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 ...
Harrisburg to Beijing is a hell of a lot cheaper (was $900 cheaper RT) than Dulles to Beijing and the flight goes to Dulles after Harrisburg. You can’t just get on at Dulles to go to Beijing, that whole leg will be cancelled since you missed the outbound Harrisburg flight. But coming home, they can’t force you on the plane at Dulles to Harrisburg. Don’t check the bag in after customs and walk out of the airport. I’ve done it.
They might as well sue the big travel sites. I found out the cheaper fares at the hub feeders by having Expedia or Orbitz search all flights to include airports within 150 miles of my origination.
Hey United, how FAIR is it to overbook your stupid flights and then deny passengers seats they bought and paid for?
“Wouldn’t the failure of the passenger to reboard be noted at the gate?”
Yes, and it happens every day, on every flight. Plans change, or some people book multiple itinerary’s to insure they can leave when they want to.
The airlines PLAN for a certain number of no-shows. It’s called “Yield Management”.
>> they are concerned that somebody might actually try to pull something like that off on purpose <<
In other words, they think the “Terms of Carriage Contract” is going to stop a committed jihadi, just like a “No Guns Allowed” sign is going to stop another mass shooting?
I'd be interested in knowing what actual law exists that makes this illegal.
I strongly suggest there isn't one.
This whole deal is probably going to go away when UA gets the bad publicity................
Hidden city ticketing occurs when a passenger disembarks an indirect flight at the connection node. Flight fares are subject to market forces, and therefore do not necessarily correlate to the distance flown. As a result, a flight between point A to point C, with a connection node at point B, might be cheaper than a flight between point A and point B. It is then possible to purchase a flight ticket from point A to point C, disembark at the connection node (B) and discard the remaining segment (B to C).
Using the hidden city tactic is usually practical only for one-way trips, as the airlines will cancel the subsequent parts of the trip once a traveler has disembarked. Thus, round-trip itineraries need to be created by piecing two one-way flights together. This tactic also requires that the traveler have carry-on luggage only, as any checked baggage items will be unloaded only at the flight's ticketed final destination.[1] Exceptions to this requirement are when re-entering a country where luggage must be processed by customs agents or when changing airports or train travel is involved in the flight ticket. This allows for a traveler to reclaim their luggage but before rechecking for their final destination, the traveler can simply leave the airport.[2]
This strategy violated the airlines' fare rules. Someone doing it infrequently is unlikely to be pursued by the airline, but in the frequent flier community there are reports of passengers who do it repeatedly losing their frequent flier accounts, or at least being threatened with such a loss. Experienced fliers recommend that if doing it more than very occasionally, passengers not associate their frequent flier numbers with reservations using the hidden city trick. Alternatively, one could consider crediting the miles to a partner airline.[3] Passengers should only book hidden city tickets through the airlines' own website, to avoid generating a penalty to a travel agency.[citation needed]
Finding a hidden city route that indeed saves money generally requires many repeated airfare searches for many different destinations on an airline's web site. Search engines have been created to serve this need. The owner of the search engine skiplagged.com is currently being sued by United Airlines and Orbitz for $75,000 in damages due to alleged lost revenues[4].
Maybe I’m misunderstanding this.
You book a “one stop” flight, with the stopover as your true destination.
OK.
What happens to your checked luggage?
Never mind.
E Pluribus Unum answered my question.
You don’t check bags, you carry.
It isn’t unusual for fortress hubs like ATL or MSP to have ridiculously high fares non-stop, while offering a significantly lower fare to a connection city through ATL, for example.
Many times, the savings can be hundreds, or even THOUSANDS of dollars, depending on the destination.
Ditto. They make about the flimsiest set of arguments I’ve ever read. Amazed the Judge has not laughed them out of the courtroom yet.
You have just given the government a new idea for a new law.
They don’t need any help doing that.
My Nephew does this all the time.
If he books a flight to Philadelphia, it costs one price...if he books a flight to Orlando, connecting through Philly, it’s way cheaper.
Not once has he gotten any grief from anyone over the practice. Heck, I’ve even looked into it, but it’s never worked out in my travels.
Read “Get Shorty” by Elmore Leonard.
Made into movie staring John Travolta
Episode of Twilight Zone.
You don’t have any...........
That explains Obamaroids.............
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