Germany’s flag carrier Lufthansa is suing a passenger who skipped the last leg of his flight after he tried to book a cheaper flight through the airfare loophole called “hidden city” ticketing.
The “hidden city” ticketing is a strategy used by passengers to book cheaper flights, wherein they would leave their journey at a layover point, instead of making a final connection.
As explained by CNN, a direct flight from New York to Los Angeles can cost around $350. In order to save money, some passengers would book a flight from New York to San Diego with a layover in Los Angeles and stop the journey there, no longer planning to take the last connection flight.
In Lufthansa’s case, an unnamed male passenger booked a round-trip flight from Oslo to Seattle with a layover in Frankfurt. The passenger used all legs of the departing flight, but did not catch the Frankfurt to Oslo return flight. He instead took a different flight with the same airline from Frankfurt to Berlin.
The time and date of the flights were not revealed.
The German airline said that what the male passenger did was a violation of their terms and conditions and is seeking €2,112 (around Php126,000) in compensation.
The Berlin district court, however, already junked the airline’s lawsuit back in December 2018, but a spokesperson of Lufthansa said that they have already filed an appeal against the initial decision.
