It's not illegal, but the airline could cancel your return ticket and/or blacklist you.
this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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It's not illegal to pay for a service you don't use or only partly use, provided the service itself isn't illegal. It's not unethical either; you paid the full price requested by the airline.
The airline may cancel your return ticket and blacklist you, leaving you stranded. Definitely unethical, but since it's legal corporations aren't too worried about that part.
I remember looking this up some time ago, and I read that doing so may violate the terms you agreed to when purchasing the ticket. They will probably fine you, or at least attempt to, if you don't pull it off.
Fine you? Can you point to any airline that fines you for missing a flight? I'm genuinely curious.
People miss flights all the time, and usually the worst that happens is they lose their ticket. Or they get rebooked at lower priority. But an external fine? That's going to be unique
Yea, even with connecting flights I'm sure people miss the connection for various reasons with reasonable regularity
Are you breaking criminal law? No. So it's not criminally illegal
Are you breaking a civil law contract? Probably not.
Is the company who sold you the original ticket obligated to do more business with you going forward after you skip a leg? No they're not obligated to continue doing business with you
Is it morally unethical? No. The plane is flying regardless.
Basically it's up to you, how much administrative hassle you're willing to put up with
In your scenario, you bought a round trip ticket, the airline is unlikely to honor the return on that round trip ticket from the middle airport. They probably have requirements like you have to be at the beginning leg of a flight to have the ongoing legs. In all likelihood they'll cancel the return side of your ticket if you miss an outgoing leg. Why would you need the return, if you never made it to your destination?
If you're going to do skip legged travel, it should be one way flights. You still could get back listed by the airline but it's unlikely. You could just say you had a medical emergency, family emergency, you overslept, got drunk at the airport, life happens. And they can't prove it one way or the other especially if it's a one-way flight