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American Airlines sues Skiplagged, claiming cheap tickets are ‘classic bait and switch’
(www.dallasnews.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2023
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This is the saddest attempt to thwart a practice you don't like. None of it makes any sense. As far as I can tell, having used the service many times though never actually skiplagging, it doesn't do anything different than any other travel site. Pretty often I'm just redirected to the airline website with the specific flight selected for me. Skiplagged ends up just being an aggregator at that point.
Their reasoning for disliking skiplagging is stupid too. If the person didn't skip a leg of the flight the seat would be taken and it would cost them fuel. More expenses for them. If they are arguing that they could have gotten more money by having someone actually use the seat for that leg of the flight then perhaps they should change their pricing so skiplagging doesn't make financial sense for the passenger.
I've heard reasons for why things are priced like that but that sounds like a them problem, not ours.
If they were that accurate in their seat management then why are airlines constantly overbooking their flights and asking for passengers to volunteer to take another flight?
Plus if a passenger is NOT taking a leg doesn’t that save them fuel? This is like suing a person for using a buy 2 get 1 free deal because they could have sold 3 for full price.
The amount of fuel saved is insignificant overall. The airplane still needs to fly and that is where most fuel goes '
Which is irrelevant. I paid for the ticket. Whatever costs have been covered. If I choose not to use it, that's my prerogative.
No, the fuel is paid for because the flight is paid for. The plane is still going to its final destination, it's just going to use less fuel because there's one fewer passenger. I'd argue as well that skiplaggers don't check bags, so the fuel savings are even greater since that's one less bag than planned on both flights.
Over time, those fuel savings do add up. Airlines do care about that, or checking bags wouldn't be an optional extra charge with so many of them. It's just not as optimal as having someone pay the full price for a ticket to destination 1, and full price for destination 2.
Frankly, I feel that airlines can shut up. Overbooking flights is the same practice in reverse - they deoptimise passenger travel plans by bumping people when everyone who booked a seat shows up.
"The amount of fuel saved is insignificant overall."
We need to teach you about economies of scale...
Just to clarify, skiplagged does do things a little differently.
For example: they saved me $300 flying from Japan to SFO because they booked me an additional leg from SFO to SEA. If you searched for the first leg on any aggregator (or the airline’s site), it was available but cost $300 more than booking the 2-flight itinerary to SEA (which would never show up if you searched for flights to SFO).
For what it’s worth, I agree that this form of pricing is absurd and should be illegal. The fact that skiplagged even exists indicates something has gone wrong.
I only meant in terms of actually booking the flights, not finding them. That last part is what makes them special.
So, there is a practical reason why airlines dislike skiplagging. There's a contract of carriage that goes along with every ticket, and it states that the airline has a responsibility to get a traveler from their origin to their destination. If flights get rescheduled and canceled, the airlines will reacommodate you on alternate flights from origin to destination, and are under no obligation to route you through that particular airport.
However, this is mainly a contracting provision and as long as airlines offer flights that get cheaper when you add a connection, they shouldn't be surprised when people take advantage of it. They can ban a traveler when they do it too many times, I suppose, but Skiplagged is doing nothing wrong here.
Remember that airlines are not above gaming the rules for themselves, either. Qatar Airlines is running empty flights in Australia, on purpose, to get around restrictions on foreign airlines flying there. They have a flight to Melbourne, and also a flight to Adelaide with a "stop" in Melbourne -- except they scheduled the Melbourne to Adelaide leg inconveniently, on purpose, to make sure no one would want to connect. The result is two flights to Melbourne, where normally they would only be entitled to one: https://onemileatatime.com/news/qatar-airways-australia-flights/
I don't use skiplagged, but think that if the airlines want to stop people from using it, they should make their fare rules saner.