Check in, don't board
 

Here's another "missing leg of RT" issue but with a twist.
My wife, baby, and I have 3 non-refundable RT tickets to Tokyo with pre-assigned seats. Work issues may prevent me from flying out with them. Instead I will fly out and meet them later in a few days. I know that if you skip the flight out, the whole ticket gets voided. So I was thinking, what if I go to the airport with my wife and check in with her on the 1st RT ticket but not get on the airplane (flying out later on a 2nd one-way ticket purchased separtely).
1. Will my wife basically get an empty seat next to her? (very useful if she has to deal with a baby)
2. Will I be able to still use the return portion of the 1st RT ticket to fly home with her since I did check in? (A 2nd RT might not allow me to sit next to her if the first ticket seat gets re-sold when I don't show.)
I'm thinking the airline shouldn't care since they got their money for the seat already but don't have to pay for the fuel to carry my weight. But I may be violating some rule.

Thanks to anyone in the know who can shed some light on my predicament.

Depending on the fare rule. If this is a full fare fully refundable ticket, then it's not a problem as usually that type of a ticket is priced out as 2 one-ways, but if it's a deep discounted economy or discounted economy priced ticket then your return will be cancelled.

Checking in, but not flying, will not work. You actually need to present the BP at the gate and board the plane.

Discounted economy tickets are based on certain rules and one of the major ones is the R/T rule and many times involves minimum time at the destination and Saturday night stay. If you don't fullfill any part of the rules, the airlines reserve the right to pull the ticket.



Reporting from the Dublin Conrad! Getting ready to hit the Temple Bar area! :-D

Just one more thing....

If you decide not to take the flight, it does not guaranteee an empty seat. As I already told you earlier, the BP has to be scanned at the gate and if it's not, and the flight is full and there are standbys waiting, or somebody else prefers that particular seat and asks for it, the seat will be given away by the gate agents.

Perhaps I am missing something, but why not simply pay the fee to change the date of your flight. Just because a ticket is non-refundable doesn't mean it can't be rescheduled.

You would be better off to just exchange your ticket for one on the new departure date. Even if you could do what you wanted to do the one way ticket would probably cost more than exchanging the ticket.

Just for fun, I tried LAX-NRT departing 11/30 and returning 12/11. You can get a fare on United for $809 at travelocity.

If you wanted to depart two days later on 12/2 then the one-way fare on Singapore is $1115. But the roundtrip on United for departure 12/2 returning 12/11 is $844. You would pay the $35 difference in fare plus a $150 penalty.

In this example the one-way ticket costs more than the new roundtrip fare + penalty.

only thing missing is that OP was interested in having three seats for his wife and baby on the outbound trip.

I wonder what airport security would think of 3 people checking in but only 2 boarding?

At the very least I would expect the OP's wife to get interrogated.

<b>alanRow</b>,

Security wouldn't care. Many people change their mind at the last minute, for various reasons, decide not to board and go home...

This has nothing to do with security.

Don't forget, there are thousands of businesspeople flying on fully refundable tickets and they may be checked in and at the airline club or the gate when they receive a call from the office that plans have changed. They simply return to the office, the ticket refund gets processed by the TA and nobody cares. It works the same way with non-refundable tickets except you don't get your money back. It happens thousands of times per day.

That's how upgrades or standbys clear at the last minute, after the GA makes the final call for all the checked-in paxs and few don't show up.

AAFF,
Thanks for the info. Yeah, it was a discount ticket, return right before the Christmas weekend, with a gazillion restrictions (non-refundable, unchangeable date, must sacrifice one piece of luggage to the sky demons, etc). Looks like the BP is the key. I doubt they'll let me go on stand-by for 6 days. And I don't want to risk screwing things up during holiday travel time.
So, checking prices, I guess I'll have to buy another R/T ticket with a return date the same as the original, eating the cost of my first ticket and seeing if the TA can transfer the return-leg seat from the first ticket to the second ticket.
I hope that first outbound flight isn't full. I pity the poor stand-by that gets my seat and gets stuck next to a baby on a 10-hour flight!

You will have to eat the cost of the original ticket? Really? You've read the fare rules and no exchanges are allowed, not even prior to the departure date?

Two weeks ago I was at LAX checked in for a flight to SFO where I was to connect to go to HKG. I missed the flight but was able to exchange the ticket for another one two days later. The fare rules allowed for an exchange to a higher priced ticket with payment of a $150 penalty. I paid the fare difference but was not actually charged the penalty.

I bought and exchanged the tickets with the airline but you are using a TA, so maybe that is the difference.