Skiplagged touts itself as an online travel agency and metasearch engine for booking flights and hotels. Established by 20-year-old Aktarer Zaman in 2013, the website sells so-called “hidden city” flights, wherein you book a flight and disembark at the layover, rather than at the final destination. Here’s an example:
A flight from New York to Seattle might be $300, but a similar flight from New York to Seattle with a layover in San Fransisco might be $170. If you’re going to Seattle, we’ll show you both flights. If you choose the cheaper one, you get off the plane at the layover (San Fransisco) rather than going to the final ticketed destination (Dallas).
Airlines don’t like when people skiplag; they say it causes them (the airlines) to lose revenue. To that end, Skiplagged has been sued a handful of times:
- In November, 2014, United Airlines and Orbitz filed a civil lawsuit for $75,000 in lost revenue, claiming that the website violated fare rules. The Orbitz lawsuit was settled out of court, in which Skiplagged agreed not to redirect traffic to Orbitz sites or use Orbitz branding. The United lawsuit was dismissed by the courts on procedural grounds. United did not pursue further legal action. Oh, and donors contributed for Skiplagged’s legal expenses via GoFundMe.
- In 2021, Southwest Airlines sued Skiplagged for displaying the airline’s fares. The lawsuit was also settled out of court (Skiplagged stopped selling Southwest flights after the agreement was reached).
Most recently, American Airlines sued Skiplagged. This time, Skiplagged lost the case; a Texas federal jury recently awarded the airlines $9.4 million:
- $4.7 million from Skiplagged’s revenue based on an estimate of lost fares
- $4.7 million for copyright infringement (as it was scraping American’s flight schedules in violation of the airline’s terms of service.)
American was also suing for trademark infringement, saying Skiplagged used the American logo on its website to make it look like the site was endorsed by the airline. The judge threw that one out.
What’s Skiplagged’s future?
Skiplagged isn’t a huge company—it only has 20 employees. So when you’re a small company and you’ve just been forced to pay close to $10 million, one would think you’d think long and hard about the future. Like, is it worth it to keep up this business model?
According to Skiplagged, absolutely.
The company recently told Business Insider that it’s “not going anywhere.”
“Skiplagged will continue to provide consumers with information on all available routes and fares, including the least expensive airfares available,” Zaman said. “American lost on three of its four claims, and Skiplagged remains free to continue its business of showing consumers all flights to help them save money.”
According to Yahoo! Finance, Skiplagged has an annual revenue of over $20 million. So although $9.4 million is a hit, it’s not enough for the company to consider closing its doors at this time.
They’re even still selling hidden city flights on American Airlines. 😉
Should you use Skiplagged?
That’s a decision you need to make for yourself. My husband and I have explained why we don’t use it. But we’re both fervent rule followers and don’t want to get in trouble. And there are indeed risks to skiplagging:
- You can be banned by the airline, like this person was
- You can lose your luggage, like this person did, if you don’t follow the stringent recommendations of skiplagging
There are other rules to follow if you want to skiplag successfully. And frankly, if they’re making $20M per year, it sounds like a lot of people are doing it.
But should you? Well, as the good blog says, Your Mileage May Vary.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
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