Missing a connecting flight on purpose?
Here is the deal, my gf is taking the bus from Vancouver B.C. to Seattle, flying from Seattle to Milwaukee. I am picking her up in Milwaukee as flying into Chicago is much more expensive. However the flight has a layover in Chicago. Can she simply tell the check in agent that she is going to miss her Connection and route her bags to Chicago?? Will this be ok?? Has anybody ever done this?? thanks
Air Travel - 5 Answers
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1 :
Did she pay for the flight all the way to Chicago? They wont fly the bags for free.
2 :
Why would the airlines do that? First of all if they can charge more and get you to pay more to fly into Chicago, they will because the airlines need the money. Second, when your luggage tag will match the destination city on your boarding pass.
3 :
Technically it's a no-no. First off, if it's a round trip, SEA-ORD-MKE-ORD-SEA, if she misses the ORD-MKE flight, the remaining flights will automatically get canceled, and she won't be able to get back to SEA. Secondly, when she bought the ticket SEA-MKE, all the airline is obligated to do is carry her to Milwaukee. In other words, if it's United airlines, they could decide to cancel her first flight, and send her Seattle-Denver-Milwaukee instead. Or American Airlines could send her via Dallas instead of Chicago. Etc. But...if it's a one-way ticket, there's a chance it *might* work. I have done it - I had a ticket CDG-ZRH-BOM-ZRH-CDG, and when checking in for the return part of the trip (BOM-ZRH-CDG) I asked if I could just take the BOM-ZRH leg. The woman at the checkin desk was very nice, and just tagged my checked luggage to ZRH. However, if it's a one-way ticket and she does do this, technically the airlines reserve the right to come after her for the difference in cost. This has traditionally been something they do only rarely, and only to repeat offenders. But I've heard they're starting to crack down a bit.
4 :
No - they will not route her bags to Chicago - it will be checked all the way to her final destination
5 :
Bags are not allowed to fly unaccompanied and they will have to yank them off the plane in Chicago. And of course, if she misses her connection, no one will force her to go to Milwaukee. But tha airline may ground ship her bags to Milwaukee. Basically, this can only really work if she has no checked bags. Also note that if you miss part of a flight they may cancel the return flight.
