I’ve written a lot about hidden city ticketing (HCT) and Skiplagging over the years.
That’s where instead of booking a flight such as Cleveland to Los Angeles for $274:
You can book a flight from Cleveland to Seattle with a stop in Los Angeles for $116, and skip the final Los Angeles-Seattle flight:
Of course, there are risks and caveats involved with that, so read what I have written about that before attempting that.
But have you tried hidden passenger ticketing (HPT)?
A lesser-known way of lowering airfare is simply by booking for 2 passengers instead of 1.
For example, a flight for 1 passenger from Newark to Cleveland tomorrow is $391 in economy or $461 in first class:
But if you search for the same flight with 2 or more passengers, it’s $134 in basic, $164 in standard economy, or $219 in first class:
That’s right. The price for 2 passengers is cheaper than the price for 1 passenger!
Don’t have a 2nd passenger? No problem!
Just book the 2nd passenger’s first name as EXTRASEAT with your last name. Tell the gate agent that you booked a 2nd seat for extra space and they will let you scan both boarding passes, and you’ll have an empty seat next to you in coach or first class for less than the price of 1 seat!
On the other hand, perhaps you can cancel 1 seat or split the reservation and then cancel 1 of them and get half the money back? Though the airline may not look kindly on that…
If you have free bags, the extra seat will even be entitled to its own free bag allowance.
While typically, airfares go up as you search for more passengers, I have also encountered lower airfares for 3, 4, 5, or 6 passengers at a time!
While this won’t work on all routes, it’s certainly worth searching for.
It’s always a good idea to check on pricing for various numbers of passengers, and book tickets separately or together to optimize the price you pay.
This works on the return flight as well. On Sunday, 1 passenger from Cleveland to Newark is $392 in economy or $462 in first class:
But if you search for the same flight with 2 or more passengers, it’s $135 in basic, $165 in standard economy, or $220 in first class:
This lower pricing also shows up on Google flights when you add multiple passengers.
Presumably, United is trying to charge more for business passengers, who are more likely to be flying solo, while offering lower pricing to leisure passengers, who are more likely to by flying with 2 or more passengers.
Of course, personally, I’d just use miles!
It’s just 6K Air Canada miles to fly United on this route:
Or just 4.5K Alaska miles to fly American!
Have you encountered lower airfare when searching for multiple passengers at a time?
Do you use HCT or HPT when you travel?
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61 Comments On "Forget Hidden City Ticketing, Have You Tried Hidden Passenger Ticketing?"
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Can you then split the reservation after?
You can always split a reservation, but why do you want to?
to get a refund on the second seat?
I hear ya. Probably will work, but could be risky.
Has anyone tried it?
100% works, just call United within 24hrs of booking and they’ll split and cancel the one.
Exactly.
I’ve canceled a passenger from a multi passenger reservation many times
Of course, but did you do it when there’s a purchase minimum of 2 tickets.
I assume it’s doable, but I wonder if they will audit you for doing it often as they will with HCT.
Presumably to then cancel one of them and fly solo, and get a refund/travel credit on the other ticket
in theory split and cancel half
Does this work on Delta as well?
It may, try various routes and dates and experiment.
Can’t book for 2 passengers and cancel one?
+1
Should work, though the airline may not look kindly on that.
Less likely to be an issue than hidden city.
Have you ever encountered this in regards to award flights? Cheaper points fares when booking or 2 rather than 1?…
I haven’t seen that yet.
There was similar with Delta on the awards flights to Israel you just posted about. (Thanks for that, by the way!) It was cheaper for a round-trip than for a one-way.
I’ve seen the opposite many times including as recently as last week – if only 1 seat left in that fare class they charge the higher fare class award rate for two seats
That has always been the case for any type of ticket.
Never, if trying to use airline points for non-promo award tickets.
Isn’t the best way to take advantage of this to book for 2, than cancel the second person for a refund? You could do it within 24 hours.
Should work, though the airline may not like that…
I doubt the cs reps know anything about the pricing algorithms.
I have seen same with delta
Nice, route?
NYC to SdF
Work on chase ultimate rewards ?
