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Will you make the naughty list this year? If you like transcontinental business class at prices under economy, it may just be worth it. This little trick is the epitome of what many airlines hate, but since we didn’t make the rules, and flying flat is so much nicer than flying like an accordion, this skiplagging gem is too good to pass up. Here’s how to fly transcontinental business class between New York, Miami and LA (and perhaps other cities too) for $325 one way…

Streets of New YorkThe Naughty Flight Deal

If you can manage to travel carry on only and ditch the checked bag, skiplagging presents glorious opportunities to increase your comfort and save at the same time. It involves booking one way travel to a city you may never see (unless you want to) via a city you really want to go to.

You do this, because that other final destination city via the one you really want to go to is cheaper than booking to the one you want to go to. Since you don’t have bags, you just hop off at the place you actually want to go, and enjoy the better fare. We didn’t make the game, we just play in it.

By using this technique, you can save a fortune on one way transcontinental business class flights in either direction, turning $700+ one way tickets into $325 one way tickets, or under $800 round trip, if you book two one ways. How do you do this? By taking advantage of fares from Los Angeles or New York to a holiday destination… via Los Angeles or New York. Like… Los Angeles to Puerto Rico, via JFK.

The Dates You Can Travel

These deals are available on select dates, and are best when you play around on Google Flights a little bit. For savings like this, it’s not like they’d do the work for you, right? Even if you only use these deals one way, it’s certainly nice to score extra points and a bed.

So far, we can see dates available from September 2019 all the way through summer 2020. Not every single date will feature the right connection, but many will!

How To Book These Naughty Deals

Before you set off to book, it’s worth reading up on Skiplagging, and the potential, but highly unlikely implications. United, for example was recently interested in sniffing out Skiplaggers, but like many things at United that didn’t really play so well.

Delta, and American, which offer these cool deals on the other hand seem to be more focused on actually making their airlines better than chasing passengers over something which they can’t ever prove you intended to do. Delta flies their flat beds between LAX and JFK, and American flies theirs between LAX and both JFK and Miami.

There’s a million reasons or more why you might have needed to miss your connection, like a business meeting or something. And again, if you do want to go to Puerto Rico or one of the other hidden city cities, go for it! Ok, now that-that’s out of the way, here are links…

Going the other way? We’ll just leave those for you to figure out. Think final destination: sunny.

You may be on the naught list now, but these deals are so nice, it’s hard to care. Enjoy the flat beds on the 5+ hour flight. The wine ain’t bad either…

Gilbert Ott

Gilbert Ott is an ever curious traveler and one of the world's leading travel experts. His adventures take him all over the globe, often spanning over 200,000 miles a year and his travel exploits are regularly...

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6 Comments

  1. Not worth getting blacklisted from airline, ruining your credit with judgements, and getting sued over. There have been horror stories. Unless you’re prepared to be put on Delta/KLM/AF no fly list, tread carefully. Not worth it.

    1. Literally never ever happened with any of those airlines. The only airline to go after skiplagging passengers is Lufthansa, and the only one to mention considering it is United.

      1. And by the way, the Lufthansa instance was one person in the entire history of the airline who had done this 100’s of times without ever taking a normal flight. United never took action. Don’t spread fear tactics when they are not valid.

  2. This is in no way unethical. These comments are from airline people. Every travel hack and points accumulation scheme would be unethical to them.

    What do you mean by final destination: sunny?

  3. Please, I am flying from Miami and can’t figure our how to book from miami to lax or sfo, please help. Thank you

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