The teenage traveler caught “skiplagging” last week has been banned by American Airlines for the next three years. So if you’re planning to buy a plane ticket somewhere other than your final destination, just to get off at the layover airport, you may want to think twice.
Gate agents pulled Logan Parsons aside as he was attempting to board a flight home to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Gainesville, Florida. The only thing is, his final destination was listed as New York. Parsons’ parents used skiplagging, also know as “hidden city ticketing” to book a cheaper flight to a different city with plans for their son to disembark at the layover city — Charlotte. This saves travelers money as flights with layovers tend to be cheaper than direct flights. Naturally, any practice that saves travelers money is costing airlines money, so they do everything they can to curtail the popular travel hack.
When gate agents saw Parsons ID was from North Carolina they became suspicious, pulling the teen into a separate room and interrogating him, according to the family. His ticket was canceled and the family had to rebuy a full-priced ticket to get the 17-year-old home. It was Parsons’s first time flying on his own, and it will be the last time he flies American Airlines, at least for a while, according to Insider:
The teenager’s father, Hunter Parsons, told Insider that the airline barred his son from flying with them for three years because he was planning to use a $150 skiplagging ticket — a practice prohibited by many airlines, including American.
“His ticket was canceled and he was banned from AA for three years but never actually did anything wrong. He never even got his boarding pass,” Parsons said in a Facebook message.
American Airlines noted it would be cracking down on skiplagging in 2021. The airline also told Insider that Parsons was never taken to a separate location and interrogated. Parsons’ father told Insider they used skiplagging to save on travel and this was the family’s first time using the travel hack.