Posted on 12/30/2014 11:28:06 AM PST by Red Badger
United Airlines wants to clip the wings of a 22-year-old Manhattan computer whiz who found a loophole that saves travelers big bucks on airfare.
Aktarer Zaman founded Skiplagged.com, which finds cheap flights by using “hidden city” ticketing, in which travelers purposely buy tickets with layovers for a lower fare, using the layover city as their intended destination, CNNMoney reports, and never go on to the itinerary’s final destination. He started the site last year.
United Airlines joined discount travel website Orbitz last moth to file a lawsuit in Chicago federal court against Zaman, calling his site “unfair competition” and accusing it of promoting “strictly prohibited” travel.
Among the companies’ complaints is that the final destination bypass leaves the airlines unable to accurately count passengers, which could lead to departure delays and affect fuel load calculations, Bloomberg reported.
They are seeking $75,000 in lost revenue from the entrepreneur.
Zaman maintains there’s nothing illegal about Skiplagged.com, which he argues helps people expose an “inefficiency” in airline pricing that has existed for decades. He also said he has not profited from the site.
“[Hidden city ticketing] has been around for a while, it just hasn’t been very accessible to consumers,” he told CNNMoney.
The ticketing loophole strategy works only for a one-way flight with no checked bags.
The Bangladesh-born Zaman graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute when he was 20. He works at a tech start-up that he declined to name.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
It’s just a lawsuit to try to intimidate this guy and now both United and Orbitz are going to suffer The Streisand Effect.
This pops up every once in a while. You don’t have to be a “computer whiz” to spot the cheap layover flights and book one yourself. Technically it is illegal to not get on the second leg of the flight. Come and get me coppers!
I wonder when gubmint will try to make it illegal not to graduate college once you start.
I don't think the practice is illegal per se, rather it violates the airline's "contract of carriage" that is incorporated into every ticket.
Maybe that's why airlines forbid the practice - they are concerned that somebody might actually try to pull something like that off on purpose.
” You don’t have to be a “computer whiz” to spot the cheap layover flights and book one yourself. “
But it helps to be one to set up a website that does the search for you.
That is true, but your body would not be recovered...............so it would have to be a transoceanic flight. Not many layovers in the mid ocean.........until recently...........
Even more hacking “news”. Wait for it, the simpletons in control are after the freedom of the net. They can’t handle criticism from “the great unwashed” in any form whatsoever.
Wouldn’t the failure of the passenger to reboard be noted at the gate?
Methinks there are many easier ways to 'disappear' and be presumed dead.
Not really a ‘hack’, just a smart kid...............and they don’t like it...............
Not everybody de-boards during layovers. I don’t believe they keep track of those who do.
Yes, people could stay on the plane. However whenever I have been in a layover I’ve seen them doing a seat count. If someone’s missing they ask around.
At the same time, what if you had a premonition the plane was going to blow up? Should the law force you to get on the plane?
On every flight the manifest is checked against checked in living souls by name and reservation/ticket. So, no— if you don’t get on you are not ON the flight to be found “dead” or missing if said flight crashed.
Simple police work would find this out, btw. Like in insurance cases for death benefit.
Yes! It’s obviously your destiny.
Wasn’t there a movie about that?
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