[capetonianm]

It’s Official: “Skiplagging” Hidden City Ticketing Just Won A Court Case…

In the clearest terms, it means that there is no legal ground for an airline to sue you if you do this, not in Germany at least. They could potentially take away your miles or freeze your loyalty account, but if you don’t state that it was your intention to do this, then there are a million or more valid reasons why you may have legitimately, accidentally missed your flight, and no action should be taken.

The ruling is not universal and any airline could attempt suit in another country, but after seeing how this played out for Lufthansa, I wouldn’t think too many would be weighing that option too favourably. If anything, perhaps airlines have learned that just like the people who actually do skiplagging, the most important rule of skiplagging is not to talk about it, or tell the airline you plan to.

An interesting precedent which opens many doors. I assume that airlines remain entitled to cancel segments if you miss any segment other than the last one. This does not apply to LCCs of course.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

7 users thanked author for this post.

Swissdiver, PhilipHart, Polly, Seat62k, LuganoPirate, BugAdvisor, stevescoots

[BugAdvisor]

A victory for common sense.
Judge: So you claim passenger x owes your airline money because they didn’t take the last leg of their flight?
Airline: Yes
Judge: I imagine the aircraft used less fuel because passenger x wasn’t aboard?
Airline: Yes
Judge: As you didn’t have to provide passenger x with a meal nor drinks from the bar, then you saved the cost of those items?
Airline: Yes
Judge: I assume passenger x didn’t earn tier points nor miles for this missed flight, so you saved the cost of providing these benefits?
Airline: Yes
Judge (laughing): So if I purchased a postage stamp, affixed it to a letter, but never actually posted the letter, should I expect to be sued by the post office?
Airline: In our strange world of ideas, yes!

9 users thanked author for this post.

TiredOldHack2, Swissdiver, PhilipHart, Polly, Seat62k, Jacob, LuganoPirate, MartynSinclair, DerekVH

[LuganoPirate]

Good, and seems a sensible decision to me. My youngest missed the last leg of a return flight from CPT with KLM and till now we’ve heard nothing more. Fingers crossed. However he ahs no loyalty card or points with them.

[Author]

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