What does the author mean by 'back to back' and 'hidden city' ticketing hacks?

What does the author mean by 'back to back' and 'hidden city' ticketing hacks? - Back view of unrecognizable ethnic female manager with short dyed hair in elegant suit buying ticket with electronic machine in subway station

At this link about travel hacks

what does the author mean by this?

  1. Back to back and hidden city ticketing. Sometimes airlines will charge far more for tickets to that do not include a Saturday night stay, on the assumption that those passengers are business travelers who aren’t flexible and can afford to pay more. Yet those who commute between cities eventually realize that they can purchase one round-trip ticket that covers their first outbound and last return, followed by round-trip tickets to return home on the weekends.


Best Answer

Hidden city ticketing

Basically means buying a ticket A>M>Z where that is cheaper than A>M, but only going as far as M. Only works on singles (because the return would automatically be cancelled if the full booked route is not flown) and even so might not work after a few attempts (ie once the airline gets wind of the attempt to violate its rules, which do not allow this).

Finding a hidden city route that indeed saves money generally requires many repeated airfare searches for many different destinations on an airline's web site.

Back-to-Back

For a weekly commute, the column in the middle represents four ‘conventional’ tickets outbound to destination on Mondays and each returning ‘home’ on a Friday – none spans a Saturday so could be more expensive than otherwise:

TSE36814 example

On the right is one ‘conventional’ ticket but with the return one month later. However the commuter is not stuck at the destination meanwhile, since from there three weekly tickets ‘destination/home’ (the directions are reversed) should get the commuter to the right place at the right time, with each of the three spanning a Saturday and hence perhaps less expensive than otherwise.

One month is only for this example, such commuting may last years at a time. The usefulness of this strategy has diminished materially, as most airlines have abandoned the discount for a Saturday-night stay-over.




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What does the author mean by 'back to back' and 'hidden city' ticketing hacks? - Back view of unrecognizable people in casual wear standing near ticket office in public place
What does the author mean by 'back to back' and 'hidden city' ticketing hacks? - Back view of unrecognizable young female traveler in warm trendy plaid coat strolling on pavement with suitcase and bag while taking passport and tickets on city street in cold season
What does the author mean by 'back to back' and 'hidden city' ticketing hacks? - Free stock photo of airport, architecture, buildings



What is back to back ticketing?

Back-to-back ticketing is a type of nested ticketing whereby a traveler tries to circumvent minimum stay requirements. For example, a traveler may want to make two round trips midweek in two different weeks.

What does a hidden city ticket mean?

Also known as point beyond ticketing, hidden city ticketing is a way to find cheaper nonstop tickets by booking a connecting flight to a final destination beyond yours, but ending your journey at a layover point.

What does Skiplagged hidden city mean?

A hidden city fare is an itinerary where you end your journey at the layover point even though you hold a ticket for a flight to a destination beyond that. Skiplagged identifies these fares by marking it as \u201cSkiplagged rate\u201d and crossing out the parts of the itinerary that you'll book but not use.

What does hidden city itinerary mean?

Hidden-city ticketing, in short, is when an itinerary is booked in which the final destination is never reached. This is because the itinerary to a city where the traveler has no plans of going is less expensive than an itinerary stopping at the city where the traveler is bound.



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

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