I'm trying to plan a trip to London for me and one of my friends out of Houston.

Continental is offering a cheaper flight if I fly out of Austin connect in Houston & direct to Heathrow then if I just book it directly from Houston to Heathrow.

Can I purchase the flight out of Austin and show up in Houston and print a boarding pass for the final leg of the flight? I would figure continental (United) would not let me check in at IAH.

Any ideas? Here are screenshots of the flights
AUS -> LHR


IAH -> LHR

a coworker went with some friends to a different destination that tried something similar.

they were flying Austin to houston to Rio. they wanted to just hop on in houston, but if you don't show up for the first leg of your itinerary, they cancel your tickets. so they were going to rent a car and drive to austin from houston. (it was like $500pp cheaper) on the way back, they would just get off in houston. well then they found out that they wouldn't get their frequent flier miles if the didn't complete their itinerary. so they just drove to austin and back.

Correct. If you miss the first leg then the whole thing gets cancelled. That's a post-9/11 change.

If you get off the plane in Houston, odds are you won't have any issues in terms of mileage. They only go after the people who do it on a regular basis. I do it about 2-3 times a year and I've never had any issues getting the miles I flew until that point.

still would be cheaper to rent a budget car for a day, that's only $30-$40.. + gas to austin.

would need a car in houston when you return though... would have to do some a bit of logistic planning for sure.

Guess it wouldn't hurt to just do round trip from ATX. I land thursday & the Florida game is that Saturday.

I'm sure I could find an excuse to party in Austin on Thursday when I come back then drive to CS during the day on Friday.

Above posts are correct. If you don't show up in Austin, they'll cancel your tickets. Seems ridiculous, but that's how it is.

You need to find somebody in Austin with an identical name that would want to spend a week in Houston.

This is not a post 9/11 thing, it has been this way for as long as I can remember. I know in the 90's it was cheaper to fly round trip starting in College Station then from Dallas, even when on same planes.

On football game weekends, I would fly out of College Station on Sunday or Monday and then just get off in Dallas on way home. Just make sure that you don't check bags. But this is not anything new, it has been this way for at least 20 years.

Seems like I'll just bite the bullet and spend a couple of days in ATX. Thanks to everyone for the input.

i just booked austin to south africa for about $500 cheaper than your cheapest fare, and i have a layover in london. just get off in london and don't go on to SA. you'd have to book something different on the way back though.

Dang, thats expensive

United jacked up many of the prices out of IAH.

For example...to San Francisco 3 weeks in advanvce was $1400. The hell with that. Took SWA for around $500.

United has done the same for many California destinations.

Per bing.com/travel I see for your dates from Houston to LHR is $822 per person.

You can fly American Airlines thru Dallas for $1900 RT ($950/person)

You can fly British Airways direct from IAH for $2110 RT ($1055/person) booked thru the American Airlines website.

If you haven't purchased yet, you can fly on *A (Lufthansa, United, BMI) for $846 nonstop on your trip dates. If you want Oneworld for miles, British Airways is 935 nonstop and American is 942 if you stop in DFW on the way there (nonstop on the way back).

London is actually relatively cheap across the board from Austin and Houston for summer fares right now. Prices dropped around $300 from when I was looking last week.

Still haven't booked, will be doing so shortly. Prices during the Olympics were insane so I figured going after would be a bit cheaper.

Just got an email update from Kayak, prices are now $777 flying out of ATX & $845 flying out of IAH. I'm trying to stick with Untied since I have most of my points with them.

I think I might pull the trigger soon.