Sure
Very cool! Note: I tried adding my daughter who is 11 and did not drop the price but it did work when adding another adult
Interesting.
What about if you book for your daughter but just put in the wrong birthday, making her the age of a adult.
Be careful they may make issues at boarding with the wrong birthday…
I did it several times without an issue.
Not a problem, except with where the airline may end up seating you or if there are IRROPS and the airline splits the reservation.
The birth year info for SecureFlight purposes can be updated by the check-in agents even months after the ticket has already been booked and issued.
If you usually get complimentary upgrades does this lessen your chance to get upgraded since you are 2 people?
You can always split the reservation into 2.
I’ve had the opposite experience with Southwest.
Say I’m booking for 4, they’ll tell me $247, but if I book 3, the price will be $199. And then we just booked the remaining one by itself.
On a related note, Southwest will often say “3 remaining” at a given price, but then several days later drop the price back down again. I’ve seen this repeatably, I don’t believe it’s strictly due to inventory. I think it’s about fostering the sense of urgency…
Sure, like I said in the post, it can work both ways!
Always search for various numbers of passengers.
Thanks as always Dan, you’re the man!
At certain dates they change the prices. So for two weeks out they only have 3 left at that price, but when it’s one week out and they have too many seats available they lower the price.
Spirit is no longer flying cle yo lax any ideas how to get there cheaply it a large family beginning of February ty
Same with car rentals, many times renting for a week is cheaper then renting for 2-3 days! Especially if you only need for a weekend so book from Wednesday to Wednesday and many times it’s cheaper
Yes 100% I’ve seen that 7 day rentals are often cheaper than 6 day rentals. So I run multiple scenarios before booking rental cars.
Hidden ticket flyong is not recommended for rookies. You’ll screw it up.
Did anyone ever found this to work on an international flight?
Question on that Capital one venture card bonus: of we have all chase cards is it a good idea to get one of these cards? Are the miles equivalent?
Only get a credit card if you can make sure not to get into credit card debt.
That being said, if you can make the use case for a card – say, it’s a flat 2% card, so it becomes your go-to general spending card – then yes, you want to try and build up points in all 4 major ecosystems (Chase, Amex, Citi, Cap One), as each one has its own set of transfer partners. (Although, Cap One and Citi do have a lot more overlap than the others.)
Tysm! All on auto pay BH! We book all travel on business cards. Personal cards are mostly for groceries. Chase Sapphire preferred. What do you think about bank of America? For personal.
BoA is not strong in the travel/points department, but if you are looking for a straight cash-back card, AND you have $100K to keep lying around, their various 1.5% cards with the 75% bonus (effective 2.625%) are amazing. (Caveat: US Bank just came out with the Smartly card that has the same structure, but earns at 4%. It’s new, so there isn’t a lot of info out there on the quirks.)
Personally, for groceries, it’s either 6% on the Amex Blue Cash Preferred (limited to $6K of purchases per year), or 3% on the Citi Premier (unlimited), which actually earn as transferable Citi Thank You points.
Can you earn double PQF for it?
I’m curious if Halacha permits this.
If the airline permits you to book an extra seat, then why not?
Permits what? Buying 2 at a better price?
I wonder if halacha permits selling 1 at a higher price then 2 to target the solo Buinesss travelers (if the theory is true)
Dan
Is this a new discovery?
This is crazy. I didn’t think this was possible with airline CRS. The way it usually works is they count down inventory. Like if there’s only one seat left in the cheapest bucket and you search for 2 seats, you both have to pay the higher bucket’s fare. Did you try duplicating your results by also searching at an online travel agency? Was 1 pax still more expensive?
If my posted comments here weren’t so systematically subject to pre-review before the contents get shared, I would perhaps share a lot more about how/where/when this works and doesn’t work and some other related games out there. 😉
No delays on DDF 🙂
https://forums.dansdeals.com/
United ti any conmection in europe to elal, one way needed. Like fco, ath – anyone found ? Dates ? Need feb and april
Delta dtw-ewr on Jan 8th 3:23 pm flight is showing for 165 when it’s 2 passengers but 304 for one passenger.
Is this a new thing that airlines started doing?