You know airlines don’t price the tickets as per the distance but according to market demand. Hidden city ticketing is a tactic people (me included) use to reducing the cost of flying.
How does it work?
Suppose @kush yule mnono wants to come visit Nairobi from Dubai using KQ. I would advise him instead of booking a Dubai-Nairobi ticket, he should book Dubai- Mombasa ticket.When the plane reaches Nairobi Kush will alight and abandon the journey to Mombasa. Here, the hidden city is Mombasa. Notice below that if Kush books a Dubai- Nairobi ticket, he pays $642 (Economy class). But if he books a Dubai- Mombasa ticket he pays $369 (Business class). A saving of about 28,000 Kenya shillings plus starehe za flying business.
This assumes that u do not have any checked baggage.
Possibilities of the flight being re-routed are high meaning the pax will incur extra costs buying a new ticket to his final destination. eg, if KQ decide to re-route the flight DXB-DAR-MBA then pax will have to buy a new ticket which might end up being more expensive.
In Kush’s case, the first port of entry to Kenya is Nairobi. His luggage will have therefore have to be to be offloaded there for customs inspection. I have used this hidden city ticketing twice to Dubai.
But you are right in the other points. That’s why I advised Ziga to book through you coz the young student might be confused.