United going after 22-yr old

JEP

Does It Really Matter....?
Staff member
http://money.cnn.com/2014/12/29/news/united-orbitz-sue-skiplagged-22/index.html?iid=Lead

Is it prohibited in the contract for carriage? Yep, but really..... It's a known loophole and people use it every day. But going after the kid for giving it more exposure? He is not making any money off of the site. I would think there are bigger fish to fry for United.

When I went on my honeymoon to Oahu moons ago, I saved close to $900 on 2 r/t tickets by doing something similar. Instead of purchasing 2 rt tickets for MSP-LAX-HNL I bought two tickets MSP-LAX and two LAX-HNL. I didnt skip a city but did change the wording and saved a decent amount. To top it off, it was the exact same a/c.

This year going to NJC I was on United (Sorry Doug) from MSP. Had to change ticket and United wanted $250 to change a $350 ticket. Fair enough, it's within their right. I looked up one-way tickets and found a seat on SWA for $130....Easy choice.
 
*shrugs* Capitalism. I am pretty sure as this loop hole is closed, more will open. Maybe this will increase more direct flights? Less layovers? Sure.
 
So United and Orbitz are going to take the time and money to bring an action against this kid, because they don't have the time and money to fix the problem on their own at almost no cost?

Makes sense.
 
So United and Orbitz are going to take the time and money to bring an action against this kid, because they don't have the time and money to fix the problem on their own at almost no cost?

Makes sense.

Makes no sense, and will piss off a lot of people unnecessarily. Am I surprised? Nope.
 
I have found that a connection thru ATL with Delta cheaper than a nonstop to ATL on the same flights. Rochester (ROC) to ATL, nonstop is for this friday 1/2/15 $548.10 Now if I make a connection in ATL and take that same exact nonstop to ATL to make that connection, which I will be doing friday to Turks and Caicos $386.10. So 2 flights to get somewhere while using the same first flight is that much cheaper? Whats stopping me from buying a connecting flight and just riding on the nonstop to ATL if thats where I wanted to go?
 
Pre-9/11, I did the hidden-city and "open jaw" flights for years - my team was actually instructed to do this, which was why during the years I was on the road 250 or more days per year, I was able to build status on more than one airline. It was often cheaper to buy two round-trips on two different airlines and throw away one leg on each. That got harder later on.

It was a hassle to seach-and-book, though.

I finally started buying full-fare tickets on SWA because they were refundable, changeable, and their full-fares were cheaper than many restricted fares on other carriers. Made my life easier. That lasted for a while, but I've seen it change slowly as SWA has grown. They're definitely not the "different" airline they used to be.

I don't have to fly much anymore. I don't miss it.

I have found that a connection thru ATL with Delta cheaper than a nonstop to ATL on the same flights. Rochester (ROC) to ATL, nonstop is for this friday 1/2/15 $548.10 Now if I make a connection in ATL and take that same exact nonstop to ATL to make that connection, which I will be doing friday to Turks and Caicos $386.10. So 2 flights to get somewhere while using the same first flight is that much cheaper? Whats stopping me from buying a connecting flight and just riding on the nonstop to ATL if thats where I wanted to go?

If I'm understanding your scenario correctly, nothing. What can bite you is if you no-show for a leg of a trip you purchased. They'll cancel your itinerary if you no-show a leg like that, which means your return flight (if you had one) gets lost. The key is to do it with one-way tickets.
 
That's been going on for decades. I'm sure www.Skiplagged.com is getting more traffic today than it's ever seen.

I'm not sure how one sues the kid when he gets no income from his web site. I do wonder what Orbiz and United offered for the site before taking legal action?
 
I have found that a connection thru ATL with Delta cheaper than a nonstop to ATL on the same flights. Rochester (ROC) to ATL, nonstop is for this friday 1/2/15 $548.10 Now if I make a connection in ATL and take that same exact nonstop to ATL to make that connection, which I will be doing friday to Turks and Caicos $386.10. So 2 flights to get somewhere while using the same first flight is that much cheaper? Whats stopping me from buying a connecting flight and just riding on the nonstop to ATL if thats where I wanted to go?


