Whether you call it "skiplagging" or "hidden-city ticketing," the strategy of booking a plane ticket to one destination but getting off at the layover city goes back decades.
As airlines set their routes to spread traffic around at airports and minimize the number of planes flying half-full, a "skiplagged" fare can often be cheaper than a direct or even layover flight to a given destination.
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While not illegal, the practice is heavily frowned upon by airlines due to the way it disrupts planned routes and leads to unfilled flights. American Airlines (AAL) -), United (UAL) -) and Delta (DAL) -) all have prohibitions against it worded into their policies.
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Donald Trump's PAC Also Skiplags, Finance Forms Show
But with skiplagged fares between cities like San Francisco and Chicago or Los Angeles and Atlanta falling nearly 60% lower than a normally-booked flight, the savings can be a little too difficult for many to resist.
In a recent financial disclosure form uncovered by travel website View From The Wing, the campaign team of former President Donald Trump admitted to using the practice by paying $10 in fees to Skiplagged (the travel website specializes in finding these types of fares while also letting users buy "credits" that they can then redeem for travel.)
This expenditure is a single line in a lengthy form detailing the $20 million that Trump's Save America PAC spent on legal fees in the first half of 2023 amid multiple election-related charges now faced by the former President.
That said, it immediately caught the attention of travel insiders due to the irony of a PAC that raised millions in donations using it to save what will at most amount to a couple hundred dollars.
This Is Why Airlines Hate (And Ban) Skiplagging
While airlines had previously frowned upon but tolerated the practice from their customers, recent years brought with them a stronger push to crackdown on those who do this.
A high-profile incident occurred when, at the start of July, American Airlines prevented Logan Parsons from boarding a flight after the check-in agent saw his North Carolina driver's license and suspected that he was using his ticket between Florida's Gainesville and New York City to get off on the Charlotte layover.
He was led into an interrogation room and questioned before his ticket was ultimately canceled.
The airline's treatment of the teenage passenger (it also happened to be Parsons' first plane trip without family) raised an outcry but the airline doubled down on its policy which says that "purchasing a ticket without intending to fly all flights to gain lower fares is a violation of American Airlines terms and conditions."
After German carrier Lufthansa (DLAKF) -) failed to win a lawsuit against the founder of Skiplagged, most major airlines chose to independently write a ban on "booking without the intent to fly" into their contract of carriage.
While Delta, United and Southwest (LUV) -) all have such bans, American Airlines has gained a reputation as the strictest in enforcing it. In April 2020, the airline kicked a passenger who skiplagged 95 flights off its AAdvantage frequent flyer program.
The financial forms submitted by Trump's Save America PAC do not indicate which types of flights someone from the former President's team skiplagged.
