Posted on 12/30/2014 10:25:05 AM PST by george76
A young computer whiz from New York City has launched a site to help people buy cheap plane tickets. But an airline company and its travel partner want to shut him down.
United Airlines and Orbitz filed a civil lawsuit last month against 22-year-old Aktarer Zaman, who founded the website Skiplagged.com last year.
The site helps travelers find cheap flights by using a strategy called “hidden city” ticketing.
The idea is that you buy an airline ticket that has a layover at your actual destination. Say you want to fly from New York to San Francisco — you actually book a flight from New York to Lake Tahoe with a layover in San Francisco and get off there, without bothering to take the last leg of the flight.
This travel strategy only works if you book a one-way flight with no checked bags (they would have landed in Lake Tahoe).
(Excerpt) Read more at kdvr.com ...
Right... He should counter sue them in some way that will make himself richer and discourage such nonsense lawsuits from airlines in the future.
It depends on the competition.
Geez. We figured that one out a long time ago. Just didn’t create a web site to do it.
SLAP suit
This is a well known technique in the industry. I’ve used it a few times myself. Need to book a flight to LA? Book it to San Fran and get off in LA.
And remember, congress is EXEMPT from Obamacare.
How does that make you feel, something like a subservient citizen?
Yea, I thought so.....
As a traveling consultant in the mid 90s I used to book trips that overlapped with a Saturday night stay to save a lot of money. I would book a 2 week roundtrip Houston to Louisville ticket and the a weekend roundtrip Louisville to Houston in the middle of the other one. The Saturday night stay was put in place to gouge business travelers and after a while they had to drop the practice because too many people were doing what I did.
A 747 can’t land in Lake Tahoe.
Should read:
A 747 can’t land at Lake Tahoe.
No way that runway can accept a plane that large..
I am pretty sure this has been against airline policy for many years and possibly illegal. But as long as airline’s do their most to make air travel miserable I write “good for him”!
Look.. I gave you the money so I can use it or not use it...why it should be cheaper to buy a longer flight and not use part of it is silly.. but you sold it.. so I have the right to NOT USE what what you sold me, or NOT USE part of what you sold me..
When booking room online at a major hotel (Marriott, Hilton), use "IBM" or "Xerox" as company promo code and you usually get about 20% off the room rate. Large corporations have special deals like this for their business travelers.
So long as you look like a business traveler at check-in (not a good idea to have beach gear with a couple kids in tow), they never ask you to prove you actually work there.
i wanted to do this twenty years ago, cousin’s wedding in Columbia SC, aunt in Charlotte NC - had round trip ticket to Columbia, wanted to leave the plane in Charlotte on the way there. I couldn’t do it, said the agent, they would void my ticket for the return flight, they would have me arrested if I tried to board.
Today they’ll worry about you leaving an explosive device behind you - but if you wanted to do that, you’d just buy the more expensive ticket any way.
A couple years ago I was trying to book a non-stop flight to Ireland, leaving either Newark or Philadelphia. The least expensive flights were NWK-PHL-Dublin or PHL-NWK-Dublin. Obviously if they are selling NWK-PHL-Dublin there is a seat on PHL-Dublin but they won’t sell it to you for the low price - they want you to pay to escape flying an extra leg of the trip and wasting three more hours.
Maybe for you, but for a Canadian?
Funny how Orbitz is involved on the side of the status quo.
I thought the internet was supposed to give us all power, and free us from the clutches of crony capitalists gaming government rules and their market positions? Ha Ha.
This is done all the time. Chattanooga Tn. is a hidden city. If you final is Atlanta book to cha it will be about 100 bucks cheaper and don’t take the Chattanooga flight. Dont check a bag though.
1. Like it or not, you are violating the terms of the contract.
2. Suppose you get off in San Francisco, and then the plane crashes in the Sierra. Now everyone thinks you're dead. Now suppose that you're a super opportunistic person and decide to stay dead.
3. Suppose the airline system notices that you failed to check in to the Tahoe flight and adds you to the FBI BOLO list. Now you are a fugitive terrorist on the run.
-PJ
Why are they suing? What am I missing? Now that they are aware of the glitch in their software, they should just fix it and be done with it.
My question as well. Prices are a bit rigged and the push back to the airlines for this type of nonsense might be to force them to show some transparency and less price fixing.
Nothing wrong with it if you're a passenger. Wife and kids drove to Atlanta and I was to fly to join them a few days later and drive back. One way flight to Atlanta was around $1,200, one way flight to Birmingham through Atlanta was like $600. Round trip to Birmingham was like $350. Purchased the round trip, didn't check any bags and got off in Atlanta. Nothing wrong with that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.