Joys and sorrows of those who practice the "hidden city or skiplagging" technique to save money on tickets.

For save On a flight you know there are several techniques, the best known and most widely used is clearly to book widely advance, at least 5 or 6 weeks in advance, Then there are those who wait for the offerings by email from the companies (I once did a round trip Milan-Luxembourg for €9.90) and finally there are those who practice a particular technique: the skiplagging o hidden city.

What is Skiplagging?

You are fantasizing about your next travel, you're on a flight comparator and you put the departure, for example. Milan, and choose the destination, let's say Dubai and click enter.

However, you can't find a "decent" price so you try to look for a different destination and try Bangkok and find that with the same airline, with a stopover in Dubai, it costs you half as much...what if instead of Bangkok, you skip the connection and I would stay in Dubai?
There you just Skiplagging.

I don't quite understand-how does Skiplagging work?

Basically it's about book a ticket at a rate you deem affordable with stopover In a city and skip the stopover, remaining in that city.

It's a practice that is spreading rapidly among travelers, so rapidly that a website of its own, called Skiplagged, thanks to which an algorithm searches for the most convenient Through this system of stopovers.

The site has been particularly successful and also allows you to select a departure city, outbound and return dates but not the destination, allowing you to fantasize about routes and prices.

The important thing is to remember that the destination final is not exactly the one written in the note, rather it is the one intermediate!

Simply put, if I have to go to the point A at point B and the rates are inconvenient, what I will have to do is look for a flight leading from the point A at point C But let him make a stop intermediate to point B, the stopover that will be my real destination, thus skipping the coincidence with the point C.

It is no coincidence that this practice is also called "hidden city" or hidden city, precisely because airlines "hide" the cheap fare in a stopover and do not market it as a "direct" cheap solution.

Let's look at an example of Hidden City

Going back to the example we gave earlier, let's say we want to go from Milan a Dubai, At this point we are looking for the Milan - Dubai and Milan - Bangkok routes:

Here is the direct Milan - Dubai, fare 500€

Instead, here is Milan - Bangkok with stopover Dubai:

Well, that's almost 100 euro savings!

Like this there are other examples, just be curious and geek out a little bit on rate comparison sites, we might also find a Rome - Paris economic, if, for example, we book Rome - Lisbon with a stopover in Paris.

Warnings about Skiplagging

As we know many companies sell tickets in packages of Gone e Return, which means that most companies do not allow you to make one Of the routes, lost the outward journey, lost irrevocably the return.

If you want to do Skiplagging, it is advisable to do so only if you are aware that if you do not buy two tickets separated between round trip or two different companies, you may lose the entire itinerary If you don't show up at the stopover.

Which means it would be best to do this if we are planning to make a trip one way, that is, to choose the return flight in case we went by another means on the outward journey, or the other way around.

Useful tips for Hidden City travelers

Here are some small tips For those who for the first time want to experience the thrill of the hidden city and "cheat" the airlines:

• Bring only carry-on luggage
  The big mistake one can make is to also carry the luggage from hold, the reason is simple: checked baggage will end up at the final destination, he will not stop with us (actually he will but the attendants will take him directly inside the next plane).
• Bring your passport
  Although our destination does not include the use of the passport, maybe the final (real) destination requires it, at the gate we risk being bounced or worse uncovered.
• Do not book with frequent flyer miles or discounts 
  If the company found out what we did, in all likelihood. would block our account, and by doing so we would lose the privileges we had gained.
• Don't overdo it
  Once a year is fine, once a month absolutely. no, to be repeat offenders would expose us too much, and companies carry out such checks.

Airline countermeasures

Obviously, this practice is frowned upon by fellow airlines, which in turn try hard to counter this phenomenon. For example, the American airline United Airlines has made cause to the Skiplagged site asking that it be shut down for unfair competition. American Airlines recently "busted" a skiplagger and fined him a total of 1.000 $, for violation of the terms and conditions of its "frequent flyer" loyalty program.

Skiplagging is a practice controversial, has its pros and cons, use it at your own risk. After all, there are better ways to save money on flying!

Italian regulations

This is one of those cases where you have to say "fortunately I am Italian." Italian law prohibits canceling the itinerary of those who "skip" a piece of the booked ticket, for this Alitalia has a dedicated page on its website which explains how to assert one's rights.

As in the case of the European law protecting travelers, Again, the rule applies or should apply to all tickets bought in Italy, even from other airlines, but it is very risky for it to be respected by non-Italian carriers. In any case, here is what to do if you want to "skip" a route with Alitalia.

For tickets purchased in Italy: In case of non-use, for any reason, of the outward flight (or of a leg of the outward flight), the request to maintain the validity of the ticket for the return flight only can be granted, only if previously communicated to Alitalia, by contacting the Contact Center at the following number +39 06 65640 within the times specified below:

• within the next 24 hours At the departure time of the unused outbound flight;
• if the departure time of the return flight is within 24 hours of the outbound flight, notification to the Contact Center must be received at least 2 hours before the departure of said return flight.

The Contact Center will issue a new e-ticket for the changed itinerary for which you will need to check-in at the site (if available) or at the airport.

If the passenger fails to make the aforementioned notification, or makes it after the specified deadlines, Alitalia, where there is availability of seats on the return flight, reserves the right to request the payment of an amount equal to the difference between the price paid for the previously purchased ticket and the price corresponding to the highest fare available in the same class/travel compartment, applicable to the modified itinerary at the time of reissuing the ticket, except where the fare rules applicable to the original ticket are more favorable to the passenger."

• hidden city
• skiplagging