skiplagging

noun

skip·​lag·​ging ˈskip-ˌla-giŋ 

: the act or practice of getting cheaper airfare by booking a trip with a layover at one's true destination and disembarking there

This workaround, called skiplagging … means purchasing an itinerary with a layover that is the intended destination and skipping the last leg of a flight. Some travelers will employ this tactic when it's cheaper than buying a direct flight.

—Christine Chung

Skiplagging is a technique to exploit one of the anomalies of air travel—that flying from A via B to C is often cheaper than simply flying from A to B.

—Simon Calder

skiplag

ˈskip-ˌlag 

transitive verb

skiplagged; skiplagging; skiplags

In April 2020, the airline kicked a passenger who skiplagged 95 flights off its … frequent flyer program.

—Veronika Bondarenko

skiplagged adjective

The skiplagged trip is with Delta Airlines and it would take 21 hours and 21 minutes to travel … to Seoul.

—Helena Kelly

skiplagger noun

plural skiplaggers

Typically, a skiplagger books a less expensive flight that has two or more legs rather than buy the more costly direct flight. But it's a connecting city—not the final city of the flight—that has been the skiplagger's covert destination all along.

—CNN Travel

Word History

Etymology

skip entry 1 + lag entry 2 + -ing entry 1

First Known Use

2019, in the meaning defined above