Unfortunately I was driving home from Miami last night when the news hit that United wouldn t be honoring the four mile pricing glitch they had to China over the weekend , so I realize I m a bit late tot he game here. My mom always taught me not to text and drive (though she hasn t told me I can t email or blog), so I decided to listen to her in this instance.
Hi Everyone, over the weekend, we discovered a united.com programming error that allowed fox car rental san diego ca customers fox car rental san diego ca to obtain Mileage Plus travel awards to and from Hong Kong for as little as four miles roundtrip per person, substantially below published levels, which we disclose to customers. We have since corrected the error and will be in contact with customers who have tickets issued fox car rental san diego ca at the incorrect award amounts. Customers will be given the choice to redeem at the correct mileage amount or re-deposit their award with all fees waived. We regret any inconvenience this has caused you, and appreciate your understanding.
fox car rental san diego ca Let me start by saying that I don t think any of us are (realistically) out anything here, so I m hardly in the we deserve 50,000 miles compensation camp. I think a lot of people get in on these deals in part because it s fun to be part of these. It s always exciting to see how the airlines handle them, and if they honor them it makes for one hell of a story 10 years down the road. If you re the type that easily gets worked up and needs immediate closure, mistake fares probably aren t your thing.
Obviously for many people this isn t over, and I m sure we ll see plenty of arguing back and forth, maybe threats of lawsuits, and possibly even a lawsuit fox car rental san diego ca or ten. In my last post on this pricing glitch I posted about the new DOT regulations, which in part read as follows:
Therefore, if a consumer purchases a fare and that consumer receives confirmation (such as a confirmation email and/or the purchase appears on their credit card statement or online account summary) of their purchase, then the seller of air transportation cannot increase the price of that air transportation to that consumer, even when the fare is a "mistake."
In a way this situation is the first of it s kind since the new rules, so it would be great to get some clarification regardingthe regulations as they apply to award tickets. Confirmation emails were received and for the most part credit cards were charged for the taxes, so that does seem to meet the above guidelines. The question is whether the DOT regulations apply to award tickets, and also whether the above guidelines only apply to raising the cost of tickets or also apply to outright canceling tickets.
UAL Corp.'s United Airlines, Continental Airlines Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., JetBlue Airways Corp. and Singapore Airlines C6L.SG all say their policy is to not cancel tickets even when a mistake is discovered, no matter how large the error.
That is the right thing to do, says United fox car rental san diego ca spokeswoman Robin Urbanski. In 2007, United honored a business-class fare from Los Angeles or San Francisco to destinations in New Zealand that was missing one zero: it was sold as $1,062 plus taxes and fees instead of $10,620 plus taxes and fees.
In the world of mistake fares, fox car rental san diego ca with each passing minute of not hearing from the airline, the chances of the ticket being honored go up substantially. While United has posted a statement on FlyerTalk/Milepoint, fox car rental san diego ca that doesn t really fox car rental san diego ca qualify as contacting fox car rental san diego ca members. It has now been 48 hours, and I don t think most people have been contacted by United yet.
The most interesting aspect of this has to be those that booked a ticket for a same day departure and have already flown on their tickets. What happens to them? Will United just deduct the miles from their account? What if they don t have enough miles in their account? Will they cancel the return portion of the ticket if they re presently in Hong Kong? Now that s a sticky situation.
If you got in on the deal, chances are your solution is United honoring the fare and creating goodwill. But I put quite a bit of thought fox car rental san diego ca into what I would do if I were United. fox car rental san diego ca I came up with 100 different solutions, and most of them just didn t put United in a winning position. So I thought of what would make United fox car rental san diego ca look good and at the same time cause most people to voluntarily cancel their tickets, which I suspect is what they want.
I suspect that most people that took advantage of this deal booked several tickets. And I suspect that a vast majority of them did so because it seemed like a fun way to fly first class to Asia for a weekend, at least for those people that ticketed 10+ reservations. fox car rental san diego ca So from United s perspective I think it would have made sense to honor the tickets, but only for coach travel. I d be willing to bet it would cause 90%+ of people to cancel their reservations, and at the same time it would ve made United look good. The average consumer reading a new story about this would think United is an airline of their word, while a vast majority of people that got in on the deal would have canceled. Again, it just seems like it would have mitigated the back and forth on their part, since they would at least give the consumer an option.
