United going after 22-yr old

[fholbert]

I've done it too.

I wanted just SNA to DFW. But SNA to SAT with a stop at DFW was less than half. I grabbed my bag and walked off the plane at DFW, no one was the wiser. Must have thrown the FA's count off.

At the end of the year I just barely kept my Executive Platinum status. The phantom leg had put me over the top.

 

[exneophyte]

I'm not surprised. Lawsuits and legal threats are a fairly common tactic when a company with money doesn't like what a company with less money is doing, especially startups and entrepreneurs.

The bigger company has more means(time & money) to go on offense than the smaller company has to defend themselves which, many times, can put the smaller company out of business.

 

[Minuteman]

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.

My guess is the primary beef is that the guy probably has to scrape content from Orbitz (United owns, like, 1/3rd of the company don't they?) for his site to work. Which is kind of sleazy without the consent of the copyright holder (timetables?) and almost certainly violates the terms of service (TOS) for Orbitz.

So they're probably going at it more along the lines of that the constant legal harassment done to Aaron Swartz or that ding-dong Andrew Auernheimer. If either of those are precedent, Aktarer Zaman will either concede, kill heself, or go to jail and become a white supremacist for the protection (which seems unlikely because he's not white).

 

[Cherokee_Cruiser]

become a white supremacist for the protection (which seems unlikely because he's not white).

Clayton Bigsby did it...

 

[fholbert]

My guess is the primary beef is that the guy probably has to scrape content from Orbitz (United owns, like, 1/3rd of the company don't they?) for his site to work. Which is kind of sleazy without the consent of the copyright holder (timetables?) and almost certainly violates the terms of service (TOS) for Orbitz.

Kinda like suing a restaurant critic because he looked at the menu?

 

[PGT]

And that is one of the reasons United is at the top of the most hated companies in America.

 

[scoobs]

This site is awesome. It takes the time of doing the research for you. I hope he wins.

 

[pressclick]

Thanks United! I had no idea about that website until you brought attention to it.

2nd that. Knew nothing about this site or process until now.

Brace for a slew of Facebook ads and sponsored content titled something like:

'SHOCKING discount ticket loophole that the airlines DON'T want you to know about!"

With a completely unrelated picture of a chick in a bikini.

 

[fholbert]

'SHOCKING discount ticket loophole that the airlines DON'T want you to know about!"

With a completely unrelated picture of a chick in a bikini.

Well... that doesn't sound so bad.

 

[tonyw]

What they could have quietly done is cancelled all the tickets that came from this site. Then they could have simply said you booked with a site that violates the terms and conditions of flying with us so we don't honor tickets from them.

That would have shut down the site a whole hell of a lot faster than a lawsuit. People won't buy from a company that can't deliver what it says it will.

 

[JEP]

What they could have quietly done is cancelled all the tickets that came from this site. Then they could have simply said you booked with a site that violates the terms and conditions of flying with us so we don't honor tickets from them.

That would have shut down the site a whole hell of a lot faster than a lawsuit. People won't buy from a company that can't deliver what it says it will.

Tony I dont believe he is selling tickets. He is providing data that is already available for people to book on their own. Go to his site, find the city pairs, go back to united site and but the ticket. Basically providing a map to the buried treasure....

 

[JEP]

Tony I dont believe he is selling tickets. He is providing data that is already available for people to book on their own. Go to his site, find the city pairs, go back to united site and but the ticket. Basically providing a map to the buried treasure....

I stand corrected (kind of). I just checked JFK-PSP and it gave me a routing of JFK-LAX-SFO-PSP for $253 on Virgin America. Once you click buy, you get redirected to a legimate site (CheapoAir) in this case to purchase.

You do not enter cc information or anything on his site.....That all looks like it goes to a legitimate site after you are redirected to the treasure.

Suppose you wanted to go JFK-MSP....Cheapest flight on expedia is $142 (Sun Country) but the others start about $200 and go up from there.

Guess what....You can go JFK-MSP-CLT for $108.....and never get on the CLT leg... And this is on Delta.....

 

[RDoug]

Personally I think he should counter sue on the basis that United is trying to abridge his First Amendment Rights to call attention to a known pricing scheme. United cannot be allowed to arbitrarily silence someone just because it's in their best interests to do so.

 

[tonyw]

Personally I think he should counter sue on the basis that United is trying to abridge his First Amendment Rights to call attention to a known pricing scheme. United cannot be allowed to arbitrarily silence someone just because it's in their best interests to do so.

Because United is the government. Please learn what someone's first amendment rights are before you start talking about them.

@JEP if tickets start being canceled due to them not complying with the terms and conditions United is free to impose then whoever is directing them to those non-compliant tickets is going to lose business real quick.

They could also then say something like "the only way you know your tickets are compliant are if you book them directly on United or one of our partner sites. Go somewhere else and you're running the risk of buying tickets that are non-compliant."

 

[JEP]

Because United is the government. Please learn what someone's first amendment rights are before you start talking about them.

@JEP if tickets start being canceled due to them not complying with the terms and conditions United is free to impose then whoever is directing them to those non-compliant tickets is going to lose business real quick.

They could also then say something like "the only way you know your tickets are compliant are if you book them directly on United or one of our partner sites. Go somewhere else and you're running the risk of buying tickets that are non-compliant."

Tony you may be missing the point. The tickets are purchased from legitimate websites. You could make the exact same purchase on Uniteds website. It's not the ticket that is against the rules. It's the buying the paired ticket and skipping out in order to save the money....You could purchase a ticket on Delta's site JFK-MSP-CLT and still skip the CLT leg.

That is the exact thing I did on my honeymoon on the NWA website. Instead of MSP-HNL (with a stop in LAX) I purchased two separate RT tickets. I bought 2 MSP-LAX RT tickets and then bought 2 LAX-HNL RT tickets. It was the exact same plane from LAX-HNL.

 

[derg]

I really wouldn't suggest tinkering with the pricing model of an industry built upon… pricing models.

 

[Sapper]

Is it just me, or does it seem like some lawyer at United is trying to show why he needs to keep his job? There are other ways to deal with this situation that would not garner as much bad press for United.

 

[Minuteman]

I really wouldn't suggest tinkering with the pricing model of an industry built upon… pricing models.

Just start telling people that are flying outstation-hub that they are SUBSIDIZING the flights of people that are flying outstation-outstation via the same hub and they'll be all "rabble-rabble-USER FEES-rabble."

 

[RDoug]

Because United is the government. Please learn what someone's first amendment rights are before you start talking about them.

No, United is not the government. And even if they were — rather, especially if they were — they would not have the power to stop someone from publishing information. You might want to check the First Amendment yourself if you believe otherwise.

 

[tonyw]

No, United is not the government. And even if they were — rather, especially if they were — they would not have the power to stop someone from publishing information. You might want to check the First Amendment yourself if you believe otherwise.

What part of "Congress shall make no law" is too difficult for you to grasp?

Those are the first words in the first amendment. Now, go on, tell me what interpretation of the first amendment has the first damn thing to do with United Airlines, a private company. Please, by all means, cite some case law that shows it.

Otherwise, be a grown up, say I was wrong, and move along.

Tony you may be missing the point. The tickets are purchased from legitimate websites.

The goal is to get people to go to the websites YOU as a company want them to. So you say go to our site or our partner sites and if you go elsewhere, you run the risk of buying a ticket that will not be honored.

Truth is, most people won't bother to figure out who a "partner" site is so they'll go directly to your site. And there, you don't have to pay commissions.