Skiplagged Review & Precautions To Keep In Mind
A couple years ago, a brilliant young man, Aktarer Zaman, created a website to help you find the cheapest airfare by using a commonly know travel hacking trick called hidden city ticketing – called Skiplagged. Essentially, on Skiplagged, you enter in your origin and your destination just like any other online travel agent (OTA). However, the results that are returned will be very different. This is my Skiplagged review and some precautions to keep in mind when booking a hidden-city ticket.
Direct Flight Without Any Layovers
Regular Airfare Without Hidden City Ticketing with a Layover
Skiplagged Hidden City Ticket
The images above are for a flight from Pittsburgh to New York City. The first As you can see from the first image above, the direct flight without any tricks is $462.00. The second image shows a flight that has a layover in Boston and costs $211.00. But, we can to better. The flight that is the cheapest and is still direct is only $143.00! You can see by viewing the third image that the you have to book two separate tickets. The first flight goes from Pittsburgh to Boston, with a layover in Newark. So, when you arrive in Newark, New Jersey, you can just leave the airport and miss the flight to Boston. Then on your way home, you check in for a flight that will go from JFK Airport to Chicago, with a layover in Pittsburgh. Again, you just leave the airport.
| Airfare Type | Total Cost |
|---|---|
| Direct Flight – No Tricks | $462.00 |
Flight with Layover |
$211.00 |
Hidden-City Flight |
$143.00 |
You can begin to imagine, that the airlines weren’t too pleased (and still aren’t) about Zaman’s website. They even took him to court about it. This action by the airlines generated A TON of press about Skiplagged.
American Airlines AAdvantage Login Form
Skiplagged has personally saved me close to a thousand dollars. Mainly when flying from Pittsburgh to a larger Hub Airport (like Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, or even DC). Every flight that I’ve book thru Skiplagged. I never once have entered in my frequent flier number – just in case they ding my mileage account for missing a flight.
Eventually, my little sisters and coworkers caught wind about me saving some cash by using Skiplagged and tried it out for themselves.
Skiplagged Deals & Savings from Pittsburgh
However, keep this in mind when booking hidden city flights –
- If your original flight is, say, Pittsburgh to St. Louis with a layover in Chicago (Chicago being where you want to go) – your final destination on the ticket is St. Louis. So, if there is poor weather conditions that cancel the flight from Pittsburgh to Chicago, the airline still has the responsibility to get you to the final destination in their system – which is St. Louis.
- Do not check or gate check any bags. Checking bags is something I rarely do unless I’m bringing back some craft beer. If you check a bag in, it will show up at the end location on the ticket.
- Be wary of trying to get miles posted to your frequent flyer account. This is up to you, I usually never put in my FF number when booking a hidden-city ticket.
All in all, Skiplagged is an amazing tool that I reference just about every time I book a flight. Just to make sure there isn’t some crazy routing or hidden-city that will save me some extra cash.
Have any other precautions about Skiplagged or your own Skiplagged review? Leave a comment below.
