Teen banned from flying for three years after using 'skiplagging' scheme to save money

A teen was interrogated by airport security after they got wind he was trying to save travel money by 'skiplagging'.

With airline travel being expensive for many, you would be forgiven for trying to cut costs anyway you can.

You know, taking the longest flight to get where you are going or maybe taking a flight at odd times of the day.

Or if you are one brazen teen by the name of Logan Parsons, you might try skiplagging.

Ever heard of skiplagging? It's a trick airline passengers can sometimes use to get where they're going for less money. Allow us to explain.

In some cases, a direct flight to a destination is more expensive than a flight to somewhere beyond that, which goes via the place you actually want to be.

This is where skiplagging comes in. You book yourself onto the cheaper flight and simply don't bother to get your connection because you've already landed in the place you were hoping to travel to and saved some money to boot.

This is the travel hack teen Logan Parsons pulled off when he wanted to fly from Gainesville, Florida, to Charlotte in North Carolina.

A direct flight would have been pretty pricey but a flight to New York via Charlotte didn't cost quite so much, so this is the journey Logan booked and since getting to Charlotte was his goal, he just didn't get on the plane to New York.

Facebook/Lisa Cain Parsons

However, this method hit a snag when airport security clocked the teenager's North Carolina ID and took him to a security room to be interrogated, his dad claims.

According to Logan's dad, Hunter, the teen had his ticket canceled and he was forced to buy the direct flight.

Hunter later told Insider that his then-17-year-old son had been banned from flying with American Airlines for three years because he'd tried skiplagging.

A lot of airlines do not allow this practice and will try to crack down on it if they possibly can because it costs them money.

Rebecca Noble/Getty Images

As you can guess, they'd rather sell passengers the direct flight, even if it is the more expensive ticket, and if people are skiplagging that means there's going to be an empty seat on the connecting flight as well.

Logan's family said the flight the teen booked, which went from Florida to New York via North Carolina, cost around $150, while the direct flight from Florida to North Carolina was over $400.

Topics: Travel, American Airlines

Gerrard Kaonga

Gerrard is a Journalist at UNILAD and has dived headfirst into covering everything from breaking global stories to trending entertainment news. He has a bachelors in English Literature from Brunel University and has written across a number of different national and international publications. Most notably the Financial Times, Daily Express, Evening Standard and Newsweek.