“Skiplagging” — or booking a flight with a layover to skip the last leg of travel — is a common hack for travelers who don’t want to pay for a direct flight or who to save money on airfare to a connecting destination. Airlines contend the practice results in lost revenue for seats on planes.
The airlines can end this practice pretty quick by charging less for a direct flight to the connecting city than they do for a two-legged flight though it. We prohibited the railroads from doing this sort of thing back in 1887 with the Interstate Commerce Act.
That’s back before we gave up any semblance of real democracy and legalized bribery though. Now you can do massive multi million dollar stock buybacks during good times and cry poor house and demand a bailout anytime you hit a bump in the road. They make the rules now.