Budget travel - please share your thoughts
 

Is is possible to purchase a plane ticket to one location, that has a layover in your preferred destination - and just not take the connection to the final destination?

How about the return trip - Can I hop on from the layover point to travel home...instead of from the originating location?

It is cheaper to do it this way, than to actually book the direct flight to my desired destination, but do not want to get bumped from the flight if I am doing something wrong.

Thanks for you thoughts on this matter!

Short answer: no. Slightly longer answer: only if it's a one-way trip and you don't check any luggage. The airline will cancel the rest of your ticket when you don't board the second flight.

As Thursdaysd said, as soon as you fail to get on the connecting flight, they will cancel your return flight.

If you're doing a one-way, you can fail to get on the second flight and there's no problem, but one-ways are often more expensive than round-trip.

There are other ways to get a cheaper flight - look at a different time of day for the flight and/or a different day to depart and return; look at multiple airlines to see if there is a better price - perhaps a flight with a connection rather than a direct flight; etc.

Thanks so much for your responses! I sure am glad I asked!

I will keep looking.

Guess I'm late to the party... but as above, short answer, is no.

The only leg of an itinerary you could simply abandon without penalty would be your very last flight (which since that's likely "home" doesn't work out very well!)
:-)