Today I was browsing ticket to US on 31st of August 2023.
Flight from my home country will cost me 780 USD (EVA air economy), or 1000 USD (premium economy for that extra few inches of comfort). As we know EVA air always transit via Taiwan. Thinking that I am still at Taiwan on that day, then I use EVA mobile to check ticket from Taiwan to US which actually cost 1000 USD for economy class and 1500 for premium economy.
Makes me wonder why its 220 USD more expensive to fly to US from Taiwan, and deviously thinking about buying ticket from my home country, miss the initial flight to Taiwan, then fly the connecting flight to US. Is it legal or ill lose the right to board the connecting flight to US if I deliberately missed the first flight?
I don’t think it matters if it is legal or not, it’s very likely you won’t be able to do it. There was a things many years ago of people buying return tickets from their home country to Taiwan and back as they were cheaper than buying returns from Taiwan and then dropping the first leg and trying to use only the second. The airlines cottoned on pretty quick and if no-showed on the 1st leg and didn’t rebook and use it then the 2nd leg was invalid.
A folks have pointed out, your entire itinerary will be cancelled if you do this—and you will also be hit with a “no show” fee.
A second trick (I am not recommending this) is to purchase a ticket that would, say, go from LAX-TPE-SGN—but not use the last leg to Saigon. This only works if you have no checked luggage. Again the rest of the itinerary will be cancelled. As before, this trick will not amuse the airline which may blacklist passengers who do this more than once.
An addendum, with no tricks: flights out of Taiwan are almost always pricier than flights out of the US. I guess they figure we can’t swim off the island.
And out of flights departing Taiwan, EVA is almost always the priciest to destinations in North America. You pay extra for nonstop service as well as for this company’s reputation for a) not crashing; and b) being able to communicate with customers in Taiwanese.
From Europe to Taiwan also cheaper than from Taiwan to Europe. Sometimes extra legs are free, let’s say from Rome to Amsterdam to Taipei, would be the same price as Amsterdam Taipei.
Airports charge tax (handling, gate cost etc.), fuel surcharges, airlines charge their cost + profit. That’s the total cost of a ticket. The EU is strictly regulated. If airlines cancel flights or delay for a certain amount of time you get a serious cash return (like 600 Euros on international flights).
It’s not illegal but airlines HATE it and you may get banned from that airline from doing it. It would also delay the flight because they would have to offload your bags (security and all that) meaning they have to go look in the hold for your bag, costing the airline gate time (they pay for those you know).
Last time I went there the extra leg may be almost free or free, but it does increase the airport tax by something like 300 euros at least from amsterdam to Berlin. The train from Amsterdam to Berlin was 30-50 euros if you book it early enough.
When I flew to the states I chose Korean Air because it was much cheaper than Eva. The service isn’t bad… well there was a time back in the cold war that a Korean Air flight was shot down by the soviets…