My son is going to be in Buenos Aires playing rugby for a couple weeks this summer and I was considering taking the trip. I looked up flights and found the following.

IAH - EZE: $1612 Round Trip
AUS-IAH-EZE: $777 Round Trip

Yes, the trip starting in Austin and then getting on the exact same flight from IAH to Buenos Aires is $835 cheaper. I live in Houston. No checked luggage. Is it allowable or even possible to skip getting on in Austin and then only taking the IAH-EZE leg of the flight? Google tells me that is called skiplagging and it's frowned upon and/or prohibited.

I feel like there would be no problem getting off in Houston on the way back and not continuing on to Austin, but I'm not sure if it's possible to do what I described above on the outbound flight. Does it being an international flight complicate this strategy in any way?

Worst case is that I just drive to Austin. The drive time is worth saving $835 per ticket.

Thanks. Not worth the risk. I'll take a bus or something to Austin.

Are there any complications with the route back, though, and not taking the flight from Houston to Austin?

I don't get this at all. I understand $800 seems like a lot of money, but you are going to spend several hundred dollars extra to save that money, and you are adding tons of hours to your trip. Along with that, greatly increasing the chance for missed connections or weather/maintenance issues by turning a non-stop flight into a 2 stop flight. Unless your time is worth nothing, you probably end up worse off than just taking the direct flight from Houston.

I neglected to say this in my original post, but It's actually $3,340 savings ($835 x 4 people) because it'll also be my wife and other kids. Also, my son and his team are taking the flight from Austin since it is central to the Universities they play for (and most affordable). That was actually the only reason I even looked at what a flight from Austin would cost.

TexAg2001 said:

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I neglected to say this in my original post, but It's actually $3,340 savings ($835 x 4 people) because it'll also be my wife and other kids. Also, my son and his team are taking the flight from Austin since it is central to the Universities they play for (and most affordable). That was actually the only reason I even looked at what a flight from Austin would cost.

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did you check the return flight nonstop to houston? maybe it's no more expensive than having the austin add on.

So do the austin add on going out, but not coming back.

Going there could def be an issue, and they may cancel the whole deal. However, on the way back not a problem
At all. I've done that many times.

Skiplagging can work if you are dropping the last leg. So if you return to IAH and don't catch the flight to AUS, you'll be fine. Especially since you'll clear customs in IAH and get your bag (if you check).

But you can't skiplag the first leg by just starting in IAH and skipping the AUS-IAH leg. They'll cancel your entire routing since you didn't show up.

Airlines don't like it and there have been isolated cases where they charge the customer the amount of the routing they actually took (so you pay the higher fare). But I have only seen those in relation to people who do it frequently.

Not sure how focused they are on one off situations. I mean...people miss connecting flights all the time. Houston is big. Stomach bug from the trip. Got stuck in a restroom line. Etc.

I have a family friend high up in AA corporate. He said the chances of being banned for skip lagging/throw away ticketing for someone that does it less than 4 or 5 times a year is zero. The only time he's heard of it is when someone does routinely month after month on the same routes.

I have skipped out on the final leg many times and had no problem. Skipping the first leg is a no-no

I have had to do it a few times due to circumstances other than price but if you miss a leg then the rest of your itinerary is canceled.

We had to miss a leg because a county was closed for covid. This was fine since I had booked our return trip as a different one way.

The other was a connection delay was going to mean missing a meeting so I drove. United canceled my return even though customer service on the phone told me it would not. They made it right the next day.