Consequences of not showing up for one leg of journey

Recently I booked a flight using my points. I am planning to fly to Seattle WA from Indianapolis Indiana. Stop over is Chicago.

On the day of my flight I am supposed to be in Chicago. So I was wondering if I can directly board my Seattle flight from Chicago thereby not showing up in Indianapolis.

Is this okay? Will United airlines cancel my entire journey if I do not show up in Indianapolis?

Best Answer

Once you fail to board any flight on the itinerary, any later flights will be canceled. So in your situation, when you do not board the IND-ORD flight, your ORD-SEA flight will be automatically canceled.

It's possible that if you do skip the first flight and simply try and board at Chicago that you will be able to talk them into re-instating your booking, but the only way you'll be able to do that is to lie to them and claim you did fly the IND-ORD leg and hope that they believe you, but keep in mind if you do this that :

You will be lying, and possibly committing fraud.
There's a good chance they will not believe you, and ORD-SEA is a long way to walk!
You will not be able to check any bags
You will need to check-in online, at least an hour before the IND-ORD flight departs

The only safe option is to change your ticket. Depending on your status with United, this will cost you $75 (non-elite), $50 (Premier Silver), $25 (Premier Gold) or nothing (Premier 1K).

Pictures about "Consequences of not showing up for one leg of journey"

Consequences of not showing up for one leg of journey - Hand Showing Design on Shoe

Consequences of not showing up for one leg of journey - Crop traveler on sandy coast against endless sea and flowers

Consequences of not showing up for one leg of journey - Crop relaxing woman on ocean shore

What happens if you miss one leg of flight?

"Normally what happens is if you miss one leg, your entire itinerary is cancelled," he said over the phone. "That's just a standard practice.

Can you cancel one leg of a flight?

It's easy enough: if you can't take the first leg (or any leg but the last), you need to contact airline and ask them change the reservation. They will charge you for it, and you may find that it's cheaper to just let the ticket lapse and buy a new ticket. It's hard to tell upfront, so you need to call and ask.

My Journey Coming Back From a Serious Injury

Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Images: icon0.com, Maor Attias, Olga Lioncat, Andrea Piacquadio