Lost a cheap airfare today which was literally at my fingertips

[yj2cute]

I did benefit from the DL glitch on Dec. 26. I've been looking for return tickets to EWR Feb. for months. Prices on Feb. 9 are exorbitant for some reason. So I finally started researching flights to JFK and even flights on the following day. Well lo and behold, on Kayak.com, a fare for $30 pp popped up. I thought I was seeing things, but went ahead and booked it and now I'm very excited about what I got. It was a wonderful day after Christmas present from Delta. :D

[frugaltravel]

Agree with your comments on Chris Elliott. But a number of other sites say the same thing...an airline can refuse to honor a fare (though it may be terrible PR). That said, you piqued my curiosity because I'm aware of several cases in the past 2 years or so where an airline wouldn't honor fare mistakes. It falls under an area of law called "unilateral error"...when a price is obviously wrong, a seller doesn't have to honor it. Also most airline CoC specifically allow the airline to not honor erroneous fares. I combed the DOT website and couldn't find what you cite...can you provide a link?

 

Maybe that's why there's a several hour wait between ticket purchase on airline websites and a confirmation?

 

Others already posted before I saw this thread again. It has been about 2 years since the rule has been in effect. (Jan 24, 2012 from what I have read). But it only applies to flights that are routed via the US with a stopover in the US, not just a change of planes. So if someone buys a mistake fare from LHR via JFK to YYZ and only changes planes in JFK, the airline can back out of the deal.

 

The CoC are irrelevant - "A contract of carriage provision that reserves the right to cancel such ticketed purchases or reserves the right to raise the fare cannot legalize the practice described above. The Enforcement Office would consider any contract of carriage provision that attempts to relieve a carrier of the prohibition against post-purchase price increase to be an unfair and deceptive practice in violation of 49 U.S.C. § 41712."

 

I also don't notice a long lag time between booking and ticketing. I have booked DL and UA flights online recently and the confirmation of ticketing comes within minutes.

 

Note that these DOT regs apply once a ticket has been issued and payment has been received. If no payment has been received, the airline can indeed back out of the deal.

 

Check the Mileage Run Discussion forum on FT and you will find several cases where airlines have tried or are trying to back out of purchased ticket deals. They are having all kinds of problems defending themselves.

 

It is like a business hanging up a sign saying they are not liable for XXX or YYY. Just because they say it doesn't mean it is true.

Edited December 31, 2013 by frugaltravel