22-year-old entrepreneur sued by United Airlines, Orbitz [dumb lawsuit]

upi.com ^ | December 30, 2014 | Andrew V. Pestano

[grundle]

CHICAGO, Dec. 30 (UPI) -- United Airlines and Orbitz are suing 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman to recuperate what they say is $75,000 in lost revenue.

Zaman founded the website Skiplagged, which helps passengers find cheaper flights by finding tickets where the actual destination of the traveler is a layover. The strategy is called "Hidden City."

"In its simplest form, a passenger purchases a ticket from city A to city B to city C but does not travel beyond city B," Orbitz, an online booking site, and United Airlines said.

[Two Kids' Dad]

So, the airlines want to force passengers to utilize every leg of their booking without having the option of skipping a flight? If that’s the case I’ll be suing United Airlines for abandoning my group in Houston back in June. If they can force people to take flights they’ve booked, we can force the airlines to honor their issued tickets, right???

When will they send me my $75000? (not holding breath)

[1010RD]

Although not participating in the case, American Airlines said the practice is like "switching price tags to obtain a lower price" and suggested raising fares if it continues.

Is this really a form of stealing? A passenger on an airline is subject to their contract of carriage, but the violation is between the carrier and the passenger. How can the carrier bring suit against a person showing you how to save money, but they're not a party to the contract of carriage or any contract?

Airlines hate hidden city fares. Apart from the annoyance factor to staff and customers who may be kept waiting for no-shows, hidden city fares screw with airlines’ pricing mechanisms, which offer relatively low fares to keep up with competition or spur business to some markets, for example, and high fares to other markets.

That's not from this article, but it sums up the problem. I don't think the suit will go anywhere, but this is Illinois and United expects a big favor here. The kid is thinly capitalized.

[Pontiac]

Airlines hate hidden city fares. Apart from the annoyance factor to staff and customers who may be kept waiting for no-shows,

The airline will also have to make sure that the no-show did not have checked baggage that was transferred to the connecting flight.

If they did the flight cannot take off until that baggage is removed from the plane. The possibility of a bomb would have to be considered.

[Rodamala]

If you don’t have the fare on the whole trip with the stopover costing LESS than the partial one way trip cost to the stopover point... there is no problem. This is identical to having an Amtrak ticket from Washington D.C. to Boston for $150, but you want to book on the same train to disembark at BWI... and they charge you $600.

I’ve used travel vouchers on the second route segment I needed to get back home when plans got all whacky and I had to fly out to the west coast from Midland... it was cheaper to book the round trip way back to Midland than a Midland to San Jose, San Jose to Newark itinerary.

I was nice enough to let the agent in Houston know I was not taking the connecting flight to Midland... as I checked in with my voucher for the IAH to EWR trip.

I bet I confused everyone with that... oh well.

[KarlInOhio]

Although not participating in the case, American Airlines said the practice is like "switching price tags to obtain a lower price" and suggested raising fares if it continues.

No, it is more like looking at the price tags for a suit for $200 and just the pants for $300. When you only need the pants you could buy the suit and leave the jacket in the store when you take your pants. It costs the store nothing which they hadn't agreed to already. Stop charging more for flights into or out of hubs than you do for flights on the same planes through the hubs.

When Cincinnati was a Delta hub, people in Cincinnati would drive to Dayton, take a flight back to Cincinnati and change planes to their final destination for much less than the direct flight from Cincinnati. So Delta valued their sixty mile puddle-jumper flight at negative $500 just to maintain their hub pricing.

[QBFimi]

>> So Delta valued their sixty mile puddle-jumper flight at negative $500 just to maintain their hub pricing.

And not only that, they had to pay the commuter to haul the passenger on that short hop.

My wife worked the rate desk at SAS (Scandinavian Airways) years ago. It was her job to look for the “side trips” that resulted in cheaper fares, and were never used. In more recent years, United had problems with pax that connected through Denver for a flight to Colorado Springs, but bailed out in Denver.

[MV=PY]

"The airline will also have to make sure that the no-show did not have checked baggage that was transferred to the connecting flight."

Good point. I wonder how (if) they know if someone abandons the second leg.

[Pontiac]

I am pretty sure that the airline hostess does a head count in the passenger cabin before every take off. At least they used to.

I also am pretty sure that the boarding gate person does a boarding pass count.

[cynwoody]

How can the carrier bring suit against a person showing you how to save money, but they're not a party to the contract of carriage or any contract?

Exactly!

Mr Zaman should sue United for violating his civil rights (or SLAPP or whatever).

United needs to bleed for this. Airlines suck (well, except for LUV).

[MV=PY]

I fly frequently - tickets (or smart phones) are typically scanned when the passenger boards. No problem with the count. What I wonder about is what they do if someone doesn’t board.

In 55 years of flying I’ve only seen one plane delayed and the baggage removed after I’d boarded. It was at Heathrow back in the 80s. There was a bomb threat and they removed all the luggage onto the tarmac and had the passengers go out and identify their baggage for reloading. They had dogs out there, presumably to sniff for explosives.

So what do they do if someone is missing? I’m pretty sure they don’t scan all the luggage and remove that of the missing passenger.

It’s hard to imagine that in all my flights there was never someone missing, but I suppose it’s possible.

I’m guessing they rely on x-raying all the baggage plus random checks.

[Redmen4ever]

To be more precise in the analogy: it’s like buying a suit of clothes and throwing away the pants because the suit is cheaper than the jacket. Once we start allowing people to get away with this sort of thing, all anarchy breaks out.

[Shimmer1]

I believe that if you don’t take the second flight of your connection, your return ticket is cancelled. I’m sure Delta has this policy anyway.

Also, no matter how long I’m going for (2 weeks at maximum) I only take carry on luggage. Anything that doesn’t fit in my carryon and large purse (i take a backpack as a purse) doesn’t go.