Lufthansa Airlines Sues Customer Who Skipped Part Of His Return Flight

Germany's Lufthansa Group Airlines is suing a passenger who found a cheap way to travel between several cities in Europe and the U.S., saying the customer broke its rules when he skipped part of his return flight on a round-trip ticket from Oslo to Seattle. Now it wants him to pay more than $2,000 to make up the difference.

The man used a method to book his multistop trip that's known as "hidden city" ticketing — where travelers find layover cities on an airliner's route that are cheaper than a direct flight from one city to another.

For example, someone hoping to travel from New York to Dallas might look for cheaper flights to Los Angeles that also stop in that city — and simply disembark there, rather than fly the full route to LAX.

The Lufthansa passenger paid 657 euros ($741, at today's rate) to fly business class from Oslo to Seattle and back, with layovers in Frankfurt. He booked his flight on April 8, 2016, and traveled early the next month. But instead of making the entire trip, he got off his return flight in Frankfurt. From there, he flew to Berlin on a separate Lufthansa ticket.