Skift Take
Travel hackers have long known about the risks and rewards of throwaway ticketing. But one enterprising entrepreneur is trying to bring the method to the masses. Airlines are not happy.
Oliver Dlouhy founded the online travel agency Kiwi.com to introduce the masses to his favorite flight hacking methods. But with a new innovation — Kiwi helps customers buy what the industry called "throwaway" tickets — Dlouhy is irritating some of the world's largest airlines, who warn the practice violates their rules.
This is among the most simple forms of travel hacking. On long-haul routes, airlines may charge significantly more for a one-way ticket than a round-trip. When they must fly one way, enterprising travelers buy both directions and "throw away" the return, potentially saving thousands of dollars.
Airlines know people do it, and they track and punish repeat offenders, but it's rare for an online travel agency to promote the practice.
Kiwi makes it easy. When a customer searches for a one-way ticket, the search engine may show throwaway options as top results, choosing a dummy return based on which is cheapest. Later in the booking path, it has been explaining its approach by telling customers, "fly one way or use the return, it's up to you. Either way you'll be saving money."
"It's a good thing for the customers, and for us the customers are always first, even if some airlines might not like it," Dlouhy, Kiwi's CEO, said in an interview. "We are paid by our customers, not by the carriers."
This makes Kiwi, a Brno, Czech Republic-based company that sells about 25,000 total seats per day, a potential threat to several major airlines. Four of them — American Airlines, United Airlines, Virgin Atlantic, and Lufthansa — told Skift throwaway ticketing violates their co