That is the exact thing this kid is highlighting.....Your name has been forwarded to the Mothership and you hte guys in black suits will be knocking on your door..... ;-)
 
"Ah-boo-boo-boooo, we can change the price of a seat as a function of time and ultimate destination, and declare so many screw-ups with our operation as 'out of our control', but don't you dare try to outmanuever our revenue shaping practices."

United.

Damn fine little country song. That was cool.
 
I think many of us have done this before..... though it is pretty rare when it works to your advantage.
 
So what exactly it's illegal about what this kid is doing? Sounds like he is just exploiting a loophole that they knew already existed.
 
I asked Seggy about this once, he said he doesn't know.

If you do this, make sure it's the first leg you travel and cut out the second leg, not the other way around.

In my case, I cut the first portion and got away with it. My example was having to send a family member from EWR to DTW. Uniteds one way was 450 dollars. That is way too much, and I was purchasing in advance over a non-busy travel time. Anyway, another option I found was that by booking the Philly train station (ZFV) to Detroit, United sells an Amtrak ticket for Philly train station to Newark airport, and then you check in newark airport for the Detroit flight. I figured they couldn't know if I did the train or not so we purchased this ticket for 122 dollars one way!

Just went directly to newark airport. At the airport, they only asked where was the Amtrak information (tags and ticket), I said we threw them away already because we didn't want any confusion between train and plane information. They had no problem with it and checked my family member for the nonstop detroit flight.

Worked the system, paid 121 instead of 450.
 
I asked Seggy about this once, he said he doesn't know.

If you do this, make sure it's the first leg you travel and cut out the second leg, not the other way around.

In my case, I cut the first portion and got away with it. My example was having to send a family member from EWR to DTW. Uniteds one way was 450 dollars. That is way too much, and I was purchasing in advance over a non-busy travel time. Anyway, another option I found was that by booking the Philly train station (ZFV) to Detroit, United sells an Amtrak ticket for Philly train station to Newark airport, and then you check in newark airport for the Detroit flight. I figured they couldn't know if I did the train or not so we purchased this ticket for 122 dollars one way!

Just went directly to newark airport. At the airport, they only asked where was the Amtrak information (tags and ticket), I said we threw them away already because we didn't want any confusion between train and plane information. They had no problem with it and checked my family member for the nonstop detroit flight.

Worked the system, paid 121 instead of 450.

Good for you, when I used to work united gates I remeber this one time where I guy came up to get on his flight but his itinerary was deleted and his ticket locked.

The system showed that he had never got on his connecting flight in ORD, but he was standing in front of me in a large east coast city trying to go home back to SFO...anyway it was an absolute pain dealing with the help desk to try to get them to reinstate the ticket, they kept asking me "well what proof do you have that he ever caught his flight in ORD." So because one gate agent forgot to scan his boarding the guy ended up missing his flight and it took me 45 minutes of arguing to get that guys ticket reinstated.

Anyway my point is that the auto-cancel system is postively ridiculous. I also fully support anybody gaming the system in anyway they can.
 
This just in; United sues it self for significantly increasing exposure to a website it was suing due to increasing exposure of United's loopholes!

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Had to change ticket and United wanted $250 to change a $350 ticket. Fair enough, it's within their right. I looked up one-way tickets and found a seat on SWA for $130....Easy choice.

I've done something similar as well. I was flying AUS-LAX-SJC on American. It ended up working out that I could visit my friend down in LA for a few days so I looked at the price of changing my LAX-SJC portion to a few days later, and it was several hundred dollars. Instead I booked a round trip ticket on Southwest for $100 SJC-LAX-SJC. So in one day I went AUS-LAX-SJC on American, picked up my bags went and hung out with friends for a few hours before hopping on a flight back down to LAX to spend a few days before heading up to SJC.

Even better, on the American itinerary that AUS-LAX-SJC was part of an itinerary with a return leg SJC-AUS. I paid for this trip with a travel voucher my dad had received for getting bumped earlier that year. Luck would have it they were looking for volunteers on the SJC-AUS flight to get bumped so I volunteered and got another airline voucher. Talk about gaming the system when you have voucher after voucher pay for each trip. I have no problem sitting in an airport a few extra hours on vacation when I have no where to be, and I'm getting my next trip paid for.
 
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