You should be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when using this strategy. It is, at a minimum, against airline policy.
If you have any kind of airline status or membership, and you do this too often, they will cancel it. If you try to do this on a round-trip ticket, they will cancel your return. If the airlines have any means of making your life difficult available to them, they WILL use it.
Obviously you also cannot check bags when using this strategy, since they will go to the wrong place (your ostensible, rather than your actual, destination.) This also means that if you have an overhead-sized carryon, and you board late and are forced to check it, your bag will NOT make it to your intended destination; it will go to the final destination marked on your ticket. If you try to argue about this, you run the risk of getting your ticket cancelled altogether, since you’re violating airline policies by using a ticket in this way.
EDIT: Since I’m top comment, and since other people in this thread are making moral objections, I want to clearly state that I have no moral objections to this whatsoever. My objections are purely based on risk to the user.
Some of the costs you list can be avoided, and others aren’t as high as you imply. If you oppose this strategy on moral grounds for violating airline policy, that’s fine, but I suspect that this opposition is causing you to believe that the self-interested reasons against it are stronger than they are.
See this Wikipedia article for a more balanced discussion of this strategy, and a list of other airline booking ploys.
I do not oppose it on moral grounds, but it cannot safely be executed by someone who is not at least moderately familiar with air travel mechanics, and people who are sufficiently familiar generally already know about it. So offering it as a “great tip” without mentioning that there are risks is a really hazardous thing to do.
EDIT: I would say that my opposition to it (for my own use) is based on the perceived risk/reward ratio being terrible. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of money, and doesn’t mind doing a lot of reading to carefully understand the risks, OR doesn’t mind occasionally getting hit with serious downsides (like losing your luggage for an extended time), I think it can be a great strategy. But the risks on the downside are both significant and unexpected if you aren’t warned about them. (Cancellation of connecting flights or temporary loss of luggage are very significant downsides if they happen to you without warning.)
You should be EXTREMELY CAREFUL when using this strategy. It is, at a minimum, against airline policy.
If you have any kind of airline status or membership, and you do this too often, they will cancel it. If you try to do this on a round-trip ticket, they will cancel your return. If the airlines have any means of making your life difficult available to them, they WILL use it.
Obviously you also cannot check bags when using this strategy, since they will go to the wrong place (your ostensible, rather than your actual, destination.) This also means that if you have an overhead-sized carryon, and you board late and are forced to check it, your bag will NOT make it to your intended destination; it will go to the final destination marked on your ticket. If you try to argue about this, you run the risk of getting your ticket cancelled altogether, since you’re violating airline policies by using a ticket in this way.
EDIT: Since I’m top comment, and since other people in this thread are making moral objections, I want to clearly state that I have no moral objections to this whatsoever. My objections are purely based on risk to the user.
Some of the costs you list can be avoided, and others aren’t as high as you imply. If you oppose this strategy on moral grounds for violating airline policy, that’s fine, but I suspect that this opposition is causing you to believe that the self-interested reasons against it are stronger than they are.
See this Wikipedia article for a more balanced discussion of this strategy, and a list of other airline booking ploys.
I do not oppose it on moral grounds, but it cannot safely be executed by someone who is not at least moderately familiar with air travel mechanics, and people who are sufficiently familiar generally already know about it. So offering it as a “great tip” without mentioning that there are risks is a really hazardous thing to do.
EDIT: I would say that my opposition to it (for my own use) is based on the perceived risk/reward ratio being terrible. For someone who doesn’t have a lot of money, and doesn’t mind doing a lot of reading to carefully understand the risks, OR doesn’t mind occasionally getting hit with serious downsides (like losing your luggage for an extended time), I think it can be a great strategy. But the risks on the downside are both significant and unexpected if you aren’t warned about them. (Cancellation of connecting flights or temporary loss of luggage are very significant downsides if they happen to you without warning.)