This photo, entitled "Leaving Las Vegas," is one reader's entry in Conde Nast Traveler's Dream Trip Contest. (Wanna enter too?  You have until April 23.)

By Wendy Perrin

Remember last night I asked for advice?  I wanted to find out if the following fare trick could get my friend into trouble:

She needs to get from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco and back, but the cheapo fares are between D.C. and Vegas. So she's considering booking a D.C.-San Francisco-Vegas flight and no-showing on the SFO-Vegas leg, then driving to Vegas (where she has friends she wants to visit anyway) and flying from there back to D.C.  If she were to book this flight itinerary as a round-trip, the no-show on the SFO-Vegas leg would cause United to cancel her seats on the return, stranding her in Vegas and forcing her to buy expensive last-minute tickets if she wants to get back to D.C.   So my question was: If she books two separate one-way tickets, would she still land in trouble with United?

The experts' consensus: No, and she should go for it. Business travel guru Joe Brancatelli of JoeSentMe says: Make sure she gets a unique record locator number for each one-way ticket. Cranky (a.k.a. Brett Snyder) of The Cranky Flier recommends the same and adds: Even if she somehow gets found out on the outbound trip, it won't jeopardize her return flight. Rick Seaney of FareCompare and The Air Travel Channel points out: "Hundreds of people every day miss connections and/or their return portion of trips for dozens of reasons, so this is not something the airlines dwell on unless they see a large pattern of abuse."  Thank you, Joe, Cranky, Rick -- and the other frequent fliers who commented --  for your very helpful insights.