Teen Detained at Florida Airport for Using Cost-Cutting Flight Hack

Teenage passenger Logan Parsons was flying by himself for the first time this week on a ticket from Gainesville, Florida to New York City by way of Charlotte, North Carolina. The thing is, he had no intention of going all the way to NYC, but planned to get off in Charlotte, where he lives, skipping the second leg of his flight.

This practice of booking a whole flight with the intention of completing only a portion of the journey is known as “hidden city ticketing”, “point beyond ticketing” or “skip-lagging”. When the price of a flight between major hubs that includes a connection in their actual destination city is cheaper than flying direct, skip-laggers save money by booking the multi-leg itinerary instead.

And that’s precisely what Logan was doing. So, when he went to check-in for his flight at the Florida airport, an American Airlines desk agent noticed his North Carolina driver’s license and became skeptical as to the validity of his final destination.

Logan’s father, Hunter Parsons, told local Queen City News that, at that point, his son was “interrogated a little bit” by airline representatives before being “ultimately taken to a security room”. According to the elder Parsons, “They kind of got out of him that he was planning to disboard [sic] in Charlotte and not going to make the connecting flight.”

Upon discovering the teen’s true intentions, the desk agent canceled his ticket and made the family purchase a new ticket for a direct flight to Charlotte.

Hunter Parsons said that he thought his son would be fine traveling alone, and that he didn’t foresee any problems because their family has used Skip Lagged, an online service dedicated to exploiting the layover loophole, “almost exclusively for the last five to eight years”.

He said they were unaware that skip-lagging is frowned upon in the aviation industry and that he would never have put Logan in his recent predicament if he had thought there would be such complications.

PHOTO: American Airlines ticket counter. (photo via Flickr/Grant Wickes)

Parson said he thinks his son should have been let off with “a stern warning”, rather than what actually occurred. He believes it would have been sufficient to tell Logan, “Hey this is frowned upon, if you do it again there would be consequences, financial penalties.” He added, “Our concerns are he is a minor and was kind of left to fend for himself several states away.”

As it turns out, the practice is more than simply frowned upon, it’s expressed forbidden in American’s contract of carriage, a set of terms and conditions that every passenger agrees to abide by upon purchasing their ticket.

When Queen City News reached out to American Airlines for comment, the carrier sent a statement that said, “Purchasing a ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares (hidden city ticketing) is a violation of American Airlines terms and conditions and is outlined in our Conditions of Carriage online. Our Customer Relations team has been in touch with the customer to learn more about their experience.”

A spokesperson also told the outlet that the American Airlines wasn’t initially aware that Logan had been actively detained in Florida, and that the company hopes to speak with the Parsons as part of its investigation into the incident.

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