their blocked sites lists. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU GO TO THIS MONEY SAVING SITE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR ANTI-CORPORATIST SCHEMES. https://skiplagged.com/
I thought I read years ago that airlines responded to Skiplagged by penalizing people who didn’t complete every leg of the trip they booked. I’m not sure why they would care.
Yep, and if you have a rewards or membership number, they just will ban you. If it happens once not a big deal, couple times even, start doing it regularly though, you will get caught.
I haven’t paid for a plane ticket since 2012. Made a huge hobby of credit card churning. Probably flew 200k miles on them. Otherwise I’d be skiplagging as the next best option.
Ive heard of people making this happen, but I literally don’t know how y’all achieve more than like a single flight or hotel stay per year without already having 200k+ income (i.e. could pay for the trip on your own, just don’t want to pay for it).
I’m pretty sure they’re also making more money for the airlines than if they just bought the plane tickets, but it’s slightly procedurally obfuscated, so people are like “omg free tickets”
The airlines do fine; they sell miles/points to banks who actually have money. Almost all US carriers are worth little or negative but their rewards programs have large valuations.
If you pay your bills in full and don’t pay interest you are beating the system, and it is “OMG free flights”/hotels/cash. You do give away tons of purchase info but you’re giving that away anyway unless you’re using cash.
I thought I read years ago that airlines responded to Skiplagged by penalizing people who didn’t complete every leg of the trip they booked. I’m not sure why they would care.
They care because the real cost of air travel is not equaled everywhere on each mile flown. If the actual costs of flying to many small regional locations was reflected in the cost of the ticket, the ticket would be so absurdly high no one would every flight to that location, and the location would lose critical flight services for the community.
The solution many of those airlines used was to consolidate the majority of the flight into a hub using larger planes which are cheaper to operate per-passenger, and then use much smaller planes from the hub to the remote location charging the passenger the equivalent of a reasonable cost of a ticket for all hops along the way.
What Skiplagging as doing was essentially using the subsidized discount rate provided for the small regional destinations, but consumed by those not going to those places that needed subsidies on their flights going to major hubs. So not only was the airline losing money for each passenger not paying the normal fare to the hub airport, but also showing lower passenger volume to the small regional destinations increasing the cost of flying passengers that wanted to go their even more.
TLDR; Skiplagging screws small cities with low passenger volume risking their ability to maintain flight service at all to their towns.
I get being naturally suspicious especially if we’re talking about messaging that may match some from large companies, but don’t let language that sounds that way turn off your brain to critical thinking. If you interact in a system (such as buying a ticket as an airline passenger) you can have an affect on the system. Understand your actions to personally enrich yourself may have consequences on other people just trying to fly somewhere. Don’t be blinded by big business hate to justify screwing other passengers using the airlines.
They literally will ban you for skip lagging (especially if you use any rewards type system). May save you a few bucks if you don’t use them often and don’t care, but not a great idea.
Do get the sense that these third-party sites are going to become an increased necessity, as data-scrappers and trackers try to peg the price of a flight to the credit card limit of the buyer.
But… idk, I’m not seeing anything on this site that I can’t find by directly querying individual airlines. (Like so many other budget airline calculators) there’s no inclusion of Southwest on the list. And if the odd deal is inevitably just going to be through JetBlue anyway? Why not shop direct?
I think Southwest is moving to a hub and spoke model, but historically they haven’t used it. Skip lagging seems to mostly rely on a “I want to travel to the hub, so buy a cheaper ticket to a different spoke and jump off at hub” methodology.
Which is to say, Southwest may just not be “vulnerable” to this atm.
The third party sites will just start getting the max rate, which would effectively eliminate them. Airlines (at least in the US) aren’t making money off flights any longer anyways, it’s all off credit cards. Delta is more of a bank than an airline.
The third party sites will just start getting the max rate, which would effectively eliminate them.
I mean, if they haven’t figured out how to game the system, presumably. Even then, if I’m also getting the max rate, it’s a push.
Idk. These systems always love to overpromise on both ends - big profits for investors, big savings for customers. It reads like a fairy tale coming and going.
Heads up, there’s a VERY UNETHICAL service out there that works around some of the VERY GOOD AND BENEFICIAL things the airlines do. You should avoid going to it because it ROBS these poor struggling airlines of VALIDLY EARNED profits.
Including a link so everyone can add it to their blocked sites lists. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU GO TO THIS MONEY SAVING SITE AND PARTICIPATE IN THEIR ANTI-CORPORATIST SCHEMES.
https://skiplagged.com/
I thought I read years ago that airlines responded to Skiplagged by penalizing people who didn’t complete every leg of the trip they booked. I’m not sure why they would care.
