A one-time ticket is a risky flying tactic that can save you money, but it has consequences

A flight passenger recently revealed in a post on X that he saved hundreds of dollars using a rather “risky” hack.

Mike Bolen, a real estate investor from California, got over 6.2 million views on his social media page after sharing this “wild” way to buy a plane ticket.

Bolen discovered that instead of a $564 nonstop flight to St. Louis, he could buy air ticket to Atlanta with a stop in St. Louis for just $198.

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“Why don’t you just grab your carry-on and get off the plane at STL? Me!” he wrote on X along with a photo of the airline’s website.

Bolen tried the hack and “it worked fine, no problem,” he told Fox News Digital.

While the hack may have been new to Bolen, who noted that he had never seen anyone test it before, it turns out the hack has been around for a while.

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It is often called “emission” or “point behind” tickets, according to Gary Leff, a travel industry expert from Texas and author of the “View From the Wing” blog, Fox News Digital told Fox News Digital via email.

Instead of booking an expensive one-way ticket, passengers take the risk and try this “wild” flying tactic, which is cheaper but can have questionable ethics. (iStock)

In Leff’s blog, he noted that people will book connecting flights their intended purpose, but instead of boarding the second flight, they disembark at a stopover.

Tickets for a non-stop flight are usually more expensive than a flight with a connection, so the purpose of a “repeat ticket” is to save money on the total cost of the flight.

“The ethics of single-use tickets have been debated for decades. The bottom line is that airlines believe that a flight from point A to point B to point C is a fundamentally different product than a flight from point A to point B, you buy one and consume the other. “, – wrote Lef.

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“And it goes against common sense that if you buy seats on two flights, you decide what to do with them. It’s all the result of complex pricing that ordinary customers find confusing and unfair,” he added. .

One of the risks of using a stopover as a final destination is that your carry-on may be checked at the gate and directed to the final destination of your ticket. (iStock)

Leff noted that while the cost of a flight may be less than a direct flight, there may be practical risks involved in attempting this travel hack.

For example, you may need to check your carry-on baggage upon boarding. Additionally, airlines may automatically reroute you based on what the airline believes is the destination printed on the original ticket.

Leff added that airlines can cancel your mileage account or even ban the passenger from traveling.

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“The airline may close your frequent flyer account or even ban you from flying (with) them in the future. It’s something to consider every now and then, not something to do every week,” Leff wrote on his blog.

This hack has been used by airline passengers for decades and is often referred to as “bounce ticket redemption” or “ticket redemption”. (iStock)

“If you’re going to buy one-way tickets, at least consider adding frequent flyer miles to the partner airline, although it may not protect you, why would it be easy for them to track you?” Lef noted.

This hack has gained attention in recent years, with some airlines targeting Skiplagged.com, a “flight ticket search engine for cheap flights, featuring ticketed trips to the hidden city,” the site says.

The airfare site even wrote on its website, “Our flights are so cheap, United sued us…but we won.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Skiplagged.com and United Airlines for comment.

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“It’s not clear how much the practice has taken hold since the airlines don’t disclose it,” Leff told Fox News Digital.

Gary Leff warns that people should be careful if they use this hack too often because the passenger could be flagged or even banned by the airline. (iStock)

“However, since it’s no longer necessary to buy a round trip ticket to get the best fares, it’s easier than ever to do so (as they work best when booking one-way tickets).”

If you look past the potential risks associated with flight hack, Leff noted that some may find this hack to be of two minds when it comes to the ethics of the procedure.

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While you can save money by trying this travel hack, it’s important to be aware of the potential risks. (iStock)

Either you “agree” to the airline’s “Contract of Carriage” and are in violation of the agreement when you buy the ticket, or the “Contract of Carriage” is of little force and thus “the airline’s view is contrary to common sense,” Leff wrote. on its website.

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“There are practical/consequentialist considerations that might dissuade you from the practice, or at least from engaging in it often,” he said.