Planes aren’t supposed to fly when there is checked bag and not a person to match for security reasons. Having to remove checked bags for smejne who misses a leg of a flight is time and money for the airline. That’s one situation.
However, mostly people skip a leg for the cheaper fare. I remember asking Northwest airlines if my boss could pick up a flight on the second leg, and of course they said no. We lived in the suburbs of Memphis, and if she drove to Little Rock an hour and a half away the flight to Gulfport was $250 round trip. The flight connected in Memphis. If she booked it from Memphis (the same plane literally) it was $750 round trip. The airlines at the time we’re saying fuel prices were causing their high prices. Yeah, sure.
I wonder if in the small print somewhere it says you can’t pick up a flight on the second leg, or leave a flight after the first leg? They don’t tell you that when you buy the ticket, so it’s like you’re agreeing to the rules without knowing them. I guess that’s true with a lot of things though.
I think as long as your bag isn’t checked and you tell the airline you are not reboarding that it should not be a problem to skip the latter legs of a booked flight. I hope the courts agree.
I don’t see how the airline can complain about revenue when they are gouging. That Gulfport flight was gouging ourcabd simple. Hurricane Katrina had gone through there, and many people flying down were going to help. Fares in general are obviously a function of supply and demand and free market pricing, but the monopoly Northwest has in Memphis airport is what gave them the ability to charge such high prices to many cities.
If a passenger let’s the airline know, then the airline does have an opportunity to sell the seat last minute. Or, the airline could maybe just charge a reasonable price to begin with. That would be nice.