What if I skip the last leg on a transit on a return flight (with a companion, but no bags)?

What if I skip the last leg on a transit on a return flight (with a companion, but no bags)? - Stylish happy traveler with suitcase in airport hallway

I'm traveling with my wife to a vacation on Malaysia with a transit on Dubai. It's a round-trip flight, now I already have to go to Dubai (I'm a UAE resident) after returning from Malaysia, so what if I went in the first flight regularly with my wife, and while returning, when stopping in Dubai, my wife will complete the trip alone, and I will skip the second flight and enter Dubai. Would that cause any trouble for me? Are there are any fees I would pay? I'll not have any bags on the flight.



Best Answer

That's a borderline case and hard to predict unless you plow through the entire "contract of carriage" of the airline and through the exact fare rules of your tickets.

It's possible that you not showing up for the second flight may cancel the entire reservation or the airline may try to get a change fee out of your wife before her allowing to board. At the very last they are going to ask her some questions, if you don't show up at the gate.

Your safest course of action would be to split the reservation, i.e. make sure that both you and your wife have a different confirmation numbers. Then, both reservations are fully decoupled and whatever you do cannot affect your wife's travel. It's a just little harder to manage (seats, check in , etc.) that way.




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What if I skip the last leg on a transit on a return flight (with a companion, but no bags)? - Worried young businesswoman with suitcase hurrying on flight on urban background
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Can I abandon the last leg of my flight?

If you are flying within the USA and have no checked baggage to a final destination, then skipping the final leg of a journey is usually fine. There's no penalty for cancelling (as the missed leg is the end of your trip), and you can just leave the flight with hand luggage without any worries.

Can I skip the return flight?

But if you intentionally miss the last leg of the journey, your ticket won't be cancelled, as there is nothing left for the airline to cancel. If you skip the first flight, your return flight also gets cancelled. To avoid that, don't ever skip a flight on a return flight.

What does the last leg of your flight mean?

As long as by "last flight," you mean the last leg of a one-way trip or the last leg of the return flight of a round-trip. If you skip the last leg of the out-bound trip of a round trip, you could get stuck with no return ticket.



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