Getting off at an international hidden city with checked bags?

Question

Let's say I am currently in City A, having flown here from City C through City B (all in different countries). I have a return ticket back that goes A-->B-->C, and I want to get off in B. I've contacted the airline (Air France w/ Delta) and they've said the only way to do that would be to just buy a whole different ticket one way from A-->B. Ideally, I'd like to move the B-->C section of the trip back a week or two, because I do need to eventually end up in C. Many answers on this site have suggested that if I just get off in B, it would be okay and I would be able to book a pretty cheap flight back B-->C. The only issue is that I will have checked baggage, that if they don't let me short-check it, would potentially be stuck on the flight to C, require me to pay large fees to get access to, or at least tip them off to my flight-skipping plans.

Is there a way to:

1) make sure I can get off in B and not be charged a lot of money/sued

2) retrieve my luggage at B or even be able to have someone pick it up at C for me, and

3) ideally just move the second leg of my trip back so I don't have to pay tons of money.

I realize I should have booked the trips differently from the get-go, but travel plans change and I'm finding myself stuck or facing >$1500 fees and charges if I go forth with my current situation.

I've been searching around on this site and finding answers that are kind of what I'm looking for but nothing exactly, so if anyone could help that would be amazing.

Edit - this is different than the duplicate flag because I am also looking for information and advice about changing my flight/rebooking it, not just about retrieving bags midway.

Answer 1

Most if not all airlines follow the same rules, if you don’t use one part of the ticket all subsequent legs on the same booking are cancelled, so whatever you do you need to make arrangements before hand

Answer 2

1) make sure I can get off in B and not be charged a lot of money/sued

Not really. If you do this you are violating the terms of conditions you agreed to when buying the ticket. The airline can come after you and in some cases sued. However, it's very unlikely that they would do this, especially if you are a first time offender. You made a mistake by calling them and asking about this. If the agent made a note on your ticket, it's way more likely they would be on the look out for intentional leg skipping.

2) retrieve my luggage at B or even be able to have someone pick it up at C for me, and

Unlikely. The airline will typically not short check unless you have a good reason, so you have to come up with a good story that doesn't smell like leg skipping. Since you already called them, they may have flagged your ticket already.

Chances are your bag will stay in B anyway. If you don't show for the B->C, they will remove your bag from the aircraft for security reasons. You may be able to retrieve it in B, but expect to pay a lot of money. Removing a bag from an airplane that's ready to go creates a LOT of operational extra cost and you will be charged for that plus some more penaltys and fees.

Even if your bag gets to C, it would be very hard to retrieve by a third party. If B->C is an international flight the baggage claim in C is in a protected area before customs. It would be hard for anyone to get in there to grab your bags in C. They would have to arrive on an international flight roughly at the same time. Depends a bit on the layout of the specific airport. If a third party can get in, they can just grab your bag from the carousel and walk out with it (through customs). Checking baggage tags is extremely rare.

3) ideally just move the second leg of my trip back so I don't have to pay tons of money.

That's exactly the reason why the airlines are so strict about this: they want you to pay tons of money and hold a you hostage around this. Buying an extra one way from the smae airline makes no sense. You can try to change the return date on the existing ticket but if that doesn't allow a stopover (which B is), than this be expensive. You can also try to just have change end in B. This may or may not be cheaper. Chances are, your cheapest option would be to fly it as booked and then grab a cheap return ticket C->B->C on the day you arrive. At this point you can also squeeze in an extra day in C to get showered up and repack your bags (assuming that's home for you)