Airline sues passenger over skipped segment

Cillian O'Brien, CTVNews.ca Staff</span>
Published Wednesday, February 13, 2019 8:54AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, February 13, 2019 10:32AM EST

German airline giant Lufthansa is suing a passenger who did not take the last leg of their ticketed journey in a bid to clamp down on a popular travel hack.

A Lufthansa spokesman confirmed to CTVNews.ca in a telephone interview from Frankfurt that it is pursuing payment from a traveller who, it believes, bought a ticket with no intention of flying the last segment of their trip.

The move could threaten a widely used travel trick that sees airline passengers leave their journey at a layover instead of the final destination to take advantage of cheaper flights.

Network carriers such as Lufthansa set their prices based on charging less for more flights.

For example, a flight from Istanbul to London might cost $300, whereas a flight that goes from Istanbul to Glasgow via London might be only $250.

Websites such as Skiplagged delve into airline databases to suggest how to cut costs on journeys by throwing away unwanted segments.

This tactic has a number of pitfalls. Passengers risk having their itinerary cancelled if they are a no-show for the first flight. Customers who skip the last flight also face the risk that their checked bag will be tagged to the final destination, prompting experienced “tariff abusers” to take cabin baggage only.

Lufthansa lost the initial court case, but is appealing the decision.

The German national carrier operates on a hub and spoke system from bases in Frankfurt and Munich.

One of Europe’s biggest airlines, Lufthansa said it cannot comment on an active court case.

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