Rumor has it this is the case, but I haven’t found any tangible “I used this service and was punished for it” stories.
…uh, WHICH IS TERRIBLE, BIG AIRLINES’ RIGHTS ARE BEING INFRINGED. THIS IS A MATTER OF FREEDOM TO AVOID THIS SERVICE.
What they do is cancel your entire trip. So if you don’t have flights with the same airline on the way back…eh
Yep, and if you have a rewards or membership number, they just will ban you. If it happens once not a big deal, couple times even, start doing it regularly though, you will get caught.
I haven’t paid for a plane ticket since 2012. Made a huge hobby of credit card churning. Probably flew 200k miles on them. Otherwise I’d be skiplagging as the next best option.
Ive heard of people making this happen, but I literally don’t know how y’all achieve more than like a single flight or hotel stay per year without already having 200k+ income (i.e. could pay for the trip on your own, just don’t want to pay for it).
I’m pretty sure they’re also making more money for the airlines than if they just bought the plane tickets, but it’s slightly procedurally obfuscated, so people are like “omg free tickets”
The airlines do fine; they sell miles/points to banks who actually have money. Almost all US carriers are worth little or negative but their rewards programs have large valuations.
If you pay your bills in full and don’t pay interest you are beating the system, and it is “OMG free flights”/hotels/cash. You do give away tons of purchase info but you’re giving that away anyway unless you’re using cash.
They care because the real cost of air travel is not equaled everywhere on each mile flown. If the actual costs of flying to many small regional locations was reflected in the cost of the ticket, the ticket would be so absurdly high no one would every flight to that location, and the location would lose critical flight services for the community.
The solution many of those airlines used was to consolidate the majority of the flight into a hub using larger planes which are cheaper to operate per-passenger, and then use much smaller planes from the hub to the remote location charging the passenger the equivalent of a reasonable cost of a ticket for all hops along the way.
What Skiplagging as doing was essentially using the subsidized discount rate provided for the small regional destinations, but consumed by those not going to those places that needed subsidies on their flights going to major hubs. So not only was the airline losing money for each passenger not paying the normal fare to the hub airport, but also showing lower passenger volume to the small regional destinations increasing the cost of flying passengers that wanted to go their even more.
TLDR; Skiplagging screws small cities with low passenger volume risking their ability to maintain flight service at all to their towns.
Sounds like something an airline would say.
I get being naturally suspicious especially if we’re talking about messaging that may match some from large companies, but don’t let language that sounds that way turn off your brain to critical thinking. If you interact in a system (such as buying a ticket as an airline passenger) you can have an affect on the system. Understand your actions to personally enrich yourself may have consequences on other people just trying to fly somewhere. Don’t be blinded by big business hate to justify screwing other passengers using the airlines.
Half as Interesting made a video on the subject: Nebula / YouTube
I used it a long time ago (like 2017) and saved me some good money, but I also did not use my skymiles account just in case.
I felt like it got less effective at finding the types of flights like the one I took and stopped trying.
It’s definitely a bit of a pain because you gotta book two one-way flights
They literally will ban you for skip lagging (especially if you use any rewards type system). May save you a few bucks if you don’t use them often and don’t care, but not a great idea.
Thanks for the tip. We’ll see if it bares out.
Do get the sense that these third-party sites are going to become an increased necessity, as data-scrappers and trackers try to peg the price of a flight to the credit card limit of the buyer.
But… idk, I’m not seeing anything on this site that I can’t find by directly querying individual airlines. (Like so many other budget airline calculators) there’s no inclusion of Southwest on the list. And if the odd deal is inevitably just going to be through JetBlue anyway? Why not shop direct?
I think Southwest is moving to a hub and spoke model, but historically they haven’t used it. Skip lagging seems to mostly rely on a “I want to travel to the hub, so buy a cheaper ticket to a different spoke and jump off at hub” methodology.
Which is to say, Southwest may just not be “vulnerable” to this atm.
Fine if you’ve got more time than money, I guess.
The third party sites will just start getting the max rate, which would effectively eliminate them. Airlines (at least in the US) aren’t making money off flights any longer anyways, it’s all off credit cards. Delta is more of a bank than an airline.
I mean, if they haven’t figured out how to game the system, presumably. Even then, if I’m also getting the max rate, it’s a push.
Idk. These systems always love to overpromise on both ends - big profits for investors, big savings for customers. It reads like a fairy tale coming and going.
I use skiplagged all the time, but don’t book through their site. They add fees onto the tickets now. Just book through the airline directly.