@ Albert Typically the faster they correct the mistake, fox car rental san diego ca the easier they can reasonably make the claim it was an error and doesn t need to be honored. Similarly United has a 24 hour cancellation policy for consumers. If I call back a month later and say oops, I booked for the wrong date and need to make a change, chances are they wouldn t have any sympathy.
We would have been quite happy riding in coach if it means a free trip. People get way too worked up over what seats they sit in. The real thing is that you get to see another part of the world. What s a little mild discomfort. Just take a nap when you get there.
I don t think United owes anyone anything. This is akin withdrawing thousands of dollars in your bank account that the bank mistakenly put there. You don t deserve the thousands in money or the free F, C, or Y ticket. United does not have to worry about goodwill here. No one will be deterred from flying United because of this. And honestly, from the non-FF types that I have talked to about this, the people who are demanding compensation are one big fat joke. It is time some people on FT and on the blogs recognize that the FF world is a bit of a bubble/echo chamber. HEADLINE: FF DEMAND FREE TICKETS TO HK BASED ON GLITCH .
On the legal side, I don t read the DOT provisions as applying in this case, since you aren t giving anything to United here (the miles are owned by United in the first place), so no consideration given, fox car rental san diego ca notwithstanding the fact that the provisions don t give the right of private causes of actions, etc. This case will be laughed out of court based on the doctrine fox car rental san diego ca of unilateral mistake. While I am not strictly a transportation lawyer (but a lawyer who works with contracts), I do feel that this instance is different than a fare mistake. United publishes an award chart plain for everyone to see. This CLEARLY was an error, unlike a mistake fare. If you are fighting this, go ahead and good luck to you. You will need it.
Why would United fox car rental san diego ca honor the tickets fox car rental san diego ca in coach when those tickets are also $1000+? I bet most people who booked trips would take at least 1 of them. Think of it this way, if United had priced only coach tickets for the same 4 miles (plus fees), how many people fox car rental san diego ca would have booked those too? Just because someone will only take 1 out of 10 trips that they booked doesn t mean that that is a fair outcome to United.
And I don t see United losing any public goodwill for not honoring what is undeniably a website pricing mistake. Anyone who did not make any bookings is not going to change their minds about United because it refused to basically give away first class flights. And anyone who did make the booking is not suddenly going to choose another airline (anyone savvy enough to have tried this is by definition someone looking to maximize value and will go with the best value regardless of whether its United/AA/Delta/USAir).
My variation on this was to say that awards booked in saver/partner reward inventory would be honored as-ticketed. But award trips booked in United standard/easypass inventory would be honored in economy.
The downside is of course the reworking of itineraries, one at a time, which is labor intensive to flag each one for no changes, to downgrade folks on United metal in standard booking classes down to standard (or saver) coach.
But it s the only way I would have honored it, in United s shoes, fox car rental san diego ca without a pretty firm belief that the government would come down with a hammer more costly than honoring if they didn t. I suspect, for what it s worth, that United was likely in touch with the Department of Transportation over this which may have delayed their response somewhat.
fox car rental san diego ca It would be nice if they re going to flat out cancel for them to provide a $150 voucher for future fox car rental san diego ca travel, since after 24 hours if we wanted to make changes on a ticket we booked we would be on the hook for a $150 change fee .
My suggestion would be that United give a 10% rebate of the normally required fox car rental san diego ca miles to those that cancel. United gets to use miles as compensation and the affected consumers get something of perceived value. Just a thought
Now, the people that already flew have a defense of estoppel, they relied on the offer and used it, if the company rescinds, it will be to the economic detriment of these customers who have already relied fox car rental san diego ca on the offer.
Another thing about DOT regulations is that they don t exist in a vacuum. There are principles of interpretation that are intended to avoid absurd results. The obvious purpose of the regulation is to protect consumers reasonable expectations, a purpose that would not be served by requiring the airline to sell round-trip international first class tickets for 10 cents.
Yeah agree with Jonathan M. here. There is probably more to the DOT regulations that would establish that f
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