UA Taking Legal Action Against Cheap Ticket Website

[dabhand]

Report in the Daily Mail that United Airlines, among others, is taking action against skiplagged.com.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2892025/Tech-wizard-sued-United-Airlines-raises-27-000-legal-battle-website-helping-customers-exploit-booking-cheap-flights.html

(Note: I can access some DM pages on my local ISP - other ISP's in Thailand block all pages. Given the normal content of the DM, some would not consider that a plus )

On the basis that if airlines are taking such action the prices must be competitive. However, I have read that it involves stopover / final destination issues which may be borderline illegal, so that might be an issue when using such tickets.

Anyone used this website for tickets to/from Thailand?

[craigt3365]

Interesting website. I hope he makes out OK!!

[gomangosteen]

Skiplagged searches out cheap airfares, particularly a type of cheap airfare called "Hidden City" that is frowned up by the airlines.

"Hidden City" travel is when you book a longer flight that includes a layover to your real destination because it's cheaper than flying direct.

You travel with carry-on and you get off the plane during the layover.

************

Can see security concerns - passengers booked through, exiting from a transit airport; once final boarding time has passed, airline may have to search for any checked-through baggage and locate/remove it, holding up plane departure and inconveniencing other passengers

Story here from From Australia's Business Insider:

[Thai at Heart]

Skiplagged searches out cheap airfares, particularly a type of cheap airfare called "Hidden City" that is frowned up by the airlines.

"Hidden City" travel is when you book a longer flight that includes a layover to your real destination because it's cheaper than flying direct.

You travel with carry-on and you get off the plane during the layover.

************

Can see security concerns - passengers booked through, exiting from a transit airport; once final boarding time has passed, airline may have to search for any checked-through baggage and locate/remove it, holding up plane departure and inconveniencing other passengers

Story here from From Australia's Business Insider:

Hand luggage only.

[gomangosteen]

^ Yes, but the check-in airline people don't know that at first, do they?

as I stated 'may have to search'

Once they've confirmed passenger is gone/not going to board the next flight, they may (would?) check there was no baggage with that person.

I flew back here/home Xmas day; at the transit airport there were endless calls for 'passenger who arrived on flight -- from -- due to board flight -- to --, please report to gate -- immediately'

how long do they wait, before then checking for check-in or carry-on bags?

I'm all for of getting the best value flights available, I use Skyscanner mostly, but can see why airline staff may not be thrilled with the Skiplagged concept, nor would the passengers who may be kept waiting.

[yermanee]

It's against airline policy for a reason.

The fact that some airlines and Orbitz have taken this to court means they have a strong case, or they wouldn't go that far.

Yermanee

[el jefe]

It's against airline policy for a reason.

The fact that some airlines and Orbitz have taken this to court means they have a strong case, or they wouldn't go that far.

Yermanee

It may be against "policy", that doesn't make it illegal. This is just a case of the airlines trying to out-lawyer a smaller company.

And it only takes about 10 seconds on the computer to see if a "missing" passenger has checked baggage. The reason you often hear endless calls for specific passengers to report to the gate is that those passengers did check baggage. Finding and then removing their baggage is a time consuming and expensive process for the airlines.

Maybe if the airlines were forced into having transparent prices like most businesses, then passengers wouldn't need services like Skiplagged. Why don't supermarkets raise their prices when they're running low on some items? What would happen if the person in front of you at the checkout line at Tesco bought a loaf of bread, and Tesco raised the price for you, the next customer?

[KittenKong]

The rules of many tickets specifically allow the airline to cancel all sectors without a refund if sectors are not flown or are flown in the wrong order.