A teenager on his first flight alone was pulled into security and had his trip home canceled after gate agents figure out he was skiplagging, or booking a flight with the layover as the actual intended destination.
Logan Parsons was heading home to Charlotte, North Carolina, from Gainesville, Florida, by way of a ticket with an end point of New York City. While NYC was his stated destination on his ticket, Parsons planned to leave the airport in Charlotte and head home. It’s a way of saving money, as direct flights are often more costly, which means airlines hate it because they’re losing money in the process. Parsons was caught by a gate agent who became suspicious when his I.D.s were all for Charlotte. From Queen City News:
The purchased flight was from Gainesville, Florida to New York City with a layover in Charlotte. The plan was for the teen to get off the plane in Charlotte where he lives. His father says he would have never put his son in this predicament if he knew this would happen.
It was the first time Logan Parsons flew by himself.
“We’ve used Skip Lagged almost exclusively for the last five to eight years,” said Hunter Parsons, Logan’s father. “Booked a flight from Gainesville regional to JFK via Charlotte.”
The Parsons weren’t aware hidden city ticketing, also known as skip lagging, was frowned upon in the airline industry. An American Airlines representative canceled the ticket and made the family purchase a new direct flight ticket.
Parsons’ parents thought the airlines overreacted, especially when the passenger in question was a minor. American Airlines counters that skiplagging, or “hidden city ticketing,” is a violation of American Airlines terms and conditions.
Why are all your IDs for Charlotte? Are you trying to violate the American Airlines terms of service??
You're told to shop around and if you end up over paying, it's your fault, but when you actually do that, capitalism does a rule patch and punishes you.
It's always kinda funny to see the names they create for doing innocuous, or even cool things, like jaywalking.
Standing outside?
That's loitering. Place your hands behind your head and get down on the PEW PEW PEW PEW
PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW PEW
IN AUTHORITARIAN VUVUZELA, TEENS ARE DETAINED BY STATE SECURITY FORCES FOR ATTEMPTING TO TRAVEL IN NON-TRADITIONAL METHODS.
Police can detain a person for questioning if they believe there is a criminal behavior without having to actually clarify what crimes they believe are being committed
Vibes is a detainable offense
He denied potential value to shareholders, the only crime that makes US lawmakers gasp in terror
How did they catch him, exactly? The article doesn't say but I'm guessing that they probably just tricked him into admitting it. Fuckers!
"Parsons was caught by a gate agent who became suspicious when his I.D.s were all for Charlotte."
They probably get nothing of the sort and he's just a fucking bootlicker
Good reason to always just use your passport (if you have one) if you're planning on doing this.
No way that the gate agent is checking anything besides your photo that way. Most of the time they won't even ask for ID at the gate, just boarding pass.
TSA psych torture probably. Was on the receiving end of it once in my early 20s, it fucking sucks. I can imagine being detained, tossed in a room with adults twice your age with the ability to permanently ban you from air travel, and being threatened with all sorts of legal shit would make any teenager break
It’s a cliche because it’s true, if you have to say anything at all it’s one word and that word is “lawyer”
Courts are assholes and have determined that you need to actually invoke the specific right. Some shit like "I am invoking my Sixth Amendment right to an attorney."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2017/11/02/the-suspect-told-police-give-me-a-lawyer-dog-the-court-says-he-wasnt-asking-for-a-lawyer/
"It says here in the rules that dogs aren't allowed to be lawyers. This is a nonsense request."
lmao if American Airlines cancelled my ticket and made me buy a new one I would tell them to eat my ass and get on a greyhound bus. I'm guessing a teen traveling alone didn't have that option, though.
I honestly don't see how the airline loses money if he buys a ticket and then doesn't receive half the service. Unless they wait around for him but I feel like airlines don't do that much
They lose potential profits on the direct flight which has less competition and is more marked up.
Airlines invent labyrinthian ticketing to maximally extract value from their customers. Customers find a single loophole causing slightly reduced profits and the airlines react like this. So great
Yup, there are like 3 years of hundreds of middle managers that decide the exact price of a carry on. Ticket prices are not decided by "market forces" but agreed upon by Star Alliance, Sky Team, and Oneworld.
The labrinthian ticketing and reservation system requires 3 weeks of training just to use and months of actually using it to understand. The whole thing still runs on a custom System 360 operating system from 1960
Yep, the entire airline and reservation industry uses their outdated database system. It's so standard now that switching would be almost impossible without a massive government effort
Cold take: I don't feel inclined to ever fly anywhere again.
In evil communist stalinist maoist North Chinorea (ancient enemies of the Mongolian Horde), the government secret military police will detain you on suspicion of not complying in full with transportation scheduling rules, causing you to miss the flight they suspect you of wanting to miss on purpose, and force you to purchase another travel permit at a price set by the transportation bureau
WE WILL CHARGE YOU MORE TO TRAVEL LESS
American Airlines
